Starry is a

lemon-lime soft drink A lemon-lime soft drink or lemon-lime soda, also known colloquially as lemonade in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and as cider in Japan and Korea, is a carbonated soft drink with lemon and lime flavoring. Popular brands include S ...

distributed in the United States by

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

. Distribution first began in January 2023. The brand is aimed at competing against

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

's Sprite and

Dr Pepper Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Euro ...

7 Up 7 Up (stylized as 7up outside North America) is an American brand of lemon-lime-flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The brand and formula are owned by Keurig Dr Pepper although the beverage is internationally distributed by PepsiCo. 7 Up comp ...

. Starry replaced

Sierra Mist Sierra Mist is a lemon-lime flavored soft drink line. Originally introduced by PepsiCo in 1999, it was eventually made available in all United States markets by 2003. The drink was rebranded as "Mist Twist" in 2016, although it reverted to Sie ...

as Pepsi's lemon-lime flavored drink, in part because Sierra Mist failed to gain market share in the growing category. Starry contains no

caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine t ...

, and as of April 2023 is available in Regular and Zero-Sugar varieties.

History

In July 2022, it was reported that PepsiCo purchased a domain name for a new brand of lemon-lime drink that would eventually replace

. The following month, in August 2022, the company filed for a trademark for the brand name Starry as well as for a logo. The brand began being distributed in stores in January 2023 with marketing geared towards

Generation Z Generation Z (or more commonly Gen Z for short), colloquially known as zoomers, is the Western world, Western demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular me ...

. ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' reported industry analysts suggested a successful campaign to grab market share could mean taking 5–10% market share away from Sprite.

Product

Starry is sold in cans in either 7.5 ounce or 12 ounce sizes, and in plastic bottles ranging in size from 16 ounces to two liters. Since its inception, Starry has been composed of carbonated water,

high-fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzym ...

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in t ...

, natural flavor, and various preservatives. Starry uses

as a sweetener, unlike Sierra Mist, which was sweetened using cane sugar before it was discontinued.

Reception

Reception to the drink on social media suggests many feel that Starry tastes similar to its predecessor

, while others feel it tastes akin to Sprite, the longtime leader of the lemon-lime soft drink market. Starry has been described as being more "Citrusey" than Sierra Mist.

References

{{citrus sodas Lemon-lime sodas PepsiCo brands PepsiCo soft drinks Products introduced in 2023