Mountain Dew wants to own the next step in stoner evolution.
The folks over at PepsiCo are testing a new soft drink flavor that combines the nacho cheesy taste of Doritos with the citrusy sweetness of Mountain Dew. They're calling it Dewitos, and several students at the Kent State University in Kent, Ohio were fortunate (or unfortunate) to have been one of the first few members of the general public to attend a taste-testing for this queer creation.
One freshman student, Steve Barnes, posted a picture of the bizarre beverage on Reddit using his nickname joes_nipples. The picture showed a black stand with the words "Mtn Dew Dewitos" and rows of plastic cups filled halfway with a clear orange soda. Barnes is holding one of those cups for a close-up with the camera.
"It was just really weird. Like Doritos in liquid form," he says. "It was like a weird mix of Mountain Dew flavor and Doritos. Like if you shoved a handful of Doritos in your mouth and chugged some Dew at the same time. Not that I've ever done that."
There's a spark of hope for those who are ready to be sick. Barnes says "it honestly wasn't that disgusting." The drink tastes like orange at first, he says, which isn't so bad. Then the citrusy flavor fades to make way for the cheesy tortilla chips. It's the gamer geek's ultimate dream, where he doesn't have to reach for that bag of chips and a separate bottle of soda. Dewitos can simply take care of all his sugar and caffeine needs while he battles away in some fantasy land.
Asked if he would buy the flavor if Mountain Dew rolled it out in stores, Barnes says he would, but only as a novelty item.
"I might buy it as a novelty, but I definitely wouldn't drink it regularly," he tells CNET. "It's definitely an interesting taste but I wouldn't say it tasted good."
Along with Dewitos, Mountain Dew had some other flavors for testing, albeit none as eye-popping as the Mountain Dew-Doritos combination. These are lemon ginger, which Barnes says just tastes like plain ginger ale, mango habanero and rainbow sherbet, which tastes like medicine.
Accused of making up the entire story by a few Reddit users, Barnes insists the whole taste-testing was true and Dewitos even truer. He says PepsiCo even invited the taste-testers to an electronic survey afterwards. In fact, a Mountain Dew spokesperson has officially confirmed that Dewitos is a real thing.
"We are always testing out new flavors of Mountain Dew, and giving our fans a voice in helping decide on the next new product has always been important to us," says Mountain Dew. "We opened up the DEW flavor vault and gave students a chance to try this Doritos-inspired flavor as part of a small program at colleges and universities."
Dewitos is not actually the first combination of the sugar-bomb soda and the cheese-dusted chips. In 2008, PepsiCo, which owns both Mountain Dew and Doritos-maker Frito Lay, released Doritos Quest, a sweet chip with a secret ingredient that turned out to be Mountain Dew.
