Green Rebel "Hard Mountain Dew - Baja Blast" Soda

The enormous disappointment that was Hard Mountain Dew is fresh in my memory as I open up this Baja Blast version of the same beverage. How can I even expect this to be good? This came in a multipack, so I'm gonna review it, but the confidence is pretty low on this being any good at all. I've never had Baja Blast Mountain Dew before, and I'm led to understand that it was created specifically for Taco Bell. Taco Bell is perfectly adequate for Mexican food, and maybe, just maybe, this version of Mountain Dew can be perfectly adequate.

The beverage pours a quite concerning shade of aqua blue. I'm not sure that this color really exists in nature, but here it is in my glass. As is to be expected with sodas like this, the head disappeared nearly instantly upon pouring. This version may have even fewer points of nucleation showing that there's any carbonation inside, but there are five or six that are still managing something. The aroma is sweet and smells vaguely like a lime popsicle. If it tastes the way it smells, this will be a massive improvement on the previous one. I can't imagine, however, that lime popsicles have anything to do with baja blast.

First sip has the same problem the previous one had, but to a lesser degree. It's possible that it's just because this is a small sip, but the sweet and syrupy nature of the beverage is pleasing at first, but I can only assume that they are still using aspartame to sweeten their beverages, and it is not doing anything good for the aftertaste. The artificial sweetener is definitely what is killing this beverage, just as it killed the last one. I could imagine being thirsty enough to continue sipping this, and it wouldn't be the worst thing I'd ever had to drink. But let's stop sipping.

Tip-in is mild carbonation tingle rising to moderate as sweet lime slowly becomes thick like syrup. The middle of the beer takes a significant downturn very quickly as the sweetness that was in the beginning tries to turn sickly sweet, but it only manages to be the off-putting sweet of artificial sweetener as lime becomes a memory in its wake. The finish is a whole lot of nonsense of artificial sweetener leaving nothing more than a bad taste in my mouth.

Bottom Line: Just barely better than regular Hard Mountain Dew.

0.75/5