Pepsi Edge

Sunday my wife Ginger mentioned that she would like to try the new C2 product from Coke. I offered to go get her some, and when I got to Walgreens I bought both the C2 for her and a bottle of Pepsi Edge so that I could try and, of course, review it. It was on sale for $0.99 this week, so it had a soft place in my heart already.

Pepsi Edge is the low carb alternative to regular Pepsi. Like its opponent C2, it is supposed to provide the flavor of regular Pepsi but less than half the carbs and calories. Sure enough, while Pepsi has 99 calories per serving and 27g of carbohydrates, Pepsi Edge weighs in at 50 calories and 13g of carbs. So, not quite as much of an improvement over the original as C2 is to Coke.

When I tasted the Pepsi Edge, a sort of silly fantasy of mine became a bit more believable. See, when I studied C2 and tasted it, I got this mental image of a bottling company that took Coke and Diet Coke, mixed equal parts into a new container, and bottled the result as a "new" beverage C2, laughing all the way to the bank about it. Since Diet Coke has a unique property of taking on the flavor of anything you add to it, this seemed even more plausible but still the stuff of a joke, a hoot... certainly not reality, right? Well, after tasting Pepsi Edge, I seriously wonder if I am not spot on and if Pepsi did the same thing. Pepsi Edge tastes like an amalgamation of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. It has, all at once, the sweetness of Pepsi and the bitterness (that carries through to the aftertaste) of Diet Pepsi. It certainly does not taste anywhere near as much like Pepsi as C2 mimics Coke.

I was disappointed by this, because I really like regular Pepsi's taste and was hoping Pepsi Edge would live up to itself. But there are some positive things to say about Pepsi Edge. As I looked at the bottle for things to mention, I noticed one major difference between it and C2. While C2 has added aspertame with phenylalinine to further sweeten it and offset some of the sugar loss, Pepsi Edge has only reduced the sugar and has not mixed in any additional sweeteners to counter that loss (there goes my conspiracy theory about them just mixing the two older products to make a new one). So it is no wonder it does not manage to taste as sweet as regular Pepsi. If artificial sweetners aren't your thing, and you at least don't mind the taste of Diet Pepsi, then Pepsi Edge may be a good product for you.

Like the Coca Cola Light I mentioned in my C2 review, there is a lower carb, lower calorie alternative beverage that tastes more like Pepsi than Pepsi Edge. Remember Pepsi One? It is still sold in many places (and in the USA unlike Coca Cola Light), tastes much more like regular Pepsi, and has one calorie and zero carbs (it does contain Nutrasweet, however). It is a tasty alternative, and enough time has passed from those traumatic Cuba Gooding Jr. commercials that it should be an enjoyable beverage again.

Posted by Iain on June 21, 2004 09:07 AM