There was a moment sometime last week where I logged onto the internet. As I do every day, I search through the latest news stories and find myself intrigued by the highs and lows of culture both local and global. Among those stories was one that piqued my interest. I couldn’t click on it fast enough as I saw a familiar logo appear. With my heart racing, I waited for the screen to load, finally coming face to face with one of the few highlights of this mundane 2020. In a time where everything has collapsed on itself, this is the one story that gives everyone hope, believing not only in the future but in The American Way™.
On March 15, Mountain Dew announced that Liberty Brew was officially coming back.
With elation, I jumped over to the Mountain Dew Tracker page, eager to find out where it would be sold. I had learned my lesson with both Sprite Cranberry and Sprite Ginger. I needed to be frugal. I needed to have a strategy since it didn’t seem likely that I’d be going to every store during a global pandemic just looking for one drink. I’ll just say that the first few days were unsuccessful, though that may be because I was an idiot looking for a traditionally GREEN drink when it’s actually BLUE.
Was it there at all? I hope it wasn’t, because otherwise, I would feel really stupid right now.
To back up a bit, I suppose that I should discuss what exactly Liberty Brew is. In the echelon of novelty soda flavors, Mountain Dew has the market cornered. Oh sure, Coke may have more options, but there is something alluring about getting to Halloween and having a mystery flavor challenge. Similarly, I get to Independence Day and feel the desire to crack open a Liberty Brew not necessarily because I’m a shill for Mountain Dew, but because I love the thrill of a limited-time beverage, of something that we may never get again (you were too good for this world Pepsi Blue).
The gist of it all is that Liberty Brew is a blend of 50 flavors, created as such to symbolize the 50 states that make up this great nation. As far as I know, the fruity concoctions are still largely unknown. Still, it’s a miracle that a drink that amounts to throwing everything at a wall would turn out so well. Apparently it was enough to bring it back in 2020, where it looks to become a staple of Fourth of July drinking – at least if you are willing to pay a bit extra.
In order to understand why this is a big deal, I thought that I would step back and look at a flavor from yesteryear that never made the cut. It crawled so that Liberty Brew could run. I’m talking about the less ambitious creation known simply by the name Dew-S-A. It was a play on the common vernacular U.S.A. and chose to instead use the color scheme to capture its own warped perspective of patriotism:
Red – Code RedWhite – White OutVoltage – Yellow
Together they made a dark magenta drink that gained a divisive legacy. The drink premiered around July 4, 2017, and was on its way to creating a new standard. Draped in the familiar patriotic hoo-ha, it was a good enough product to gain a reputation, but not enough to come back for a second round. Depending on who you ask, it wasn’t very good, to begin with. According to Vice in “A Definitive Ranking of Almost Every Flavor of Mountain Dew,” which ranked Dew-S-A number 22 of 25:
Code Red is an elite Dew flavor brought down by the mediocrity of White Out and Voltage. Dew-S-A is void of sugar and resembles the pale glow of a half-baked idea—one that inexplicably made it into production. This is the Gatsby-esque flickering light of capitalist aspiration that drives America; the shine of the empire is dimmer the closer you get to it.
While Liberty Brew is referenced in the article, it hadn’t been officially released yet. Still, it felt like a swing and a miss for Mountain Dew considering how much it was buried after that point. Even advertisements with NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t enough to give this product a longevity.
So Mountain Dew went back to the drawing board to find a better way to approach their “Red, White, and Dew” aesthetic. After two years in a lab, one lone engineer approached the board and wrote down a number: 5-0. As they started at it, they smiled and gave a churlish laugh that reflected their own despair deep down. How could it be that it took them this long to think of something so simple? They were going to get a promotion for sure.
After running out of the lab and into the boss’ office, he slams his hands down on the desk and said “I have the answer that we’ve been looking for! The answer… is 50!”
The boss’ eyes go wide, leaning back in his chair as the cigar dangles out of his mouth, falling into the ashtray. The ash flickers like fireworks as dollar signs appear in the boss’ eyes, quickly standing up to shake his hand.
“Congratulations,” the boss said, shaking erratically, “you just saved the Mountain Dew corporation as we know it!”
On August 22, 2018, parent company PepsiCo filed for the trademark name. The rumors began to spiral, eventually landing on the practical 50 flavors option that would come to define the drink. While it wouldn’t be out until Memorial Day Weekend 2019, the marketing leading up to that date was effective in raising anticipation. Group pages began to speculate as to how it would taste. Mtn Dew Kid would write posts dedicated to its publication.
By January 9, 2019, there were already images circulating of Liberty Brew (above). By January 24, the YouTube page for myCountyMarket would release a video where they taste-tested it while asking the question: “do you know what America tastes like?”
According to Mountain Dew Wiki, there were a few contesting flavors for Liberty Brew. Among the ones listed were Bomb Pops, and various types of gummies. Among the gummies listed were Lifesavers and the blue raspberry Krabby Patty gummy. Its color has been compared to the company’s Dark Berry drink. Whatever it may be, the reception was much more positive than Dew-S-A and was going to make July 4, 2019, much better than July 4, 2017.
At the time there was no certainty that Liberty Brew was going to make it to 2020. It was considered a fad, though one that inspired a lot of conversation. If you weren’t talking about the flavor, you were likely trying to figure out what all 50 flavors were, or how they came to represent the melting pot of America. I for one just accepted the flavor for what it was, thinking that it tasted good though couldn’t hold a candle to the much superior competition of the time: Dr. Pepper Dark Berry. It’s a personal thing, but the emphasis on citrus in Mountain Dew has always kept it from being a favorite. Even the hint of it in other drinks feels like a weird muddying of the waters.
Still, Liberty Brew for me was a high point and maybe the only Mountain Dew spin-off drink I cared to be a repeat customer for since Code Red. It definitely grabs you, demanding an immediate reaction as you swig it around in your mouth, trying to compartmentalize 50 flavors, not realizing that this technique might ruin it. Liberty Brew wasn’t meant to be sifted through, where you figured out where the acacia was. Like the holiday itself, you were supposed to be lost in the moment, enjoying how this culture came together to create something new and innovative.
It is why I am eager to fit it in sometime before its expiration date in 2020. According to a leak from December 2019 on The Dew Drinker Discord, Liberty Brew was coming back. It was originally scheduled for April, was pushed back when Coronavirus decided to be its familiar nagging self. On June 15, their website updated the news that it would be available for a “limited time” of 83 days, or until September 6, 2020. Yes, even if the holidays are long over by that point, it’s important to know that liberty lasts all year long, even into a period that’s encroaching on the more exciting Voo-Dew flavor’s stomping grounds.
As I mentioned, I have yet to personally find a drink despite visiting three stores this past Friday. It may just be bad luck, especially since their tracker website didn’t have any available either in-store or online. I’m sure that things have changed, though it is making me nervous that Coronavirus is pulling a Lebron James and disappointing me during the holidays. It already was pushed back once, so maybe unforeseen circumstances have popped up.
With that said, I conclude that the patriotic Mountain Dew line is getting a bit of a resurgence in the year to come. It was originally announced that Dew-S-A would return in 2020 for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. But alas, they were canceled and thus the marketing has been postponed to 2021. Those wanting Mountain Dew to play dueling banjos are likely crushed.
But for now, we’re promised the sweet, sweet taste of Liberty Brew in all of its bluey glory. I’m hoping that it could become a pastime of sorts for the soda drinking community, reflecting something symbolic (albeit in a crass capitalistic way) of what makes America such a wonderful place to live. It has so many flavors, and they all become one as we sip down their lush extravagance. Liberty Brew wouldn’t be the same without any one flavor missing, and it’s safe to say that America wouldn’t either without any of the states or territories. Together, it’s a fascinating collage of ideologies trying to compromise a grand vision.
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Okay, maybe Liberty Brew isn’t the Lin-Manuel Miranda of soft drinks. But still, in a time when this nation needs something to feel optimistic about, it’s nice to know that Mountain Dew has our back, willing to remind us of the power of ingenuity and good tastes. I’m sure that I will be thrilled when I finally see that beauty on a shelf, calling out for me to buy it. It will do the same for you. If you live boldly, I hope you’ll join me on that quest.
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