Freemarker ?split on string literal "\n" in Advanced PDF/HTML Template

Well, after going through the usual process of being frustrated by NetSuite support and their inability to support their own platform, I'm looking for a solution to this problem from other users that may have already solved it.

We have string literals for line feed (\n) in the purchasedescription field of items.  When Freemarker renders the output, the line feed literal is converted to "<br>".  Good so far.  That's a nice plus.

My issue is that I want to be able to format the output, as it contains label and value strings, i.e. "Finish: Brass".  For many items, there are more than one descriptor like this, i.e. "Finish: Brass\nColor: Red".  The goal is to apply a style to all of the labels.  I have tried every combination of characters in the ?split to try to accomplish a new variable to no avail.