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)

Arizona Frost ChillZicle

 

Product circa: 2025

Supposedly a juice cocktail meant to taste like an American "rocket pop", I would say that this doesn't hit the mark of that aim.  It has darker berry flavors that border on grape, and otherwise doesn't remind me of a rocket pop at all.

However, it's delicious.  Specifically, the style of this drink is not too sweet, in a way that reminds me heavily of some of the more well-balanced Snapples or even old-school juice box drinks.  The overall feel of this stuff is very nostalgic.  I will make it a point to try more of Arizona's juice cocktails!

Mountain Dew Liberty Brew & DEW-S-A

                  

Products circa: various years after 2016

Liberty Brew- Supposedly this is 50 fruity flavors all in one recipe; it certainly tastes it.  There are some interesting but unknowable flavors that pop up here and there on the tongue, but ultimately this just ends up taste blue, like its color.  But this is one of the sweetest Dews I’ve ever tasted.  After this product was released, it was re-released in subsequent years as Liberty Chill.

Dew-S-A - This product is a mix of the Code Red, White Out, and Voltage products, to match the red, white, and blue theme of the American flag.  However, this formulation was the 2017 version, which had zero calorie sweetener in addition to sugar.  Aside from this awful sweetener combination, the tastes of Code Red and Voltage combine to provide an overall berry taste, but it's further ruined by the pepperiness of the White Out.

Gatorade Mashups Cool Blue + Fruit Punch

 

Product circa: 2025

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

A cool idea.  This sounds delicious, right?  For whatever reason, it's not.  They don't marry at all.  I'd rather have each constituent product individually. 

Gatorade Lightning Blast & Midnight Ice

 

Note: These are Presumptive Ephemeral Noms.

Even though these are touted as "New Flavors", they are almost certainly available only for a limited time.

With names like these and the profuse blending of artificial flavors, it's often tough to discern the flavor components without looking online.  Lightning Blast is very melon-forward for me, with what seems like berry flavors following.  Midnight Ice undoubtedly has grape in it, with tropical flavors surrounding it.  Neither are especially good or interesting. 

Dr. Pepper Blackberry

 

Product circa: 2025

I've drunk a whole 12 pack of this stuff and I'm still having trouble assessing it.

There is a subtle blackberry flavor added to the product, of course, and it's not just a "berry" flavor - it's definitely blackberry.  But it's not a blackberry that would fool you into thinking it's natural.

I could say that the added flavor could be stronger, as I often do, but I'm not sure that'd be a great idea here.  In the end, it's just good, not great.  It's about on par with the original.

Red Bull Coconut Edition/Summer Edition 2018

 

Product circa: 2018 and intermittent since

This has had permutations throughout the years.  It was called Summer Edition in 2018, and since has been called Coconut Edition.

Ostensibly a coconut berry flavor, what I get is the expected Red Bull taste with a sour berry added in, and a hint of coconut.  I wish it had more coconut.

Mountain Dew Infinite Swirl

 

Product circa: Summer 2024

Supposedly a berry pineapple Dew, I would say that the berry here manages to support the pineapple, such that, to me, this is ultimately a pineapple Dew.  And that's good, because it's probably the best pineapple Dew I have tasted so far.

Mountain Dew Star Spangled Splash, Freedom Fusion, and Liberty Chill

 

Product circa: Independence Day 2024

Should they really keep doing this for the US Independence Day?  They will run out of vocabulary words eventually.

Star Spangled Splash: Dew with generic red fruit.  It's not bad, but I've tasted this kind of Dew at least a dozen times.

Freedom Fusion: A peach lemonade Dew which will naturally be compared to the KFC exclusive Sweet Lightning.  I've only had the latter once or twice, and it wasn't memorable enough to recall.  This stuff is very tasty, with a little tartness that goes a long way.  I would say that they should have upped the peach flavoring, but if they had, I probably would be saying I had wished they dialed it back.  They deserve a lot of credit for this one.

Liberty Chill: Another one of the occasional "omnibus" varieties that combines an absurd amount of flavors into one beverage (in this case, 50).  This is a mess... it's overly sweet, and if I try, I can pick out "blue", and "cherry", and that's about it.

Mountain Dew Spark

 

Product circa: 2022 re-release

One of a million “berry lemonade” Dews.  Purportedly a raspberry lemonade, I’m getting more of a generic “fruit” flavor along with the fantastic lemon flavor.  This stuff is also one of the more tart Dews that you’ll find as well.  Sadly, for me, the flavor is actually a little too overbearing.  If they dialed down the flavor while keeping the tartness, it’d be fantastic.

Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Jam Session

Ben & Jerry's has a line of exclusive flavors that you can only get at Target.  Here's one: Peanut Butter Jam Session.  I'll give you three guesses on what it tries to simulate.

Yes, it's peanut butter and jelly ice cream.  It's this a good idea?  I would answer, "Moderately".  The vanilla ice cream is mixed with swirls of jelly and peanut butter, simply put.  They did one thing right here: the jam used here is raspberry jam, and it just works.  Strawberry would have been more boring, and grape would have been a disaster.  And while I'm biased toward creamy peanut butter, I think Ben & Jerry's use of the crunchy variety adds a texture that isn't entirely welcome here.  And unfortunately, peanut butter, jelly, and cream don't make the most natural of combinations.

It's good stuff, but the little things here detract from the experience.


Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Jam Session:- Good
Original Ben & Jerry's(Vanilla, for comparison):- Great

acquired: Target

Pop-Tarts Red, White & Berry

Shame on you, Pop-Tarts...

This summer's special flavor of the famous pastries was Red, White & Berry, in honor of Independence Day.

Unfortunately, these seem to be an identical rehash of last year's 2012 Team USA flavor, minus the "gold medal" foil wrapping.  What's worse, the few pastries I could stomach were stiff and dry, as if last year's stock had been repackaged and reused.  I can't prove that, and so I won't try.  But it's a disturbing prospect.

I have no problem reusing a review for a reused product.  Click here to read it.


Pop-Tarts Red, White & Berry:- Good
Original Pop-Tarts(Strawberry, for comparison):- Good

Vintage: Mountain Dew Pitch Black (re-release)

Famous for releasing flavored versions of their products, Mountain Dew released a variation for Halloween of 2004 called Mountain Dew Pitch Black.  Pitch Black claimed to be flavored with "black grape".  While black grapes aren't technically a thing, I imagine PepsiCo simply refers to very dark heavily-sugared varieties of red grapes.

The combination of grape with Mountain Dew's pan-citrus flavor doesn't seem like it would work, but it does.  This is because while the drink is dark purple and would indicate overwhelming grape flavor, the grape is restrained in the recipe and manages to accent the Dew in a "this doesn't really taste like grape" kind of way.  Pitch Black was one of the best sodas of all time, in my opinion.

A year later PepsiCo released a sequel to Pitch Black: Mountain Dew Pitch Black II.  The flavor was mostly the same, but this time it contained a kick of sourness like an under-sweetened lemonade.  While novel, I felt the change was for the worse.

But in a move blessed by the angels, the company brought back the original Mountain Dew Pitch Black for a few months in mid-2011 as a Limited Edition "Back by popular DEWmand."

I can't say for sure if this Limited Edition Pitch Black is identical to the original, but it sure seems like it.  Like Dark Berry, this Dew is sweetened further past the original formula.  The flavor of the mix doesn't actually taste like grape soda, but instead of a generic "berry" that's sweeter and heavier than what your average berry product might taste like.  The peppery sweetness weighs down the bright citrus and transforms it into a different animal.  I'm not sure a blind taster would be able to tell that this is a Mountain Dew.  Overall, a fascinating study in what a Dew can be, and I urge PepsiCo to, if they can't bring it back again, at least continue to innovate on this level.

I only have one 20oz bottle of this 2011 Limited Edition left, and it's already gone flat.  I'll see how long I can make it last.


Mountain Dew Pitch Black: - Outstanding
Original Mountain Dew(for comparison): - Great

Pop-Tarts 2012 Team USA

The sixth of several summer-related posts in a row!

Pop-Tarts issued a flavor celebrating the participation of the United States Olympic team in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England during August.

This product has a few humorous and notable things going on with it:

1) The name of the flavor is "2012 Team USA".  That's it.  Despite it claiming in smaller writing below the title that it is a "mixed berry" pastry, it's technically 2012 Team USA-flavored.
2) The foil wrappers inside the box are gold, not silver(like usual), because of course, the USA accepts nothing less than gold for the Olympics.
3) The pastries themselves are the most obnoxious I've ever seen.  The pastry dough is colored with deep red, with a white frosting and red and blue rock candy sprinkles.

As for the taste, it's barely discernible from the standard Strawberry Pop-Tarts.  If anything, the flavor is more muddled and less characteristic.


 Pop-Tarts 2012 Team USA:- Good
Original Pop-Tarts(Strawberry, for comparison):- Good

acquired: Giant

The Amazing Spider-Man Limited Edition Spidey Berry

The fifth of several summer-related posts in a row!

Another standalone limited time cereal, this product also celebrates the Amazing Spider-Man film from this summer.

This "berry" cereal is actually just flavored with strawberry, and it wafts to your nose from the moment you open the bag.  Speckled with "lizard villain" marshmallows, these strawberry "webs" are almost of the same construction as what you'd find in Honeycomb cereal.

But quite frankly, familiar expectations should end there.  Why?  Because while the flavor of the cereal easily resembles that of strawberry milk, the sweetness of the "webs" are dialed down almost to zero, with only the marshmallows providing each bite's sugar.  I applaud the company for avoiding the unnecessary calories(think of the children!) and avoiding the saccharine pit into which these cereals too often fall, but unfortunately I think that the stuff just needs to be a bit more sweet.

The restraint of this cereal's sweetness is a novelty that makes it interesting and bumps it just barely into the 2-NOM range, but it'd be better with more sugar.


The Amazing Spider-Man Limited Edition Spidey Berry: - Good

Mountain Dew Dark Berry

The second of several summer-related posts in a row!

Mountain Dew is no stranger to exclusive flavors and it is also no stranger to cross-branding.  We have both here in Mountain Dew Dark Berry, which coincided with and celebrated the release of The Dark Knight Rises film back in July.

I was hoping that this Dew was going to be akin to Mountain Dew Pitch Black (Vintage review coming soon), but it was not to be.

Dark Berry proves to be perhaps the sweetest Dew ever produced, and its sugar count on the Nutrition Facts reflect it.  What follows the sip is a muddy combination of both generic berry flavor along with grape.  While not stellar, it's pleasant.  However, I'm reminded that over-sweetening foods is a common practice to hide flavor and fool the taste buds into thinking something is tastier than it is, and I'm puzzled why Pepsico did this.  I can barely drink a whole can at a time.


Mountain Dew Dark Berry: - Good
Mountain Dew(original, for comparison): - Great

Kool-Aid Ghoul-Aid Scary Blackberry

You could call our house a Kool-Aid shop, so to speak.  We drink a lot of Kool-Aid (with sugar free sweetener), and we keep up on a lot of the new flavors that occasionally come out.  Limited time flavors, however, are rare for Kool-Aid.

The company has decided to celebrate Halloween with Ghoul-Aid, a special edition flavor of "blackberry".  This mix's flavor(prepared with real sugar for review) isn't quite of blackberry, but instead a mix of various purple fruits.  To me, it tastes and smells mostly of blueberry, but there's also grape, blackberry, raspberry, and maybe even pomegranate.  The finish of this stuff is surprisingly sour and bitter, reminiscent of a good black cherry soda.

The sourness isn't my cup of tea, and blueberry isn't my favorite flavor either.  Overall, however, I laud Kool-Aid for issuing something new, and especially one that's different than their normal stable of flavors.

Kool-Aid Ghoul-Aid Scary Blackberry: - Good
Original Kool-Aid(Grape, for comparison): - Good