Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew in some countries and colloquially known as Dew in some areas, is a soft drink brand owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman. A revised formula was created by Bill Bridgforth in 1958. The rights to this formula were obtained by the Tip Corporation of Marion, Virginia. William H. "Bill" Jones of the Tip Corporation further refined the formula, launching that version of Mountain Dew in 1961. In August 1964, the Mountain Dew brand and production rights were acquired from Tip by the Pepsi-Cola company, and the distribution expanded across the United States and Canada.
Between the 1940s and 1980s there was only one variety of Mountain Dew, which was citrus-flavored and caffeinated in most markets. Diet Mountain Dew was introduced in 1988, followed by Mountain Dew Red, which was introduced and discontinued in 1988. In 2001, a cherry-flavored variant called Code Red debuted. Expansions of the product line have continued to this day, including specialty offerings, limited time productions, region-specific and retailer-specific flavors of Mountain Dew.
Production was extended to the United Kingdom in 1996, but was phased out in 1998. A similarly named but different-tasting product, with a recipe more similar to the original American product has been sold in the U.K. under the name "Mountain Dew Energy" since 2010 and in Ireland since the spring of 2011, but in 2015 it was changed to "Mountain Dew Citrus Blast" to shift away from the energy drink marketing. As of 2017, Mountain Dew represented a 6.6% share of the carbonated soft drinks market in the U.S., and is the leading soft drink brand in several states including almost the entire Midwestern United States. Its competition includes the Coca-Cola Company's Mello Yello and Surge, and Keurig Dr Pepper's Sun Drop; Mountain Dew accounted for 80% of citrus soft drinks sold within the U.S. in 2010.
Origin
Tennessee bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman developed Mountain Dew as a mixer in the 1940s. Soft drinks were sold regionally in the 1930s, and the Hartmans had difficulty in Knoxville obtaining their preferred soda to mix with liquor, preferably whiskey, so the two developed their own. Originally a 19th-century slang term for whiskey, especially Highland Scotch whisky, the Mountain Dew name was trademarked for the soft drink in 1948.Charles Gordon, who had partnered with William Swartz to bottle and promote Dr. Enuf, was introduced to Mountain Dew when he met the Hartman brothers on a train and they offered him a sample. Gordon and the Hartman brothers subsequently made a deal to bottle Mountain Dew by the Tri-Cities Beverage Corporation in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The Tip Corporation of Marion, Virginia, bought the rights to Mountain Dew, revising the flavor and launching it in 1961. In 1964, Pepsico purchased the Tip Corporation and thus acquired the rights to Mountain Dew. In 1999, the Virginia legislature recognized Tip Corporation president Bill Jones and the town of Marion for their role in the history of Mountain Dew.
Packaging
"Mountain Dew" was originally Southern and/or Scots-Irish slang for moonshine, as referenced in the Irish folk song "The Rare Old Mountain Dew", dating from 1882. Using it as the name for the soda was originally suggested by Carl E. Retzke at an Owens-Illinois Inc. meeting in Toledo, Ohio, and was first trademarked by Ally and Barney Hartman in the 1940s. Early bottles and signage carried the reference forward by showing a cartoon-stylized hillbilly. The first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels were devised in 1948 by John Brichetto, and the representation on product packaging has changed at multiple points in the history of the beverage.Logo
PepsiCo acquired the Mountain Dew brand in 1964, and shortly thereafter in 1969 the logo was modified as the company sought to shift its focus to a "younger, outdoorsy" generation. This direction continued as the logo remained the same through the 1970s, 1980s. In 1996, PepsiCo began using a strategy it was already using with its flagship cola Pepsi, changing Mountain Dew's logo every few years. New logos were introduced in 1996, 1998, and 2005. In October 2008, the Mountain Dew logo was redesigned to "Mtn Dew" within the U.S. market, as a result of PepsiCo announcing that it would rebrand its core carbonated soft-drink products by early 2009. Returning flavors were given redesigned packaging and logos when re-released.In October 2024, PepsiCo announced a major rebrand. The new branding, inspired by the logo introduced in 1996, reverts the naming to the full "Mountain" spelling; the key art features mountain scenery in the background.
Sidekick bottles
In summer 2010, a secondary type of Mountain Dew bottles began appearing on some US shelves. Designed by 4sight, a design and innovation firm, these bottles featured a sleeker design, smaller packaging labels, and a built-in grip. The bottles were dubbed "sidekick bottles" and were tested in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Indiana markets. By 2014, sidekick bottles had become the predominant Mountain Dew bottle design in most of the United States.Ingredients
In its primary market of the United States, the ingredient composition of Mountain Dew is listed as: "carbonated water, high-fructose corn syrup, concentrated orange juice, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium benzoate, caffeine, sodium citrate, erythorbic acid, gum arabic, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, and yellow 5." The ingredient makeup of Mountain Dew varies based on the country of production. For example, in Canada, the sweetener listed is "glucose-fructose", and until 2012, it was caffeine-free by default. Formerly, the composition included brominated vegetable oil, an emulsifier banned in foods throughout Europe and in Japan. As of 2020, this ingredient has been removed.In response to negative publicity around high-fructose corn syrup, PepsiCo in 2009 released a limited-run production of Mountain Dew Throwback, a variation consisting of sugar in place of high-fructose corn syrup. Mountain Dew Throwback subsequently was re-released for brief periods, including a second wave from December 2009 to February 2010 and a third wave in the summer and fall of 2010. A fourth eight-week production run began in March 2011, before becoming a permanent addition to the Mountain Dew flavor line-up, until being discontinued again during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A can of Mountain Dew contains 54 mg of caffeine.
Tartrazine
An urban legend about Mountain Dew ingredients is that dye Yellow #5 lowers sperm count. Tartrazine has never been scientifically linked to any of the alleged effects in the legends, nor has any other component of the drink.Alcohol
In 2022, PepsiCo partnered with the Boston Beer Company to produce a line of alcohol-infused drinks in four flavors. Labelled "Hard Mtn Dew", the drinks were initially sold in Florida, Iowa and Tennessee, before expanding to other states.Despite having been on the market for a few years and the drink clearly stating it had alcohol in it, the drink gained some controversy in 2025 when a middle school teacher in San Antonio, Texas mistakenly gave five of his special education students cans of Hard Mountain Dew as an end-of-school-year treat, thinking it was regular Mountain Dew. The mistake led to an investigation by the school district after the parents of the students complained and in at least one case tried to file a police report.