What Flavor Is Mountain Dew?

Mountain Dew started in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the 1940s. Bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman made it as a clear lemon-lime mixer. In the late 1950s it was reworked into a citrus-lemonade style, and the Tip Corporation of Marion, Virginia, relaunched it in 1961. PepsiCo bought the brand in 1964. Accounts disagree on who changed what, and when.

What you are tasting

Three things, in this order.

Lemon-lime on top. The bright, sharp citrus you smell when you open it.

Orange underneath. The US label lists concentrated orange juice. It adds a juicy roundness more than a distinct orange flavor.

Sweetness over acid. Mountain Dew uses citric acid, not phosphoric, and it is less acidic than a cola. One US study measured it at pH 3.22, against 2.37 for Coca-Cola Classic.¹

There is also caffeine: 54 mg in a 12 oz can, more than Coke or Pepsi. You can taste a faint bitterness in the finish if you look for it.

PepsiCo describes the flavor only as citrus. It does not name the oils. Its best-known spin-off, Baja Blast, keeps a similar base and pushes lime and tropical fruit forward.

Why it is cloudy

Mountain Dew is an emulsion: citrus oil spread through the drink as tiny droplets, held there by gum arabic. The juice adds to the cloud.

For decades, brominated vegetable oil (BVO) helped too. It was heavy, so it stopped the citrus oil floating to the top. In 2014 PepsiCo said it was working to remove BVO from all its drinks, Mountain Dew included.² The FDA revoked BVO's authorization in 2024, and companies had to comply by August 2025.³

If you are building a cloudy citrus soda now, the usual weighting agents are glycerol ester of wood rosin and sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB). Both have legal use limits in drinks, so the emulsion has to be designed around them.

Building a Mountain Dew-type citrus soda

Decide on juice early. Real juice gives body and a fresher orange. It also adds pulp solids that can settle, and a cost you will notice.

Protect the citrus. Mountain Dew's label lists erythorbic acid and calcium disodium EDTA. The first is an antioxidant. The second ties up trace metals that speed up oxidation. Together they slow the citrus from going stale.

Plan for the bitterness. Caffeine has less to hide behind in a light citrus drink than in a dark, spicy cola. Expect to need sweetness or masking support, especially in zero-sugar versions. Energy drinks face the same problem at higher doses.

Expect a different yellow. The chartreuse comes from Yellow 5. Beta-carotene suits a cloudy drink, since the cloud hides any haze, but it reads more orange. Turmeric is brighter but fades in light. Neither gives quite the same green-yellow.

Name it a citrus soda. The Mountain Dew name belongs to PepsiCo. A flavor house may list its version as a "citrus soda type".