Mountain Dew

Ally and Barney Hartman, brothers who ran a bottling company in Knoxville, TN, starting making a lithiated lemon-lime mixer for their hard liquor. They called it Mountain Dew after a term used for moonshine. In 1946 they meet Charlie Gordon of Tri-City Beverage at a convention in Gatlinburg, TN and he begins selling Mountain Dew in 1955. By this time the brand was co-owned by Tri-City Beverage and The Tip Corp. In 1960 the original flavor of the drink was altered by adding orange flavoring into mix, more sugar was added to the formula as well. During this period Mountain Dew competed with a similar drink by Pepsi Co. called Teem, but in 1962 Pepsi Co. began licensing Mountain Dew for bottling. Pepsi Co. went on to gain ownership shortly after and has remained under Pepsi Co.'s guardianship ever since.

Seen here are two bottles recently purchased. In 2008, Mountain Dew's name was shortened to simply, Mtn Dew. Although the formula has contained high-fructose corn syrup for many years, Mountain Dew Throwback was introduced in 2009 with sugar replacing the standard corn syrup. Originally, the Throwback variant was intended to be a limited release but has seen multiple short production releases since it's initial introduction. The label also features some of the earlier artwork from the brand.

Mountain Dew has never been massively infused with carbonation, nevertheless it is on par with many large production sodas, particularly those found in plastic bottles which are permeable to air over extended periods of time. Mountain Dew's flavor is a unique blend of citrus flavors with what I believe is lead by grapefruit and touched with others. Interestingly enough, I do pick up a slight difference between the standard offering and the Throwback formula. The real sugar seems to give a smoother edge to the sweetness in the drink, while the regular formula has a hint of acrid sharpness to the sweet flavor. If you can find a bottle of Throwback try a blind taste test yourself and see if you agree?