Pepsi Blue was a soa made by PepsiCo and launched in mid-2002 and discontinued in 2004, the result of taste-testing over 100 flavors over a 9-month period. Designed to compete with Coca-Cola's Vanilla Coke, it is considered by some to be the company's second equivalent of New Coke, after the much maligned Crystal Pepsi. The flavor of Pepsi Blue was thought by some to be similar to cotton candy with a berry-like aftertaste (it resembled that of blueberries or raspberries to some, though Pepsi itself simply described it as "berry") and much more sugary and syrupy than regular cola. It was tinted using Blue 1, a highly-controversial coloring agent banned in numerous countries at the time. The move to make a brightly-colored version of the flagship Pepsi brand was spurred by 2001's introduction of Mountain Dew Code Red, which had bumped PepsiCo's Mountain Dew division sales up 6%.