By Graham C Wheat

Features Editor

Yet another contender has entered the ring of super-caffeinated, syrupy beverages to keep you as alert as possible. If you just can’t wait to suck down taurine and vitamin B-12 before breakfast, Mountain Dew: Kickstart has you covered.

Although Mountain Dew is no stranger to the energy drink game, with their flagship energy drink named AMP, Kickstart doesn’t deliver as well as Dew’s other delicious beverages.

Some of the Dew spin-off flavors, Code Red and Baja Blast to name a few, have garnered praise from fans and regular consumers, and perhaps this is the reason the brand wanted to create yet another spinoff. The idea seems to be churn out and spin-off as a many flavors as possible.

While I heartily enjoy the soda flavors they created, mostly because of the high caffeine content for a soda pop, and enjoy AMP energy drinks because of their subdued flavor compared to other energy drinks. Kickstart seems to miss the flavor train and the marketing campaign just adds to that bad flavor in your mouth.

It would seem that the intended purpose for this drink is to be consumed in the morning, hence “Kickstart.”

Also it is not purely an energy drink, being a half energy drink and half “juice” blend.  There are two flavors, Citrus Blend and Fruit Punch. I chose the Citrus Blend. It somehow seemed more appropriate for the morning hours. When poured it had a nuclear orange glow and was quite bubbly. It reminded me of carbonated Sunny Delight that had been next to a reactor core for sometime.

The taste too gave me the impression of Sunny Delight, just watered down and a little fizzy. The only Mountain Dew part of the drink I could discern was in the after taste. Yet it wasn’t quite The Dew, the sucralose after taste that persisted I could not get rid of.  Once I finished the drink, my stomach gave a large growl, as if saying,

“Yes, you fool, it was nuclear!”

The reaction to the 92 milligrams of caffeine was about what I expected being a heavy coffee drinker. I wasn’t wired the entire morning, as I can say first hand some energy drinks will do. The only  “kickstart” I felt was my stomach punishing me for swigging the nuclear juice down. By no means did I feel compelled to start my day that way again.

Ultimately, Mountain Dew: Kickstart seems to be another forgettable choice in the inundated arena of energy drinks and “blends.” While the taste was bad, the choice to market it as a morning drink was worse.

1/5