Palette of Our Palates: A Brief History of Food Coloring and Its Regulation
The Power of Color: Tasting With Our Eyes
It looked like 1993 would be the year of clear. Color was out; clear was in. Pepsi launched a huge national rollout of its brand new clear soda, Crystal Pepsi. In ads, as Van Halen's hit song “Right Now” played, the drink was touted as the “Clear Alternative to Cola.”1 One survey rated it as the best new grocery product of 1992 (it had already been sold in several test markets).2 The product was certain to be such a hit that Coca-Cola planned to unveil a competing product, Tab Clear.3 The beer industry was surely not going to be left out, with Miller prepared to begin test-marketing a clear beer.4 Clear beverages were going to be a surefire success. After all, Amoco's “crystal clear” gasoline had been a hit for years, and cosmetics companies were cleaning up with clear versions of soaps and deodorants.5
But a funny thing happened to transparent beer, Tab Clear, and most notably Crystal Pepsi: they flopped. Miserably. Obviously, nobody wants to drink a clear, carbonated soft drink, right? Well, not quite; 7-Up has been clear since 1929 and is an American institution. (Ironically, 7-Up was originally colored dark and went clear 77 y ago to separate itself from competitors.) But despite differing only in color, Americans just could not accept their cola (or beer) in clear form. One analyst offered this prophetic comment at the beginning of 1993: “The companies have spent 100 years convincing people that colas are dark. They're dark because they put coloring in them, but that's beside the point. People will ultimately go back to the darker sodas because they will decide they prefer colas that are ‘real’.”6
Interesting stuff.
This was published in 2009 by Adam Burrows
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2009.00089.x
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