The Rarest Mountain Dew Flavor We’ve Ever Found

If you love Mountain Dew, odds are you’ve got a specific flavor beyond the original that you can’t get enough of. Maybe it’s the iconic Baja Blast or the hard-to-find Maui Burst. I’m personally a Code Red kind of girl, even though it’s not exactly a rarity. But while the most hardcore Mountain Dew fans might think they’ve tried just about every iteration of the iconic soda, there’s one only a select few have tried—or even seen in person.

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Neon Night: The Mountain Dew Flavor That Never Hit Stores

In 2010, a number of fresh spins on Mountain Dew were released, including a range of colors well beyond that iconic glowing green. The uniquely-hued and citrus-flavored White Out (which, true to its name, was actually white), for example, and Typhoon Dew, a tropical punch-inspired flavor that had a pink-orange hue, splashed onto store shelves. 

But there was one flavor that was developed and even produced for testing among internal focus groups: Neon Night. 

Neon Night is a Mountain Dew legend. The flavor was never released and it first popped up in 2010. Prototypes of the soda spinoff were made—but this Mountain Dew variety never made it any further. And, for the most part, it’s disappeared into Dew history. Only serious collectors know of its existence. That’s because only 17 prototype cans were ever made. At some point, the flavor was shelved altogether and never reached production, so Neon Night never hit retailers (or even Taco Bell locations, where Mountain Dew reigns supreme).

Who’s Tasted Mountain Dew’s Neon Night Flavor?

It’s not unheard of that a Mountain Dew flavor would be dreamed up, concocted and produced, and then suddenly shelved. It’s happened plenty of times, in fac―there are numerous never-released flavors we’ve long wished we could’ve tasted (although I’m personally kind of glad that Mountain Dew ultimately cancelled the Doritos Nacho Cheese-inspired DEWitos flavor, which sounds slightly horrifying). And some flavors do manage to make it into production, only to be yanked off shelves after trial runs and summarily discontinued for good. 

Because Neon Night was produced in such a small test batch, the odds of being able to taste this incredibly rare flavor are pretty much nonexistent. It’s likely the flavor never left Mountain Dew’s very limited group of taste testers. And, since it’s been 16 years since it was even produced, those prototype cans are likely impossible to find today. 

So, I wouldn’t get my hopes up that it’s one you can track down. Plus, who could say it’s a flavor that hasn’t come back in some form—or inspired other flavors in the years since? You might’ve gotten a sip of a Neon Night-inspired flavor at some point, but we’ll never truly know.