The slightly flavoured water is a very new development -- the la croix I mentioned. When I had it, I thought for once, they've finally found something I like. But why did it take so long?
Maybe it just took them a long time to spread to Canada.
1. Everything can be shipped online, so niche targets have more options. I have a memory of craving Yoo-Hoo in college, in the mid-2000's and seeing no local outlet for it, and therefore I went on Amazon and purchased six boxes of the stuff. I got what I wanted, although by the time I was done with those six boxes, I was very much over Yoo-Hoo.
2. The move towards stocked-fridge offices as seen in every SV tech campus, which make more of these items a B2B purchase, and therefore incentivize developing and marketing products on the basis of productivity-enhancing qualities. In the not so distant past it was more common for a campus cafeteria to be relatively modest, putting things in the hands of the culture more generally...
...and there is evidence for a "big sugar" industry conspiracy in the late 20th century pinning the blame for heart disease on high-fat diets, and therefore shifting the culture for a whole generation, but primarily in North America. Other countries did not have the same kinds of trends. And since that marketing position has gradually decayed they are forced to start selling water minus the sugar, indeed they anticipated that happening when they started bringing out diet sodas in the 80's.
Anyway, diet sodas have been around forever but to my memory always attempted to taste as sweet as the sugary drinks.
I used to like their drinks back when it was possible to find them in stores, perhaps 15-20 years ago. But I'm pretty sure they were all sweetened...
> A 12-ounce White Claw also has 100 calories, 2g of sugars, and 2g of carbs.
Unsweetened, flavored carbonated water really became cool recently rather than just something people drank when they were taking a break from alcohol or coca cola. I'd be dumbfounded if numbers didn't back this up among people 25-40 in the past 5 years.