Longtime readers know that before there was a BoWilliams.com, there was a NewDietDewIsYucky.com.
I could tell you how much Diet Mountain Dew I used to drink every day, and you wouldn’t believe me. (When I launched that site in 2006, I systematically estimated my lifetime consumption to date at 5,400 gallons.) I had a lot of Diet Mountain Dew. I drank it whenever I was awake.
And when they changed the formula, I was furious. I put up that web site, which got national attention. (Didn’t get the drink changed back, but still.)
I’ve gotten acclimated somewhat to the new Diet Mountain Dew, though it’s not the same. It’s a once-in-a-while thing. I’ll go months without having one.
So against this backdrop, to say that a new product called Mountain Dew Zero Sugar would catch my attention is an understatement. Lea picked some up at our Publix this evening.
It looks like Mountain Dew. It pours like Mountain Dew. It smells like Mountain Dew.
It almost tastes like Mountain Dew. And understand, I’m not saying “this is good for a diet drink.” I’m saying this is a rather remarkable simulation of the full-sugar product. There is only a slight aftertaste that gives it away, and I do mean slight—nothing approaching the industrial speed-bump in Coke Zero Sugar, for example. If you handed this to me while I was cutting grass, on the river, or similarly distracted, I don’t think I’d notice it was a diet drink.
My original Diet Mountain Dew was so drinkable because it wasn’t that sweet. The revised product was (is) definitely sweeter, but in a sickly, cloying way. Contrastingly, Mountain Dew Zero Sugar is one of the most genuinely sweet artificially sweetened products I’ve ever tasted.
Oh yeah, that. This is, of course, not health food. If you consider it prudent to stay away from diet drinks, then you’ll want to stay away from this one. This one packs sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium in the sweetener department. No calories, of course.
It’s Mountain Dew, so it should wallop you with caffeine too. It’s packing 68 mg per 12 oz., so mission accomplished there. That’s top-tier, for mainstream soft drinks. Remember Surge? This has more. This is more than two-thirds of the way to a regular cup of coffee.
Mountain Dew Zero Sugar is an impressive product, in a better-living-through-chemistry sort of way. It’s the most convincing diet soft drink I’ve ever had. I think you’ll say the same.
9/10
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I may yet revise my review a bit upward (and my rating to a 10). Drinking one of these on the way in to work this morning, I began wondering if I could reliably tell the difference in a blind taste test between this product and regular Mountain Dew. I may have to do that. That’s how close this is, folks!
Funny thing you mentioned that. While I can taste the difference, the sweetness in zero is some what milder? Normal dew has a sort of thickness in its sweetness that zero doesn’t have. I thought it tasted a bit off at first cause it does have a hint of that artificial sweetner after taste, but honestly, after a couple cans I kind of stopped noticing it and more noticed that it was more drinkable cause it didn’t have that thick of a sweetness to it.
I think you have valid observations based on my first can of MDZ. It somehow does very much remind me of regular Dew of course with differences. First, compared to the regular diet version MDZ is smoother with a non-lingering finish. By smoother I mean it does not have any sting from the drink taste/carbonation. This is the key component that reminds me of regular Dew. Ever notice how dietMD keeps it carbonation in the 20 oz. so long when re-capped and consumed again sometimes much later? Diet MD seems highly carbonated as such with the CO2 somehow able to cling to the liquid and not dissipate as soon as most soft drinks. While new MDZ is as sweet tasting as regular Dew it does not have that long sweet aftertaste. I can see some will like it better and some simply won’t. My initial reaction is that it is quite good overall and very easy to drink, perhaps even easier for people who tend to normally not drink diet drinks. Oddly it is smoother and has more caffeine than regular Diet Dew. I say oddly because I’m one who happens to believe caffeine as a kind of “exciter” can sting the palate in combination with carbonation. Not here so much at all. I think MDZ will do fairly well in the marketplace. It’s a very logical way to leverage the top selling flavor PepsiCo produces. At least for now I’m actually picking it over the diet version.
Definitely going with it myself, too! I can’t do the current DMD for long at all. The Mountain Dew Zero Sugar is delightful so far.
From the company that still poisons us with bromated vegetable oil im FLOORED, still!, Floored to see they’re putting aspartame in this. Doesn’t everyone know that causes and exacerbates Alzheimer’s by now?!
Even just glucose a wild card given that it doesn’t change in chemical signature despite changing form and or flavor.
Honestly my friend & i were just joking about getting back on dew so we can die faster & were curious about what is in it.
I just can’t in good conscience take this information without alerting you to the degenerative damage this beverage is causing to your human meat bag.
I used to drink mountain dew like how i now drink water. 8 cups a day at least. I now have chronic debilitating disability & have to abstain from “normal” foods and drinks in order to stay alive. Because unless i was dying i wouldn’t have given up dairy, dew, meat, gluten, soy, corn, nightshades. It took me 12 years to get to where i am now with mindfully eating food for mental and physical well being. I began by diluting soda in water & gradually decreased the soda going into the gallon of water. I introduced stevia soda to substitute but honestly am as much/was as much of a mountain dew connoisseur as are you. I only like zevia brand & only their cteme soda & grape flavors + i think it’s virgils cream sidas & root beers.
My thing was half dew & half root beer lol. I basically just adulterated my childhood fave rootbeer. My dad worked for shasta when we were growing up so we had a literal wall of soda available at all times, yet i chose it rarely. Naturally i prefer shasta soda flavors over every other soda except mountain dew. I got addicted to mountain dew in the blink of an eye when i managed a video game store and the restaurant next door gave me free refills of dew & root beer all day every day.
I tried quitting cold turkey & had to go to the er because doing that made me so violently sick. All of my vision was red; just shades of red & it felt like my head was going to explode while i shook violently.
Im dying to sip the pineapple flavor, but it’ll be an actual sip & I’ll drink but spit the rest out.
It’s not fun to BE me. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. But it’s never too late to change habits and break the chemicals hold over us.
I still struggle with all of this. I pay dearly when i fall off the cheese it gluten wagon. But since quitting dew & all caffeine for a few years… Having just a cup of dew now feels like how i imagine meth feels to people based on their descriptions.
Bad news bears, i know.
Thank you for reporting on this.
Respectfully,
Mindy
Hey Mindy! No more brominated vegetable oil. 🙂