Pepsi Throwback Taste Test (This IS Your Mama's Pepsi!)
The chronicles of soda lore speak of a time when Pepsi's logo was more symmetrical and its ingredients included sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Was life better then? Who knows?
Capitalizing on a trend of all things retro (skinny jeans, mustachios, folk music), Pepsi has released (or rather, re-released) their self-proclaimed "refreshingly retro" Throwback soda with nostalgic packaging and real sugar.
In a blind taste-off, the BA web staff put the new-old flavor to the test to see how it compared with the Pepsi we've all been gulping since the '80s. Our preference for corn syrup vs sugar was split down the middle, with a general consensus that the flavor differences were so remote, it was challenging to distinguish the two.
The HFCS-free Throwback had a little less of an aftertaste and was a little bit less viscous, but again, these qualities seemed negligible.
There's a long list of reasons why I don't like high fructose corn syrup, but here's a short one:
-It's chemically produced in a lab.
-Corn is subsidized by the U.S. government, creating giant farming conglomerates that produce a surplus of genetically-modified corn that ends up in a vast amount of food and non-food products.
-There have been studies linking high fructose corn syrup to a recent rise in obesity.
While the detriment of HFCS remains debatable, I would prefer soda not include it. With no noticeable difference in quality, it's a little sad that a corn syrup-free formula has to be packaged as a limited-time gimmick, when it should be the norm.
You can go retro through February 22, 2010 at your local Pepsi dealer.
--Michael Singer
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