Mountain Dew Black Label

With this can, we can close the door on the hat trick of the White Label, Green Label, and Black Label series from Mountain Dew. Seeing as Mountain Dew has not been shying away from experimenting with many different flavors as of late, I'm unsure why this three flavor series was packaged so differently. They list them as "crafted" as if they are attempting to attract a more artisanal customer with these, but the ingredients are nothing special. Maybe the tall-boy cans common among energy drinks is trying to straddle the line between the two?

The smell from the can is very faint, but a little bit like berry, which the can describes as the flavor. However, my mind keeps seeing this black can and almost wants it to be a black licorice flavor out of my sheer curiosity of what that might taste like in a soda. The drink is dark purple in color, and the taste is like a raspberry and blueberry lemonade. There is not a strong sour bite, but it does seem a tiny bit like lemon. Half way through the ingredients, orange juice concentrate is listed. This is probably what is adding that twinge of citrus flavor. I'd give this a middling grade. It's a decent drink but might benefit from more carbonation. It's a decent flavor to mix up your day if you're looking for something a little different.