By Victoria Lubas
FEATURES EDITOR-IN-TRAINING

PepsiCo is debuting a new soda, called Pepsi True, with fewer calories and no artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.

Pepsi True has 30% less sugar than regular Pepsi and is free of artificial sweeteners, using stevia and sugar as its primary sweeteners instead. Stevia is a natural sugar alternative that is used in cookies, energy bars and yogurts. It comes from the leaves of a plant and has no calories, so combined with natural sugar, Pepsi True has 30% fewer calories than traditional Pepsi.

Pepsi True has only 60 calories and is only sold on Amazon.
Photo Credit: PepsiCo Beverage

Simon Lowden, the chief marketing officer at PepsiCo North America, said Pepsi True is targeting adults in their late 20s and early 30s who are moving away from sodas due to their amounts of calories and chemicals.

Where can you go to stock your shelves with Pepsi True?

Contrary to expectations, the answer to that question is not at your local grocery store, but through Amazon. Pepsi will be selling Pepsi True in packs of 24, 7½-ounce cans in mid-October through a joint venture with Starbucks Corp.

“Online selling is a relatively new endeavor. You should expect online commerce to be a much bigger part of our proposition going forward,” Lowden states.

Pepsi intends to advertise True through videos on Amazon and the company will allow consumers to sample the new beverage at certain stores.

Will Pepsi True will become the new soda of this generation that sweeps movie theaters and restaurants across the nation or will it collect dust on the forgotten beverage shelf?