Nostalgic "Real Sugar" Soft Drinks: A New "Health" Fad"?

Recently, I tried a soft drink called Moxie Original Elixir. I try to avoid anything with a large sugar content -- that covers most soft drinks in general -- but was assured by my hubby that if I had to drink any soda at all, it should be one that has real cane sugar like Moxie -- not containing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is the industry standard.

BUT

After checking on the official Moxie website, I found out that normally, the soft drink DOES contain high fructose corn syrup. What I drank in a Park Slope, Brooklyn bar was the nostalgic version of Moxie. Moxie Original Elixir uses cane sugar. Moxie "regular" lists high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar" as its second ingredient, after carbonated water.


I've drank several brands of "real sugar" soft drinks now, and I know that tried-and-true sodas like Pepsi and Mountain Dew have their "nostalgic" versions as well. How did "Moxie Original Elixir" taste? Sort of like Dr. Pepper, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. I liked it, because generally I'm a fan of the "root" family of sodas. It's a bit more expensive than regular soft drinks; you can get a 12-pack at Amazon for $25.99.

While I'm tempted to envision these "real sugar" soft drinks as some sort of health food, I'm also not going to live in this fantasy world where the hearty two-liters of Pepsi my family had on the dinner table in the 1970s was a nutritional paradise.

Is the real attraction to these "nostalgic" soft drinks motivated by health concerns? Or is it exactly the way I described it -- nostalgia?