The Golden Era of Mountain Dew, 2001-2005
Now what I mean by the Golden Era of Mountain Dew is when big growth of sales and popularity occurred through the flavors released. Usually this era is commonly associated with the 1999 - 2005 logo. Before I talk about this great era, let me explain what happened before 2001.
Pre-Golden era
Before the addition of Code Red there has only been 5 other flavor variants since. Mountain Dew Red was a berry flavored Dew and was released to few U.S. stores in 1988. A Diet Red flavor variant was also released. The two were swiftly taken off store shelves due to low sales. After the unsuccessful Red, Mountain Dew Sport was released the next year to help promote athletic activity. A 2-calorie diet form was made, but both flavors only lasted two years and were both discontinued in 1991. It was said that Sport tasted exactly like regular Dew. The first international releases of Mountain Dew flavors were Aurora and Golden Lime. Little information is known about Aurora other than it's designs and flavor, strawberry. Golden Lime has a lime flavor as the name suggests, similar to Distortion. It was released around 1986 and discontinued around the same time. Dry Ginger was released in 1990 and discontinued the same year. It was best known for using a silver aluminum can and had a picture of a forest on it. It only has two known sizes, 250 ml. and 350 ml. Before the new millennium, Mountain Dew switched to a new logo.
The Golden Era, 2001 - 2005
I assume PepsiCo was hesitant about making another Mountain Dew flavor variant after the failures of Red and Sport. In late 2000 or early 2001, they hyped up for the released of their new flavor Code Red. They finally released the flavor, hoping that it wouldn't be a failure like the last flavors. Thankfully, Code Red fixed the flavor of Red which was berry, to a popular cherry flavor. The success of Code Red boosted the sales of Mountain Dew by 6% in 2001. It was then 2002, and just like regular Mountain Dew and the discontinued flavors, Code Red was given a diet variant with good critic and consumer reviews. The same year a new flavor was released, Blue Shock, but only in a freeze form at 7-Elevens. The June 2002 promotion only lasted 30 days. Later it was re-released with the work "Freeze" added and it has stayed in Slurpee machines ever since. After the success in America, it was released to many countries in DEWmocracy's. Fans of Dew were waiting for the next flavor of Mountain Dew to be released. Out of no where, Live Wire was announced as a limited-time summer released in 2003. It had an orange taste and was orange in color. After that release it was then released again in 2004 and 2005, and has been a permanent flavor ever since. In 2004 at an unknown point, Baja Blast was released in Taco Bell restaurants, formed to be chemically formulated to best suit their food. The flavor was a huge success and was kept permanent. Rumors of a store release were floating around and were proven false until 2014 when Baja Blast was released to store. A second store release happened in 2015 with the sort of new Sangrita Blast, and again in 2016, where it and Pitch Black battled it out in DEWcision 2016 where it lost. Speaking of Pitch Black, it was also released in 2004 for a limited edition Halloween flavor. The flavor spawned a sequel in 2005 as Pitch Black II and both flavors had critical acclaim, and sales were successful. Pitch Black has seen re-releases in 2006 as a freeze flavor, 2011, and 2016. Darth Dew was a freeze flavor released in 7-Elevens for a limited time in the middle of 2005, and was said to taste exactly like Pitch Black. In 2005 the logo switched to a more pointy and sharp version. MDX was a flavor variant also released in 2005 as more of an energy drink. After the limited-time release of Pitch Black II, the Golden Era had concluded.
fun fact: while typing this post I was drinking Baja Blast from Taco Bell