Frito Lay Shuwa Shuwa Cola Corn Snacks (product information)

Picture courtesy of Frito-Lay Japan.

This product was actually brought to my attention by way of The Impulsive Buy, which I'm sure will actually review it. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, even if I was still in Japan and could saunter down to the local 7-11 and pick one up for a reasonable price.

This is supposed to provide a sense of "swooshing" in the mouth - like cola swishing in a glass, I imagine - when you eat it. I'm not sure how a flavor delivered in a sweet and sour Cheeto is supposed to provide a tactile sensation, but that's what it's supposed to accomplish. Frankly, if this has chemicals that can do that, I wouldn't want anything to do with them. It sounds frightening.

There's a Japanese fellow on YouTube who videos himself sampling this snack. You don't have to understand any Japanese to know what he thinks of it. His facial expressions and wracking sobs tell the tale without words as he forces himself to eat them and gives them a final score of "minus 20".

Coke and Pepsi Beverages Round-up (product info.)

 No, Pepsi is not coming out with yet another weird flavor. They are, however, encouraging people to join the dark side of the force. The timing, given that Disney recently bought the rights to the Star Wars franchise, seems rather ironic. Pepsi released an energy drink on October 23 which shows Darth Vader on the packaging and encourages people to join the dark side.

The drink is promoted with the fact that it contains 5 different energy boosters: royal jelly, Arginine, guarana extract, ginseng extract, and good old-fashioned caffeine. I'm not sure what Darth Vader has to do with legal stimulants, but it does allow them to make cool black packaging.

Note how distressed he looks? I'd be pretty freaked out, too, if women in giant food costumes were following me around.

Pepsi is also releasing a "Pepsi Special". It was released on November 9 and is supposed to reduce absorption of fat. Yeah. That'll work. Part of the advertising includes a commercial which has a woman dressed as a giant slice of pizza. I guess the whole idea is that you eat the pizza and drink the soda in order to not absorb all of the fat from your piece of pie. 

While Pepsi wants to boost you up, Coke wants to help you regulate your life. They are selling a Latin Biorhythm tea. Instead of ponying up the dough to license Darth Vader's image, they're using photos of a buxom Latin babe "playing", "eating", and "drinking", because these are the things that you need to do to have balance in your life, at least if you aren't in need of using the Force to get through your day.

Pepsi Salty Watermelon (Product Announcement)

Image pinched from Pepsi's Japanese web site.

This is just a quick and brief post to say that the weird Pepsi flavor that everyone (no one?) has been waiting for is going to be "salty watermelon". This isn't a bad flavor choice actually, as watermelon and summer are inextricably linked and the Japanese do salt their melons. If you have sub-par watermelon which isn't sweet enough salting it a little will make it taste better. The same goes for apples. However, don't salt your fruit like you do your fries or you'll be filled with regret.

This flavor will be released on July 24, 2012 and will be in a 490 ml. bottle. This continues Pepsi's new trend of slicing 10 ml. from their drink bottles. Pepsi says that the graphic design featuring a big melon in front of the ocean is meant to bring to mind "the joy of summer". Given that Japan is going to endure another year of "setsuden" (energy conservation) as their energy woes from the nuclear problem in Fukushima continue, they'll need to extract all the fun they can while they cook in air conditioners set to 28 degrees C./82 degrees F.

Pepsi Black (Product Info.)

Image pilfered from Pepsi Japan's web site

Since many of my readers also read "The Impulsive Buy" (and if you don't, you should), this product's existence should not come as a surprise to you. I'm not sure why this is called "Black" except that darkness appears to be associated with adults. The Adult Sweetness KitKat comes in a black box and is darker chocolate, after all. I guess there may be some vague connection between darkness and adulthood because that's when grown-ups do all sorts of nasty and embarrassing things that they can't do in the bright harsh light of days when judging eyes might witness their actions and unfairly condemn them. You know, things like watching Jay Leno, eating entire boxes of powdered donuts, or picking their noses. Admit it, you thought I was talking about sex there, didn't you? That's how I know you all read "The Impulsive Buy". Great dirty minds think alike.

Of course, Pepsi takes all the fun out of things by saying that the "black" labeling means "not sweet". I'm not sure how that relates to anything in reality. Sweet is a taste. Black is a color. Unless you've got Synesthesia, you're not going to be able to taste a color. It's not like there are no black sweets in Japan with black sesame treats, so this is a connection I'm missing (and talking about this has made me hungry for black licorice).

The main selling point of Pepsi Black, despite the prominence of the lemon flavoring on the label, is that it is half as sweet as regular Pepsi. This makes it essentially a duplicate effort of the previously released "Pepsi Dry." They appear to have smoothed out the aftertaste and given it a lemony bouquet but other than that, it's a re-run of a previous attempt to grab a market which should be just drinking Canada Dry ginger ale. Personally, my guess is this will be the equivalent of watered down Pepsi as a lot of cola flavor comes along with the sugar. Sugar, like salt, is a flavor carrier/booster. I doubt that more cola flavor was added to make up for the short-fall, but I could be wrong.

The strange thing about this is that it is sold in 490 ml. bottles, not the standard 500 ml. bottles. They're gypping people out of 10 ml. It will be released on June 19, 2012, but I must point out that this is not what I'd consider to be a "weird Pepsi" release. This is an expansion of the existing product line with something which, if it sells well, will likely be available for a long time to come.

The last strange flavor was Pepsi Pink and was out in November of last year. Prior to that, there was Pepsi Mont Blanc in October 2010 and Pepsi Baobab in April 2010. You can see that the time lag between strange flavor releases is starting to get longer. My guess is that they don't sell especially well because none of them taste particularly good. My feeling has always been that they do the strange flavors as a PR move to improve the name recognition of their brand relative to Coca-Cola, not because they're testing the market's thirst for esoteric flavors. Despite the impression people abroad have that Pepsi is creative and flooding the market with funky flavors, they clearly release them twice a year at most. I expect that the next odd flavor will show up in the late summer or early autumn (my money is on September), but it's not like I have an inside line at Pepsi Japan.

Pepsi Pink

The fine folks at Pepsi continue to attempt to distinguish their brand image from Coca-cola's by offering up another uncommon flavor. Of course, this time, it's actually not particularly "uncommon" though since it is strawberry. Perhaps they have seen the lack of imagination at Nestle Japan with all of the strawberry KitKats and have decided to get themselves some of that boring, boring flavor action. 

Still, I have to give them props for offering up such a dainty label design and name. Women are definitely the demographic that sellers are gunning for in Japan these days, and why not? They're working more, marrying less, and throwing away disposable cash at an appreciable rate while the young men are cuddling anime-character-shaped pillows and waiting for robot girlfriends to become more affordable. Japanese women are traveling more and keeping what little of the economy that is still breathing alive.

At any rate, since "pink" isn't actually a flavor, the bottle announces that this is "strawberry and milk". Never mind the fact that neither strawberries nor milk are in the ingredients list. I'm sure that some sort of artificial chemicals are in there which approximate the real deals and that they are cost-effective. There are a few listings for "flavoring" so I guess that's where it all comes from.

This smells faintly like strawberry candy with a hint of bubblegum. Perhaps it is my imagination, but I'm beginning to sense bubblegum in every unusual soft drink I sample in Japan. I had my husband taste this and give me his impression before telling him mine, and he summed it up best of all by saying that it reminded him of a strawberry jellybean, though I must hasten to add that it's not as sweet or intense as one. It does also taste faintly of the essence of Pepsi, but it is a mere whisper in the background. The strawberry part delivers a sweetness punch, but the Pepsi element gives it a dry finish. This is not a bad combination at all. 

This tasted okay, but at 47 calories per 100 ml., I didn't drink the whole bottle. If I'm going to throw away nearly 250 calories, it's got to be on something more interesting than a Pepsified strawberry jellybean beverage. If you're a fan of fruity drinks which aren't too intensely fruity, this is certainly worth a sampling. It's not a revolutionary flavor, but it's also inoffensive and more interesting than the average strawberry drink thanks to the Pepsi influence.

Pepsi Caribbean Gold

I'd read that this was going to be released on July 26 and dutifully went out to the local Family Mart to procure one. It is part of the snack reviewer's oath that one must sample high profile novelty releases ASAP. It's the same credo that says weight gain "for the cause" is to be seen as a noble expansion... taking one, two, or even three for the team is just part of the job. Incidentally, that job is currently paying about 35 cents a post and could be offering better compensation for the risks. Those risks can be quite considerable at times, believe me.

Despite my best efforts (which means I went to three different convenience stores) to procure this beverage the day of its release, Pepsi apparently was not in the mood to cooperate. I didn't find it until the 27th and found it while I was working and couldn't review it. But, here it is, Pepsi's latest attempt to capture our hearts and imaginations with a brew containing an obscure fruit that no one has ever heard of so they can't tell if it tastes like what it's supposed to or not.

A sniff of the freshly opened bottle reveals a vague fruity scent which reminds me of gum balls that I used to get from those machines that you put a coin into then crank three times for a disappointingly small number of balls. The taste on the first sip was very weak and it wasn't until a second sip that it revealed some syrupy fruity notes. This does taste like Pepsi mixed with something different, though it is hard to pin down what. The Wikipedia page for white sapote says that it can range in flavor and can taste like banana, peach, pear, vanilla, or just not much at all. I'd say that of those options, the Pepsi has vague peach and vanilla flavors, but it's really not a fair description.

At 47 calories per 100 ml. (that's 235 calories for the entire bottle), this would have to blow me away to be worth drinking it all. It really just struck me as a lighter version of Pepsi without the caramel colors and with lower acidity and with a hint of something fruity of some sort. It's pretty good tasting, but in no way worth pursuing beyond a casual purchase out of curiosity. Pepsi's variations when they are palatable seem pretty weak and when they are weird are pretty nasty. I probably won't even finish the bottle because I'd be just as happy with a Coke Zero and to be spared the sugar load.

Pepsi Dry

Since I already posted a picture of the bottles here, I'll give you a picture of the ad for Pepsi Dry that is running on the subway at present. The stick thin model speaks to the idea that this is a low calorie beverage, but the marketing is very much focused on the "dry" and less sweet angle. I think they're playing both sides (body conscious women, and men who like less sweet things). 

Well, that was fast. I said I wasn't going to review it, but one of my commenters said this tastes nothing like regular Pepsi and I found it for 98 yen ($1.20) at Seiyu supermarket. With the gauntlet of oddness rightfully tossed before me, and the option to be the cheap ass I am, I decided to take the plunge and do a review. Incidentally, note that I got the calorie information wrong on this when I talked about it in the random picture previously. I recollected it was 11 calories per 100 ml, but it is actually 21 per 100 ml. That makes an entire bottle 105 calories.

After opening the bottle, I gave it a good sniff. It smells like cola, but somehow a bit weaker than usual. This could be my imagination, but that's the story and I'll stick with it until someone who pays better attention to the scent of colas points out that I am wrong... then I will humbly accept the correction and make use of the strikethrough option. That being said, when I took a sip, I had a sense of why it didn't smell as strong as regular cola. That's because it tastes like a weaker version of it as well.

When I lived in the U.S., I was a Pepsi drinker for many years before I switched to Diet Coke. I remember Pepsi's flavor quite well and that I liked it better than Coke. It was only when I swapped over to the carcinogenic (aka diet) version that I gave up Pepsi. This tastes like something else which I drank for many years, RC Cola. That is, it's a pale imitation of a bigger brand name cola. The flavor just falls flat on the tongue and if you hold it in your mouth for awhile, it seems to dissipate into the taste of club soda. It's not a bad taste really, but it is just not particularly good or refreshing.

I've mentioned before that I experiment with sugar-free baking because of the way in which the use of sugar spikes blood glucose levels, so I know that one of the things which you lose when you give up sugar is the way in which it enhances flavor (and adds moisture, but this is plenty moist no matter how much sugar you remove). It seems clear to me after sampling this that taking out the sugar has removed the "bite" from Pepsi and no one has done anything to augment it's flavor (like adding tons of sodium like they do with diet sodas). It's like a watered down version of Pepsi and I'm not a fan.

Random Picture 64

Pepsi has introduced yet another in its small line of infinitesimally different Pepsi drinks. This is in contrast to its line of extremely odd and interesting drinks like Pepsi Baobab, Pepsi White, and the nadir of Pepsi weirdness, Pepsi Shiso. The main selling point of Pepsi Dry is that it is a less sweet version of Pepsi. Perhaps there is something wrong with my taste buds, but few colas strike me as overwhelmingly sweet. Of course, it could be that I just consume so many artificial sweeteners that my tongue has become deadened to the effects of real sugar. At any rate, this offering is 11 calories per 100 ml., which makes it a mere 55 calories per 500 ml. bottle. Clearly, less sweetness carries the benefit of also having less sugar and fewer calories. I haven't reviewed this, and I'm not sure that I will because I'm pretty sure it won't be significantly different from regular Pepsi. Also, I'm not quite ready to pay 147 yen ($1.80) for a bottle of soda. When it shows up for 100 yen in the cut-rate bins, I may give it a go.

Pepsi Mont Blanc

To my recollection, Pepsi has come out with these odd flavors only 6 times. The first was cucumber, which I did not sample. That was followed by Pepsi White, Pepsi Shiso, Pepsi Adzuki, and most recently Pepsi Baobab. I don't include the Pepsi Strong Shot in this cavalcade of weirdness because it didn't taste different than the usual Pepsi. It was simply hyper-caffeinated and more carbonated.

In my opinion, Pepsi has been moving in a steadily better direction with it's limited edition flavor choices, and they've also been doing more beautiful label designs with each one of these. The Pepsi Mont Blanc label is lovely with a wintry motif that conveys the elegance of the dessert it is modeled after. Of course, it could simply be that Pepsi has made a flavor based on my favorite dessert and I'm strongly inclined to believe their synchronicity with me constitutes a "good choice."

I picked this up for 147 yen ($1.82) for a 490 ml. bottle at a Family Mart convenience store. I'm not sure why 10 ml. has been shaved off of the usual 500 ml. serving of these types of drinks, but there it is. It was just released today and should be around for a few months. Though it's unlikely to be on all of the "konbini" shelves for longer than the first month, it will show up at other shops after its initial release. Note that the Pepsi Baobab lingered in boxes at sad little discount shops up until sometime last month. I got the feeling it didn't sell particularly well though I did like it.

I had good hopes for this and when I unscrewed the cap and gave it a whiff, I was greeted with chestnut notes though they were fairly artificial smelling. The best way to describe the smell is like a cross between a cream soda and root beer. The flavor also carries a bit of a cream soda feel with a chestnut finish. I'm guessing there is vanilla in it and that's why cream soda keeps coming to mind, but there is also a bit of a brandy or liquor-type flavor going on. This would be intentional on the part of Pepsi because mont blanc desserts are chestnut paste which includes sugar and often brandy. 

This tastes nothing like Pepsi, and it is unique but fairly tasty. The first sip in particular tastes very good, but the finish feels a bit flat and earthy. I'm not sure what that is about, but it tends to fade a bit as you drink more. Still, I liked this, and while I wouldn't drink it everyday, it is a nice change of pace, especially if you want a sweet soft drink which you're having instead of a treat. Note that this has 42 calories per 100 ml. so drinking the entire bottle is 205 calories. You won't be saving yourself any calories by having this instead of dessert, but you will be having a novel experience.

7-Up Clear Dry

On the heels of the "Pepsi Strong Shot" comes this release of 7-Up Clear Dry. While it may seem that they have nothing in common, the label reveals that they both have the same goals in mind; they want to caffeinate you up until you develop heart palpitations and believe that you can run with the blurry speed of the Roadrunner.

I should note that 7-Up is not a common drink in Tokyo. Occasionally, I see it in the odd vending machine, but it has much less market exposure than Coke or Pepsi. Note that 7-Up is distributed by the makers of Pepsi in Japan, so this isn't someone pilfering an idea (adding lots of caffeine as the selling point). It's more like a company that lacks imagination recycling one.

Just like the Pepsi Strong Shot, this boasts more caffeine, in this case 85 mg. for a 500 ml. bottle. This is about 10 mg. less than 8 oz. of brewed coffee so it isn't going to send you over the moon. Unlike the Pepsi Strong Shot, this isn't hyper-carbonated.

I passed on reviewing the Pepsi Strong Shot because I suspected that it was going to taste like regular Pepsi and, as the review from Marvo at the Impulsive Buy that I linked to above says, that is exactly what it was. The same can be said for this 7-Up. It tastes and smells just like regular Diet 7-Up with it's fairly clean lemon-lime flavors. The big difference is that the regular stuff is promoted as being caffeine-free as one of its selling points in the States and this Japanese version is full of wake-up drugs.

The main draw for me with this beverage is that it is a diet drink. This is the only zero calorie version of 7-Up in Japan and a welcome addition to the woefully small line-up of sugar-free and zero calorie soft drinks. While I am not a huge fan of 7-Up, I do like having the option to have it occasionally. Unfortunately, I'm guessing this "Clear Dry" thing will be short-lived and I'll have to stock up before it vanishes in the next few months if I want to occasionally enjoy a 7-Up without sugar.

If you are in Japan and want another calorie-free beverage, go buy up all of this that you can now. I found it at AM/PM convenience store for 147 yen ($1.72) and I think that it is unlikely that it'll show up more cheaply or at markets, though I hope I'm wrong about that. It's probably available at other convenience stores. However, if you're not a 7-Up fan, don't bother as this is certainly nothing special except for the extra caffeine.

Pepsi Strong Shot Review at the Impulsive Buy

I don't usually do this, but the marvelous Marvo has reviewed the Pepsi Strong Shot that I mentioned in a random weekend picture at the Impulsive Buy. There's video, and talk of tentacles, so I encourage everyone to give it a read and a peek.

Random Weekend Picture 19

Pepsi released a new product called a "Strong Shot". It's regular Pepsi with extra caffeine and carbonation. The cans are pretty tiny at 190 ml. (6.5 oz.) and they're 120 yen each ($1.35). In terms of drink volume, they represent quite poor value, but I guess that getting your hands on a stronger dose of one of the few legal drugs in Japan might be worth it for some people. The yellow band across the top warns you about the powerful forces contained within these little blue cans.

I've elected not to review this, but those who are interested in more details might want to keep an eye on "The Impulsive Buy", as the marvelous Marvo is going to sample this item and may share his impressions with us if we're lucky.

Pepsi Baobab

Recently, I was having a conversation with the student who gave me the wasabi KitKats that I reviewed yesterday, and she and I were talking about how there is a difference in the American and Japanese market for snacks. She asked why I believe companies like Pepsi released oddball flavors like Pepsi Shiso, Pepsi White, Pepsi Adzuki and this (at the time upcoming release) Pepsi Baobab.

I can't know for certain, but I think the Japanese market places a higher premium on novelty than the American one. We want new favorites and they want flavors of the month. Generally, I think the Japanese market wants to "taste and forget" more than Americans do (which is the only nationality I'm even remotely qualified to speak for), but I do think that these wild Pepsi flavor choices are mainly for media attention and a way of building the Pepsi brand as one that is distinct from Coca-Cola. Coke has held the market longer than Pepsi, so they have a chance with these exotic drinks to distinguish themselves.

Pepsi Baobab has one of the loveliest label designs and is a nice golden colored liquid. The design is meant to reflect the origin (Africa) of baobab, the fruit that is supposedly the basis for this drink. I had somewhat better expectations of this exotic Japanese Pepsi blend than I have had of some of the others because I think that fruit, particularly one that is known for having a lot of vitamin C (which means it may be "citrusy" in flavor) lends itself well to carbonated drinks.

When I opened the bottle and inhaled, I smelled something which is reminiscent of grapefruit. The soda on the front of the tongue doesn't taste like much at all, but as it hits the back of your mouth, it does seem to have a sweet orange with grapefruit undertones flavor. It has a dry finish, which I think may be the "Pepsi" element. The flavor is quite pleasant, but I rarely drink beverages with sugar, so this seemed a little too rich and syrupy for me. That being said, if this were available in a sugar-free version, I'd buy it regularly as a change of pace from my usual Coke Zero consumption. The flavor is light, pleasant, and like a citrus blend. It is especially nice as a summer beverage. The "grapefruit" aspect is all of the goodness without any of the bitterness. The "orange" tones are related mainly to the sweetness. This was pretty decently carbonated and had a proper "burn" while drinking it.

A 500 ml. bottle of Pepsi Baobab, currently available in all of the big name convenience stores in Japan for about 150 yen ($1.66), has 42 calories per 100 ml. That means drinking the whole bottle is 210 calories. Note that this was released today, so it should be around for awhile. I do recommend that people give it a try. This is actually pretty good, and by leaps and bounds the best oddball Japanese Pepsi flavor so far.

There's an interesting little article on baobab as a "super fruit" from the BBC here if you're interested in further reading.

This is also reviewed at The Impulsive Buy.

Pepsi Azuki

Of all of the strange drinks I've tried, this one presented me with the greatest mystery. Like the Ginger Ale Lemon KitKat, this product represents a flavor that you can't imagine being incorporated into this particular type of product.

I rarely sniff something and think "smells like barf". Pepsi Azuki smells like someone threw up their bean cake. This was not a promising start. It does smell like azuki that has gone off a bit though, so I guess that is something. This was the weirdest color of Pepsi that I've ever seen. My guess is that it was tinted this color to resemble red beans. In the right light, it's a deep pink. In somewhat darker light, it's a ruddy red. The bottle is 207 calories for 490 ml. and I picked it up at Family Mart for 147 yen ($1.62).

The taste isn't nearly as bad as the smell lead me to believe it might be. It mainly tastes like jasmine with a red bean chaser. There's nothing in it which says "Pepsi" to me though. The jasmine flavor is slightly flowery, but dry so that it doesn't seem too perfumey. The azuki bean part hits you at the end and the jasmine at the beginning. This works a bit better than the opposite might.

I wouldn't even ponder buying this again. It's not intolerable or anything, but it's pretty weird. The jasmine part is pleasant enough and makes me wish they'd make a jasmine Pepsi (if they're reading, I may be giving them ideas). If this was sugar-free, I'd finish the bottle, but I'm not spending 207 snack calories for the novelty of drinking the whole thing.

Pepsi Shiso

Across the bottom of the bottle, it says "Japanese refreshing flavor".

There's a commercial from the 70's for an American dish washing liquid called "Palmolive". The catch phrase for the commercial is "you're soaking in it." If you haven't seen the commercial, here it is on YouTube:



Now, you might reasonably guess what this has to do with Pepsi Shiso. First of all, they're both green and smell like cleaning fluid of some sort. Shiso (known as Perilla in English) is an herb from the mint family and the scent of this Pepsi is a mixture of pine, mint, and fennel. The pine in particular along with the color really reminds you of the sort of thing you'd use to scrub your floors. The smell is quite potent. My husband likened it to Palmolive as well as Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo. Note that comparisons to food weren't really on the table.


I think that I was more reluctant to taste this than anything I have ever sampled before. The idea of shiso flavoring didn't trouble me, but after smelling it, I was none too keen on drinking it. The first drink really wasn't too bad. I told my husband, "it doesn't taste as bad as it smells." He suggested that Pepsi use that as a slogan in marketing this beverage.

The flavor definitely carries a bit of a soapiness to it because it seems a bit perfume-like. It has a quasi-mint aftertaste and a strong pine-like front end. There really does not seem to be any "Pepsi" flavor in the mix at all. Because the first sip of it wasn't too bad, I was actually inclined to give it a rating higher than Pepsi White at first, but the second and third sips were leading to a really bad build-up of the strong herbal flavors. It became pretty unbearable about 2/3 of the way through the small glass I poured. I nearly got to the bottom, before my stomach started to rebel and twist up a bit in knots. The rest of it is going down the drain, though perhaps first I should see about cleaning the toilet with it.

This is what I'd call a noble effort on Pepsi's part to infuse a unique and interesting flavor into their drink. If it were muted a bit, it might work, or it may render calling it "Shiso" irrelevant much in the way that Green Tea Coke was so subtle as to not really taste much like tea. At any rate, unless you want to try washing your hair in Pepsi, I'd recommend giving this a miss.

Pepsi White

I once had a conversation with a student of mine where I mentioned to her that the Japanese snack makers didn't seem to have much success with their varieties since they kept changing their products and trying out new variants rather than finding flavors the consumers enjoyed and continued to purchase. She responded by saying that, when she last went to the U.S., she felt sorry for Americans because they were always offered the same old things and didn't get a chance to sample as many varieties.

The perspective each of us held summed up pretty well the difference between the Japanese consumer view and the American one. The Americans generally look for something great to add to their regular rotation of consumption. The Japanese are looking for something novel to try before they move along to the next interesting thing.

Enter Pepsi White. A lot of people who have sampled this drink and blogged about it have wondered why it exists at all. They figure Pepsi is trying too hard or trying to be too wacky. What Pepsi is doing is building brand name recognition and interest in their drinks through offering short-lived varieties. The consumer is not supposed to love Pepsi White (nor were they supposed to be great fans of the previously released Pepsi Cucumber). They are only supposed to be curious enough about it to buy it until the limited distribution of it peters out.


Keeping this as well as the bad reviews of Pepsi White in mind, I decided to give it a try. It's rather difficult to find since I couldn't locate it at any supermarkets. I could only get it at a 7-11 (which I rarely patronize). This fits in with the idea that the drink is for novelty. They expect people who are perusing a convenience store for a snack or drink to be more open-minded than the housewife looking to buy ingredients for tonight's menu.

The convenience store price for a 500 ml. beverage is about 150 yen ($1.60 USD) so this was an expensive experiment. The packaging for the bottle looks pretty nice with the white label and little Pepsi logos. The ingredients list reveals that it contains fructose syrup, flavoring, citric acid, preservatives, and caffeine. No calorie information is offered, but I'm guessing it's the same as standard sugared soft drinks.

A sniff reveals strong hints of lemon with a weaker hint of yogurt. The lemon element is likely from the recipe for original Pepsi as regular Pepsi contains lemon. The first sip offers the taste of Pepsi with a yogurt-tasting finish. The flavor is actually multi-layered at first, though after a few sips, it seems to come together into a funky combination followed by more of a taste of Pepsi with a odd yogurt aftertaste.

This is definitely a peculiar drink, but it is exactly what it sells itself to be. That is, it's yogurt Pepsi. The question isn't whether or not Pepsi successfully merged the flavors together, but rather whether or not they should have. As a curiosity being marketed in a country where yogurt drinks are very popular, there is some sense in offering Pepsi White. As a drink a person is supposed to drink and enjoy, it doesn't work at all. Still, it'd be interesting to see if the sales of regular Pepsi were favorably impacted by the release of strange novelty flavors like this.