Love it or Leave it? Mountain Dew is Coming Out with a Baja Blast Hard Seltzer

— Feelings are running high. The twitterverse is buzzing. Memes abound. Mountain Dew’s “surprise” flavor doesn’t release until late February or early March, but we at Seltzer Nation are already feeling refreshed by Baja Blast Hard Seltzer joining the Hard Mountain Dew flavor family.

It’s been a long 2022, and it’s barely February. Is it just us, or does worrying about whether or not to embrace one of the newest (and arguably most contentious) hard seltzer flavors feel downright revitalizing?

The debate is strong.

On one side of the ring, we have the Baja Blast enthusiasts – they’re loud and they’re proud about their tropical lime soda. Baja Blast was originally made for Taco Bell in 2004, designed to complement the fast-food chain’s spicy tex-mex flavors, but the teal-blue drink gained a fanbase of its own through platforms like Reddit. These Baja Blast fans kept their resilient loyalty through nearly two decades and long periods where the flavor had limited availability. To put that in perspective, if Baja Blast was a person, they could legally buy a Hard Seltzer… in some provinces of Canada.

In reaction to Hard Mountain Dew’s Baja Blast announcement, one twitter user wrote, “Humanity has peaked.” Baltimore’s Z104.3 radio station’s official twitter page proclaimed, “I can’t wait for this.”

Not everyone is so convinced. Nay-sayers of the Dew are strapping on their gloves and bouncing from foot to foot, ready to get into the match. Some seem to think that the whole concept is just too much.

“I just read they’re making a Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hard Seltzer which sounds like our next deadly pandemic,” a twitter user said.

Others complain that it’s not enough.

“Don’t talk to me until I can buy a 24oz can of voltage (with sugar) that is 10% abv at the local gas station. that is the future,” wrote another user.

There seems to be some confusion on whether Mountain Dew hard seltzers will have caffeine. The answer is a firm no – so those hoping for the rebirth of Four Loko before its 2010 “reformation” are out of luck.

The Mountain Dew hard seltzers come from a collaboration between two of the biggest leaders in the beverage industry, Boston Beer Company and PepsiCo, Inc. Boston Beer Company made headlines late 2021 by destroying millions of cases of their Hard Selzer Truly rather than letting the product go stale. As the Baja Blast announcement came as a surprise fourth-flavor late-addition to the Mountain Dew Hard Seltzer line, this has some questioning if the move is done in hopes of reviving the company’s Hard Seltzer business as they face stock declines and supply-chain issues. Well, Boston Beer Company might just be in luck.

Mountain Dew’s Baja Blast announcement garnered a whopping 55.5k likes and over twenty thousand retweets (compared to the 2.5 likes of their August 10, 2021 announcement of their original three Mountain Dew Hard Seltzer flavors). The majority of social media posts have been firmly in the positive of this upcoming flavor release. The polarizing reaction after Mountain Dew’s late January announcement has been cheeky, heartening, and downright hilarious. Bottom line – Whether you’re a fan or not, Mountain Dew’s Baja Blast flavor seems well on its way to a hot release.