Fresca History- The Coca-Cola Company made Fresca the brand of citrus soft drink. First introduced in the United States in 1963, the drink is now sold throughout the world, although it is not widely available outside of North America. Unlike other Coke products, Fresca does not have a Pepsi equivalent (although in many markets, Pepsico licenses, produces and distributes “Diet Squirt,” a very similar beverage owned by Dr Pepper & Seven-Up, Inc.).
Fresca means “fresh” (feminine form) in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.
Since its inception, Fresca has been marketed in the United States as a calorie-free, grapefruit-flavored soft drink, ostensibly catering to discriminating adult tastes. Fresca underwent several major ingredient changes since its introduction. The drink was originally sweetened with cyclamates, which were banned by the FDA in 1969, and the banned ingredient was replaced with saccharin. However, in 1985, the saccharin was replaced by NutraSweet-brand aspartame. More recently, around the time of the 2005 redesign, acesulfame potassium was added as a secondary sweetener.
In Latin America, Coca-Cola markets an entirely different soft drink under the Fresca brand name. This drink is grapefruit-flavored, but contains sugar. It is similar to the Squirt soft drink marketed in the United States by Dr Pepper & Seven-Up, Inc. In 1997 Coca-Cola, which had had requests for “Mexican Fresca” from immigrant communities, launched the soft drink throughout the U.S. as Citra. However this was not successful as a separate product line, and that drink is now sold as the Citrus flavor in the Fanta line in areas with a large Hispanic populations. The name may have been confusing for Latin American consumers, as “agua fresca” is a common local beverage.
2006 Mexican glass Fresca bottle (355 ml)
For years, Fresca maintained somewhat of a cult following, similar to Tab, consisting of people who had grown up with the drink, yet it didn’t obtain major market appeal. Around the turn of the century (2000), however, Fresca grew in popularity somewhat organically, enough so that it was sufficiently popular for Coca-Cola to take notice.
In 2005, Coca-Cola gave Fresca a more contemporary look, Fresca’s first makeover since 1995. Fresca advertising continues to emphasize sophistication.
During this redesign, two new flavors were introduced (Sparkling Peach Citrus and Sparkling Black Cherry Citrus) and the original grapefruit flavor was renamed Sparkling Citrus. Subsequently, “Sparkling” was dropped from the name of the first two flavors and the original flavor renamed Original Citrus.
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