14 Discontinued Pepsi Flavors We Wish Would Return

Pepsi is a drink that's survived the test of time. This is thanks to that unique Pepsi flavor, with its vanilla and caramel notes keeping customers happy for well over a century. However, while the core flavor of Pepsi remains fixed and consistent, offering thirsty patrons a reliable experience, PepsiCo is a company that likes to innovate. Over the years, there have been dozens of alternative Pepsi flavors that have been unleashed on various international markets — and unfortunately, it seems that there isn't room for all of them to exist at the same time.

This has led to a host of products that have debuted and then been discontinued before we had an opportunity to get our hands on them. Some of these flavors were clearly always destined to be limited-edition items that we wish had stuck around for just a little longer, thanks to their innovative flavor combinations. Other varieties are so out there that we want them to come back just to see what they were actually like. Check out the Pepsi flavors that we wish would make a comeback.

Drinks like Pepsi, Coke, and Dr. Pepper have one major problem: Their sugar. It's hardly any secret that these sweet beverages aren't good for you, and the drinks manufacturers have responded by making a range of low-sugar drinks that still taste good. However, as these drinks have traditionally been made with artificial sweeteners, customers haven't always been totally on board.

Pepsi's answer to these issues was Pepsi True, a Pepsi alternative containing a mix of sugar and the natural sweetener stevia. Pepsi True promised to have 30% less sugar than a regular Pepsi, while still providing its sweet, moreish taste. The drink took Pepsi three years to get right, and while some folks were worried about it having a bitter aftertaste, some reviewers noted that it had a smooth, clean taste that was actually better than regular Pepsi. Others stated that it tasted better than other diet sodas, with a nicer flavor than Coca-Cola Life, a similar stevia-sweetened product.

However, it seems like the product was doomed to fail from the start. Customers just couldn't get on board with the mid-calorie vibe of the drink, and seemed to prefer to drift to full-fat soda or classic diet drinks. Pepsi True was soon discontinued, but we'd love to know what it actually tasted like — we could have gotten over that calorie middle ground.

The first thing that stood out about Diet Pepsi Jazz was its branding. This drink was clearly aimed at a classier customer who wanted to feel the rhythm of the city, with a commercial that featured scatting construction workers in a sweltering New York street, while a woman strolls through drinking her Pepsi. Its flavors, too, reflected this city-slicker feel, with a unique Black Cherry French Vanilla option that didn't have any clanging notes of artificial sweetener while being pleasingly sweet, and a Caramel Cream flavor that had a nice depth to it. They were considered a little too sweet by some, but to be honest, we love it when a drinks company opts for out-there flavor combos like this, so we're sold.

However, it seems like the general public wasn't as excited as us. Diet Pepsi Jazz only stuck around for just over a year, and was available from its launch in July 2006 to mid-2007. Unfortunately, its sales just weren't high enough to justify it sticking around, and the makers decided to pull the plug on this intriguing experimental drink.

Crystal Pepsi is one of those food products that you think might be an April Fool's joke, until you realize that it was actually just of a different era (hey, the '90s were a weird time, folks). The all-clear Pepsi was originally launched in 1992, and was part of a movement to make sodas seem healthier in a world where sparkling water and seltzer were starting to take over. As a result, Pepsi decided to take the caramel coloring out of its normal formula and sub in modified cornstarch, with a resulting product that was as clear as a mountain spring, and with a touch less sweetness to it.

When Crystal Pepsi first launched, it was a hit, taking $474 million in its first year. It appeared that customers were enticed by the clarity of the drink, with a real novelty factor going for it that boosted its sales. However, it shortly started to lose its appeal, with customers stating that its taste just wasn't all there. In 1994, it was discontinued.

That wasn't the end of the story for Crystal Pepsi, though. In 2022, PepsiCo brought it back for a brief period — but only as a winnable item during a competition run by the company. Honestly, we wish that it would bring it back for good, just so we can see how the flavor really compares.

Blue beverages aren't exactly the picture of health, but there's no denying that they're popular. Check out any drinks section in your local supermarket, and you'll find endless bottles of Gatorade, Prime, and Hawaiian Punch in lurid shades of blue. Clearly, PepsiCo thought at one point that it could get in on the fun too. This impulse led to the birth of Pepsi Blue, a discontinued Pepsi flavor launched in 2002 to great fanfare, with none other than Britney Spears heading up the ad campaign.

Pepsi Blue was a youth-focused drink, with a berry flavor that seemed to resonate well with its intended teenage audience. Adults, however, were less keen: Some folks didn't like how sweet it was, and its sugary intensity really put them off. Soon after it launched, its sales started to suffer, and Pepsi Blue was only available for about two years before it disappeared.

However, that wasn't the end of the story. Pepsi Blue returned in 2021 for a limited run and it went down a storm with reviewers who praised its cotton candy-like flavor and sheer nostalgia factor. Sadly, it wasn't long before it evaporated from shelves once more, but we're praying for PepsiCo to bring it back for one more spin. Our teeth won't thank us, but our taste buds will.

Pepsi Kona came out at a time when PepsiCo was clearly ready to try something bold — and boy, did it do it with this drink. Pepsi Kona was launched in 1996, and was a combination of cola and coffee flavors that was designed to jolt the senses. It was branded with an ultra-funky image, which it may have hoped would help its sales, but this didn't quite do the trick. The drink was only launched in smaller markets along the East Coast, and when it failed to take off, Pepsi Kona was swiftly discontinued.

So what did this concoction of coffee and cola taste like? It seems like it split opinions. Some folks adored the drink, talking about its refreshing taste when cold and comparing it to a Coke float made with coffee ice cream. Other folks were especially negative about Pepsi Kona, dubbing it one of the worst drinks they've ever had. We personally love the sound of a coffee-coke combo, and we're devastated that we never got the chance to try it. Pepsi has flirted with other coffee flavors since, with its Pepsi Café product almost making it to shelves nationwide before the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way. Maybe one day, huh?

Need an energy boost in the morning? You're not alone. We're pretty useless before we've had a coffee, and yet there are those days when we wish we could start things off with something else. This thought process is something that Pepsi cottoned onto in the late 1980s, and Pepsi A.M. was born. This drink was marketed as having the same flavor as Pepsi, but with 25% more caffeine — and it also came in a diet version.

On the face of things, we think this product sounds like a winner: It's clearly a good option for folks who don't like the taste of coffee, but do need a little bit of caffeine to wake them up. However, it didn't seem like the majority of customers agreed. While the classic taste probably went down a treat, it might have been that the market wasn't quite ready for a high-caffeine Pepsi alternative. By the end of 1990, Pepsi-Cola USA discontinued the pair of drinks, citing a lack of customer interest. It hasn't come back since, but it might do a lot better today, in a world full of energy drinks. Besides, we kinda need it. We're tired over here, guys!

If you like your soda with a bit of spice, Pepsi Fire is the flavor for you — or it would be, if the drink was still around. Pepsi Fire was a limited-edition product that wasn't designed to stick around for long, with the drink launched in 2017 and available for just eight weeks during early summer. The idea, we guess, was to reflect the season's heat in the cinnamon-infused drink, and give folks a different twist on Pepsi's classic caramel and vanilla notes.

Although it was only a limited-edition item, we'd imagine that Pepsi would have been more willing to keep it around if people chimed with the drink. Unfortunately, just not enough people did. Most just weren't very warm on Pepsi Fire (sorry, the pun was right there), with reviews voiding their frustration over the amount of fire itself in the drink. The cinnamon flavor was pretty mild, and perhaps that lack of punch meant that it just wasn't distinctive enough. However, as fans of pretty much anything cinnamon-infused, we'd love for Pepsi Fire to be brought back for one more spin. Maybe PepsiCo could just amp up the spiciness a little bit, though.

If you're a fan of retro sodas, this next one's for you. Pepsi took its customers on a trip down memory lane with its Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop varieties, which came in several different flavors. One of them, the Black Cherry flavor, sounds like it was sent from heaven directly for our taste buds. The drink mixed the classic flavor of Pepsi, with a smooth black cherry taste that took the edge off the Pepsi's normal flavor notes. Most customers were enthusiastic about the soda's flavor, and to finish it all off, every bottle and can came kitted out with a vintage-looking label that seriously evoked that nostalgia factor.

Sadly, the spin that the Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop variety put on Pepsi was only ever destined to be temporary. Pepsi even officially confirmed in 2023, that the Black Cherry flavor had been discontinued, and was always a limited edition flavor. While people have enquired with the company, so far that hasn't resulted in it becoming available again yet. A pity, because this is one we'd certainly like to see again.

Soda companies are constantly trying to bridge the gap between their diet products and their regular ones. PepsiCo has tried to do this several times by introducing a variant of Pepsi with a combination of lower sugar and low-calorie sweeteners. One of its products that attempted this, Pepsi Next, hit stores in 2012. Promising 60% less sugar than normal Pepsi, the drink was intended to mimic its inimitable flavor.

To be honest, it seems like it kinda nailed it. Reviews of Pepsi Next mentioned that the drink had less of the sickly, sugary undertone that can plague regular colas, but still tasted like Pepsi. It felt like those soda bosses were onto a winner with this one — so it was a shame that it only lasted a few years until it was discontinued. Unfortunately, despite the positive response to its flavor, customers just weren't responding on a wider level to the balance of sugar and sweetener. We guess that the folks at Pepsi eventually decided that making it was more trouble than it was worth.

Of all the discontinued Pepsi flavors out there, Pepsi Twist is probably the one that's had the biggest lasting impact. This flavor was launched in 2001, after being tested in small markets the year before. The concept was simple: It was Pepsi, with a twist of lemon, and it hit the spot with customers who wanted a soda with an extra boost of citrusy notes, who loved its crisp flavor. It had pride of place on supermarket shelves for several years, before it was cruelly ripped from them — although it was brought back very briefly in 2008 in an "NFL Kickoff Limited Edition" flavor.

Since then, Pepsi Twist has not been available to customers in America — and you'd better believe that they've been letting PepsiCo know that they want it back. Even more than 15 years after its discontinuation, people still voice their desire on social media for the company to bring it back. Sadly, it seems like there are no plans in the works for Pepsi to bring back this ever-popular Pepsi flavor, so this drink may remain a distant and fond memory forevermore.

Soda companies do some weird things, folks. Every now and again, they'll develop a flavor that sounds absolutely delicious — and then make it pretty much impossible to drink. This happened back in 2022 when Pepsi released a Maple Syrup Cola, designed to taste like a stack of pancakes drenched in delicious, syrupy goodness. However, we're using the term "released" pretty liberally here, as the drink (which was made in partnership with IHOP) was only available through a social media sweepstakes, with just 2,000 cans going to lucky winners.

We thought that was the end of the flavor, before PepsiCo decided to bring it back a couple of years later. Again, though, it was only available in a seriously limited capacity. Pepsi launched its soda at IHOP locations around the country, meaning that you had to go and dine in those specific places to try it while it was available. We wish that PepsiCo would stop playing with our emotions and just release the drink more widely as, by the sounds, of things it tastes great, with a gently rich flavor that doesn't lean too hard into cloying sweet notes.

Soda isn't exactly normally associated with natural ingredients, with most of us being well aware that these drinks are highly processed and full of refined sugar. However, at the end of the 2000s, Pepsi decided to see what would happen if it took all the artificiality out of its drink. The result was the short-lived Pepsi Natural, a version of Pepsi made with all-natural ingredients, flavored with kola nut extract, and colored with natural apple extract and caramel. Keen-eyed reviewers noted that the different recipe gave Pepsi Natural a slightly lighter hue and less carbonation than regular Pepsi.

As for Pepsi Natural's flavor, it was pretty close to standard Pepsi, but folks did notice that it had a slightly more mellow profile. When combined with the lack of high fructose corn syrup and any other artificially made ingredients, this is a drink that we wish we'd have got our hands on. However, it was not to be: Just as quickly as Pepsi Natural arrived, it was discontinued, with it just not being popular enough to justify its place on a production line.

We just love it when life imitates art. On October 21, 2015, it did just that, when Pepsi decided to release a version of its drink called Pepsi Perfect. If you recognize that name, you may remember it from a scene in "Back To The Future II," in which Marty McFly asks for a Pepsi and is served a futuristic-looking beverage in a pleasing curved bottle. The name of the beverage? Pepsi Perfect. The date that he had traveled to in the 1989 film? October 21, 2015!

This was clearly a marketing gimmick for Pepsi, and Pepsi Perfect wasn't exactly released widely, with only 6,500 bottles sold and priced at $20.15 each. Nor did the company put too much effort into jazzing up its drink's flavor, with Pepsi Perfect tasting like ... well ... regular Pepsi. However, it's all about the bottle for us, folks. The classy vessel designed for Pepsi Perfect is absolutely gorgeous, and seems like a natural upgrade to the standard Pepsi bottles available today — and it's way prettier than the boring plastic bottles in your local store. Come on, Pepsi: Bring it back, and let us all have a taste of the future.

Pepsi One is one of many products made by soda bosses that was designed to appeal to folks concerned about their sugar intake. As its name suggests, Pepsi One had just one calorie per serving, and was a precursor to other flavors like Pepsi Zero Sugar. Pepsi One was first released in 1998, and a lot of weight was thrown behind marketing the drink. The solo-calorie beverage was cross-promoted with "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" with collectible cans with the film's name emblazoned on them. Just a few years later, "Sex And The City" star Kim Cattrall was featured in a commercial promoting Pepsi One, drinking the beverage in the locker room for the Chicago Bears.

So how did it fare in terms of taste? Pretty well. People loved this drink for its lack of aftertaste and abundant fizziness, as well as its similarity to classic Pepsi without the calories the normal drink provided. It was popular enough to stick around until 2015, when it was phased out in favor of Pepsi's other flavors. However, some folks say that Pepsi Zero Sugar just isn't as good as Pepsi One, though, and the drinks company should consider bringing it back. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?