PhotoDude.com

Sat. Aug 09, 2003

The Origins Of The Dew

The Origins Of The Dew – My own site is purveying dangerous misinformation: “Actually, Mountain Dew was a copy itself, of Canada Dry’s Wink (‘The Sassy One’ as it was called in the commercials in the late 1960s). Mountain Dew followed it onto the shelves a short time later, and benefitted from Pepsi’s superior nationwide marketing ability.”

I followed up with my own story of how I’d been drinking Mountain Dew prior to the late 60’s, but for naught, as today we have another visitor who leaves with the thought, “Interesting to hear that MD is an imitation of a Canada Dry product…”

No, No, No! That’s wrong, come back here so I can re-educate you!

So then I go to Google to try and refute this myth, and my own damn page is featured in the first ten returns.

No, this shall not stand.

Let’s first look at the alleged inspiration. Canada Dry’s Wink was a grapefruit beverage with a surprisingly phallic bottle.

Grapefruit. I’m looking at the ingredients of the bottle of Mountain Dew to my left, and I see no grapefruit. Wink has “Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Concentrated Apple Juice, Concentrated Grapefruit Juice, Concentrated Orange Juice, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Gum Acacia, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Natural Flavors, Sugar, Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin.”

Apple Juice. Grapefruit Juice. And one major lacking ingredient. Meanwhile, the contents label of Mountain Dew lists “Concentrated Orange Juice and other natural flavors,” and right behind it … caffeine.

And we all know that is the most magical ingredient in The Dew.

In reviewing another grapefruit soft drink, “kcfoxy” says “Products change through the years, and I am reminded of the first grapefruit soda, released by Canada Dry, Wink. Encased in emerald glass, this mostly natural soda featured rather unsavory looking bits of real grapefruit pulp swirling in the bottom of each bottle. The taste was quite tart, like lemon-ade, and tangy, with mild carbonation.”

Unsavory bits? Oh, no, that doesn’t sound like my Mountain Dew. Not at all.

The myth seems to hinge on the idea that Mountain Dew appeared on the shelves in the late 60’s, curiously, just as Wink was fading in popularity. That’s just the time to launch an imitation, right? But the truth is that by the late 60’s Mountain Dew had been in existence for decades.

“In the early 1940’s, two brothers, Ally and Barney Hartman, were bottling a lithiated-lemon (‘7-up’ flavor) drink as a personal mixer for hard-liquor. They jokingly called the drink ‘Mountain Dew’ after Tennessee Mountain Moonshine.”

“In 1946, as a continuation of the joke, Barney and Ally added a paper label (misspelled by the artist) to their mixer showing a hillbilly with a gun and a ‘by BARNEY and OLLIE’ inscription. The bottle was taken to a convention in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and their friends convinced them that this was a marketable drink.”

“On November 12, 1948 the Hartman Brothers filed for and received a trademark on the now famous label – a professional redraw of the 1946 paper label. The flavor was still the 7-up type flavor originated by them in the 1940’s.”

“In 1960, Bill Bridgforth moved his Tri-City Lemonade flavor into the Mountain Dew Bottle which replacing the 7-up flavor. This new lemonade flavor is the flavor that is bottled as Mountain Dew today.”

“On September 2nd 1964 Pepsi purchases the Tip Corporation and as such the Mountain Dew Flavor. In 1965, Pepsi announces the ‘Yahoo Mountain Dew… It’ll tickel your innards’ campaign.”

There. I feel better. Let there be no doubt, there is no “Wink” in Mountain Dew.