Food Review: Pepsi Throwback (plus two bonus beverages)

For those who are keeping track, this is my fourth posting about beverages.  I should have called this BevBlog instead of the Moral Vacuum.  Not "Bev" for beverages, but because I hold the deep seated belief that I am an 87 year old woman named Beverly trapped in a man's body due to a failed physics experiment.

In a previous posting, I wrote about Mexican Coca Cola.  My next adventure was to try Mexican Pepsi.  I noted in that entry that Pepsi is currently making a limited edition "Throwback" beverage which will only be on shelves until February 22nd.   I lamented that I couldn't find it.  But as you have probably already noted from the picture above, I discovered a few bottles of both the Pepsi and Mountain Dew throwback editions.

The throwback Mountain Dew tasted just about the same as regular Mountain Dew.  I enjoy Mountain Dew, but many people don't.  If you are one of those people, the use of sugar instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup won't make for a noticeable taste improvement.  I do give them extra points for the retro packaging featuring their old mascot, Hillybilly Willy.

The throwback Pepsi tastes much better than the usual domestic Pepsi.  However, it's not as good as genuine Mexican Pepsi.  I had my lovely wife set up a blind taste test and not only did I prefer the Mexican Pepsi, I was able to distinguish between the two.  Regular American Coca Cola is still better than Pepsi Throwback.  Again, props for the retro-nostalgic packaging.

I also finally tried Inca Kola, a Peruvian beverage marketed as the "Golden Kola." I have seen this stuff for years in Latin restaurants and have always wanted to try it.  I was a bit put off by the color of the beverage.  I'd describe it as nuclear dish-soap.  Nonetheless, I downed the whole bottle.  Result: It's disgusting.  It tastes like liquid bubble gum, and I don't mean that in a good way.  Avoid at all costs.

Inca Kola reminds me of an awful mistake I once made.  At the Coca Cola store in Las Vegas, you can try about 20 Coke beverages that are not sold in the U.S for a few bucks.  Most of these are unremarkable, except for a very bitter Italian product called Beverly (there's that name again!) which to me tasted like earwax.  A review can be found here.  I could not have put it any better.  Anyhow, the awful mistake part is that I drank all 20 or so of the four once samples on an empty stomach.  Hey, I like to get the most out of what I pay for.  I will not go into the result, but it was awful and ruined my subsequent trip to P.F. Chang's.  If I actually did have the power to right wrongs from the past via time travel, I would definitely warn myself away from the Coke taste testing.

That's all for now, gang.  Here's to hoping each time that my next leap... will be the leap home.