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Pepsi holiday spice was a limited edition flavor of pepsi that was released during the holiday season of 2004.

The description of its flavor as described on its packaging was “spiced cola” and “cola spiced up for the season” but to go deeper into the notes, it had the classic pepsi cola taste followed up with a subtle spicy cinnamon and ginger taste. Which this gave the drink a true and authentic holiday taste.

Why it was made was that at the time pepsi saw that consumers were wanting more variety in flavors of soft drinks, even more than just a couple years before. They saw that more than half of soft drink consumers buy 6 or more different brands and 80% of them buy 3 or more different brands. Making Pepsi Holiday Spice a limited time thing, Pepsis dave burwick said quote "By introducing new flavors for a short period of time, then taking them away, we're meeting the wants and needs of soft-drink consumers while playing directly to their
purchasing patterns."

The development of Pepsi Holiday spice is that at the very latest, Pepsi started taste testing Pepsi Holiday Spice during the summer of 2004. These tests revealed to pepsi that pepsi holiday spice was new, different and innovative, something that fit pepsis image. Pepsi then filed the trademark for Pepsi Holiday Spice on august 2nd 2004 and pepsi cola holiday spice on august 5th 2004.

Then also on August 5th 2004, Pepsi had publicly announced two new limited edition sodas, the first being mountain dew pitch black being available from late august up until halloween 2004 and Pepsi Holiday Spice being released for the holiday season of 2004.

As Halloween came and went, Mountain Dew Pitch Black disappeared and Pepsi Holiday Spice was released on November 1st 2004 in the United states and canada.

The spiced cola was made available in 12 ounce cans, 20 ounce bottles and 2 liter bottles. The packaging featured a retro styled pepsi cola bottle cap, surrounded by snow flakes, beneath it had a red banner reading “holiday spice” two different styles below the banner were featured on each can and bottle. One style contained a paragraph describing the soda which read.

“Celebrate the season with family, friends, and new pepsi holiday spice. It’s a festive blend of holiday spices and great tasting pepsi. But its only around through the season, so this is one gift you’ll want to open early, and often.”

The other style contained an old newsprint style image of the pepsi cola bottling plant located in long island city new york featuring its big neon pepsi cola sign above its building. Which that sign now has become a national landmark in june of 2016 being removed from the building, restored and is now located in Gantry Plaza State Park.

A website was made as well as a 15 second commercial for the soda. The website was fairly basic as it featured ads, recipes and product info. The tv commercial featured tiny elves attempting to drive a big pepsi truck with a tagline at the end reading “tis the cola”. As it hit the market, the cola itself had a red color to it with a transparent red bottle cap to match the holiday season and its taste.

The ingredients listed on the packaging didn't give much away as to what exactly was in it besides the blanket label of “natural flavors”

As Pepsi Holiday Spice was given a limited 8 week time window during the holiday season it was discontinued by january 1st 2005.
And since then, it has never returned.

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