I must admit, I am a sucker for Established Brands doing some sort of Limited Edition gimmick. So when I saw the local Tesco Express had refrigerated Pepsi Electric, which is blue Pepsi, I was immediately intrigued and knew I had to indulge in what would almost certainly be an incredibly disappointing experience. Particularly as Pepsi Electric is a zero sugar soda and therefore will almost certainly taste like it has never been near anything that has been anywhere vaguely in the vicinity of “nature”.
But come on, blue Pepsi! What’s not to like? I will now take you on a semi-visual journey of my thought process while exploring this bottle of inevitable disappointment.
Okay, here we go. I have a small degree of trepidation, but I’m sure it can’t be that bad.
Cap off, mild amount of fizz. Promising, inasmuch anything can be promising at this stage of proceedings.
The first sip. I am immediately hit by something almost, but not entirely, unlike Pepsi.
My immediate reaction was pretty much what this face suggests.
“The fuck is this actually supposed to taste of?” It’s “Citrus cola” apparently. It tastes (and looks) a little bit like cleaning fluid. Or, you know, what I imagine cleaning fluid to taste like based on the smell.
Another glug to make sure. Despite my “cleaning fluid” comment above, I’m not completely repulsed by the experience so far.
The initial belch from this bottle is disappointing, both in terms of length and girth.
I continue the assignment. I have, after all, started, so I should finish. I don’t like wasting food and drink I’ve paid money for, even if it’s not something I like. The only exception to this is anything which tastes heavily of raw onion, which will actively repulse me and make me want to throw it away. Thankfully “Onion Pepsi” has so far remained in the purely conceptual stages.
Ladies, try not to get too excited. I am a happily married man. But Pepsi Electric does indeed turn your tongue blue.
A new belch emerges! This one has a little more body to it, but it’s still disappointing compared to fizzier fizzy drinks, particularly in terms of length and overall volume.
At this point, I’m contemplating whether I should rethink my “finish what you start, unless it tastes of onion” policy.
In for a penny…
…in for a pound. I do try and chug the remainder of the bottle in one go, but as with most drinks that are artificial sweetener-forward, I find it difficult to drink a lot at once. Full-sugar Coke or Pepsi I could quite happily down a 500ml bottle in one go (and produce some absolutely thunderous belches afterwards) but this is proving challenging.
Eventually it takes two “chugs” to drain the rest of the bottle, and I am left with a slightly lingering sense of regret.
One final burp. I was hoping this would be “the big one”, but it disappoints.
Final conclusions: not actively unpleasant, but not particularly pleasant, either. Not something I will buy again. As with most “flavoured colas”, I find that the “flavour” actively takes away from the enjoyment of just drinking a cola.
Zero sugar cola — specifically Coke Zero, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max — has a distinctive flavour that I am on board with. Coke Zero in particular tastes enough like regular Coke that I don’t feel I’m “missing out”. Any time you add some sort of “flavour” atop the basic cola flavour, though — or if you’re just Diet Coke, which is fucking disgusting — you amp up the artificial sweetener taste, which is gross.
Plus there wasn’t nearly enough fizz. When I drink a nice cold bottle of cola, I want to be able to summon up a belch from the very depths of Hell afterwards. The post-Pepsi Electric burps were impotent, however, making the whole experience feel rather underwhelming.
Overall, a resounding shrug of the shoulders and general sense of indifference. 73%
Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.
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