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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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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TweetMexican restaurant closes
WEST CARROLLTON — Pepito’s Mexican Restaurant & Cantina’s West Carrollton restaurant has closed only five months after it opened.
There are no signs alerting customers to the closing posted at the restaurant at 1130 Central Ave. in the east end of the former Roberd’s complex, but employees at the Kettering and Dayton Pepito’s confirmed the closing. Ignacio Bucio, the West Carrollton restaurant’s owner, could not be reached this morning, Feb. 25.
When the restaurant opened in September near the Montgomery County auto title and Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles license bureau offices in West Carrollton, Bucio said he had been looking for a spot to open since he sold the Pepito’s at 4904 Airway Road earlier in 2008.
The other Pepito’s restaurants are located at 2412 Catalpa Drive in Dayton and at 3618 Wilmington Pike in Kettering.
An employee of the Kettering Pepito’s said the restaurant has temporarily suspended lunch service during a transition to new management. Lunches are expected to return in three or four weeks.
Kelly Kennedy, an employee of the Catalpa Drive Pepito’s, said the closing of the West Carrollton restaurant will have no impact on the Dayton operation, other than the Catalpa restaurant will host Latin dancing events that had been held in West Carrollton, starting as soon as this weekend. Kennedy also said the Dayton restaurant is offering a 25 percent off food special as part of its 29th anniversary celebration.
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