Mr. Pibb Returns with a New Look and More Caffeine

We’ve got a big one today, y’all. Coca-Cola is giving the soda formerly known as Pibb XTRA a brand new coat of paint and a healthy dose of un-rebranding. With the return of the soda’s original name and a modernized logo that calls back to the OG design, Mr. Pibb is back for a brand new generation. That all leads to a single question: why?

What’s bringing Mr. Pibb out of the shadows?

In a word? Fear. Earlier this year, Dr Pepper’s parent corporation won a giant lawsuit over the right to distribute Dr Pepper on their own rather than through one of Coca-Cola’s affiliated distributors. The rights to distribute the second-most-popular soda officially return to Dr Pepper’s parent corporation at the end of the month—and Coke knows they’re losing a golden goose of revenue. Ergo, Coke’s “pepper soda” is getting a concentrated dose of attention to try and carve back a fraction of what they’re going to lose.

Is Coca-Cola just bringing back the old Mr. Pibb formula?

Folks, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Coke isn’t dumb. If the old Mr. Pibb formula could compete with Dr Pepper, they wouldn’t have changed it to Pibb XTRA. Mr. Pibb (2025’s version) features a new formula with increased caffeine and a slightly different recipe. While we don’t yet know how those changes translate into taste, I expect the big corporate think tanks have improved upon the original in some way or another.

When can I get my hands on the new Mr. Pibb?

Luckily for everyone, we won’t have to wait long to find out what the new version of this “kickin’ cherry soda” tastes like. (Yes, that is the official flavor listed off to the side of the new logo.) Per my sources, the new-old-new Mr. Pibb will start hitting shelves later this month. If we’re lucky, I’ll get an early taste at this year’s NACS Expo and report back on just how kickin’ it is.

The same birdies that confirmed the news I brought you today were able to share that we’ll see two first-time-ever Mr. Pibb variants in 2026. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share those new flavors for the brand sooner rather than later. Stay tuned to Sporked for all your Pibb-adjacent news, Pibbheads.