Thursday, April 19, 2012

Pepsi Next review

After we took a dip in the 'new diet soda' arena with Sunkist and A&W Root Beer 10, we hoped we would have better luck with Pepsi Next.  Pepsi Next claims "real cola taste- 60% less sugar."  At 60 calories per 12 ounces, were my diet soda hating taste buds going to be more satisfied than with my previous attempt?


We found that little bottle on our grocery trip to Target so we forked over the $.80 for it and put off tasting it for a week.  Finally I broke down and thought "maybe that high octane Pepsi taste is just waiting for you!"  I cracked open the top and put the frosty rim to my lips...and smelled diet soda.  That alone made me want to put it down but I didn't.  I thought I could look past it.  I took a drink.  How does a higher calorie diet soda taste WORSE than a 1 calorie (or is it 0?  I don't drink that crap) soda???  Seriously, I quietly put the cap back on and passed it to the Mr. who took a swig then another to confirm his dissatisfaction and put it down.  It went down our disposal .  $.40 per sip.

If you like diet Pepsi, you'd probably like this so I'm definitely not steering anyone away from trying it.  But being a non-soda drinker 99% of the year, my palate is pretty open to new tastes.  I really did try to keep an  open mind too but when I can smell that diet smell before I even drink it, it's just not for me.  When I see that commercial with the baby doing fantastic feats while the parents tape Pepsi Next because of how amazing it supposedly is, I shall likely point at the TV and shout 'liar!"  (Liar referring to 'real cola taste')

Have you tried Pepsi Next?  What did you think?  What do you think of soda companies trying to change their formulas or coming up with new products with a similar taste to an already existing product?

====================
Like this post? Don't miss another one...subscribe via email or RSS feed. (Because you're cool like that!)

21 comments:

  1. I saw a good price at the grocery store and was tempted to try it myself until the friend who was with me (and a Pepsi aficionado) told me not to bother. Oh, well . . . .

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't like any Pepsi products, so this one's not on my to-try list.

    My "liar" commercial is the one for cereal in which the woman goes on and on about how much weight she lost eating this cereal. Meanwhile, she's holding a bowl with at least four cups of cereal in it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I bought a 2-liter bottle of it (it was on sale), after much debate. I hate to expend even 60 calories per serving on drinking! I'm not a big fan of Diet Pepsi either, but I drink a lot of Diet Squirt, which I LOVE. Now I'm not so sure I want to open that bottle of Pepsi Next.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If I am going to compromise and drink a diet soda, I don't want it to have any calories. I love real Pepsi, but if I am going with a diet soda, Coke Zero wins out. A lot better then any diet Pepsi product.

    And if you are going to drink a soda, I love to have a fountain soda. Skip the bottled stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have you tried Coke Zero? I can't live without the stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  6. DANGIT MRS! I keep waiting for the post where the clouds part and the angels sing and you have found a low cal soda that tastes like the stuff that peels paint off cars. Until then... I wait.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Coke sort of nailed it when they came out with C2, but I haven't seen it in ages.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Could it be that you just don't like pop anymore? I used to drink 2-3+ diet/regular sodas a day. I stopped more or less accidentally (deciding, like you, that it wasn't worth the calories/excess sweetener). I haven't drank a full serving of pop in months, and have had less than a handful of cans in the past 2 years. I don't like the taste of any pop now, diet or regular. Too sweet, too fizzy, and never tastes like I remember. Just a thought. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. So THAT's what that commercial is about! I only watch TV when I'm at the gym but I don't listen to it (I don't work out with headphones) so I had no idea what was going on! Thank you for filling me in haha

    I can't help on your lower cal non-diet soda search. I like diet soda, it tastes the same as regular to me but I'm also only drinking diet gingerale, sunkist, and a&w. I don't like coke or pepsi.

    At least it was only 80 cents you wasted and not a lot more to find out you hated it

    ReplyDelete
  10. Just to clarify, I'm not looking for a good diet pop. That's just such an oxymoron to me! LOL I have always hated diet pop/soda and I retch just thinking about it. If I ever drink pop, it's regular Pepsi or Sunkist, nothing else. (I also still like real pop, I just don't drink it because it makes me so full from the carbonation.) The only reason I did these reviews is because the 10 calorie one intrigued the Mr so I decided to try the orange one. But we did want to try the Pepsi Next, going in with no expectation.

    The Mr just picked up his annual Vanilla Coke 12 pack. He used to drink one of those in 2 months time and now he's lucky if he clear one in a year. We used to get a 2 liter every weekend and polish it off no problem. If I did that now, the carbonation would probably prohibit me from eating anything. Hmm...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I hate to waste calories on a beverage unless it's something pretty special, so if the low-cal versions aren't any better than the no-cal ones, why bother? I have been drinking diet pop long enough that the regular stuff tastes too sweet, honestly; I have diet pop mostly when we go out to eat, so it's not an everyday thing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The whole "soft drink" industry pisses me off...none of it should be consumed on a daily or even weekly basis, IMHO. Every once in a great while I will drink a diet coke (like once every three months) and even less than that, I have a yen for a sip or two of Dr. Pepper.

    But what really stopped me dead in my tracks about this post was when you said, "When I see that commercial with the baby doing fantastic feats while the parents tape Pepsi Next because of how amazing it supposedly is,"

    WHAT? They're marketing soda to babies????? Now I'm even more pissed off!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen - no, they aren't marketing it to babies. :) The parents are distracted by the awesome new soda and babbling to each other about it. While they're doing that, they have their back to the baby and don't notice it doing things like back-flips and dancing and stuff.

      Delete
  13. Karen- No they're not marketing it to babies! LOL The commercial shows a mom with her camera waiting for her baby to do something like roll over or something. Hubby comes in with Pepsi Next and she turns her back and the baby starts doing stuff like dancing, playing electric guitar, etc but the parents don't catch it because they're so enamored with how awesome Pepsi Next is and they video that instead. So no, they're not slapping rubber nipples on the bottle and saying "drink up Johnnie!" ;)

    ReplyDelete
  14. This Pepsi next thing...is it supposed to be for people that don't care for diet soda? I don't get it... Diet soda, for people who HATE diet soda HAHAHA!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am not a soda drinker but when I crave one, I definetely don't go for the diet soda, it tastes weird to me!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yay! I can leave messages. You solved the issue. Woo hoo!
    Thanks for the review btw. I was thinking about trying Pepsi Next but now I'll pass. If it's not awesome and tasty then I don't want it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. My thoughts lately - If I'm going to wait this long, I'm getting the real damn thing! ;) (I'm a Coke drinker though...like the fizz but Pepsi's a bit too sweet for my taste.)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Well I had a chance to also try Cherry Coke Zero today and I can say that in my humble opinion there is still no such thing as a good diet drink. Diet Dr Pepper is pretty decent but if I am going to indulge anyway I am going to have the real thing so I see no point in diet drinks in general. I just thought that with all the newer products coming out that maybe they had cracked that code. Oh well.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Blech. IF I am going to drink pop, which is rare, I will drink regular. I would rather have the extra calories than whatever they put in diet.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I tried a bottle that was on sale for $1...and it got thrown out after the first few sips. I was stunned at just how bad it tasted. But I'm not a diet Pepsi or diet Coke fan, so this shouldn't have been such a shock. I'm sticking with my Diet Squirt which is my all-time fav.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to comment! I appreciate your time! (Heads up though...disrespectful or spam comments will be deleted.)