Soda is on the outs, and so, Pepsi is getting with the times. That means imitating La Croix and Deer Park by producing zero-calorie flavored water. It also means looking at how stressed out all of you are and slipping in a little something to take the edge off.
Driftwell is PepsiCo Inc.’s latest product. It’s blueberry-and-lavender-tinctured water laced with an amino acid called L-theanine. L-theanine shows up in some mushrooms and in green tea. Its advocates say it relieves stress and aids sleep.
This is not to suggest you looked stressed out, but America, apparently Pepsi thinks you are stressed out.
Hundreds of thousands of you are trying to do your job from the kitchen counter while you supervise your children’s involuntary homeschooling, one neighbor with a cough keeps hugging you, and the other neighbors yell at you for not wearing a mask on your own screen porch. Your children’s college just sent them home, and your favorite pub closed down.
Oh, downtown is on fire or boarded up, and your friends just disowned you for voting the wrong way in a presidential election in which both sides tell you that you will literally die if the other side wins.
Yeah, you need something to take the edge off.
Everyone does. Stress and anxiety are at all-time highs this year, with the lockdowns, the virus, and probably the election driving the spike.
Maybe that’s why, earlier this summer, a psychology journal recommended that cities put lithium in their drinking water to prevent suicide. Maybe that’s why alcohol sales have gone way up year over year. CBD (derived from the cannabis plant) consumption is reportedly up this year, as is the use of marijuana and hard drugs.
If people can find their chill by drinking a cold, canned version of the stuff in green tea, that’s probably an improvement.
