Mountain Dew Throwback

Note: This was written last Friday for the most part, so forgive the out-of-sync time element. - Nate

Sometimes everything in your life comes together "just right." Case-in-point: Last night, during NBC's Thursday prime time line-up, I saw a pretty-looking (and "groovy") ad for Pepsi Throwback. It played at least once per commercial break, or so it seemed.



I kept telling my girlfriend that I would have to try the stuff soon, but last night wasn't the night because we were headed to the midnight screening of Wolverine.

Fast forward to today: I found myself extremely exhausted and hardly able to digest the heavy tech specs I need to translate into a truck website, so I walked down to the kitchen to see what the vending machines had to offer. I almost went for plain old Mountain Dew, but then a familar-looking label caught my eye. It was the Mountain Dew logo of my youth, adorning a 20-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew Throwback. Sure, it's not Pepsi throwback, but I try to avoid Pepsi at all costs under normal circumstances.

The logo also reminds me of the era during which my youngest uncle was known to subsist on a diet of only Mountain Dew and Captain Crunch.



A quick side note: There are about three consecutive days every year during which time I crave Mountain Dew, and then I quickly get over it. Last week was that time for me in 2009. I sure hoped the natural sugar in Mountain Dew Throwback would be enough to win me over and convince me to finish the bottle.

Shortly after I opened the bottle that had been residing in slot C6 in the office vending machine, one of my oh-so-fun meeting marathons kicked off. Luckily for the first one, my role was minor so I had time to reflect on Mountain Dew Throwback (MDT from now on) and make some notes.

MDT definitely tastes different, and I would expect this to be even more pronounced if you are a person who Does the Dew on a daily basis. It's not as overwhelmingly sweet, thanks to the natural cane sugar used in place of high fructose corn syrup ("and/or sugar"). There is also not much of an aftertaste.

I, personally, am a fan of the cane sugar craze and I am known to use Sugar in the Raw in my coffee at Panera and I usually steal a few packets for use in my weekend coffee from the New York Bagel by my house. I'll also take this opportunity to tell you that I hate Splenda and if I see you using it, I will become slightly skeptical of you but we can still be friends.

Due to the turned-down sweetness, I could probably drink MDT more often, but the next question was, does MDT pack the same punch?

Well, it certainly got my anxious leg a-kickin' for my first meeting, but shortly into my second meeting I was nodding off as badly the time I fell asleep at a red light on my way to work this one time.

Anyway, Mountain Dew Throwback is (to me at least) more drinkable because it is less sweet, but it surely can't contend with midnight movie exhaustion, so it misses its target audience right there.

And I didn't finish the bottle.

Dewmocracy now! Mountain Dew Revolution

A coworker approached my desk. "Nate, you'll be able to answer this question," he said. "What is that blue Mountain Dew in the vending machine?"

"!!!" I replied.

He asked if it was Baja Blast, which I had recently told him about. I replied that it was probably the end result of Mountain Dew's Dewmocracy campaign. My research indicates that Revolution (the beverage in question) was in the running, but Voltage was the real crowd pleaser. Though I have not had the pleasure of consuming Voltage yet, I could see why the Revolution was pacified.

I inserted my dollar into the vending machine, entered the coordinates of the beverage and it was dispensed to me.

I first noticed that the liquid was a blue-gray. Sort of like mop water poured into the bowl of a toilet with one of those blue dissolving bricks floating in the tank. I examined the bottle for a hint of what to expect and then I cracked the seal.

A smell identical to that of Baja Blast wafted out. It was fruity, yet musty, like the basement at Knott's Berry Farm. I was getting excited. Colleagues were stopping by my desk, asking me what the hell I was drinking.

A first sip revealed a flavor that was a cross between Baja Blast (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in the Mountain Dew family) and something at the more unique end of the Arizona brand beverage spectrum. Swishing it around my mouth, I observed a nice tingle, and a slight bitterness at the lower sides of my tongue.

Revolution's flavor is absolutely restrained. It does not live up to its potential. It builds, nearing its peak, and abruptly stops. What causes such a thing? Too much water?

The bottle claims this beverage is "Dew® Drinker Designed." There is no hyphen, confounding the rules of compound modifiers. The real Dew-Drinker is probably not familiar with ginseng, so I am not so sure it was truly designed by the consumer. The Dew-Drinkers know this. I know this, and I don't really even drink soda (with Baja Blast being an exception as an accompaniment to Volcano Tacos).

I am proud to say that the caffeine-addled constituents of the Dewmocracy campaign have voted out the correct candidate. The way the flavor fails to build is really bumming me out.

Learn about the rest of this exciting day next time with my review of the TACO SUB.