Slice

Slice has one of the longest histories in this category, though not a continuous one. The original Slice launched under PepsiCo on June 28, 1984, replacing the Teem brand, and was notable for containing 10% real fruit juice — a novelty at the time that helped it capture more than 3% of the soft-drink market by May 1987, a meaningful share in an era dominated by traditional colas. The brand was discontinued in the early 2000s and changed hands multiple times over the following two decades, losing much of its retail presence during that period. In 2018, New Slice Ventures attempted a relaunch built around a prebiotic, probiotic, and postbiotic formula, aligning the brand with the emerging functional-soda trend years before it became mainstream. In 2024, Suja Life acquired the brand and relaunched it again after a 15-year hiatus, leaning into nostalgic flavor branding while reformulating the recipe to cap sugar at 5 grams per can, eliminate high-fructose corn syrup, and retain the prebiotic/probiotic/postbiotic blend from the 2018 relaunch. The Daily Meal ranked the relaunched Slice #2 overall, citing its 5g-sugar ceiling and praising the lemon-lime, tropical pacific pop, and apple flavors specifically — a strong critical reception for a brand re-entering the market after such a long absence. The brand's nostalgic positioning — leaning on four decades of consumer familiarity with the Slice name, dating back to its original 1984 debut — combined with a modern, better-for-you reformulation gives it a distinctive angle among competitors, though its retail distribution is still rebuilding after years off shelves and multiple ownership transitions that disrupted brand continuity along the way.