Pepsi Max Raspberry: #Glorious!

Hi Everyone! How are you? I am fine.

A return to the drink market this week for me, and after the debacle that was Coca Cola Peach Zero, which I’m only just recovering from over 1 year later, I wasn’t expecting much when my eye caught this little beauty.

Novelty pop is generally disappointing. If raspberry pop was a good idea, why hasn’t it been done before? Diet soft drinks may as well jump off a bridge as far as I’m concerned.

These are just some of the negative thoughts going through my brain, but I have a blog to write, so I bought it anyway.

Was it a good idea? As always, there’s only 1 way to find out…

Before: In All it's glory!

Taste

Brilliant. Genuinely top banana.

I had low expectation because every novelty diet pop I’ve ever tried has been disappointing. The first sip is always fine, but it’s down hill from there. Always.

This was different though, the first taste was great and then it was UP HILL from there. Can you even imagine such a thing?

Maybe it’s because I was drinking it straight after finishing at the gym and I was just thirsty, but that was the same conditions for the peachy coke product, and that was pure bum.

I loved this, it might be my new favorite pop drink. (That is a huge statement, and I’m already regretting it, but there’s no going back now.)

Long story short, I liked it because it tasted nice.

Texture

I have a problem with diet pop in general. I feel like all of it is just a bit watery in comparison with the sugary version. This struggled with the same issue, but not as much as other drinks in the class.

I can’t score it high, but it was above average and the texture didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the taste, which as we have discussed, was simply world class.

Packaging

More Classic big brand novelty food packing. Just like normal Pepsi Max, but a slightly different colour and a picture of a raspberry. Bosh, done.

Had to mark it lower than it’s peach Coke zero counterpart because Coke is just more stylish than Pepsi in the first place (and what’s more, they know it), but very close.

After: Still in some glory, but less. Because it's empty,

Marketing

Does anyone even try to sell novelty food anymore? No adverts for this, apart from a couple of mealy mouthed press releases. How does a company like Pepsi sell any new products? Are they just hoping that the world’s novelty food bloggers simply stumble on to their products? I could definitely do better than that, any day, ‘gis a job.

Novelty Factor

High. I’ve never seen a raspberry main stream pop drink before, have you? Where? Liar.

I’ve got to score this high, because I liked it and I want to get a high score. It’s my blog and I can do that, but I really do believe that raspberry pop from the soft drink big guns are very rare things, and that’s grade A novelty in my book, which is the only book that counts.

Final Scores

Taste- 9/10

Texture- 6/10

Packaging- 6.5/10

Marketing- 2/10

Novelty Factor- 8/10

Overall 31.5/50

The main strength of this was that it was really, really nice tasting. If I see it again I will buy it. Can you beat that?

Was it a good idea? Well, I got a blog out of it, and it tasted nice. I've had worse ideas...

Some ideas already for the next one, but none that I’m looking forward to putting in my mouth, so who knows what will happen?