What Is Capri Sun®?
Capri Sun® is a brand of fruit juice that is perhaps most well known for its silver stand-up pouch packaging. The silver pouch is a trademark of Capri Sun® and has made Capri Sun® drinks instantly and universally recognizable. The pouch has also made the drink popular, especially among parents and children, as the pouch design makes Capri Sun® drinks conveniently portable.
Capri Sun® fruit flavored drinks are available in a variety of flavors such as fruit punch, strawberry kiwi, lemonade, grape, and red berry. In addition to the fruit flavored beverages, Capri Sun® drinks are also available in flavored water and in 100% juice varieties.
The idea for Capri Sun® was conceived by the WILD Company in Germany in 1966. It took three years for the company to develop then perfect the pouch packaging system. Known as Capri Sonne® in Germany, the product was launched in 1969. In 1976 Capri-Sun® was first exported to other countries in Europe. The drink was first sold in Asia in 1979 and in the United States in 1981.
Today Capri Sun® is produced in 18 countries, either by the WILD Company, or through licensees of the WILD Company. It is estimated that five billion pouches of Capri Sun® are sold every year in approximately 100 countries around the world.
While Capri Sun® drinks have achieved worldwide popularity, there has been controversy over its sugar or high fructose corn syrup content and its trademark packaging, which is not recyclable. The pouches are composed of a composite foil and contain aluminum and polyethylene. Taking the estimated annual sales into consideration, there are potentially five billion non-recyclable pouches per year that must be disposed of worldwide.
Kraft Corporation who is the licensee of Capri Sun® drinks in the United States, has partnered with a company that makes purses, backpacks, tote bags, lunch totes and pencil cases out of the used drink pouches. Many schools and organizations have also partnered up with the company that makes the bags and accessories as part of a fund raiser program. The company pays $.02 US Dollars (USD) to the charity of the donor’s choice, per pouch that is turned in. Products made from the drink pouches start at around $9.00 USD and can be found using any search engine.
Capri Sun® beverages have also been criticized for the amount of sugar in them, and for the use of high fructose corn syrup in Capri Sun® drinks sold in the United States. In the United States, Kraft Corporation stopped using high fructose corn syrup in the production of Capri Sun® drinks and they are now sweetened with sugar. In addition, Kraft is now touting Capri Sun® drinks as having 25% less sugar than other comparable drinks on the market.
Written by R. Anacan
