7UP – a soda with a history stretching back nearly a century – is getting its first flavor change in 15 years with a rollout this month, Keurig Dr Pepper announced Monday.
“The best-tasting 7UP ever combines the lime-forward profile consumers preferred most with a refreshed identity that challenges convention in the lemon-lime category,” said the partially Frisco, Texas-based company. This new iteration will be lime-forward, it explained, and called 7UP Lime Lemon.
According to Keurig Dr Pepper, the debut of 7UP Lime Lemon marks the first “lime-led” formula in the approximately $5 billion lemon-lime soda category, which includes other sodas like Coca-Cola’s Sprite and PepsiCo’s Starry. This change also comes as the company’s 2026 trend report found that 72% of Gen Alpha and Gen Z consumers tend to reach for citrus-forward flavors.
“This is a bold reinvention of one of America’s most iconic soda brands for a new generation of consumers – starting with the flavor itself,” said Keurig Dr Pepper Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer Drew Panayiotou. “7UP has an incredible legacy, but by giving lime the spotlight, we’re rewriting the rules of the lemon lime category. We are transforming a beloved heritage brand into a modern disruptor – delivering a sharper visual identity, a more refreshing taste experience, and a distinct position that attracts new users and deepens brand loyalty.”
A focus on lime isn’t the biggest formula change this soda has had in its history. Before hitting shelves under the name 7UP, the popular soda was first called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon- Lime Soda when it was first sold in 1929, according to the McGill Office for Science and Society. That first formula included lithium citrate, a compound used to treat patients with mental health problems like bipolar disorder, depression or mania.
By the time it was called just 7UP, the lithium citrate had dropped off the ingredient list. From the 1960s through the 1990s, 7UP was marketed as an “Uncola” to compete with other sodas like Coca-Cola, Duke University noted. Keurig Dr Pepper still uses the “Original Uncola” moniker.
“As the Original Uncola, 7UP built its reputation by challenging conventions and offering consumers something different,” said the company in its press release this week. “Today, the brand is returning to those roots with a renewed focus on differentiation, introducing a distinctive lime-forward taste and bold new visual identity designed to help the brand stand out in one of the largest segments in carbonated soft drinks.”
In the past, changing up well-known soda flavors and formulas has sometimes been met with backlash. For example, Men’s Journal wrote this year about the 41st anniversary of Coca-Cola’s much-criticized “New Coke” formula change in the 1980s. Mashed also noted that the “Crystal Pepsi” was a “flop” in the 1990s.
With 7UP Lime-Lemon, Keurig Dr Pepper is aiming to “strengthen the brand’s distinctiveness and appeal with a new generation of drinkers,” and it will bring the “consumer-preferred lime-forward profile” to 7UP Regular, 7UP Zero Sugar, Cherry 7UP and Cherry 7UP Zero Sugar. Consumers can find it wherever 7UP products are sold. Along with the new flavor, there’s also a new vertical logo, and a new marketing campaign for 7UP.
On the same day that Keurig Dr Pepper announced its makeover of 7UP, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced proposals for stronger oversight of food ingredients and a review of the government’s definition of ultra-processed food. Soft drinks like 7UP are generally considered ultra-processed foods.
