Are you a fan of Mountain Dew? This neon green soft drink has become one of the most popular sodas in the world over the past couple of decades. Its lemon-lime flavor and caffeine content make it a favorite for many.
Did you know, however, that Mountain Dew’s origin story is nothing like the way that we view this drink today?
In the city of Knoxville, a sleepy industrial center in Tennessee, soft drink creators Barney and Ally Hartman were looking to invent a drink that would mix well with their preferred liquor, whisky.
They chose a name that was a slang term for the homemade liquor, known as moonshine, that was commonly produced in the area.
Thus, Mountain Dew was born.
After a lonely decade-plus of only regional production and sale, the Hartmans got a break when the Tip Corporation bought the rights to their drink in 1961. They changed the flavor to make it more palatable as a regular drink, and only three years later, were bought out by the Pepsi company.
Mountain Dew remains in the hands of Pepsi to this day, where it has become one of their most popular drinks and a worldwide brand. Not bad for a whiskey mixer, huh?
