Green Rebel "Hard Mountain Dew" Soda

I was genuinely torn about how to even title this entry. Everyone is going to recognize the Mountain Dew name, as they have spent the GDP of a small country on their advertising. That said, they are not technically the brewery; they are the brand. The brewery appears to be Green Rebel brewing, but it then says it's in collaboration with the Boston Beer Company. I can only assume that they are the distributors, although you would think that Mountain Dew would already have their own distributors they could deal with. Like I said, I am torn, but I've been looking forward to trying this incredibly stupid drink since I first heard about it.

Much like the soda that also has the same name, this does not produce much head at all upon a vigorous pour, and scant few points of nucleation demonstrate that this is a carbonated beverage. The strange color yellow that this has is very reminiscent of the nonalcoholic version of Mountain Dew, and it puts me in mind of nothing so much as antifreeze. The aroma is sweet, sweet citrus and a malevolent presence of alcohol that reminds me of other hard sodas that I've had in the past. The common thread among those seem to be that the alcohol was the feature of the product, so it could not be relegated to simply an aspect of the taste. The alcohol needs to come out.

I tend toward Mellow Yellow or Sun Drop for my citrus soda desires, as Mountain Dew tends to be a little sweet for my tastes. The first sip shows that hard version appears to not be quite as sweet, so it lends itself more toward my palate, but the aftertaste from whatever they are using to sweeten this is somewhat pronounced. I suppose it's one of those things you would probably get used to, but I have had many sugar-free beverages in the recent months, and I haven't had quite the reaction I've had with this one.

Tip-in is citrus juices with forward sickly sweetness and carbonation is a gentle sizzle. The middle sends a raucous carbonation onslaught to the roof of the mouth while the thick syrup lingers at the bottom across the tongue with the unique Mountain Dew citrus taste staying there. The finish is a slow fade of the citrus as the aftertaste from the artificial sweetener comes in to put a cloud over the strangely tangy and sweet beverage.

As the beverage gets warmth into it, it really turns up the ick.

Bottom Line: Their artificial sweetener need work.

0.75/5