Photo by philliefan99
The Slurpee might be a staple of the 7-Eleven diet, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for improvement. The convenience-store chain is introducing a line of of lower-calorie Slurpees in time for swimsuit season, USA Today reports.
In a new range of flavors that will be rolled out starting this week and continuing through the summer, 7-Eleven is trying to carve out its chunk of the market for products geared toward customers looking to shed a few pounds. The lower-calorie beverages are made with the calorie-free sweetener Splenda instead of sugar, the company says. And, much like the low-calorie Pepsi beverage featured in Mad Men a few years back, Slurpee Lite will be marketed to women in their 20s.
It’s also the latest move in a series of Slurpee innovations. Last year, 7-Eleven introduced a “dual-chambered” cup with which customers can flip between different flavors of the syrupy and granulated ice by using a special twin-pronged straw that looks like some torturer’s device.
Look, here’s the deal: We will do a taste test of the Slurpee Lite at some point, but I admit I really have no frame of reference here. I’ve never had a regular, full-calorie Slurpee in my life. They’re sticky and slushy and gross. Once, when I was a kid, I bought some knockoff icy beverage at a movie theater, took three sips and tossed it out because it was disgusting.
Fewer calories or not, Slurpees are bad for you. A marketing specialist advising 7-Eleven tells USA Today that Slurpee Lite will be a hit because too many food products targeted at dieters just don’t taste that good. “You have to wonder what would happen to the obesity epidemic if light products tasted better,” Lynn Dornblaser, the specialist, said.
But a medicine professor at George Washington University says to get real: “This should not be mistaken as any kind of corporate responsibility,” Neal Barnard, a nutritionist, says. It’s still junk food. The first lower-calorie flavor, some kind of Mango concoction, will be available later this month. It features 20 calories per eight ounces, whereas the fully sugared Mango Melody packs on 70 calories per cup.
Whatever. People like Slurpees; even more, people like the false security of “light” food. And on May 23, 7-Eleven stores everywhere will mark “SlurpFree Day” by handing out complimentary Slurpees weighing in at 7.11 ounces.
