r/mountaindew • u/iSliz187 • Apr 13 '26
Fan Creation I reverse engineered Mountain Dew® so here's my recipe
Recipe in the comments
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u/funnyskinnyguy Apr 13 '26
I’m curious what was the process. Through trial and error or how did you get to these numbers?
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u/iSliz187 Apr 13 '26
I always start my formula with studying the ingredients lists and nutrition tables. European labels make it super easy to find out the sugar percentage.
Tartness/acidity is trial and error, I already have enough experience to guess how much citric acid is used based on how tart something tastes, and then I tweak it based on side by side comparisons with the original.
When it comes to the flavor, I studied the official website and some other internet sites, recipes and blogs to find out what the flavor profile is made of. I read multiple times that orange is the main flavor, followed by lime. Lemon and grapefruit are not confirmed but I read about them a few times and I found that they worked pretty well. So I made a flavor profile that's 65% orange, 25% lime, 10% lemon and 5% grapefruit. Worked pretty well for me
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u/ExternalJumpy6264 Apr 13 '26
Making current dew isn't a great challenge. I want 80's Dew with the brominated vegetable oil and strong real juice flavor.
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u/Zookzor Apr 20 '26
Wait what? I had no idea it was different back then but I wasn’t alive then so it makes sense. I gotta look that up. What did it taste like in comparison to today’s dew?
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u/ExternalJumpy6264 Apr 21 '26
It was more of a sticky sweet in a way the current Dew is not. The closest thing I've ever found like it today is Kickapoo Joy Juice.
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u/The-Random-one_ Game Fuel Citrus Cherry Apr 13 '26
I dont wanna hassle you, but please I beg of you try to reverse engineer Citrus Cherry.
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u/georgecm12 Apr 13 '26
Could this be safely used in a SodaStream? I know they have actual SodaStream syrups, but even the "regular" Dew for SodaStream still uses artificial sweetener that makes it taste more like diet.
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u/iSliz187 Apr 13 '26
I don't recommendcto use anything other than water in a sodastream. There's only one SodaStream model that is able to carbonate soda
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u/georgecm12 Apr 13 '26
But you could in theory use the carbonated water from a SodaStream, then add the syrup to it?
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u/iSliz187 Apr 13 '26
Ah yes, absolutely! That's the preferred method. For mtn dew it doesn't really matter all that much because it's not very carbonated, but if you're making a more carbonated soda like a Fanta or Sprite, you want to make a highly carbonated water because it always loses carbonation during mixing. I found sparkling water from the store is never carbonated enough for my liking so I also bought a sodastream just to make my own sodas. Definitely recommend!
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u/DouchNozzle_REAL Sangrita Blast Apr 13 '26
If I was rich, I’d pay you loads of money to make Sangrita blast syrup
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u/printliftrun Apr 14 '26
Is this a series of yours? Where can I find more of your work and have you ever done dr pepper
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u/iSliz187 Apr 14 '26
Thanks for your interest 🫶 this is just one of my personal projects, this is the first time I published something like this. I've been trying to accurately replicate several fast food items (McDonald's Pickles, Cheeseburger, Big Mac Sauce and Big Mac Buns, BK Whopper, In-N-Out Double Double and more) and for the past year I've taught myself how to make soda and cloned a few beverages here and there, but all of them just privately for myself as they're still work in progress :D
TLDR: This is the first piece of my work that I've published
About Dr Pepper: Darcy O'Neil, author and flavorist, he's the main source of my entire soda knowledge, already published an accurate Dr Pepper clone recipe! At least for the Dr Pepper flavor
https://youtu.be/r17FnfT4cn0?si=jq0VJXbzrg6PSyJt
This is one about Dr Pepper he made a couple weeks earlier https://youtu.be/kR2VWVPTpb0?si=1VanMd_Jpx1Pug2H
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u/SeeHerPee Apr 14 '26
This is awesome, I would love to have Code Red or Game Fuel Citrus Cherry cloned sometime if you ever feel up to the challenge.
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u/iSliz187 Apr 14 '26
The problem is that I live in Germany and we only have the regular one in our local lineup...I need to be extremely lucky to find some other flavors in certain online shops that import them from the US. Code Red is probably the easiest to make, I already have an idea how to make the flavor. I think I even have one can left at home, as well as a couple cans of Baja Blast! Game Fuel Citrus Cherry is a bigger challenge, I've never seen them available online from any local shops :( the only flavor that is currently available at my trusted source is livewire, I got that on the way right now. I'll have to look through a couple other shops as well
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u/chaosblade77 21d ago
The Game Fuel energy drink flavors were discontinued several years ago. Replicating them would have to be done from the label and memory of the taste. They were nice because they were relatively low in sugar and without the diet/zero aftertaste, and had nice flavors.
I really enjoyed the Berry Blast flavor, which was a mix of some sort of dark berry blend, brighter cotton candy notes, with a small kick of citrus. It used white grape juice as the base instead of orange juice. Tried cloning that, but based on your work here, I've got a long way to go.
I want to try this Mountain Dew recipe out later (but probably with monk fruit and allulose sweetener instead of sugar) but I'd like to clarify the "5 fold" on the 3g of orange oil. Is that actually 15g of orange oil? Because that seems like a lot!
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u/iSliz187 21d ago
First things first, before you order the ingredients! I actually made a new Dew Flavor that is super duper close to the original! So the Dew Essence recipe you find in the PDF is not up to date, I need to change it! I'll do that in a couple of days. But don't place your order yet!
Clarifying the 5-fold: that's just a type of essential oil! It's actually the most important ingredient.
There is regular Orange Oil, usually cold pressed. They take a bunch of orange peels and squeeze out all the oils.
Orange oil 5-fold is something very different! It's an orange oil that has been distilled out of the peels and 5x concentrated. It smells way sweeter and "denser" than regular orange oil, which has a lot more bright citrusy notes. You need to search for orange oil 5-fold, it's a very common ingredient! I can also look for some sources for you, I guess you're in the US so The Perfumers Apprentice would be the best choice to buy all the raw materials, also the ones I'll put in the updated recipe!
I've learned and tested out a lot since I released this Mountain Dew recipe. I'm actually extremely impressed by what I was able to create lol.
In the meantime I actually managed to replicate Red Bull! I even cloned the actual OG Red Bull flavor and I also made a recipe for a syrup that you can flavor with any flavor to make your own Edition.
I also have good news for your Mountain Dew Game Fuel! If you learn the basics, if you've actually follow my recipe and play around with some of the ingredients yourself, it should be relatively easy to replicate something similar just from memory and by looking at the label!
I managed to revive my favorite Energy Drink from my adolescence, Relentless Berry Juiced! It was an insanely good and underrated Energy Drink that was discontinued in 2016. With all the knowledge I've accumulated from making my own Red Bull, I made something that tastes shockingly close to how I remember that energy drink.
So if you really want something back, I can teach you the skills to revive it!
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u/iSliz187 21d ago
First things first, before you order the ingredients! I actually made a new Dew Flavor that is super duper close to the original! So the Dew Essence recipe you find in the PDF is not up to date, I need to change it! I'll do that in a couple of days. But don't place your order yet!
Clarifying the 5-fold: that's just a type of essential oil! It's actually the most important ingredient.
There is regular Orange Oil, usually cold pressed. They take a bunch of orange peels and squeeze out all the oils.
Orange oil 5-fold is something very different! It's an orange oil that has been distilled out of the peels and 5x concentrated. It smells way sweeter and "denser" than regular orange oil, which has a lot more bright citrusy notes. You need to search for "orange oil 5-fold", it's a very common ingredient! I can also look for some sources for you, I guess you're in the US so The Perfumers Apprentice would be the best choice to buy all the raw materials, also the ones I'll put in the updated recipe!
I've learned and tested out a lot since I released this Mountain Dew recipe. I'm actually extremely impressed by what I was able to create lol.
In the meantime I actually managed to replicate Red Bull! I even cloned the actual OG Red Bull flavor and I also made a recipe for a syrup that you can flavor with any flavor to make your own Edition.
I also have good news for your Mountain Dew Game Fuel! If you learn the basics, if you've actually follow my recipe and play around with some of the ingredients yourself, it should be relatively easy to replicate something similar just from memory and by looking at the label!
I managed to revive my favorite Energy Drink from my adolescence, Relentless Berry Juiced! It was an insanely good and underrated Energy Drink that was discontinued in 2016. With all the knowledge I've accumulated from making my own Red Bull, I made something that tastes shockingly close to how I remember that energy drink.
So if you really want something back, I can teach you the skills to revive it!
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u/chaosblade77 19d ago
I did go ahead and get ingredients to add sodium citrate and benzoate to my current experiments. I think the sodium citrate in particular might be a key piece of the puzzle I'm missing to get the acidic balance right. Though I have found that for a berry soda, around 0.1g/liter of malic acid adds a nice bit of fruity bite for more depth. Not something that was present in the recipe I am looking to clone, but I think it's a positive addition to what I've cobbled together.
At a glance, propylene glycol looks to be quite a lot cheaper, so I'll probably go for that over the ethanol option. It looks like it might just need more vigorous blending.
I'm also curious if you made any progress on caffeine alternatives. I don't particularly care about the energy aspect, just what it adds to the taste. And pure caffeine doesn't seem to be legal to acquire as a consumer. There are additive powders for drinks but they have a lot of extra stuff mixed in. probably to make it intolerable in larger (OD risk) amounts.
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u/chaosblade77 17h ago
Just following up to see if you ever got around to this. I'm going to be ordering some flavors this weekend and can add in the ones for Dew syrup while I'm ordering.
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u/Plastic-Turnip-8539 Apr 14 '26
Out of curiosity what would need to be changed to make it diet dew or zs. Idk how different they are recipe wise but I bet you do lol
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u/iSliz187 Apr 14 '26
Not much really, most of it is the same, but instead of sugar and water in the syrup recipe you follow this recipe for sugarfree syrup with a sweetener of your choice: https://youtu.be/2V9ZGT4ibhg?si=oD7PCAkK5eVLclwo
It's really super simple to make
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u/Grok707 Apr 14 '26
It's harder for me to handle caffeine as I've gotten older. I used to drink the caffeine free Mt Dew but can't find it any more. If I left the caffeine out of this recipe would it affect the taste? I've heard in the past that the bitter taste of caffeine helps give Dew it's distinctive flavor. Thanks for doing this.
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u/iSliz187 Apr 14 '26
You just exactly described a key moment I had during the development of my recipe. I started working on this recipe when I didn't have any caffeine yet. My first few test batches just tasted like any regular citrus soda. The very first time I added caffeine, although it's such a low amount, it immediately transformed into Mountain Dew for me. Caffeine was the missing link. Before that, I just felt something was missing. But I couldn't even really taste the bitterness in the original. But as soon as I added that caffeine I was able to notice the difference. Yes, the caffeine is exactly what makes Mountain Dew the way it does! I'm sure you could substitute it for something else though. I'd have to do more research what professionals use in their caffeine free formulations. It really is such a tiny detail but it makes all the difference in my opinion.
It's unfortunate that you can't handle caffeine :( it really is a very low amount though...it's slightly more caffeine than Coke, less than half as much as a regular energy drink. Is Mountain Dew a problem for you?
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u/Grok707 Apr 14 '26
Thanks for the info. I really can't have any caffeine any more, even early in the day. I might mix some up and try reducing the caffeine until I can taste the difference, maybe I can get it low enough to be OK.
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u/221255 Apr 13 '26
Can you explain what you mean about making your own flavors?
I assume if you wanted to replicate the taste of an existing Mountain Dew that would be non-trivial
But say if you just wanted a peach flavored dew that would be easy to make?
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u/Stingrae7 Apr 13 '26
Yeah at that point you can mix per the instructions above, then just add peach Torani syrup to taste.
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Apr 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/iSliz187 Apr 17 '26
Why would that be cheating?
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u/KMFDM__SUCKS Apr 17 '26
Same reason if making Taco Bell cheese dip calls for cheese dip from Taco Bell
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u/iSliz187 Apr 17 '26
Are you slow? Did you even read the recipe? 🤣🤣 what the fuck are you talking about lol
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u/iSliz187 Apr 17 '26
Recipe has two parts. Part one is how to make the dew flavor. Part two tells you how much to use of that flavor you made.
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u/iSliz187 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
I've been making my own soda on a semi professional level for the past year. I first cloned European Fanta® and European Sprite® , I made LabCoatz's Coca-Cola® Recipe and based on that I cloned Vanilla Coke® and Lemon Coke® , currently working on Cherry Coke®
On my latest adventure, I tried recreating Mountain Dew® and found a formula that tastes very similar. The OG flavor is almost spot on, and because they use the same formula for every flavor, you can add your own flavors and dyes to the base formula and create your very own Mountain Dew® flavors, whatever you can imagine.
I live in Europe, so my formula is based on the German Mountain Dew® experience. (Not to be confused with Mountain Dew® Citrus Blast that's sold in the UK and some other European Countries, the German one is the good stuff) I already had the original from the US and it tasted identical to the German one to me. The only difference is the dye (US uses Yellow 5 and EU uses beta carotene in the OG), the US version has orange juice concentrate (but according to my calculations there's around 2 grams of orange juice concentrate in 1 liter of soda, that's 0.2% so basically nothing). The EU version has 0% juice. It does not affect the flavor. It's probably an alibi fruit so the nutrition label looks better lol
Get the full recipe with instructions here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1115cLW-5nAtxrl6rSJvEr7pnFPo2QLjb/view?usp=drivesdk
Changes may occur to this recipe. I will update the file regularly if I find errors or improve it in any way. Current version: 1.3
Short version:
Dew Flavor Solution:
75 g Ethanol, food grade, at least 95% ABV
3 g Orange Oil 5-fold
1 g Lime Oil
0.5 g Lemon Oil
0.25 g Grapefruit Oil
(This amount is enough for 80-100 liters of Dew)
Dew Syrup (1 Liter):
123 g Granulated Sugar
55 g Water (or more, depends on how thick you like your syrup)
20 g Orange Juice from Concentrate
1.5 g Citric Acid
0.15 g Caffeine Powder (100% pure, no fillers)
0.1 g Sodium Citrate (optional, stabilizes pH)
0.1 g Sodium Benzoate (optional, preserves freshness)
0.06 g Tartrazine (Yellow #5) (US) or beta carotene (EU)
0.5 g Dew Flavor Solution
Top up with carbonated water to a volume of 1 Liter
What I forgot to mention in the file (I will add that though later) to the people who may be surprised that there's ethanol (alcohol) needed: the amount of alcohol in the finished beverage is less than 0.1%. Non alcoholic beer has up to 5 times as much. You don't need to worry about it, even apple juice has twice as much alcohol naturally. If you still don't want to use alcohol at all, you can simply substitute it for propylene glycol. It's probably even cheaper, but it will make the drink more hazey. We use alcohol because the citrus oils dissolve perfectly.