Discontinued Files · 🥤 Sodas & drinks

G33Z3R Discontinued Files · 19921994

What happened to Crystal Pepsi?

Crystal Pepsi

Introduced
1992 (test markets), national in 1993
Discontinued
1994
Made by
PepsiCo
Why it went away
Sales fell fast after the launch buzz; a reformulated citrus version flopped
Comeback?
Limited runs in 2015–2017 and again in 2022

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The file

A clear cola was the early-'90s idea of the future: no caramel color, no caffeine, marketed as purity in a can. It launched with a Super Bowl ad set to Van Halen's "Right Now" and sold well for a few months on curiosity alone.

Then people decided it tasted like Pepsi that looked wrong, and Coke reportedly rushed out a bad clear cola, Tab Clear, to sink the whole category. By 1994 it was gone. Twenty years later fan campaigns got PepsiCo to bring it back for limited runs, which sold out on nostalgia alone.

It came back, briefly, three times. If you want one, watch for the next limited run — the last was in 2022.

Sources: Wikipedia — Crystal Pepsi

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