Fresca No More

Iceland’s major beverage producer has announced that they will no longer be making Fresca, the grapefruit-flavoured soft drink beloved the world over.

The beverage company Vífilfell announced yesterday that Fresca will no longer be manufactured in Iceland. Amongst the reasons cited are the fact that sales have been decreasing over the past few years, and that Fresca only comprises 0.2% of the domestic soft drink market today.

Additionally, Vífilfell says that when Fresca was first introduced to the international market in 1968, it was the only option for those who could not or would not buy soft drinks with sugar (Fresca using aspartame instead). Today, however, sugar-free soft drinks are ubiquitous, and Fresca has fallen to the wayside.

“Fresca was a revolution when it first came onto the market,” Vífilfell soft drink marketing manager Jón Viðar Stefánsson said. “This was before the time of Tab and Diet Coke. … We know of course that there will be some people who will feel let down, but they can delay their disappointment a bit by stocking up. We expect that the Fresca currently on the shelves in stores should last another two weeks.”

Jón added that people could also check out some of Vífilfell’s other sugar-free drinks, such as Sprite Zero.