Sprite (drink)
Sprite is a clear, lemon-lime-flavored (called lemonade in Australia), non-caffeinated soft drink, produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced to the United States in 1961. This was Coke's response to the popularity of 7 Up, which had begun as "Lithiated Lemon" in 1929. It comes in a primarily green and blue can or a green transparent bottle with a primarily green and blue label. Currently, Sprite is sold in over 190 countries. [1]
In the 1980s, many years after Sprite's introduction, Coke pressured its large bottlers that distributed 7 Up to replace the competitor with its own product. In large part due to the strength of the Coca-Cola system of bottlers, Sprite finally took the market leader position in the lemon-lime soda category in 1989.
Sprite consists of carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sucrose, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium citrate, and sodium benzoate.
Variations and Flavors
Coca-Cola began producing a sugar-free version, Sugar Free Sprite in 1974. It was rebranded as Diet Sprite in 1983. It is known as Sprite Light in most countries overseas. Although the beverage's sales had increased each year since 1998, the company re-branded the beverage as Diet Sprite Zero in September 2004 in an effort to further increase sales. Consequently, Sprite Light has also been rebranded as Sprite Zero in Europe.
Tropical Sprite Remix was first introduced in 2003 with a tropical fruit flavor variation. Some say it tastes like peach. Another version was released on April 1, 2004, with Berryclear Sprite Remix, which has a mixed berry flavor. In April 2005, they released a third spin of the 'Remix' line, called Aruba Jam Sprite Remix, that is orange-flavored. It appears that the Coca-Cola Company is introducing a new flavor each year while discontinuing the previous flavor in the process.
Mint flavored Sprite made its debut in Korea in 2002 as Sprite Blue and as Sprite Ice in Canada and Sprite Ice Cube in Belgium in 2003. Sprite Ice Blue was introduced in Italy in 2004.
Hong Kong on the other hand introduced Sprite on Fire in 2003 - a ginger flavored Sprite with a burning sensation. Hong Kong also introduced Sprite Super Lemon in 2003.
Sprite on Fire and Sprite Icy Mint Sprite flavors made their debut in China in 2004.
Singapore introduced Sprite Ice and Sprite Lemon Storm in 2004.
In Japan, Sprite packaging has Sprite Super Dry on the label but it tastes like regular Sprite.
Sprite References
The popular Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game features a parody of sprite called Sprunk.
External link
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