Crystal Pepsi

Video Review is from 2022:

Written Review is from 2016:

Well, it’s happened. My soda powers have culminated and the three sodas I wished back onto this plane of reality are here.  First Surge, then Sprite Re-Mix, and now Crystal Pepsi.  If there are any other extinct sodas out there you’d like me to channel back into existence just shoot me an e-mail.

Right now, Twist is living in the past!

So Crystal Pepsi has a couple of things going for it even before I open the bottle.  It’s the first soda I specifically remember consuming.  I’m sure I had sodas prior to it, but I still remember picking this up at the local Stop ‘N Go and being amazed that a cola could be clear.  I was holding it though, I was holding a clear cola.  

Crystal Pepsi was a success.  Coke grew nervous and created Tab Clear to confuse the market.  To make people think that clear colas were diet or sugar free or not that good… and it worked.  Tab Clear was a murder-suicide of the soda kind.  They never expected it to work, just tossed it out there to rid themselves of the threat.

Crystal Pepsi went away for a while, but due to my generation's love of pop culture nostalgia it’s back.  That all said, it’s time to write a review.

The packaging is delightfully retro, but I notice the “best buy date” is October 31, of 2016.  Why does Crystal Pepsi have a “best buy date” that’s two months away? My guess is that the soda will cloud and not be as clear in a couple of months, though I truly have no idea why.

Smell wise it’s clear (HA!) to me that I just opened a cola.  It’s lighter in scent than many colas on the market, but still easily distinguished.  Here’s hoping the taste matches my expectations.

That’s not as “cola” flavored as I thought it would be, then again I’m basing all of this on a memory that’s 25 years old.  Citrus is present.  I know a clear soda is usually associated with citrus, but 10 year old me thought this was a cola and nothing else.  

It’s like Lemon and Lime couldn’t get into the sexy dance party because they weren’t old enough.  So in typical mischievous fashion they decide that Lemon should stand on Lime’s shoulders and they’ll wear a big heavy coat of cola.  The doorman (my tongue in this example) sees through their disguise, but lets them pass anyway.  He likes the two scallywags and appreciates the trouble they went through to get in the sexy dance club.  That’s my feelings on Crystal Pepsi in a nutshell.

This isn’t quite cola, but I see what they attempted and like that they took the time and resources to do it.  I don’t love it, but I’m glad to see it again like many of the nuggets of my childhood we keep digging up time and time again.

~A

This was purchased at Wal-Mart, perhaps you’ve heard of them.