Food
10 Discontinued Mountain Dew Flavors You Miss (Part 2)
Mountain Dew is a popular soda known for its bold flavor and the jolt extra caffeine, but if you’re not a fan of the original flavor or the variations you’ve tasted you might still be in luck. Here’s another batch of wild Mountain Dew flavors.
10. Freedom To Be Bold
Fittingly, the makers of Mountain Dew released its Liberty Brew flavor on Memorial Day in 2019. This flavor was available in stores until August 11th, 2019. This flavor sported a midnight blue color similar to Mountain Dew’s Dark Berry flavor. The patriotic label features the Statue of Liberty and eagles so it’s clearly celebrating America. This might sound dubious to some soda fans, but according to the marketing and bottle labels Liberty Brew’s flavor is concocted from 50 different fruit flavors. This number is of course a nod to the 50 United States that make up America. It is is a very nice gesture to honor the USA, however, which 50 flavors are actually found in the soda is a bit of a mystery. Mountain Dew is unlikely to make the list available to the public. This claim is more than likely just a public relations ploy because this many flavors would probably be quite a mess to sort out. What would 50 competing flavors actually taste like? According to MountainFandom.com fans of this flavor have described the taste as, “a Bomb Pop and/or various types of gummies (such as wild berry Lifesavers gummies and/or blue raspberry Krabby Patty gummies by some.)” The descriptions seem a little scatter shot and they probably don’t help very much. But like too many flavors it seems to have been just another berry soda. If you’re interested in what it really tastes like you’ll have to try to find it someplace like on ebay.
9. Green With Dew
This special flavor was first released on college campuses in January 2017 in 16 oz. cans and marketed with the tag line: “DEW with crafted Green Apple Kiwi.” The rest of America got its first taste of Mountain Dew Green Label a few months later, but the response was uninspired. Putting aside the reason why a mass produced soda should be referred to as “crafted”, which was probably just an attempt to cash in on the popularity of “craft beers” which has been rising in recent years. However this pitch did not end up appealing to the college kids they were going after, or anyone else really, it just did not work. This ill-fated flavor was discontinued by Mountain Dew before the end of 2017 because of disappointing sales. Maybe it was the combination of apple and kiwi. Green Label was the soda maker’s third attempt to sell a green apple flavored soda to the public. The others were Diet Crave and Electric Apple and they both failed so maybe those failures should have been a sign customers don’t want a green apple flavored Dew. Maybe they didn’t like the bright green color – original Mountain Dew wasn’t green enough? Whatever the reason, this attempt to market a “craft” soda was a low point for Mountain Dew. However, the company probably deserves some points for trying to go outside the box a little with a relatively exotic flavor combination for a soda. Most soda flavors are just some combination of different berry or citrus flavors.
8. Ice, Ice Cherry
News of a cherry flavored by Mountain Dew was leaked on the Internet by the YouTube channel, myCountryMarket a few months before Ice Cherry was released on September 24, 2018. After its initial run Ice Cherry was discontinued. However, in 2019 the soda was brought back and sold in markets where it had sold well. Despite its name, Mountain Dew Ice Cherry is actually a combination of cherry, lemon and lime flavors. This flavor may remind drinkers of the classic soda fountain concoction, the cherry-lime rickey. The Mountain Dew version boasts a small amount of real fruit juice and like other Mountain Dew Ice variants, Ice Cherry is clear in color. A clear cheery soda seems like a wasted opportunity since a cherry soda could have a dramatic dark red color. After its initial run this flavor was brought back in 2019 and remains on the shelves today. The long-term viability of Ice Cherry might be questionably since Mountain Dew has tried several cherry flavors over the years including, Citrus Cherry, Energizing Black Cherry, Cherry Fusion and Cherry Burst. There is also the matter of competition with Coca-Cola offering flavors like Cherry Coke and Dr. Pepper Cherry. It is difficult to keep all of the different varieties straight, but rest assured that even though Ice Cherry is gone, there are plenty of other cherry flavored sodas on the market to satisfy your taste buds.
7. “X” Marks The Dew
Mountain Dew X or MDX isn’t just a soda it’s an energy drink. This designation means that in addition to the sweetness and caffeine PepsiCo added a list of ingredients to MDX to charge it up. These ingredients include maltodextrin, ginseng, taurine, d-ribose and guarana. All of these ingredients are touted as being able to improve athletic performance. D-ribose is actually sometimes used as a medicine to boosts functions for people with certain diseases, but there is little evidence it would do much for a healthy person. Taurine is an amino acid that is involved with metabolizing fat and guarana is derived from a plant found in the Amazon basin and contains caffeine. PepsiCo didn’t stop with the guarana though – it added more caffeine for good measure. Ginseng has long been used an herbal remedy that is said to boost athletic performance, but there is little scientific research to support this claim. This flavor was sold between 2005 and 2007. Mountain Dew tried to break into the energy drink market with other offerings such as Mountain Dew AMP, Adrenaline and Kickstart. MDX was ground breaking in one way: it was the first flavor sold in the Sidekick bottle design. PepsiCo transitioned most of its 20 oz. bottles to this design in the 2010s, replacing the dome design. The dome design seemed fine to many customers, but perhaps the Sidekick design is thought to be more modern looking and appeal to kids.
6. Soda In Paradise
Pineapple may not be one of the more common soda flavors, but Mountain Dew’s Game Fuel Tropical Smash makes the case that maybe it should be. Tropical Smash was one of seven flavors featured as part of Democracy II in 2009. Dew lab members received samples of Tropical Smash and the flavors for evaluation. But it wasn’t until 2017 that it was released as part of a marketing campaign for the release of the video game Forza Motorsport 7. Unfortunately, after this brief promotion, the flavor was discontinued at the end of 2017. Tropical Smash should not be confused with Dew’s Amp Game Fuel Charged called Tropical Strike. Tropical Smash has been described as a, “tropical punch flavored soda with a distinct pineapple overtone…” There is also some mango flavor, which makes it similar to another Mountain Dew flavor called Solar Flare. Like Tropical Smash, Solar Flare is also yellow-orange in color. The yellowish color and pineapple flavor made Mountain Dew Game Fuel Tropical Flash somewhat of a exotic product in the soda world. It is possible that its uniqueness is part of the reason it wasn’t as successful as it might have been. Regardless of the reason, it didn’t live up to expectations there should have been some room in the soda market for a little bit of tropical paradise.
5. Strawberry Kiwi Forever
Strawberry Kiwi Kickstart Hydrating Boost is a Mountain Dew soda variant marketed as a replenishment drink. Few sodas can boast coconut water among its ingredients, but this unique flavor was introduced in 2015 to compete with in the replenishment/post workout drink market. It makes you wonder why more sodas don’t use coconut water as an ingredient. Coconut water aside, this soda had a sweet strawberry and Kiwi flavor that seemed to work even though strawberry flavored products can be very hit or miss. Mountain Dew did experiment with a straight strawberry flavor in Pepsi’s Fusion fountain machines, but unfortunately it wasn’t anymore popular when it was available in that venue. This strawberry and kiwi experiment only lasted a few years and was discontinued by the end of 2017. A Raspberry Citrus Mountain Dew replaced Strawberry Kiwi in 2017. Raspberry flavored beverages generally taste better than strawberry flavored beverages so Raspberry Citrus Mountain Dew was likely a bigger success. The strawberry kiwi flavor was one of Mountain Dew’s Kickstart Hydrating Boost products. The other one marketed along with it was a pineapple orange-mango flavor. Unfortunately, the pineapple flavor was also discontinued after registering poor sales. Pineapple Orange-Mango does sound pretty refreshing so its too bad it didn’t find a bigger following.
4. The Holiday Dew
Holiday Brew is only one of two Mountain Dew sodas that are a combination of other Dew flavors. This seasonal brew was introduced in November of 2017 and ran until the end of December. In this case a mixture with the proportions of 40% original Mountain Dew and 60% Code Red Cherry combine to make a citrus – cherry flavor and a distinctive red – orange color. There are two bald guys who review food and beverages on a YouTube channel called mycountrymarket. These gentlemen said Holiday Brew was, “really good.” Both men described the flavor as having a strong citrus flavor as well as a strong cherry flavor. One likened it to black cherry. It is interesting that both flavors apparently came through without clashing with each other. Despite this good review Holiday Brew apparently didn’t go over very well with the larger public. The seasonal brew was replaced after only one holiday season by a flavor called Merry Mash Up during the very next year’s Holiday season. This second attempt at a holiday Dew was a little more successful than Holiday Brew. A soda called Merry Mash-Up was introduced in 2018 and made another appearance in 2019. Even though Holiday Brew was discontinued, to the disappoint of some there is reason for hope. If you really wanted to make merry with the Holiday Brew you could go ahead and make your own version of this holiday Dew flavor simply by combining original Mountain Dew with Code Red, which let’s be honest is pretty awesome and something we should all be trying, regardless of the time of year!
3. She Drank A Raspberry Dew
Despite the “spiked” in Spiked Raspberry Lemonade parents can rest easy that Mountain Dew did not make and market an alcoholic soda. According to the information provided by PepsiCo the “spiked,” in this case, refers to the inclusion of “thirst-quenching” prickly pear cactus juice. Prickly pear cactus juice does not sound very appealing, but maybe it really is good for rehydration. Even if it is, coconut water is also good for rehydration and has been used previously by Mountain Dew. Putting aside what kind of special water it has in it this raspberry lemonade soda was made without any artificial flavors and was sweetened with real fruit juice. Spiked Raspberry Lemonade was released in 2017, along with Spiked Lemonade. Both of these Mountain Dew Spiked varieties were sold in 16 oz. cans instead of the traditional 12 oz. cans. By late 2017 weak sales convinced Mountain Dew to discontinue both spiked flavors. A Raspberry Lemonade flavor sounds like it should have been a winner for Mountain Dew, but unfortunately, it wasn’t. They did make a similar flavor called Berry Burst, but it was only available in soda fountains at Applebee’s restaurants. This variation of Mountain Dew was flavored with Raspberry and lime instead of lemon. Berry Burst proved to be a more popular flavor than Spike Raspberry Lemonade and remains in service at Applebee’s. So even though Berry Burst isn’t exactly Raspberry Lemonade, but it’s probably close enough.
2. A Darker Shade Of Dew
This Mountain Dew flavor’s tag line was, “Dew with crafted dark berry.” I’m not sure if a dark berry is actually a kind of berry, but I guess it sounds good if you’re marketing a soda called Black Label. This variety of Mountain Dew was pre-released on some select college and university campuses in August 2015 and officially released in March 2016. Black Label was part of the proposed Deeper Darker Dew promotion that never launched. This was unfortunate because it would have been interesting to see what PepsiCo would have done with it. The flavor has been described as a dark berry punch with herbal bitters and real sugar. As far as comparisons, the flavor is related to the Mountain Dew flavors Dark Berry and Pitch Black The Black Label color is a dark magenta. Maybe they should have made the color dark brown or black like cola flavored soda. A black soda would have been interesting to see. It seems like they wanted to emphasize the fruit flavor so they went with the purple color. Mountain Dew also put out a White Label and a Green Label along with the Black Label variety. The White Label was flavored with pineapple and grapefruit and was sort of a cloudy, but otherwise colorless soda. However, officially, this variety was referred to as a white colored soda. Of course, the Green Label soda was green; it was flavored with green apple and kiwi. By the end of 2019 Black Label Mountain Dew, as well as the other two flavors, were discontinued.
1. Oh Canada!
Mountain Dew Citrus Charge is not a special variety of Mountain Dew as you might have assumed. It is, in fact, the name the original Mountain Dew goes by in Canada. This change took place in 2012 and is the first instance of this soda being sold under a different name. The only difference is that the Canadian version has a slightly lower caffeine content at 51 mg per serving versus 54 mg in the American formula. Mountain Dew has since been sold under the name Mountain Dew Neon in India even though this is just the original flavor with different packaging. There are actually some funny YouTube videos of customers conducting taste tests of Mountain Dew Citrus Charge. Even though Citrus Charge is exactly the same flavor as the original Mountain Dew flavor some people who have tasted it swear it somehow tastes different. Some of them have gone so far as to say they don’t like it even if they do like original Mountain Dew. These taste tests illustrate the power of the mind: unfortunately, in this case, they illustrate the power to believe something that isn’t true. In addition to Mountain Dew Citrus, there is also Mountain Dew Citrus Cherry which has been described by some as tasting like the cherry Jolly Rancher hard candy. The bottom line is that if you like the original Mountain Dew you can get it the next time you’re in Canada. Because after all, what’s in a soda’s name?