That pink is the entire reason the product has a history worth telling. When Cherry 7UP launched across the United States in 1987, The Seven-Up Company built the campaign around the colour rather than the flavour. The line was "Isn't it cool in pink?", and the television commercials were shot in black and white with individual objects hand-painted pink, things like suspenders and earrings, scored with light rock music. It was aimed squarely at a youth market, and it worked well enough to become one of the defining soft drink campaigns of the decade. A young Matt LeBlanc appeared in the 1988 run, several years before Friends made him famous.

The current can has quietly dropped that heritage. It runs a bold red and white livery rather than anything pink, and the name has been reversed from Cherry 7UP to 7UP Cherry, putting the master brand first and the flavour second. It reads as a modern range extension sitting alongside the standard green 7UP rather than the standalone product with its own identity that it was in the late eighties. The only trace of the original idea is what happens when you pour it.

The brand itself dates to 7 August 1928, when Charles Leiper Grigg launched it in St. Louis under the name Seven Up. Ownership is now split by geography, which is what makes this can an import rather than a duplicate. Keurig Dr Pepper owns and produces 7UP in the United States, PepsiCo handles it internationally, and Britvic distributes it in the United Kingdom. Britain has its own separate 7UP Cherry, and the pink colouring belongs to the American version alone.

Inside is a caffeine free cherry flavoured lemon lime soda. 7UP is the second biggest lemon lime carbonated soft drink in the United States, behind Sprite