Tag: Mountain Dew

REVIEW: Mtn Dew Summer Freeze

Marvo 6 Comments

Mtn Dew Summer Freeze is a Dew with a blast of summer Americana, but after tasting it, it’s more like a Dew with a blast of nostalgia. Because is it just me, or does this taste like another Dew flavor? A case of deja DEW?

While Summer Freeze’s bright blue color brings antifreeze to mind, its aroma reminds me of the fruity frozen novelty represented by the red, white, and blue ice pops on the can. Its flavor has a punch of blue raspberry with a bit of cherry on the back end. There’s also a hint of citrus that represents the white lime/lemon part of the patriotic pop.

For the most part, this does taste like a melted popsicle, but I can’t shake the fact that, as someone who has done durations with the different Dews, this Summer Freeze might be a slight reformulation or renaming of a previous flavor. But, overall, it’s a fun tasting limited time addition to the Dew lineup.

What’s also fun is the can’s graphics, which are filled with red, white, and blue bro-sicles that look like they’re trying to get into as much mischief and fun as they can before they melt to oblivion. The images are also sprinkled with Dew references, like the ice cream truck’s license plate being MD1940, which refers to Mtn Dew being invented in 1940; then there’s “DTD” on the fire hydrant stands, which stands for, everyone say it with me, Do the Dew; and then the “DSA” tattooed on the stick of the upside down popsicle that looks like it’ll melt to oblivion first, which might be a nod to a previous summer Dew, DEW-S-A.

Ohhhhhhhhh!

Could this be a reformulation of DEW-S-A? It was a combination of Mtn Dew Code Red (cherry), Whiteout (citrus), and Voltage (raspberry), but made during Dew’s dark days of adding artificial sweeteners with high fructose corn syrup to bring down the drink’s sugar numbers a little. Perhaps Summer Freeze is the result when the sucralose is taken out of DEW-S-A, and maybe that’s why it tastes so familiar to me. Oh, speaking of artificial sweeteners, this is also available in a Zero Sugar variety.

Purchased Price: More than one should pay on eBay
Size: 12 fl oz cans/12 pack
Purchased at: eBay
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) 160 calories, 0 grams of fat, 50 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 43 grams of sugar (including 43 grams of added sugar), 0 grams of protein, and 55 milligrams of caffeine.

REVIEW: Mtn Dew Energy Pitch Black

Marvo 1 Comment

NOTE: Mtn Dew Energy Pitch Black will be released in January 2023. Thanks to Mtn Dew for sending samples.

Mtn Dew Energy Pitch Black’s can SCREAMS Halloween. The purple and black colors bring witches and nighttime to mind, the green makes me think of monsters and zombies, and the white letters could represent ghosts, mummies, or the white void of nothingness that should scare us all.

But you’re probably reading this around its release in January 2023, so it’s past All Hallows Eve. However, the original Mountain Dew Pitch Black soda had a history with the holiday. It debuted during the 2004 Halloween season, and a sequel came out a year after.

While Mtn Dew Energy Pitch Black has nothing to do with Halloween, it does have a lot of caffeeine. Like others in the Mtn Dew Energy line, a can has 180 milligrams of the good stuff and ingredients that help support your immune system and give you a mental boost.

This energy drink is riding on the return of Mtn Dew Pitch Black and the introduction of Pitch Black Zero Sugar, both of which I reviewed earlier. In that review, I wrote that the zero sugar one tastes like a watered down version of the original and that I love the flavor of Pitch Black so much that I can’t get over the taste compromises that were made. But this Mtn Dew Energy flavor is much better tasting than the Zero Sugar version, and it accomplishes that with just four grams of sugar. There are hints of artificial sweeteners in it, but they’re less noticeable, probably thanks to the addition of fruit juice. It has enough of the original Pitch Black’s grape flavor and sugariness that I could see myself picking this up instead of the regular soda when I want a larger caffeine kick that’s almost twice as much as the sodas.

Despite the can describing the flavor as a “dark citrus punch,” it tastes like the grape Pitch Black from almost two decades ago. I don’t care how Mtn Dew describes it. It tastes like the original to me.

In my review of Mtn Dew Energy Code Red, I wrote that it might be my favorite in the energy drink line, but it will have to move over because this is now my favorite. I hope it never disappears. Or if it does, I hope Mtn Dew brings it back for Halloween.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free product sample from Mtn Dew. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 16 fl oz can
Purchased at: Received from Mtn Dew
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) 25 calories, 0 grams of fat, 170 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of sugar (including 0 grams of added sugar), and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Mtn Dew Fruit Quake

Marvo 11 Comments

Mtn Dew Fruit Quake Can

The fruitcake is a hot mess of ingredients that somehow became a holiday staple. It’s also one of those things that people either love or instantly throw away when the giver of the fruitcake is not looking.

While I don’t automatically throw away those that I receive, I do treat them like the McRib. I give it a try every year to find out if my taste buds have changed enough that I actually think it’s good, and when I realize nothing has changed, I sigh, gobble the rest up, and then say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 26 times, WHY HAVEN’T I LEARNED MY LESSON?! AM I A MASOCHIST? DO I NOT CARE ABOUT MY TASTE BUDS? SHOULD I CUT OFF MY TONGUE?”

Mtn Dew Fruit Quake Glass

While an actual fruitcake is a complex recipe containing spices, fruit, nuts, and cake, Mtn Dew Fruit Quake’s fruitcake flavor is simple. It starts with a strong, sweet fruit punch taste that I’ve never experienced when it comes to fruitcake, but it’s something that I’ve tasted a few times when it comes to fruit punch-flavored Mountain Dew. After that fades, some fruitcake spices are noticeable, although barely. The addition of spices makes me wonder if there’s a bit of Gingerbread Snap’d’s recipe in Fruit Quake.

Mtn Dew Fruit Quake Graphics

But that’s it, just fruit punch and a smidge of spices that your taste buds might not even notice. There isn’t any cake flavor here, despite Mtn Dew having experience creating the taste with the brand’s Cake-Smash. And, even though the can’s graphics show nuts, the soda lacks the flavor of nuts. But if it did have it, that would be impressive and a bit odd.

Speaking of weird, the soda’s aroma has an expected intense fruitiness, but at times there’s a little something that reminds me of egg nog that probably comes from whatever spice flavors are included. Perhaps Mtn Dew Egg N’gg will be a future holiday variety? Just throwing it out there, PepsiCo.

With Mtn Dew Fruit Quake, I expected a beverage that’s a bit more unusual tasting, much like last year’s Gingerbread Snap’d flavor. So it’s a little disappointing that it’s a fruit punch Dew with a hint of spices that could be easily missed. With that said, it’s a decent tasting Dew that I wouldn’t throw away when no one is looking.

Purchased Price: More than one should pay on eBay
Size: 12-pack 12 oz cans
Purchased at: eBay
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) 160 calories, 0 grams of fat, 55 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 43 grams of sugar (including 43 (including 43 grams of added sugar), 0 grams of protein, and 54 milligrams of caffeine.

REVIEW: Mtn Dew Baja Deep Dive

Jenna 3 Comments

Mtn Dew Baja Deep Dive Can

This review started with seven simple words, texted by my partner as he checked our mail: “Hey, did you order an exclusive Dew?”

I hadn’t… but my confusion quickly gave way to unadulterated joy. A month or so prior, I’d tracked down all three of Summer 2022’s Baja flavors — the OG and its new and surprisingly-elusive-in-my-neck-of-the-woods friends Baja Mango Gem and Baja Gold — diligently plugged the codes on their caps into Mountain Dew’s website for a stab at the Lost Treasures of Baja Island sweepstakes, and then summarily forgotten all about it… until I returned home triumphant to a coveted six-pack of my Baja Deep Dive winnings!

Mtn Dew Baja Deep Dive Box

Sure, it sounds a little less impressive when I specify that I’m a mere one of 18,000 beverage buffs who got lucky this time around, but still, free, surprise, only-available-from-a-contest Mountain Dew straight to one’s doorstep is nothing to scoff at!

Mtn Dew Baja Deep Dive Glass

I eagerly cracked open a tall, spiffy dark purple can of this subnautical nectar, which is decorated with what seems to be an artist’s interpretation of what normal fish would mutate into if oceans were made of Mountain Dew. A poison-dart-frog-bright, slightly bluish green (appropriately, one could even call it “sea green”) liquid whose hue I can best describe as “Yep, that sure is Mountain Dew-colored” pulsed out.

The perplexing potion smelled deliciously — and aggressively — fruity, candy-like even, but not in a way that I could immediately attribute to any particular flavor. If you’re familiar with Mountain Dew, such sugar-soaked ambiguity is probably not surprising. It is probably also not surprising when I report that this aquatic libation tastes… pretty much how just it smells. It’s violently sweet and heavily reminiscent of its citrus-y, mango-y, pineapple-y Baja brethren, but with a strange aftertaste that, bizarrely, reminded me of cucumber. A thorough sweep of the pleasantly active Mountain Dew community on Reddit suggests that I may literally be the only person in the world who thought that. Neat!

Mtn Dew Baja Deep Dive Descript

Oh yeah, did I mention this is a mystery flavor? As of late I’ve been on an equally amused and bemused quest to try as many flavors of Dew as possible, but nevertheless, I haven’t yet developed the skill of actually being able to differentiate between them very well. So, when it came to cracking this maritime mystery, I was a bit lost at sea.

Mtn Dew Baja Deep Dive Graphics

A deep dive into, well, Deep Dive produced a few hints that were as well-buried as a hidden treasure. Notably, there is a diver on the can whose mask looks like a pineapple, but that was about all I could fish up on my lonesome. (The can also prominently features, among other things, an eel, an anglerfish, and what appears to be a sentient grenade with a narwhal horn, so I hope those aren’t also clues about the ingredients at play here!)

Fortunately, the trusty True Dew-ers of the internet have also unearthed the tantalizing tidbit that the font used on this can is the same as on the dearly departed Mountain Dew Pitch Black, which was grape flavored. Come to think of it, aren’t sea grapes a thing? If that somehow ends up being this flavor’s secret identity, Team Mountain Dew deserves a hearty tip of my pirate’s hat (but maybe also an eye roll).

All in all, the allure of this oceanic new edition, just like the allure of any Mountain Dew, is both difficult to describe and difficult to deny.

Purchased Price: Free as a sweepstakes prize
Size: 16 oz cans
Purchased at: n/a, only available to winners of the Lost Treasures of Baja Island sweepstakes
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) 220 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 65 milligrams of sodium, 59 grams of carbohydrates, 59 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, and 72 milligrams of caffeine.

REVIEW: Mtn Dew Energy Code Red

Marvo 5 Comments

Mtn Dew Energy Code Red Can

It makes me feel old knowing that the original Mtn Dew Code Red is over 20 years old. It’s been on shelves for so long that I can type the following: The new Mtn Dew Energy Code Red is not your father’s Mtn Dew Code Red.

I feel like it was just yesterday when my mind was blown seeing another Dew flavor next to the original. At the time, the way the original green Mountain Dew and Code Red looked on the shelf together made it seem like Mtn Dew was celebrating Christmas.

Mtn Dew Energy Code Red is the latest flavor in the Energy Drink Formerly Known As Mtn Dew Rise Line. It’s also the flavor with the damn best looking can of the bunch. It features 180 milligrams of caffeine, vitamin C and zinc for immune support, has five percent juice, and zero grams of added sugar like all the Mtn Dew Energy flavors in less eye-catching cans.

Mtn Dew Energy Code Red Cup

With the first sip, it’s recognizable as the Dew with a rush of cherry flavor. But if you’re hoping for a taste that’s a carbon copy of the original Mtn Dew Code Red, thanks to the artificial sweeteners, you won’t get that. I guess it’s more like the Zero Sugar version. Although this isn’t completely sugar free. There’s a little bit from the five percent of white grape juice in it, which does a little to hide the sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium. As someone who is used to energy drinks with artificial sweeteners from Monster, some of which are hard to tell if they’re sugar free, I don’t mind that this doesn’t have the same sugary bite as the original.

Despite being one of my favorite Dew flavors, it’s been a while since I’ve had a Mtn Dew Code Red, so it was nice to revisit it in this energy drink form. Although its flavor is not unique in the Mtn Dew Universe, this might be my favorite in the Mtn Dew Energy line, slightly edging out Tropical Sunrise.

Purchased Price: More than one should pay on eBay
Size: 16 fl oz can
Purchased at: eBay
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) 25 calories, 0 grams of fat, 170 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of sugar (including 0 grams of added sugar), and 0 grams of protein.