Bomb Pops, rocket pops, Firecrackers—whatever you call those red-white-and-blue, projectile-shaped popsicles, they are big in the beverage world this summer. Twisted Tea is releasing a rocket pop-flavored hard iced tea. Juggalo fave Faygo rereleased its extremely popular Firework flavor, which sold out the last time it was released and ended up causing bidding wars on eBay. And Mtn Dew released Summer Freeze, a soda that purports to cram cherry, lemon, and raspberry flavors into one very extreme (and violently blue) concoction. After weeks of searching, we finally found a six pack of plastic bottles at our local Ralphs. Will this be our summertime go-to or a novelty we’ll tire of by the Fourth of July? We tasted it to find out.
“This tastes like blue,” our intern Kota Lee said when they took a sip. Truly, that’s about the best way to describe it—it’s blue raspberry Mtn Dew. I didn’t detect any cherry flavor. There’s a citrus tang, but it isn’t that cool, icy rocket pop lemon that’s akin to lemon Italian ice (the best layer of the rocket pop, imo). It’s Mtn Dew citrus flavor. But if you like Mtn Dew (if you’re reading this, you like Mtn Dew, right?), I’d imagine that’s a positive. This is not the first blue raspberry flavored Mtn Dew (that would be Voltage), so it could seem like an unnecessary addition to the lineup to Mtn Dew Heads, but it tastes good if you’re in the mood for something tangy, citrusy, and very sweet. It probably goes without saying since we’re talking about a Mtn Dew flavor, but this stuff is sweet.
The bottle describes it as “Dew with a blast of Summer Americana,” which is both twee and vague. I don’t think Summer Freeze nails the rocket pop flavor combo, but I guess there’s nothing more American than Mtn Dew.
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
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