Crystal Light is a line of powdered and artificially sweetened

beverage mix A drink mix is a processed-food product, designed to mix usually with water to produce a beverage resembling fruit juice or soda in flavor. Another type of drink mix is represented by products that are mixed into milk. It is traditionally made i ...

es produced by

Kraft Heinz The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and beverage ...

. It was first sold in 1982 to a test market and released to the public in April 1984.

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...

, a now defunct company, were the original sellers of the product, but now it is sold by

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

. It is available in a wide variety of flavors, such as

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using le ...

sweet tea Sweet tea, also known as sweet iced tea, is a popular style of iced tea commonly consumed in countries such as the United States (especially the South) and Indonesia. Sweet tea is most commonly made by adding sugar or simple syrup to black tea e ...

, and

fruit punch The term punch refers to a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruits or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from the Indian subcontinent to England by employees of the East India Company in the ...

History

Test marketing and introduction

Crystal Light was sold in test markets beginning in 1982. As of mid-1983, it was being sold in 11 test areas. It was introduced throughout the United States in April 1984. General Foods sold $150 million of Crystal Light during the product's first year on national markets, representing 20% of all powdered drink mixes and 2/3 of all sugar-free drink mixes in the United States.

A 1985 commercial featuring

Linda Evans Linda Evans (born Linda Evenstad; November 18, 1942) is an American actress known primarily for her roles on television. In the 1960s she played Audra Barkley, the daughter of Victoria Barkley (played by Barbara Stanwyck) in the Western tel ...

showed her doing

aerobics Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness (flexibility, muscular strength, and cardio-vascular fitness). It ...

in a women's gym and drinking Crystal Light. Another undated commercial used a similar format, showing Evans exercising and drinking Crystal Light in a women's gym. Her final commercial, airing in 1987 or 1988, featuring her stuck in traffic in a limousine and performing a variety of difficult stunts, ultimately ending up on a boat drinking Crystal Light. Many of her print advertisements for the brand featured her in workout attire. A 1986 commercial featuring

Priscilla Presley Priscilla Ann Presley ( Wagner, changed by adoption to Beaulieu; born May 24, 1945) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the former wife of American singer Elvis Presley, as well as co-founder and former chairwoman of Elvis Presley ...

showed her practicing

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

in a

dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

while drinking Crystal Light. A 1987 commercial featuring

Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hammer ...

showed her singing and dancing in a blue jumpsuit and, once finished with her performance, shunning a can of

Diet Coke Diet Coke (also branded as Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Diet or Coca-Cola Light Taste) is a sugar-free and low-calorie soft drink produced and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company. It contains artificial sweeteners instead of sugar. Unveiled on ...

in favor of Crystal Light.

Ingredients

Crystal Light is sweetened with a combination of

aspartame Aspartame is an artificial non-saccharide sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is commonly used as a sugar substitute in foods and beverages. It is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide with the trade names ...

, acesulfame potassium,

Sucralose Sucralose is an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body, so it is noncaloric. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number E955. It is produced by chlorination of ...

, and/or sugar depending on the specific product line and flavor. First packaged in multi-serve canisters, Crystal Light launched single-serve "On The Go" packets in 2004. In 2009, Crystal Light redesigned its multi-serve packaging. On a finished case goods basis, the new design uses 250 tons less packaging than the original. In 2010, Crystal Light launched Pure Fitness, a "naturally-sweetened" low-calorie fitness drink mix which is sweetened with sugar and

Truvia Truvia (also shown as ''truvía'') is a brand of stevia-based sugar substitute developed jointly by The Coca-Cola Company and Cargill. It is distributed and marketed by Cargill as a tabletop sweetener as well as a food ingredient. Truvia is made o ...

, a sweetener derived from the

stevia Stevia () is a natural sweetener and sugar substitute derived from the leaves of the plant species ''Stevia rebaudiana'', native to Paraguay and Brazil. The active compounds are steviol glycosides (mainly stevioside and rebaudioside), which h ...

plant. It is currently sold in "On The Go" packets. In 2011, Crystal Light Pure Fitness was renamed Crystal Light Pure, and three additional flavors were introduced. In April 2012, several Crystal Light varieties were added to the line of sodamix syrups for SodaStream home soda makers. Kraft Heinz, the parent company of Crystal Light, offers a product locator on its website to help locate flavors in a desired location. Crystal Light is sold in the U.S. and Canada. Calories per serving have varied throughout the years; non-zero calorie flavors were once as low as 4 calories in 1990 and now, they may be as high as 15 in 2018, depending on flavor. However, it's not certain if the change is due to the use of new ingredients or if serving sizes have increased.

Products

All product information is based on information and products offered by Crystal Light's official website, as of January 2019.

Classics

* Berry Sangria (0 cal) * Black Cherry Lime (0 cal) * Blackberry Lemonade (0 cal) * Blueberry Raspberry (0 cal) * Cherry Pomegranate (15 cal) * Concord Grape (15 cal) * Fruit Punch (15 cal) * Lemonade (15 cal) * Mango Passionfruit (0 cal) * Orange (15 cal) * Pink Lemonade (15 cal) * Pomegranate Lemonade (0 cal) * Raspberry Ice (15 cal) * Raspberry Lemonade (15 cal) * Strawberry Kiwi (15 cal) * Strawberry Lemonade (0 cal) * Strawberry Orange Banana (15 cal) * Strawberry Watermelon (15 cal) * Sweet Tea * Tropical Coconut (0 cal)

Pure

* Grape (5 cal) * Lemon (5 cal) * Lemon Iced Tea (5 cal) * Mixed Berry Energy (15 cal) * Peach Iced Tea (5 cal) * Raspberry Lemonade (5 cal) * Strawberry Kiwi (5 cal) * Strawberry Lemonade Energy (15 cal) * Tangerine Mango (5 cal) * Tropical Blend (5 cal) * Tropical Citrus Energy (15 cal)

References

External links

* {{The Kraft_Heinz Company Non-alcoholic drinks American soft drinks Drink brands Kraft Foods brands Products introduced in 1982