There's a Way to Get Aspartame in Your Diet Pepsi

PepsiCo announced in April it was dumping aspartame from its Diet Pepsi recipe, replacing it with sucralose, but the company now says it will keep the artificial sweetener for customers who prefer its taste—they'll just have to buy the drink online, the Wall Street Journal reports. In an earnings call with analysts yesterday, CEO Indra Nooyi made the announcement, though she stressed that the sucralose-sweetened version of the diet cola, due to hit shelves in late August, is "a very, very good product."

Pepsi made the decision to ditch aspartame after consumer surveys listed it as the No. 1 reason why they were turning away from the diet soda, the Journal notes, even though the FDA has deemed the sweetener safe. The paper notes that US consumption of diet soda fell 5.9% in 2014, per Beverage Digest, with Pepsi replacing Diet Coke as the No. 2 soda. Diet Pepsi will still contain acesulfame potassium, another artificial sweetener. (Maybe a can of Diet Pepsi complemented with some Pepsi-flavored Cheetos?)