Intro
If you want to skip ahead, head down to the The Current Recipe below for the, obviously, current recipe.
If you’re reading this, I assume you appreciate the difference between regular Mountain Dew and the Real Sugar variety… I clearly prefer the Real Sugar version.
Backstory
I found Mountain Dew Throwback, in the early days, circa 2010 maybe, when it was in 20oz bottles and you could only buy it at 7-11 (at least around here). And then you could only find it in glass bottles at Hess gas stations, then you couldn’t find it anywhere, then it would show up randomly…
And then Pepsico rebranded it as Mountain Dew Real Sugar and it was available more generally for some periods of time, and then not… For the last several years, it was not available within the Northeastern bottling region, but was available in WI and was available via AMZN. It was expensive to ship, but not so crazy I wasn’t willing. I’d stock up when I could.
And then, Pepsico decided to discontinue it entirely earlier this year. There are still small stashes, e-bay had a 12-pack (last I saw) for $100+… local places will have a small stash. These seem like the last remnants of remaining stock.
So in July/August of 2024, with around 6 or so 12-packs left, I realized I needed to do something. So I’ve been attempting to create my own version since then. I’ve done around two dozen batches, most of them with distinct variations of recipes. I won’t cover them all here, but I will give you the current recipe with some highlights and an overview of changes I’ve made.
The Current Recipe
This creates a syrup that I use with a SodaStream. It makes enough for one 1L bottle.
Ingredients
100g of sugar
3/16 tsp citric acid
1/8 tsp sodium citrate
1/8 tsp gum arabic
1/8 tsp ascorbic acid
1 1/2 tsp no-pulp frozen OJ concentrate
2 drops lime juice
2 drops lemon juice
(optional) 100mg caffeine capsules
Instructions
Measure out 100g of water. Pour that into a small sauce pan heating with a low heat. Measure out the citric acid, sodium citrate, gum arabic and caffeine. Mix them in a small bowl. Slowly add the powder mixture into the heating water. Stir over low heat until everything dissolves.
Two caveats with this. I found my caffeine pills are cut with rice flour, which doesn’t dissolve, so it may look like the powder isn’t fully dissolved, because, well, it isn’t. Second caveat is that the gum arabic can get goopy if it isn’t well mixed with the other ingredients. If that happens, it’s fine, just keep stirring it and it should dissolve.
Once those are dissolved, add the sugar. It should dissolve fairly quickly, but keep stirring, until it’s all gone (except the stupid rice flour).
Pour it into a Pyrex measuring cup. Careful, it may be pretty hot. It should NOT need to boil, but if you’re not watching it could still be pretty hot. Add the OJ concentrate, a few drops of lemon and lime juice. Then I typically pour it into a 1L SodaStream bottle. Again, CAREFUL! If the liquid is too hot, it could melt the bottle. It’s never happened to me, but if you overheat the liquid, it certainly could.
Put both the syrup bottle and a COLD 1L bottle (with ~840ml of water, the recommended amount, cold as in “from the fridge”) into the freezer. Set a timer for 20 minutes. DO NOT let it freeze! 20 minutes is close enough that the water will just start to freeze and the syrup will have cooled. I will sometimes rinse the syrup bottle in cold water to bring it down faster before putting it in the freezer.
Once the timer goes off, pull out both bottles, add the CO2 to the WATER bottle. After it’s carbonated, gently pour it into the syrup bottle. Do this SLOWLY. It takes me ~30s to transfer the carbonated water to the syrup bottle. You can fill this to the top with the carbonated water. Sometimes it will start to fizz aggressively and you need to cap it quickly to let it settle. After it overflowed in early experiments, I started doing it over the sink. But the current process is better and doesn’t over-fizz as often. Once it’s full, cap the bottle, gently shake to mix the syrup and water.
You can enjoy it right then, or store in the fridge for later. Careful when opening it for the first time. Sometimes it will over-fizz. Simply re-cap it, let it settle, then slowly release the pressure.
ENJOY YOUR DIY MOUNTAIN DEW!
NOTES
A note about the orange juice. I typically purchase a can of frozen OJ, let it thaw in the fridge, and just scoop out a teaspoon, then put the lid back on and keep it in the fridge. I’ll make a batch a day, and keep re-using the one container for about 2 weeks. Not sure how long I trust it in the fridge, but 2 weeks seems fine.
A note about the caffeine. The caffeine is entirely optional. 1 liter is roughly 3x 12oz cans equivalent. Regular Mountain Dew has 55mg per can, so this version is a little light. I could have done 1.5 capsules, but that’s awkward without a sub-gram scale, so I haven’t bothered. When I’ve used up the bottle of capsules, I might look for a different brand with a different dosage, but this is plenty good for my needs right now.
A note about the “additives”. Both citric acid and ascorbic acid provide a “bite” to the soda. The sodium citrate acts as a buffer to reduce the acidity but still lets the citric acid enhance the flavor. Both the gum arabic and the sodium citrate improve the “mouth feel”, making the soda feel better. They all can be readily purchased on-line.
Future Directions
I’ve done roughly two dozen experiments, trying to adjust the ratios. The above is my current best attempt. Mountain Dew seems to have surprisingly little real juice in it. I think this version still has too much citrus flavor. Next steps for me are further adjusting the citric acid, ascorbic acid and fruit juices.
Also, this contains 100g of sugar, whereas the Real Sugar version would contain about 125g (for 1 L). I’m not sure why, but I feel like this is better. It’s possible if I reduce the citrus flavor further, I might try adjusting the sugar back up. But I like being able to reduce my sugar intake a little… so we’ll see.
Hopefully soon, I’ll try making larger batches of syrup, so I don’t have to go through this process every day. But that will wait until I’m more settled with the recipe.
I still have about 20 cans of the real thing, so I can do some blind taste tests before I fully run out. :)
I welcome any feedback people have about this recipe! I’d love to hear what you think.