I Try It So You Don’t Have To: Mountain Dew Kickstart Orange Citrus

News of Mountain Dew entering the breakfast drink market was everywhere earlier this week. The internet was abuzz with the talk of a new Mountain Dew product that offers a grown-up alternative to soda for those who don’t like coffee or tea, but who need more of a pick-me-up than a glass of juice can provide. In my experience most folks who drink soda, rather than coffee or tea for their morning jolt of caffeine, aren’t really too worried about their image. But Mountain Dew offered to send me some to try, so here we are.

I poured my can into a glass to view its color and get a whiff. It smelled like it appears: just like orange soda. It looked and sounded like it was pretty well carbonated.

Nutritionally, this stuff is as much of a disaster as you would expect. The “5% juice” comes mostly from white grape juice, with some orange juice concentrate added. In order to keep the calories down, it contains a bunch of artificial sweeteners as well. So how does it taste?

It tastes like someone accidentally spilled some Sunny Delight into a can of Mountain Dew. It was oddly flat tasting for all the carbonation it seemed to have.  There was certainly some orange flavor in it– but not much. The artificial sweetener was really prevalent, both upfront and in a nasty acrid aftertaste.  The flavor reminded me of something else but I could not quite put my finger on it. After several more sips, I stopped caring what it tasted like because I could not stand to drink any more.

If you like Diet Mountain Dew, you will probably enjoy this stuff but I can’t imagine anyone who isn’t already drinking soda for breakfast adding this to their morning routine. My own morning routine consisted of dumping the rest of the can down the drain. Hopefully my pipes are safe.

This stuff gets a “You Don’t Have To” for sure.