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Home > Blogs > Taste: Dayton food and restaurants > Archives > 2009 > February > 25 > Entry
New Pepsi & Mountain Dew ‘Throwbacks’ will be sweetened with real sugar
Soft drink and other beverage makers are turning back the clocks with some new products that will be sweetened with old-fashioned sugar instead of the more modern and nearly ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup.
Although there has been no formal announcement by Pepsi, the company will begin selling Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback — which features those brands formulated with sugar rather than corn syrup — on April 20 in markets nationwide, Pepsi spokeswoman Nicole Bradley said.
![PepsiThrowback12oz[2].jpg](http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/shared-blogs/dayton/taste/upload/2009/02/retro_pepsi_new_pepsi_mountain/PepsiThrowback12oz%5B2%5D.jpg)
![MtDewThrowback12oz[2].jpg](http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/shared-blogs/dayton/taste/upload/2009/02/retro_pepsi_new_pepsi_mountain/MtDewThrowback12oz%5B2%5D.jpg)
The “Throwbacks” are a “limited time offer” through June 17, Bradley said. It looks like Beverage Industry magazine wrote about this, as did BevReview.com.
And specialty tea maker Snapple has changed its formula, omitting high-fructose corn syrup and choosing to use sugar as a sweetener instead, according to thi entry from the New York Times “City Room” blog.
Pepsi — which uses high-fructose corn syrup in its current “regular” Mountain Dew and Pepsi sodas — is using sugar “because we wanted to be true to the time,” and not because of any concerns about high-fructose corn syrup, Bradley said. Pepsi used sugar to sweeten its sodas through the 1960s and 1970s, she said.
High-fructose corn syrup has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as Americans’ rates of obesity and related health problems have risen, although the American Medical Association, among other groups, has concluded that the corn-based sweetener does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other sweeteners. Cargill’s corn-processing plant at 3201 Needmore Road in Dayton is among the largest suppliers of high fructose corn syrup in the country.
Pepsi — which last year released sugar-sweetened drinks in other countries including Great Britain and Mexico — is offering the Throwback products for only two months because such limited-time offers generate excitement among consumers, Bradley said.
What if consumer response is overwhelmingly positive? Might Pepsi change its mind about the limited-time offer?
“We’ll have to see,” Bradley said.
Why use sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup?
Pepsi wants to recapture the spirit of the ’60s and ’70s, when it used sugar to sweeten its colas — and it also wants to recapture some of the market share that its products and other carbonated soft drinks have lost to bottled water and tea-based drinks. But a Pepsi spokeswoman makes it very clear the company has no health concerns regarding sweetened corn syrup, which it uses to sweeten many of its non-diet sodas.
Which is worse, sugar or high fructose corn syrup?
Most dieticians consider both to be “empty calories,” although high fructose corn syrup has attracted increasing scrutiny in recent years for its role in obesity and diabetes as some products that include HFCS have been found to contain mercury. The Corn Refiners Associaton has called that study flawed and have launched an advertising campaign defending HFCS from what it says are “myths.” Either way, both sugar and HFCS should be consumed in moderation.
Cargill connection: The Cargill corn processing plant at 3201 Needmore Road in Dayton is one of the country’s largest producers of high-fructose corn syrup, employing about 280 people.
(Images courtesy of Pepsi)
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By Gary Thomas
August 25, 2009 10:46 AM | Link to this
I absolutely LOVE the Mt.Dew Throwback. It tastes a million times better, and goes down much smoother than the “High Fructose Corn Syrup” version. Oh how I wish that Pepsi would continue to produce the Mt. Dew Throwback, as I would buy a huge case of it each and every week….. Gary
By Linda Patterson
June 29, 2009 5:36 PM | Link to this
We enjoyed the pepsi throwback sooo much so sorry its gone please bring it back!! dont drink anything with HFCS.
By JD
May 5, 2009 11:14 AM | Link to this
I love the new throwback Pepsi. They should seriously make this stuff year round. I’m not going to go back to corn syrup now.
By Oz
March 29, 2009 6:13 AM | Link to this
Wow, just another example of the braindead generation, no working taste buds, completely slathered and destroyed by HFCS, MSG, and other newer cheap additives in modern stuff, and to think theres droves of these people that can’t tell the difference, same people that think dominos tastes the same as a local quality pizzeria.
By brunnegd
February 27, 2009 9:10 AM | Link to this
Last year I was in a Mexican restaurant that sold Coke and Mexican Coke. I had one of each, could not tell the difference in taste. But the US Coke had 38 grams of sugar, according to the label, while the Mexican Coke had 22. Do not know if one or the other used HFCS or sugar, but since there was no difference in taste, one could assume that our pop is oversweetened.
By Frylock
February 25, 2009 5:31 PM | Link to this
I cut out the sugar in my diet 1 year ago and lost 40lbs in 4 months and have kept it off. It’s the easiest way to lose weight and keep it off! It’s the low carb approach and it works. Imagine that, you don’t have to join Jenny Craig and buy all those crappy foods that don’t teach you how to cook for yourself.