Pepsi Introduces A “Craft” Soda Made With Cane Sugar

By Mary Beth Quirk October 10, 2014

Crafty.

PepsiCo is hopping on the ye olde bandwagon and going back to the days when soda was sweetened with sugar, and free of artificial sweeteners or high-fructose corn syrup. Dubbing its new craft soda Caleb’s Kola, Pepsi says the drink is made with cane sugar, “a special blend of spices” and a kola nut extract.

The beverage is named after Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist who came up with the Pepsi formula in the 1890s, reports the Associated Press, further rooting the drink’s image in the sepia-toned past.

Each 10-ounce bottle comes with 110 calories and 29 grams of sugar, as well as an entourage of marketing hashtags meant to position this drink among the other old timey sodas known as craft drinks — #craft, #mixology, #honorincraft, you get the point. Gotta get those millenials!

Caleb’s Kola will hit shelves at certain Costco locations in New York, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, with plans to expanded wider later.