Pepsi Throwback Is Back
Back in April 2009, PepsiCo released Pepsi Throwback, which is Pepsi made like they used to make it, with real sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. The stuff was so good, and so many people told them so, that they stopped selling it after eight weeks. We all know the fate of good products, right?
The good news is that Throwback is back, as of yesterday, 28 December 2009. The post I made about it at the time has been getting a lot of Google traffic for the past two days from people trying to find a place to buy some.
As they did last time, they are threatening to take this wonderful product away from us after another eight weeks. Also as with last time, I get the impression that this is one Pepsi executive's pet project that no one else at the company cares to see succeed: it's even more difficult to find this time, and there seems to be even less publicity (and there was almost none last time). After looking in three different stores I finally found one lonely 12-pack on the shelf at Stop & Shop. It's got the old-fashioned red, white, and blue packaging this time, though they may also be using the blue packaging as well.
I'm not sure about the packaging, or anything else, because although there is supposed to be a Throwback website, it's been down since at least yesterday.
If you're on Facebook, you can join the Pepsi Throwback group there, where some people are talking about it.
Pepsi has a poorly-implemented store locator you can use, but it is definitely incomplete, so check your grocery stores even if they aren't listed. The store I found it at is not listed. My old post has more information about the product itself.
Also of interest may be Pepsi Natural, which is made with real sugar, but it's only available in ten cities because the folks at PepsiCo hate people who don't live in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas or New York, and don't want their money.
Update: Now that I've consumed a bunch of cans of this stuff, it's clear that this is a different formula than the one we had in the spring. It's still good, mind, but it absolutely doesn't taste the same and isn't as as good. Others are noticing the same thing and reporting it on Facebook. Dang. Why must good products always be ruined? It's almost as if they want the product to fail, to validate their use of high-fructose corn syrup.
Update 2: The Throwback website is back up.
