In a bold move, PepsiCo replaced Sierra Mist with a bright and colorful new contender: Starry. Facing a mixed response from the internet, The Rebellion staff took a sip of the action and taste tested a few lemon-lime competitors.

The Coca-Cola Company has dominated the lemon-lime soda market with Sprite for years. According to Statista data, PepsiCo’s Sierra Mist barely holds a tenth of a percent of the soda market whilst Sprite holds nearly 8 percent.

With Sierra Mist performing so poorly, PepsiCo has decided to pull it from shelves and present the public with its new citrusy soft-drink known as Starry.

PepsiCo stated they hope to catch the attention of the newer generations with Starry claiming it “is bright, optimistic, and rooted in culture and fun.”

When it comes to flavor, they’ve claimed it to have a “game-changing recipe with the perfect balance of lemon-lime flavor and sweetness.” attaching the tagline “Starry Hits Different” to the new face in the soda market.

The launch of the new product has received a mixed response from the public with some tweeting it’s better than Sprite and others posting videos of themselves pouring it into a trashcan.

In order to taste the truth, The Rebellion staff set-up a blind taste test of Sprite, Sierra Mist, and–the star of the show–Starry.

Pertaining to the verdict of the taste test, the staff was split upon whether Sprite and Starry placed on top. However, all participants agreed that Sierra Mist placed below the other two.

Regarding smell, most staff members confirmed Starry lives up to the claims from PepsiCo of it being the most aromatic, meanwhile both Sprite and Sierra Mist had a more “subtle” and “delicate” lemony scent.

On the subject of taste, it was found that Sierra Mist had the most subtle lemon-lime aspect out of the three drinks while being the most “syrupy.” Meanwhile, Sprite was considered to be the most refreshing with a “sharp” aftertaste.
The three who rated Starry higher than Sprite out of the seven participants reported the taste being “sweet,” “fruity,” and “very addicting.”
Coming to the design, while the mountain theme of Sierra Mist was entertaining, no one thought it stood out. With Sprite, some thought it was “generic” and “simplistic” while others said it was “classic” and the “most professional.”

Reaching Starry’s design, a majority thought the design was cute, fun, and that the colors popped. Only two of the participants had a critique, one described it as “cute, but not very direct” and the other referred to the green as “too light.”
In culmination, the data seems to show that PepsiCo’s Sierra Mist replacement may be a worthy challenger of Sprite. If not, Starry’s launch appears to have gone viral at the very least.