Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

sodas

PepsiCo to Make Concentrates of its Sodas for SodaStream

If you love soda, but don’t like all the plastic associated with it, good news! Soon you can make 10 real Pepsi products like Pepsi Cola, 7 Up, Mountain Dew and more from the comfort of your own home with SodaStream (if you live in select European countries).

SodaStream, which was acquired by PepsiCo last year, announced yesterday that it will start making concentrates of popular Pepsi beverages that can be used with SodaStream devices. Calcalist was first to report on the news, saying the new concentrates will be available in Norway and Sweden first, followed by France and Germany starting in March of 2020.

Sustainability seems to be the main pitch for these concentrates as they won’t save consumers a lot of money. Calcalist writes that these homemade sodas will cost $.93 per liter, compared with $.95 for one that already comes in a bottle. But the benefit is that people won’t use as many plastic bottles in the first place.

Reducing single-use plastic bottles is a pretty good reason on its own to launch this type of endeavor, given the abysmal state of plastic recycling and the mounting levels of plastic in our oceans. PepsiCo has been testing out other ways to reduce its plastic use as well, including new flavored seltzer machines for offices, selling its Tropicana orange juice in reusable glass bottles, and using recyclable flavor pods for its Drinkfinity system.

There are two big questions that still hover over this new concentrate system, however. First, will it fare better than the Keurig Kold, which used Coca-Cola branded flavor pods to make sodas at home? That device was short-lived, being pulled after just 10 months on the market for being too expensive and too loud. Since this will use a device that many people already have, there shouldn’t be the same hardware issues.

The next question, of course, will be how closely people at home can recreate the iconic taste of their particular soda. Will the flavors match up? It seems like there’s potential for a real uncanny valley type situation where close enough really doesn’t cut it, even if you’re cutting out plastic bottle.

Pepsi Bulks Up, Buys Maker of Muscle Milk

Do you even acquire major protein shake brands, bro? Pepsi announced today that it has bought the CytoSport brand from Hormel for an undisclosed sum (hat tip to Food Business News). The move is another step for Pepsi to diversify beyond its sugary soda roots.

CytoSport makes Muscle Milk, the fun-to-say line of protein drinks, bars and powders, as well as the Evolve brand of vegan protein products. Hormel purchased CytoSport in 2014 for $450 million. According to Food Dive, CytoSport has faced issues in recent years, including a product recall in 2016, and a decline in sales last year.

Perhaps Pepsi, which owns Gatorade and understands the sports beverage business, will be a better fit for Muscle Milk than a meat company like Hormel.

For its part, this is another move by Pepsi to diversify beyond sodas, the sales of which have been on the decline as other, healthier drinks like La Croix have eclipsed them. In response to shifting tastes, Pepsi acquired SodaStream last year for $3.2 billion to become an immediate player in the seltzer market. The company has also launched Drinkfinity, it’s pod-based flavored water system last year.

Pepsi isn’t alone in its diversification efforts. Coca-Cola acquired the Costa Coffee chain last year, and led a $15 million investment in hipster water company, Dirty Lemon. Coca-Cola also owns Gatorade analog, Powerade, as well as Fairlife, which makes Core protein shakes.

Now the only question is, will protein even lift Pepsi’s bottom line, bro?