We Got an Early Taste of New Mug Floats Vanilla Howler—Here’s Our Review

No matter where you go these days, it seems like there’s no escape from dirty sodas. And there’s no end in sight yet. Pepsi is expanding the world of dirty sodas even further in 2026 with a new Dirty Mountain Dew (review coming soon) as well as a new dirty soda-inspired flavor of Mug: Mug Floats Vanilla Howler. Available in both full sugar and zero sugar, this new soda will launch in stores around spring of 2026. But we were fortunate enough to receive early samples from our friends over at Pepsi. So we’re cracking them open to see how these creamy root beers taste. 

New Mug!

Mug Floats Vanilla Howler Review

Pros: Mug Root Beer has always been a staple favorite root beer of mine and this has me feeling a bit nostalgic! It’s almost got the vibe of a root beer float you made at home, after you’ve eaten all the ice cream and you’re just drinking the remaining root beer at the bottom of the glass. The vanilla plays into the flavor of traditional Mug Root Beer very well.

Cons: While this is really great and I’d definitely buy this over traditional Mug Root Beer, I can’t help but wish that this leaned even further into the dirty soda vibes. While I get hints and essences of the ice cream, I wish it was really blended up in there! Maybe that’s just a problem with my expectations and that may not be possible, but I’d love to see Mug Root Beer get dirtier. 

Credit: Liv Averett / Mug

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

New Mug Zero Sugar!

Mug Floats Vanilla Howler Zero Sugar Review

Pros: Folks, I’m a little bit blown away. While I was already impressed with Mug’s newish zero sugar variant, this one is just as good. My biggest gripe with the full sugar seems to be resolved here—the zero sugar leans just a little bit harder into the vanilla-y aspect of a dirty soda. I don’t know if I’ve just got lucky genes or what (I recently learned that how you perceive artificial sweeteners is genetic) but I don’t get that harsh zero sugar aftertaste that you’d typically expect. 

Cons: While I do think the zero sugar gets it done just a little bit better than the full sugar, I’d still love to see the dirty soda come through even more. I like my soda dirty and I feel like this is about 70% of the way there.

Credit: Liv Averett / Mug

Rating:

8/10

Sporks