Questions: I'm a reporter for the Daily Dot, and I'm doing a story on the history of the effort to revive or recreate Josta. Obviously your recipe was a big part of that. I'd love to hear about your history with Josta and the fan community, the process of coming up with your recipe and, of course, whether you've tried to make any improvements to it in recent years. Did you try that Dragonfruit Pepsi X a few years ago? Are you still involved with trying to get Pepsi to bring Josta back? Do you think they'll ever do it? Responses: (History) Well, I first found Josta at a small convienience store in NJ on New Years day 1997. Even though the drink was around in some areas for a year and a half or so, this was the first place I ever saw it as they would tend to get a lot of test market products from Pepsi and Coke. I stopped there regularly but on that day, my soda drinking life changed as this power drink that pre-dates the "Energy Drink" craze had me hooked immediately. So hooked actually that I went 20+ minutes back out to that store the same day to get some more, and took a friend with me who was then also hooked from his first sip. From then on, I would have the owner of that store order an extra case that he would sell to me at a small discount every few weeks so I could keep a stock pile at home. The wonderful surprise of Jostas tatse and effects prompted me and in turn a ton of my cousins and friends to try every single odd drink that would come out... and there were A LOT of them. One of the earlier ones we found after Josta was Bawls, which as you might know ended up being part of my Josta Reborn Recipe. Life was good till some time early in 1999 when it just disappeared. From then on is was nothing but "Chasing the Panther" if you will. We would desparately try any and every drink that came out. From something as simple as cafenated water to sodas so over the top saturated with sugar that you could literally make rock candy straight out of the can. Anything was game to see if we could find SOMETHING close to what Josta was. When Glaceau, (before being owned by Coke), put out Vitamin Water, that is when I found the Power-C Dragonfruit flavor which had that slight Josta sense to it. But obviously it was more watery than soda or juice, and not carbonated, but the simple fact that the Dragonfruit was so unique a flavor at the time, and it reminded us of Josta,.. we started drinking a lot of that water though the search for something closer was still on. Years passed, drinks came and went, but Josta was always on our minds. Wed call Pepsi and get told it was never going to be made again. By this point, it was not uncommon to see seasonal limited run soft drinks popping up, and Pepsi was a leader in that with all the different Mountain Dew and Pepsi flavors that would appear. Pitch Black, Holiday Spice, etc... so why, with the fan base certainly there, why would they NOT make Josta a Summer release? We never got an answer. (Process) I always wished there was a way to make Josta, or flavor an existing soda to come close.. I eventually had my inspiration one day at a McDonalds when I put some strawberry Frutopia in my Coke for the simple fact that I was just not in the mood for plain cola that day. When I took a sip, I had an immediate josta flashback, and that is where my recipe started to formulate. I realized the juice in the Coke really brought the flavor and consistency very close, but it was off, and I knew the first thing to do was to use what I knew from the vitamin water discovery, dragonfruit, in place of strawberry. There were not a lot of options out there other than the "Sobe Dragon", and "Snapple Elements: Fire" Both options worked, but I selected the Sobe Dragon because it was technically a Pepsi product, and seemed to make more sense. So I began to experiment with different ratios of Pepsi and Sobe Dragon, and while the result was quite nice, it was off.. it was either too sweet and juicy, or too cola-like and carbonated. I needed something to dilute both the Pepsi and the Sobe Dragon, while not killing too much carbonation or making the drinks flavor get too watered down. Knowing I could also use a little more guarana in the mix, inspiration hit immediately in the form of Bawls. a lightly carbonated, lightly guarana flavored soft drink. Once I had those 3 itmes, it was just a matter of experimenting with ratios, and eventually I was happy with the Reborn recipe. I had also explored different extract and concentrates, but part of what I wanted to create was something that was EASY for other Josta fans to make without having to place special orders or go to a bunch of stores looking for ingreedients. Pepsi and Sobe Dragon were readilly available everywhere, and Bawls was not terribly hard to find in most areas either at the time. Ive received many e-mails over the years from people who found the site and tried it and were thrilled with the results. I didnt even really go around promoting my Josta site or recipe anywhere but people were finding it and then I started seeing links to it getting posted in different beverage forums and josta fan sites. At one point my friends and I were just waiting for a takedown notice from Pepsi for using the Josta name and image in the printable label.. But it either never hit their radar, or they just didnt care. (it was telling people to buy more bottles of Pepsi after all! lol) But then... It really felt like Pepsi had a conspiracy to keep Josta or anything like it away from us a few years later when they pulled Sobe Dragon from the line up. Sadly Snapple Elements: Fire seemed to dissappear not long after, and I really havent found a great easy replacement since. (Improvements) I have experiemnted with making new forms of the mix, with limited success. I have also started to explore more on the extract and concentrate side of things, and actually may have a half decent "Syrup Recipe" soon, which could then be used at home with something like a Soda Stream kit. another thought was to come up with a flavor drop that you could squirt in to a bottle of seltzer. Of course the real goal would be to just get Pepsi to wake up and give us back our Josta, even if it is just a limited release for a couple months each year. One can only hope your article might catch someones eyes over there and maybe cause some second thoughts. (Community) The history with the commnity is interesting because when Josta came out, the internet was not in every home. It wasnt even in every town. I brought Josta to my small BBS (Bullitin Board System Pre-Internet) which had a Teleconference and Forum community. Many of the users in there eventually tried and loved Josta. (Theres actually a log of my first time talking to others about it on the site) As the internet started to become more and more available, and more and more populated with the endless quantities of random data is it today, I began to search around to see who else might remember the drink. I was pleasently surprised at the number of small fan sites and forum posts about Josta I was finding. some groups seemed more concerned with just remembering the drink while others were trying to start petitions and other movements to get the drink back. I participated in some but as we found years before, Pepsi just didnt care. Id occasionally post something about Josta on my personal site (E/N they called it at the time before "Blog" was the popular term.) And then eventually after having something new to offer other than more memories and online petitions, I made the Josta site with the Recipe. Again, Ive found my site linked to and discussed in quite a few places over the past 11 years, and I still continue to get e-mails from people who are just finding it for the first time who are asking if Ive found alternatives to the Dragonfruit component. Most of what I find and get in e-mail is all positive, some with many thanks for giving them a way to relive their favorite soda memory just one more time. I am glad to have made something that was a real contribution to the Josta fan base for a while, and I have not given up just yet.. its just a matter of free time at this point, but I hope to have an update to the recipe site in the near future. (Additional Questions) I never found the Dragonfruit Pepsi X in my area. I did want to try it for obvious reasons, but didnt have the chance. I would gladly still be involved in trying to get Josta back on any level possible. but REAL Josta.. not a new formula. I dont know why some companies always think they need to reformulate something before they "bring it back" to a community of fanatics. I seem to recall Crystal Pepsi making a very short comeback with a different formula, which no one liked as much.. and Coke did it with Surge when they finally brought that back to those fans. Do I think they will ever bring it back? I dont want to be negative and say no.. but it sure seems like a lost cause based on Pepsis responses to us so far.. unless we get some real attention from an article like this, and can rally a new, larger group of fanatics behind the idea.. till then, Ill keep plugging away at easy ways to make a good home made version.