Energizing Facts About Mountain Dew. No matter how many cases of the bright green soda you’ve gulped, you would probably still be surprised to learn about its mountain heritage, early career as a bourbon mixer, and audacious marketing plans. THE GREAT DEPRESSION MADE IT POSSIBLE. If everything had gone according to plan, Ally and Barney Hartman would never have become linked to everyone’s favorite fluorescent soda. They originally wanted to be orange soda moguls. In 1. 92. 6, the brothers were part of a group that began bottling Orange Crush in Augusta, Ga. While Orange Crush was a hugely successful soda in those days, the Great Depression hit the Augusta plant particularly hard, leading the business into bankruptcy in 1. ![]() ![]() The Hartman brothers then moved to Knoxville, Tenn. IT WAS ORIGINALLY A MIXER FOR BOURBON. While market conditions were rosier in eastern Tennessee, the Hartman brothers had a serious problem with their new home. During their stay in Georgia, they had become fond of a lemon- lime soda called Natural Set- Up, which was the perfect companion for their other favorite beverage, Old Taylor bourbon. Luckily for the Hartmans, they had a bottling plant at their disposal. According to Dick Bridgforth’s Mountain Dew: The History, the brothers began bottling small runs of a lemon- lime soda for their own use. At first they called it “Personal Set. Up,” but it was later dubbed “Mountain Dew,” a joking reference to moonshine. Rather than a commercial drink, the Mountain Dew was a novelty that the Hartmans used to mix drinks for themselves and guests. THE INITIAL LAUNCH OF MOUNTAIN DEW WAS A JOKE. In Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World, Tristan Donovan recounts the first launch of Mountain Dew at a 1. As a joke, the Hartman brothers decided to have their friend John Brichetto draw a cartoon label featuring a rifle- toting hillbilly. They then “announced” the launch of the new soda that they had been brewing in stills back home in Tennessee. To their surprise, a bottler from Johnson City, Tenn. THE ORIGINAL MOUNTAIN DEW DIDN'T TASTE LIKE TODAY'S VERSION. If mixing today’s green Mountain Dew into a glass of bourbon sounds gross, you’ll be happy to learn that the Hartmans’ original recipe was much closer to today’s 7. UP or Sprite. This version of the soda never truly found a niche in the marketplace, and in 1. Marion, Va.- based Tip Corporation bought the Mountain Dew brand from the Hartmans. In 2. 00. 1, Ally Hartman’s son revealed to the Associated Press that he had turned down the opportunity to buy the brand for $1. Tip Corporation instead. THE FLAVOR WE NOW KNOW IS MORE A . Around the same time, the Johnson City bottling plant that had helped commercialize Mountain Dew was busy formulating an alternative to the popular “citrus fruit beverage” Sun Drop. THE NEW FLAVOR PUT THE BRAND ON PEPSI'S RADAR. This flavor tweak finally gave Mountain Dew a real shot at competing with larger brands. Thanks to its memorable hillbilly marketing gimmick and its tastier new formulation, Mountain Dew started to grab enough of the regional soft drink market that in 1. Pepsico acquired the Tip Corporation and Mountain Dew brand with plans to roll the regional favorite out nationally. As Donovan notes in Fizz, hillbillies were having a pop culture moment in the mid- '6. The Beverly Hillbillies, so Pepsi could even afford to keep the backwoods branding as it expanded Mountain Dew’s territory. PHILADELPHIA'S INTRODUCTION TO MOUNTAIN DEW WAS BRILLIANT. As Bridgforth writes in Mountain Dew: The History, Philadelphia’s Pepsi bottler sprang Mountain Dew on the city with an incredibly involved hoax and publicity stunt. Just as Mountain Dew was entering the market, the Philadelphia License Commissioner received an odd request from “Herbert Eugene Walton,” who described himself as a hillbilly from Turkeyscratch, Tenn. Bridgforth writes that Herbert wanted “permission to build a series of wooden outhouses on all of the downtown parking lots.” With the letter setting the stage, an actor playing “Herbert the Hillbilly” rolled into Philly in a red 1. Model A loaded with jugs and distilling equipment. Herbert slowly drove down Philly’s main drags, causing traffic jams until he eventually reached City Hall. Once at City Hall, he revealed the “reason” for his visit: Overturning a 1. Mountain Dew. The actor went on to cause a local sensation by picketing the IRS to ask for a tax license to brew Mountain Dew and setting up a “still” that enabled him to offer pedestrians samples of the Mountain Dew. ![]() PEPSI EVENTUALLY RETIRED THE HILLBILLIES. Mountain Dew struggled to find a foothold in the national soda market, where drinkers were apparently skeptical of slogans like “It’ll tickle yore innards!” In 1. Pepsi sent the entire marketing plan back to Turkeyscratch. As Donovan notes in Fizz, although Pepsi all but gave up on marketing Mountain Dew, the drink gained steam on its own, with sales increasing by 3. When the brand eventually settled on a marketing strategy in the 1. IT COULD HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE CAFFEINATED. Mountain Dew’s caffeine content is legendary, and with 5. Coca- Cola Classic. At one point during the early formulations of today’s popular version, it was amped up to an even greater degree. Tip Corporation executive Hugh Slagle reminisced to author Bridgforth that one prototype recipe “had so much caffeine in it that when bottled, the caffeine crystallized forming what looked like . NOBODY HAS BEEN ABLE TO KNOCK IT OFF OF ITS PERCH. Since Pepsi began marketing Mountain Dew at active young drinkers, Mountain Dew has soared to a lofty place in the soft drink space to claim the fourth position on the U. S. Coke has made several attempts at dethroning Pepsi’s citrus workhorse, but to no avail. Mello Yello, introduced in 1. In 1. 99. 6 Coca- Cola introduced Surge with a Super Bowl ad and a $5. However, Coke’s not ready to wave the white flag just yet—after a limited 2. Amazon sold well, Coca- Cola has just reintroduced Surge to store shelves. THE HILLBILLY MARKETING CAN STILL MAKE THE OCCASIONAL APPEARANCE. Mountain Dew’s flagship soda may no longer be a rural delicacy, but the company made a nod at its mountain heritage earlier this year when it introduced Dewshine, a “throwback” craft soda made with real sugar and packaged in clear glass bottles. If high- end Mountain Dew sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, just know that Pepsi has never been shy about extending the product line—in 2. ![]() Mountain Dew was launched in 1948, and was originally created in 1940 by Tennessee beverage. ![]() Mountain Dew Kickstart, a variant that you could drink with breakfast. Additional Sources: Mountain Dew: The History by Dick Bridgforth. Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the Worldby Tristan Donovan. Citrus Drop/Citrus Drop Xtreme. Big K Citrus Drop is the generic version of Mountain Dew sold at Kroger stores. Its name plays another citrus drink, Sun Drop, which. Pepsi's lawyers say Mountain Dew can dissolve a mouse. Monday, January 09, 2012 by: Tara Green Tags: Mountain Dew, mouse, dissolved. The original Mountain Dew logo. Used from the beginning on glass bottles all the way until the 1969, when it was retired. It has recently made a comeback on Throwback. This page is the most extensive and up-to-date Mountain Dew timeline. Buy: (2) Mountain Dew Game Fuel, 12 oz cans, 12 pk, $4.99-50% off Pepsi sodas, 12 pk., 12 oz cans, Target Cartwheel (EXP 12/24) printable. When it’s time to refuel, grab MTN DEW® KICKSTART. We mixed the refreshing taste of MOUNTAIN DEW® with real fruit juice, coconut water. Note: If the product is certified Kosher, the DIET, ZERO, Low Calorie, "Ten" and/or DECAF version are also Kosher. This list does not include fruit juices. ![]() ![]()
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