Pepsi gives toast to its sugar days

In a nod to the early days of cola, Pepsi will release this year some soft drinks using sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.

In select cities, Pepsi is rolling out Pepsi Natural, a premium cola made from natural sugar, caramel, kola nut and apple extract.

Natural will be available in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Las Vegas and New York.

Pepsi also will release Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, which will both use sugar and come in retro-look packaging.

The Throwback products will be available across the United States for eight weeks starting April 20.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi both use cane sugar in Latin America. In the United States, they switched to high-fructose corn syrup in the 1980s.

Government regulations in Latin America support the use of sugar while U.S. policy makes corn syrup more affordable here.

Coca-Cola has no plans to release Coke in the United States with sugar, said company spokesman Dan Schafer.