So, Pepsi has recently released the limited edition products Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback. These sodas are sweetened solely by sugar, and with their retro marketing are designed to remind the drinker of “the good ol’ days.” That’s great, and my husband is quite excited about the idea of sugar-sweetened soda being readily available, but it made us wonder. Mountain Dew has a such an unnatural reputation that the thought of it ever having been sugar sweetened seemed odd. So, this week’s history nugget takes a look into the past of Mountain Dew.
Mountain Dew first made an appearance in Tennessee in the 1940s, when Barney and Ally Hartman created a lemon-lime drink to use as a mixer for whiskey. Their first label featured Willy the Hillbilly, and the words, “A special blend of mountain water and flavor in the traditional hillbilly style.” It was marketed as “zero-proof moonshine;” Mountain Dew was in fact a common slang for illegal moonshine in those days. They really wanted to go for the drinking hillbilly crowd.
Pepsi bought the third formulation of the product in 1964, and in 1973 moved away from the hillbilly vibe to an active outdoors-y style aimed at a younger generation. Over the years, it’s been through a number of controversies, from the caffeine content, to dubious claims of what Yellow 5 does to male teenagers, but it remains an ever popular drink; it was the fourth best-selling carbonated drink in 2007.
From what I can best tell, Mountain Dew made the switch to high fructose corn syrup in 1984 when the Pepsi and Coke companies did. So, perhaps Mountain Dew Throwback really is reminiscent of a previous version. Either way, we bought some, and it’s tasty. We think they tweaked the formula a little bit as well, in order to ensure that there would be a taste difference to most drinkers.
(As an interesting side note, many countries outside of the US still use sugar in their beverages, and in Canada, Mountain Dew is caffeine free. Non-cola beverages are prohibited from containing caffeine there.)
Resources:
Recently on the History Nugget meme:
- A story about hockey by Barb Ashcroft
- NY state marker for Millard Filmore by Cameron Douglas
- The Lone Star Nugget by Kristin
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Hello! I saw you on RAK on Ravelry and just thought I would drop by. Have a great day!
Just obliging your RAK request. I enjoyed your post. Thanks for the refresher. We love Mountain Dew and have also tried the ‘throwback’ version. A great Aunt of mine actually has a bottle of (one of) the first versions of Mountain Dew, it has the hillbilly drinking what looks like a bottle of whiskey.