Whatever Happened To Mountain Dew Pitch Black?
It seems that soft drink manufacturers are always coming up with flavor variants and limited edition flavors and Mountain Dew is no exception to the rule. Mountain Dew Pitch Black was introduced initially in 2004 as a grape-flavored version of Mountain Dew which was dark purple in color, although the name suggests otherwise. This flavoring lasted for seven years, until 2016, when the formula was reinvented to change the flavor profile to citrus and dark fruit (via Mountain Dew Fandom).
It was introduced as a Halloween special, and was available in stores "on and off" in the following years (via Delish).
To help their customers in tracking down the soda, the Mountain Dew website still has a store locator as well as a number of options available where consumers can find the beverage online (via Mountain Dew). The soda has a whopping 75 grams of sugar in a single 20 ounce bottle (via Pepsico Beverage Facts), ten grams more than the same amount of Coca-Cola (via Coca-Cola).
The days of Mountain Dew Pitch Black are numbered
Although consumers have had a more difficult finding it lately, Mountain Dew took to Twitter to clarify that although customers were having issues finding it, it had not been discontinued nationally, although "local availability of [their] products could vary." Though this is a somewhat vague answer, a Pepsi employee clarified the situation and clarified on Reddit that drink had been mostly discontinued due to low sales numbers (via Reddit). Another employee post posited that although the drink was still available in small amounts in specific parts of the country, it was likely not long for this world.
Mountain Dew Fandom reported that the drink is still available sparsely in the Midwestern states and that the flavor was made available in slushy format at certain 7-Eleven locations.
The decision wasn't taken lightly, and as with many instances when a particular limited edition flavor is canceled, fans took to social media to voice their displeasure (via Twitter).