Mtn Dew Gingerbread SNAP’D | Soda Blog Review

I’m glad you asked, it sucks.

Ok, ok, sorry, maybe that’s a bit premature, but it’s been a hell of a year. Searching out in the vast wilderness of retail stores for new Mtn Dew flavors was once a wondrous and interesting task pre-pandemic. But the searches this year have just become tedious. I can whine about the supply chain issues, emptier store shelves, dumber and dumber and dumber customers, and overworked retail employees, but the net result is a crappy experience for all involved. I’m a privileged man who’s never really had to work hard for the basic necessities of life, so I’ve always got a kick out of living life like it’s a Fallout video game. Shoulder the shotgun, head to the Super-Duper Mart, blast away some ghouls and grab a case of sweet, sweet Nuka Cola. Every day we seem a little closer to that and the reality of it isn’t as fun now that it’s actually happening. We’d all like to think of ourselves as the main character, the protagonist that can obliterate infinite enemies and save the entirety of the wasteland at our own direction. Unfortunately for nearly each and every one of us, we’d actually be the poor bastard that’s already a rotted skeleton in the tutorial quest that was just trying to microwave a Hot Pocket. What were we talking about again? Oh right, Holiday Mtn Dew.

Mtn Dew Gingerbread SNAP’d is a national release holiday flavor that proudly boasts a “Blast of Artificial Gingerbread Flavor.” Color me intrigued. Mtn Dew has struggled with holiday dews, or at the very least avoids commitment to a style. The packaging and can design is a Dew collector’s dream with some great care given to art and stylization which will look great on a shelf for years to come. A great look is one thing, but let’s get to what matters…

The smell is sublime. Artificial or not, the gingerbread smell combined with the carbonation is going to be the best part of this. Like an herbal tea that you’d care less as to the taste, this is the experience you get when opening and pouring. I was to put it in my diffusor like an essential oil and just live in the smogey cloud of its very essence. I want to keep talking about the smell because I really don’t want to talk about the taste…but ok. My first impression, it sucks. The artificial taste comes through in spades and without the Mtn Dew generic base taste to pick up the slack is just tastes like an improper Sprite, and I fucking hate Sprite. Sprite original recipe will never sit right with me. When I was a kid sugar wasn’t the enemy to the parents of America, caffeine was. Kids could drink their weight in Sprite as it was a caffeine-free soda but GOD FORBID the boy have a Coke, HE’D BE UP ALL NIGHT! I put a can in the fridge and broke out all the ice I could find. On attempt number two, I was much more amicable with the result.

The stuff needs to be cold. I’m talking SUBZERO, Jackson. So cold it burns. A well digger’s bum would have to shiver at the very notion. Cold, I tell ya. Whatever doesn’t work at room temperature or slightly chilled gets nicely masked by the stone cold treatment I gave the beverage. Handing the deep chilled cup to my wife she received a much different first impression. As God as my witness, she gave me the highest credential she’s ever given to a Mtn Dew, “I don’t hate this!”

Halle-fuckin-lujah!

Verdict: Mtn Dew Gingerbread SNAP’d is a fresh attempt at the holiday concept with a brand new flavor that takes the soda in a new direction. Smells incredible, and tastes good only under a university backed and accredited deep freezing process. In short, drink it cold. At the end of the day, this is a Mtn Dew in name and marketing only. You could have told be this was Holiday Sprite and I would have believed you. For the Dew to keep this holiday side show going they need to get back to the basics and branch solely off the primary formula. Otherwise, it’s just another re-gift waiting to happen.