| Code Red | ||
|---|---|---|
 The official logo for Mountain Dew Code Red as of 2021. | ||
| Description | ||
| Flavor: | United States, Canada, South Korea, Germany, and The Philippines: Cherry Australia and New Zealand: Berry | |
| Color: | Red | |
| Details | ||
| Current Status: | United States, New Zealand, and Canada: Permanent Flavor
Germany, South Korea, The Philippines, Australia: Discontinued | |
| Locations Available: | United States The Philippines Canada South Korea New Zealand Germany Australia | |
| Year(s) Available: | Freeze: US 7-Eleven: 2001 - 2002 PH 7-Eleven: 2019 CA Circle K: 2021 - Present Soda: | |
| Related Flavors: | Cherry Fusion Citrus Cherry Game Fuel (Europe) Cherry Holiday Brew Game Fuel (Charged Cherry Burst) | |
| Similar Flavors: | Kickstart (Energizing Black Cherry) Cold Fusion Freeze DEW-S-A Mountain Dew Ice (Cherry) Rise Energy (Cherry Lime Lift) | |
| Related Promotions: | Green Label Sound Honor the Code Loot for Labels Dew XP DewGothamCity Iconic Summer DEWmocracy Canada Every2Minutes Unleash Your X Fuel Up For Battle Dew Nation Rewards PepCoin | |
| Gallery | ||
Code Red is a Mountain Dew flavor released in stores in May 2001 as a permanent flavor in the United States. During its release, it proved to be massively successful. This introduction alone increased overall Mountain Dew sales by 6% in its first year, eventually leading to the creation of multiple other flavors in the 2000s.
Contents
Description
Code Red is a Cherry flavor of Mountain Dew. It's similar to another Dew flavor, which has a similar shade of cherry flavor, Citrus Cherry. Its color, as its name implies, has a red look.
Its tagline is "DEW with a Rush of Cherry Flavor." while in Oceania, its catchphrase is "DEW with a Rush of Berry Flavour."
History
In March 2001, Mountain Dew's website held a Code Red online racing game, and the top-scoring winners got sent free merchandise relating to Code Red itself. After the select people won the online racing game, the winners acquired their free merchandise. They got sent a box containing a "you won" letter, following a Code Red shirt, and a six-pack of bottles to be the one of the first to sample. The letter revealed that Code Red is "Coming to a store near you in May," meaning that it's planning on getting released in May 2001.
Officially, it got released in stores in May 2001, throughout stores nationwide in the United States as a permanent flavor in various sizes such as 20-ounce bottles, 24-ounce bottles, 2-liter bottles, 3-liter bottles, 12-packs, 24-packs. It is also available in Slurpee form exclusively for one year at 7-Eleven locations in Summer 2001 until June 2002, when it got replaced by Blue Shock Freeze.
When Code Red got first released in the United States, this introduction alone increased overall Mountain Dew sales by 6% in its first year. The parent company, PepsiCo, got inspired by this introduction, eventually leading, fabricating multiple other flavors such as LiveWire in the Summer of 2003.
Diet Code Red
After a successful first year on shelves, Diet Code Red got put into production in 2002. From this, it is similar to how Red, Sport both received Diet versions before Code Red came along.
In early 2019, strangely enough, Diet Code Red, such as other lesser-known flavors, Real Sugar, White Out, Citrus Cherry, Pitch Black, Caffeine-Free Mountain Dew, Caffeine-Free Diet Mountain Dew got pulled from the shelves in most regions of the United States due to potentially low sales. As of late 2021, most of these flavors are still getting produced sporadically along the Midwest region from independent Pepsi bottlers for unknown reasons. As for Diet Code Red, in this case, it is currently available in two sizes in 12-packs and 20-ounce bottles.
Code Red Zero Sugar
On September 12th, 2021, it got known that Diet Code Red, getting a reformulation change, and it will get rebranded as Code Red Zero Sugar.
On various dates of late 2021, there are some designs and photographs of Code Red Zero Sugar on certain websites across the internet. These posts show that it is slowly inching closer to its release to stores.
As of October 2021, it is unknown if this would be a full-out nationwide release or a regional Midwest release.
International Release
Canada
In 2002, following the American release of Code Red in May 2001, Code Red was getting sold in Canada. This version, known as Code Red in English and as Code Rouge in French, got sold without caffeine due to laws preventing caffeine from being added to non-dark soft drinks. It later got discontinued in 2005 due to potentially low sales.
- Main article: DEWmocracy Canada
In 2013, Code Red was re-released, being featured alongside Voltage, Supernova, and White Out for DEWmocracy Canada. It ended up in second place, losing to Voltage, but above White Out and Supernova.
Code Red returned with White Out and Supernova in the 2014 DEWmand promotion. It had won against Supernova and White Out, and Code Red got released as a permanent flavor in 591 mL (20-ounce) bottles and 355 mL (12-ounce) 12-packs on September 2nd, 2014.
On May 4th, 2019, the official Canadian Mountain Dew Twitter account announced that Code Red got ceased production due to potentially low sales, presumably referring to its availability in bottles and cans.
In April 2021, strangely enough, it got reported that Code Red was later released in Circle K locations as a Froster Freeze and in June 2021 as a fountain drink potentially as an exclusive flavor only at Circle K locations as a permanent flavor. This release replaced Berry Twister as the new exclusive flavor in Circle K locations.
The Philippines
Around the early 2000s, Code Red was getting sold in The Philippines in bottles for a limited time. There's nothing currently known other than being it got released for a limited time in bottles.
In December 2019, the flavor got exclusively released to 7-Eleven convenience stores in The Philippines for a promotion named Mobile Legends, a mobile game for phones and tablets. There's nothing currently known other than being it got released for a limited time as a Slurpee.
South Korea
Code Red got released in South Korea as "마운틴 듀 코드 레드" (Mountain Dew Code Red) on March 24th, 2005, which coincided with a promotion that billed attendees to win products.[1] The drink was sold in 250ml (8-ounce) cans and 500ml (16.9-ounce) bottles.
There's not much currently known about this release, and it was likely released for only a short time, as very little got known about it. It was pretty likely to be discontinued sometime in the Mid-2000s, as it was available when Wild Black was on the shelves in 2006.
New Zealand
Code Red got introduced in New Zealand in 2009 as the first flavor expansion of Mountain Dew. Unusually enough, this particular release of Code Red features a different flavor than the usual cherry flavor found in all other countries that it got released, as it features Berry flavoring instead of Cherry flavoring.
Germany
In 2010, Code Red got released in Germany, mainly found in gas station convenience stores in 500ml (16.9-ounce) bottles. After a year, the bottle changed from a clear bottle to a light red bottle. It was discontinued silently in 2016 due to low sales.
Australia
In 2014, Code Red got released for a limited time in Australia under the Mountain Dew Energised name as part of an X-Men: Days of Future Past promotion. Similar to the New Zealand variant, the flavor used in New Zealand is Berry instead of Cherry. It was available from April and until September of the same year.
Trivia
- Coming soon!
References
