Kotas Reviews Crystal Pepsi

Nostalgia is a powerful feeling, especially when hawking cola flavored sugar water to the masses. How else can you explain the meteoric fall of New Coke, and the subsequent strangely still meteoric even though they actually fall out of the sky rise of Coca Cola Classic a few months later? Ever notice that with a lot of pop culturally significant brands it comes down to "entrenched incumbent vs underdog newcomer?" Coke vs. Pepsi, Nintendo vs. Sega, Wal-Mart vs....well, everyone, the story is told and retold over and over again. Still, out of these eternal struggles come weird and strange iterations. With that, let's take a look at the legendary Crystal Pepsi.

BOO YEAH!

Crystal Pepsi is LEGENDARY in pop culture as one of the most 90s things to ever exist, and for good reason. I mean, look at its introductory ad from the 1993 Super Bowl. LOOK AT IT:

Set to Van Halen's "Right Now", Crystal Pepsi splashed onto the scene to good initial sales as a part of the "clear is pure" trend started by Ivory Soap of all things. Sales quickly faded as people realized that maybe this wasn't as revolutionary as it appeared, and just like that, it was gone months after its launch. Still, the idea was kept alive by aficionados of the drink, who traded old bottles and cans on Ebay for ever increasing sums. That is where it would have remained, but then the nostalgia wave began to overtake pop culture, and Coca-Cola got into the act by re-releasing Surge, another 90s soda, to mild acclaim, and Pepsi followed suit with a limited re-release of Crystal Pepsi last year. I guess the gas station I purchased this at had some leftover, because this one was bought like, last week. Let's check it out!

Well, it's certainly clear, that's for damn sure. It's got a nice effervescence with a solid citrus-ish note that pleases my "non-cola soda" expectations. This version isn't exactly like the original though, since it has caffeine unlike the one from the 1990s. Eh, down the fuckin' hatch, right? RIGHT! This tastes pretty good, actually, the citrus is sweet, but not super lemon-lime like Sprite or 7up. It's got a bit of tang to it, not unlike the Zima re release and is quite nice going down. I don't think I'd pick this over cola flavored soda, but it's a nice bit of "something different" when out and about. Good job, PepsiCo!

On the FACE Rating System, this gets 1 Smiley Face. This is a re release done pretty well, even if it is just a cheap marketing ploy. I say that you should give it a try for it's so called "final release" coming up soon (mid-August I believe), but don't feel too bad if you miss it. I'm a fan, but not an obsessive fan. You won't find me scouring Ebay for this stuff, that's for sure.