credit: latimesblog.latimes.com
Although we love to do reviews on this blog, they are often focused on Richmond-area events and products. It’s not every day that an email from a Pepsi PR representative contacts me for my personal address, then follows up with a mysterious white box on my doorstep.
It arrived yesterday, and as I was asking my boys about their day they interuppted me with MOM THERE’S A PACKAGE WE HAVE TO OPEN IT NOW.
Oh, cool I dig mail my geeky self thought, my mind having already slipped the email from aforementioned Pepsi rep. I allowed them to rip the heavy tape off and lift out a giant, silver soft-sided bag in which a beautiful plastic Pepsi Next case was enclosed, frosty and cold with a six-pack for us to taste.
A business call came in so I whispered to the boys that they could each try a can, a rare offer that barely crossed my lips before they popped the top and started taste-testing.
What’s it taste like? I whispered, still on the phone, “like lollipops!” my six-year old answered. “This stuff is the bomb” said my nine-year old, and when I hung up the call and had a chance to inspect this fancy new doorstep visitor had a chance to taste it for myself.
I’m not a big soda consumer, I’ll admit, because I don’t love the taste of diet soda and feel guilty drinking the regular stuff. I Googled
Pepsi Next (because, truth be told, I had never heard of it) to get the scoop. There, I saw that it was designed to be a hybrid between full-on soda and diet, with reduced sugar and calories, for the so-called diet-soda “phobic.”
Again, not a huge soda conniseur (again, truth be told, where I was raised me called it “pop” so I feel a little weird saying soda) but this stuff was pretty tasty. It didn’t taste very differently to full-fledged soda, and it has 60% less sugar, so that’s encouraging, especially since the kids didn’t notice the difference.
We sat on the front steps, enjoying the spring breeze and sipping our fancy-schmancy-pants-exclusive-Pepsi Next cans feeling a bit like royalty and comparing the bubbly flavors to our favorite sweet treats.
We felt pretty snazzy after seeing this!
Then my oldest, pictured here, read the card enclosed in the package and when he realized we were one of 100 people selected to sample this new product before it’s official launch on 3/26/12 he promptly dubbed me a rockstar and said I was the BEST EVAH. And for those of you with a nine year-old son, this is a compliment that should cause the earth to stop turning momentarily.
And now the kids are fighting over the fancy, clear box the six-pack came in and who can use it for their treasures, so I’d better sign off.
We’ll likely pick this up when we do buy soda, as I won’t have such guilt feelings about giving the kids all that sugar.
Oh, cute commercial including dancy baby, too: 
