Pepsi Raw

Thanks to my friend Chuck for sending me Pepsi's new shenanigans. Pepsi Raw is the new trial run of products by the muliti-national corporation Pepsi.

I am a little unsure about the target audience: the health conscious? the elite? the gullible?

This is cola made with sparkling water and naturally sourced ingredients. That means no artificial flavours, sweeteners, preservatives, or colours.

With its lighter sparkle and unique ingredients such as apple and natural plant extracts, it has a cleaner, fresher taste that’s not only great on its own, but also makes a fantastic mixer. So if you’re someone who appreciates premium spirits, RAW is the perfect accompaniment as it allows the individual flavour of the spirit to cut through.

I am a little unsure what "naturally sourced ingredients" means. So they may be derived from plants, but what is the relevance?

The ingredients:
Sparkling water (bubbles) --no sure the difference between carbonated water, but okay.
Cane Sugar (sugar cane) -- okay...no HFCS, but I laugh that sugar is now being hustled as a marketable choice. I would be interested to know where they get their sugar from. (A 2004 report by WWF, titled “Sugar and the Environment,” shows that sugar may be responsible for more biodiversity loss than any other crop, due to its destruction of habitat to make way for plantations, its intensive use of water for irrigation, its heavy use of agricultural chemicals, and the polluted wastewater that is routinely discharged in the sugar production process.)
Apple extract -- fruit serving? does it count?
Colour- (plain caramel) derived from sugar thanks to the Malliard effect-- emphasis on "plain" ?
Natural Plant Extracts -- including natural caffeine, kola nut extract (from the rain forest in Africa)
TarTaric Acid (bunch of grapes), citric and lactic acid -- what's soda without some acid!?
Gum Arabic- Acacia tree branch & Xanthan gum -- how exotic.

And you have a "Natural Born Cola," and I have a headache.