Mountain Dew Voltage was declared the winner in a big PR marketing push, called DEWmocracy – where voters could choose the next of three flavors of Mountain Dew. Three flavors were introduced; Supernova, a strawberry-melon flavor; Revolution, a berry flavor; and Voltage, a raspberry-citrus flavor. All of them had the same caffeine content and the same basic genetic makeup, only the flavors had been played around with. SO over the upcoming months, lots and lots of people voted for their favorites. Counts differ, but there were somewhere between 250,000(first counting) to 1.6 million people (mountain dew press release) voting for their Dew of choice.
Each flavor was a ginseng infused candy sweet soda that offered people a chance to drink their Dew and go for something different than the green that made them the second most popular drink around. For the most part, the ingredients and masic makeup were all the same thing. The ingredients list is almost identical, as well as their caffeine content.
For me, the winner,Mountain DewVoltage, still does not measure up to the joy of Diet Mountain Dew. Now, Voltage is a decent-flavored berry drink, but it does not have the same sharp sour citrus, the same tang, the same Dew-ness. We all have our favorite soda. Some might get into Coke Zero or Dr. Pepper, but the thing is that we like it because we just do. It is our little treat and no one is going to be able to replace that drink, like a baby’s blanket, loved teddy, or guilty pleasure TV drama. House sucks – isn’t realistic, a stupid formula and is generally inane, but that does not stop me from getting sucked into every episode that comes my way. I love my DMD. And while I have lots of other soft drinks, it will have to be a very amazing drink to make me switch – and Voltage just is not good enough.
Taste:7
This is pure melted candy. It tastes like Laffy Taffy. Actually, I found more in common with blue Jolly Rancher than anything, slightly sour with that familiar Mountain Dew bite. It only has a slightly sour flavor profile from the citric acid and raspberry flavor – so it has some mountain dew sharpness even without the orange juice. The flavor is quite strong, although I could not taste any of the ginseng that was supposed to be within. I was able to taste the strong sodium benzoate and citric acid that is present in my beloved mountain dew.
Buzz/Nutrition:5
I guess with a name like Voltage, I was expecting there to be a whole lot more caffeine in here than it does. Sure, the 20oz bottle has 92mg, or the same amount as a cup of coffee, but that is really not that much, when taken per ounce. The secret energy ingredient in here is supposedly ginseng – which will give you more energy if you take it for many weeks at a sustained level. In doses this small the only thing it is used for is to sell the drinkto the masses. So no buzz at all will be found in this, unles you feel like chugging down a two liter of this, which I would not reccommend.
Why not reccommend? Well, it ain’t like this stuff is Made from vitamins and fruit blossoms. This is strictly lab made all the way. A 20 20 oz. bottle of Voltage is packed with 290 calories, 105 mg of sodium, and 76 g of sugars. So you know when doctors are yelling at the population for downing sugary drinks that are bad for them and are full of calories and blah blah blah – this is the drink they are referring to.
Packaging:8
The design is about what you would expect from a huge company like Mountain Dew. The label is all back and XTREME, trying to draw out the cool kids. I have only seen this in 20oz bottles, evidently done so you could see the cool bright artificial blue glow eminating from the clear plastic. It is a good use of thier update MTN Dew logo, only this time spelled out as opposed to the appreviation found on normal and diet MD cans. I like that they list the caffeine content on here, and overall appreciate the package design. Although it is not stunning or different, it is decent, albeit pandering and corporate.
Website:6
Mountain Dew spent $625,000 on online media for the first 10 months of 2008. It shows on this website, full of flash games and prizes, and basically all that you would expect from a site made by pepsi. HUGE companies put tons of time developing apps for this site, and all the work shows off in one big mess – with really nothing about the drink, but a whole lot of commercial and hype. If you like the hype, the downloads, the silly flash games, the forums, the myspace experience, the name-your-uberslick-web2.0-term-here gadgets – way too over the top. Dang people, mountain dew is a drink, not a social experience….I think they could do a whole lot more if they tried to do do a whole lot less. Let the drink and the drinkers be the most important thing about your site, not the electric puzzle games.