Powerade FIFA World Cup 2026 Trio

Products circa: Summer 2026

Yet another promotion for the 2026 World Cup.

Blood Orange Kick - It took me years to understand the flavor of blood orange.  The way I describe it today is a slightly more savory version of orange, a savoriness that borders on tomato.  Anyway, this has nothing of that.  It tastes mostly like any orange sports drink, but the flavor is slightly worse.

White Grape Wave - They somehow managed to alter the artificial grape flavor to simulate a commendably realistic white grape flavor.  It's not bad, but it's an odd mix with the sports drink base.

Cold Berry Burst - A tart blue raspberry with other generic "berry" thrown in.  Not teeming with flavor, but probably just the right amount of subtlety to make it easy to chug.  However, this stuff has the "cooling" menthol-like ingredients (which the internet doesn't readily identify)

Mountain Dew Dragon Fruit & TicTac Dragon Fruit

 

Product circa: 2026

Dragon fruit/pitaya is having a moment, I guess. In my cynical opinion, it's only popular because of its appearance.  I tried the stuff fresh many many years ago, and it's sweet, but its flavor is so subtle to almost be non-existent.  I think that any processed food product claiming to be flavored with it is being disingenuous.  Further, the color of its flesh is also white/colorless, and so any colorful dragon fruit products are also just doing it for "vibes".

Dew: Anyway, while its safe to say that this Dew doesn't look or taste like a dragon fruit beverage might or should, it caught me off guard on how tasty it is.  Overall, I'm just tasting "tropical", but it works so well, and it very much reminds me of Sprite Tropical Mix.  Call this Dew Tropical Mix.

TicTac: Extremely average.  Generic fruitiness, a touch of floral, but it does end with a nice sourness as it dissolves.