Diet Pepsi's New Sweetener Cocktail

If you've ever been sipping on your diet Pepsi and felt as if the sweet taste was fading too fast, then you're in luck. Diet Pepsi will be getting a new mix of artificial sweeteners in order to prolong the drink's sweetness. Those who like their soda cloyingly sweet — or can taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi — are rejoicing.

Currently, Diet Pepsi uses aspartame as its primary sweetener; aspartame quickly loses potency, especially when compared to high fructose corn syrup, the primary sweetener for non-diet sodas. In order to get the diet version tasting more like the regular version (and, hopefully, for PepsiCo to keep customers loyal with more sugary drink bans and laws popping up around America), the company is adding several new sweeteners, the most notable of which is Ace-K. Ace-K has a longer shelf life than aspartame and is less sensitive to heat, meaning that packaging and shipping of the bottle or can won't harm the flavor. The bottle you get off the shelf at your local grocery store should taste similar to how a factory-fresh bottle would taste.

The reason for the change? Diet Pepsi wants to alter its taste to increase its ranking against other sodas. Currently, consumers rank Diet Pepsi as the no. 7 soda (from a list that includes non-diet sodas). Diet Coke is the No. 2 soda for volume sales after regular Coke. Last year, Diet Coke sold twice as much volume as Diet Pepsi.

PepsiCo is currently running tastings for the best-tasting new sweetener cocktail and, if they find a suitable mix, will be introducing the new formulation in early 2013. That's certainly sweet news for those who love their Pepsi.