rabbiofberlin: Yes, I would say teabags and brewed coffee probably would go into the colored water category and instant tea and instant coffee might go into other; unless there is just a special type halacha for tea versus coffee.
Re: Pepsi; remember those were the days when the largest soda you could buy was 12 ounces. It was rare that you had more then that at one meal. So Soda (or pop) had a certain chashivus. Whereas today, you have the 2 and 3 liter bottles and the chashivus is lost; but I don’t know if that has anything to do with chamar medina.