IN THE U.S, Mountain Dew accounts for approximately 7% of annual soft drink sales. All else being equal, that’s pretty big. It was designed in 1932 with the intention of chasing moonshine whiskey rather than being consumed on its own. The beer was created by two brothers who enjoyed moonshine, which was the drink of choice in the Appalachians for discriminating drinkers.
Then, whiskey and moonshine were not always smooth drinks, especially when made by amateurs to get drunk. The brothers wanted something to make their drinking experience a little smoother as chasers at the time were also very poorly made, hence Mountain Dew was created.
When the Hartman brothers sold Mountain Dew to Marion, Virginia-based Tip Corporation, the modern soft drink was born. The previous version of Mountain Dew was a caffeine-free, lemon-lime flavored, clear drink. But to increase sales, they gave it a facelift as it did not look appealing to the customers.
The story has been told in different ways. Bill Jones of Tip Corporation changed the recipe and Bill Bridgeforth, plant manager for Tri-City Beverages, added Tri-City Lemonade to Mountain Dew to create a citrus-flavored variant.
