Summer Freeze (previously known as Summer Pop) is a Mountain Dew flavor sampled at the Mountain Dew Outpost from June 4th to the 12th, 2022, at Doe Mountain in Tennessee and was released in the Summer of 2023 with a Zero Sugar variant for a limited time in the United States. A year later, it was released for a limited time in Canada in Circle K/Couche Tard locations and in Honduras later in the year.
Description[]
As its name implies, Summer Freeze is a Red (Cherry), White (Lemon), and Blue (Raspberry) Popsicle[1] flavor of Mountain Dew and has a blue look.
Tagline[]
Its tagline was "DEW with a Blast of Summer Americana. Natural and Artificial Flavors."
Its tagline in Canada is simplified to "Ice Pop" in English or "SUCETTE GLACÉE" in French. Despite having a different tagline, the taste is identical to its American counterpart.
History[]
2022 Outpost test release[]
On May 19th, 2022, PepsiCo announced[2] the opening of a Mountain Dew-themed Outpost opened to the public on June 4th, lasting until the 12th of that same month. The Outpost held DEW-sponsored activities and the MTN DEW Outpost Flavor Adventure, offering six never-released flavors of Pickle, Huckleberry, S'mores, Summer Pop, Elderberry, and Apple Cinnamon.
Participants of the Outpost had a chance to try out the flavors and to provide their opinions on flavors in order to help PepsiCo decide on future flavor releases. After the Outpost closed, no results were publicly shared and it was unclear which flavors, if any, would be receiving store releases. Summer Pop would not be seen again until December 2nd, 2022, when it was revealed that there were plans for a Summer 2023 release with a new name, Summer Freeze, alongside a Zero Sugar variant.
2023 Limited-Time store release[]
On October 24th, 2022, PepsiCo filed[3] a trademark name for Summer Freeze titled "MTN DEW SUMMER FREEZE." alongside another file[4] for its Zero Sugar variant titled 'MTN DEW ZERO SUGAR SUMMER FREEZE." It was theorized that it would be the new name for the Summer Pop flavor, although this was not confirmed at the time.
On December 2nd, 2022, on the Dew Drinker Discord[5], it was leaked that Summer Pop would receive a limited-time Summer 2023 release with a new name, Summer Freeze, alongside a Zero Sugar variant. The leak also showed a release window of April 24th, 2023 through June 16th, 2023 (an 8-week period) with the flavor being available in 20-ounce bottles, 12-packs, and 16.9 ounce bottle multipacks.
International release[]
Canada[]
2024 Limited-Time Circle K release[]
On May 7th, 2024, a member of the Dew Drinker Discord took a photograph in Toronto, Canada, showing that Purple Thunder is returning to Circle K/Couche Tard locations in the 16-ounce "king" cans, in both singles and 12 packs. Like the 2022 limited-time release with a companion flavor, White Out. This year has another companion flavor, new for Canada: Summer Freeze.
Like Purple Thunder's Kroger Expansion release, the various references to Circle K were removed to likely not reflect another separate store franchise and customer confusion. As for Summer Freeze, the references for "MD1940" were removed as Original Mountain Dew wasn't introduced to Canada until 1964. Additionally, the description was changed from "Summer Pop" to "Ice Pop."
Both flavors are available for a limited time from May to September 16th, 2024[6].
Honduras[]
On July 13th, 2024[7], the official Mountain Dew Honduras Facebook account announced a new flavor, affirming: "a new member joins the team."
On July 23rd, 2024[8], the official Mountain Dew Honduras Facebook teased a new summer flavor in a video. In the background of the video is one of Summer Freeze's mascots, the sun chilling in the sky. A promotional poster showing Summer Freeze's bottle and can designs was later posted on July 26th.Summer Freeze's release in Honduras[9]
The current status of Summer Freeze's Honduran release is unknown. It is also unknown as to whether or not its flavor profile is the same as that of Summer Freeze's American and Canadian releases.
Trivia[]
- This flavor was the third American-themed flavor to release, the first being DEW-S-A (2017, 2021), the second being Liberty Brew/Liberty Chill (2019, 2020, 2024), and the fourth and fifth being Star Spangled Splash and Freedom Fusion (both 2024).
- This American-themed flavor is the only flavor to be released for a limited time in other countries. The first is Canada, and the second is Honduras.
- This event was one of the many taste test sessions that Mountain Dew has hosted in a long time. Another test session was in 2009, where they held a tour of 17 cities in the United States to taste test seven flavors for the DEWmocracy 2 campaign.
- On January 21st and 29th, 2023, in two YouTube videos, a Food reviewer posted reviews on the Zero Sugar variant on the 21st and the Regular variant on the 29th, which he received as a test bottle. Those videos reveal the flavor's number for the Zero variant to be #675 and Regular #630.
- On Summer Freeze's packaging, there are some references. These references are "Dew" (Do The Dew), "MD1940" (the year that Mountain Dew was created), and "DSA" (which stands for DEW-S-A, another patriotic flavor).
References[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20231004224715/https://www.mountaindew.com/chill-out-with-mtn-dew-summer-freeze/
- ↑ https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-first-ever-mtn-dew-outpost-opens-saturday-june-4-at-doe-mountain-in-tennessee-301551249.html
- ↑ https://uspto.report/TM/97644446
- ↑ https://uspto.report/TM/97644403
- ↑ https://discord.gg/dew
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/TheTeamSupernova/posts/pfbid0vQ1MFXjwh9Z8K4MsXR6SDmD1h3L4DeToYEa9bY1cgdLHU9XKk65RNsEQpJW8ocSAl
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/MountainDewHN/posts/pfbid0Wg7PNQAPHH9sVuWFoLwSZKHsJ9wHCedPuvWHRpn6YQMVgRLTsfWCZGg2nnYMHLMml
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/MountainDewHN/videos/1178566913418403
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/MountainDewHN/posts/pfbid0CzJfuZcXBb4GHYLhPzEX53jkSjEyNatpAeNZ1aLvbPhVMeRLinYcQ5jFQCgCMrJPl