This flavor is described on the packaging as "Dew with a blast of Strawberry Melon Flavor and Ginseng". Alrighty, then! The beverage color itself is of the pinkish/purplish variety, but not as dark as something like 2004's Mountain Dew Pitch Black.

The label sports the traditional Mountain Dew logo, augmented by a pink/black color scheme, heavy on the black overtones. Think the design style of the recent Amp Energy flavors, specifically Amp Energy Traction.

It's specifically noted that this flavor is "Dew Drinker Designed", which is a reference to the DEWmocracy campaign.

To summarize for those who are to lazy to click a link, in Fall 2007 PepsiCo rolled out a "design your own Dew" initiative, but did it through online gaming and a social media-oriented storyline.

The result was out of all these combinations, 3 flavors rose to the top, to be featured during the summer of 2008 and voted on by fans. The winning vote getter would be the new Dew.

Encouraging promotion of your favorite flavor is done through campaign tools… graphical banners that can be placed on MySpace, Facebook, e-mail templates, or blogs, each with a distinct tracking code. That way, everyone who is registered as part of the DEWmocracy site can have metrics assigned to their participation. I'm not exactly sure how the "vote" will take place, but I would imagine that it has to do with these tools.

But let's move beyond the marketing behind this product… which is ironic, because I think the whole reason it exists is marketing. It's a manufactured device designed to create buzz and brand loyalty, because it sure wasn't designed to taste very good. Mountain Dew Supernova tastes like a syrupy, fake-flavor strawberry soda, similar in execution to Fanta Strawberry, Tropicana Twister Strawberry, and Strawberry Crush. Despite the claim that it has a "strawberry melon" flavor, I really didn't detect a melon influence at all.

The official DEWmocracy website makes some interesting flavor claims as it hypes up this drink:

When flavor goes supernova all you can do is "Brace for the Blast." Prepare yourself for Strawberry Melon Lime with a Ginseng tremor that'll knock your taste buds into the next dimension. This exciting new taste is here, so get a serious grip and launch yourself into the fray with our campaign tools. Mountain Dew® Supernova™ is the one.

Again, I didn't taste any melon nor did I detect the lime. It's just a lame soft drink that hardly has anything in common with Mountain Dew. I'd put it in the class of LiveWire.

Of course, if PepsiCo just released this drink on its own, it would probably fail. Thus it had to put a little extra "pop" into it by pulling the ole "it's a soda/it's an energy drink" scam that Coke has been been doing with Vault. In this case, the promotional materials behind Mountain Dew Supernova make note that it contains ginseng. This approach hearkens back to what they pulled off for Mountain Dew Game Fuel, which while it tasted bad, had a heck of a lot of caffeine in the bottle!

What's the nutritional/supplement breakdown on Mountain Dew Supernova? Let's start with caffeine. The original flavor of Mountain Dew features 4.5 mg/oz. of caffeine. Competitor Vault has a higher level at 5.83 mg/oz. Mountain Dew Game Fuel topped both of those at 6.0 mg/oz. Meanwhile, the new flavor of Supernova has 4.55 mg/oz., just a fraction over the original flavor. While I'm sure that the addition of ginsing gives it a little more of an artificial "pick me up", I don't think it's enough to really push Mountain Dew Supernova over the edge as a drink that will succeed. The flavor is just too "adequate" to really make a difference.

An entire 20 oz. bottle of Supernova will cost you 290 calories, 105 mg of sodium, and 76 g of sugars (though the Nutrition Facts claim that there are 2.5 servings per bottle… I'm sure that will be totally honored by those who drink it!)

A full ingredient list is as follows:

Mountain Dew Supernova
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavor, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness), caffeine, sodium citrate, gum arabic, calcium disodium EDTA (to protect flavor), brominated vegetable oil, panax ginseng root extract, Red 40, Blue 1

Overall, my take is that Mountain Dew Supernova is a dud. It doesn't provide anything new or innovative to the beverage market, and frankly, is just riding on the brand awareness of the Mountain Dew brand. The flavor is lackluster, it's "keep me awake" merits are weak, and frankly, the purple/pink color doesn't have enough "edge" to really fit the Dew demographic.

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Not being owned by The Coca-Cola Company or PepsiCo, Crush is obviously harder to find then other fruit-flavored soft drinks. Coke has Fanta Orange. Pepsi has Tropicana Twister Orange. Both horrid-tasting orange sodas.

Unfortunately, that pattern extends over into the more rare strawberry-flavored pop category. There aren't a lot of strawberry beverages out there, but there are enough by the big guys to crowd things out, such as Fanta Strawberry and Tropicana Twister Strawberry. Like their orange siblings, these drinks aren't much to write home about. Every now and then you'll get something new in "Strawberryland", such as a Jones Soda Strawberry S'lime or even an oddity like Jones Soda Jelly Doughnut, but again, they don't add anything new to the market.

I unfortunately have to say that Strawberry Crush falls into the same boat as these other drinks. It's unimpressive. Like most strawberry soft drinks, its flavor is extremely on the fake side. It tastes a lot like Fanta Strawberry, and that's not a good thing. You are hit with an overtly sweet, syrupy taste that is compounded by the use of high fructose corn syrup. On top of that, the aftertaste just lingers there for a while, unpleasantly. In the end, Strawberry Crush tastes like carbonated Robitussin cough syrup.

Yuck.

Just like Jones' Latke Soda flavor, Jelly Doughnut pays tribute to the Chanukah tradition of serving jelly doughnuts (sufganiyah). The use of oil in the donut commemorates the miracle associated with the Temple oil burning for 8 days. Three cheer for stuff that's fried!

The color of Jelly Doughnut Soda is redish pink, reminding one of a strawberry or cherry-flavored drink. The label on the bottle sports a purple/pink gradient color scheme, with the Jones logo noted in silver, and the flavor name colored in pink. This packaging look is consistent for all flavors of the Chanukah Pack. I sort of expected an image of an actual donut on the bottle, but apparently that wasn't to be in my case. Instead, it appears to be an image of various small bowls featuring Hebrew script. This image (Photo #9108) was submitted by Liz Garcia of Seattle, WA. I wish I knew the correlation of the photo, but I guess I'll just run with it.

Upon opening the bottle, there was definitely a fruity scent, closer to some other strawberry beverages we have experienced. At the same time, there was an aura of fakeness present, if that makes any sense.

The flavor itself isn't too bad. It's rather sweet, playing off a berry influence. Not a lot of cherry, more strawberry in nature. Not as artificial as Fanta Strawberry and Tropicana Twister Soda Strawberry, nor as sweet as Jones Soda Strawberry S'lime Soda. In fact, there was a bit of mellowness in the flavor. One might detect even a hint of citrus. A small aftertaste is present, though not artificially produced, as this drink is sweetened with inverted cane sugar. It's more of a syrupy aftertaste that just hints at the rather fake flavor present.

Overall, while not a horrible flavor, Jelly Doughnut Soda isn't a spectacular one either. The use of 47g of sugar produces 190 calories per bottle. That's quite a bit for a flavor that is a little on the unsatisfying side of things. The ingredient list reads as follows: carbonated water, inverted can sugar, natural and artificial flavors, phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (as preservatives), modified food starch, ester gum, and red 40.

Like the rest of the Chanukah Pack, Jones Soda Jelly Doughnut Soda is Kosher and caffeine free. I'd probably put it on par with some of the flavors we found in last year's Dessert Pack that was released during the holidays, specifically the likes of Cherry Pie Soda. There isn't much of a doughnut flavor present. This is primarily a fruit-flavored drink.

Mediocre in the end.

This drink makes a comeback after first being featured in the inaugural Halloween collection back in 2005. Originally it was showcased in a orange can with somewhat of a happy face. However, for 2007, Strawberry S'lime reappears in a red can, highlighted by terrifying green/yellow facial features.

The drink is a red/pink color, probably more heavy on the pink, similar in look as Cherry 7Up, Schweppes Raspberry Ginger Ale, 7Up Plus Cherry, or Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. The scent is more like a cherry or tropical punch flavor of Kool-Aid, much like Mountain Dew Game Fuel.

The taste? Wow, is this drink sweet! Very candy-like. Back in 2005, Strawberry S'lime was already a powerful drink, but when you combine it with the fact that it's now sweetened with pure cane sugar (technically, "inverted cane sugar" per the ingredients), it has more punch.

The flavor is predominantly strawberry, with just a hint of citrus. It did not, however, taste like the typically fake strawberry flavors we've featured in the past (Tropicana Twister Soda Strawberry, Fanta Strawberry). The flavor was more subdued — although still quite sweet. It probably more closely resembled those candy Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip packets. You know, the ones where you take a candy stick, lick it, and dip it into a packet of flavored sugar. That's what I thought of when I was drinking Strawberry S'lime.

Overall, the flavor was good, for a strawberry. However, the overtly sweet nature prevents it from being more of an "everyday" beverage, which downgrades Strawberry S'lime's usefulness in my book.

Now, I haven't been too impressed with the Tropicana Twister Soda line of drinks from Pepsi. They have been pretty underwhelming every time I've experienced them, which has included both the Tropicana Twister Soda Citrus and Tropicana Twister Soda Orange flavors. Basically, the whole attempt at this line feels lackluster and unsupported by Pepsi. It's obvious they need a "fruit flavor" line of drinks to combat Coke's Fanta, but this doesn't feel like a very successful way to go about it. Personally, I think they should have kept the Slice brand more active. (I still miss Orange Slice!)

The Tropicana Twister Soda line debuted with just 3 flavors and 1 diet (Orange, Grape, Strawberry + Diet Orange). This was followed by a 4th flavor, Citrus. The drinks have been hard to find where I live in Chicago, which contributes to my opinion that they aren't exactly selling like gangbusters. Even so, I've only been able to find the Citrus and Orange flavors, and even they have seemingly disappeared from the market.

So I was pretty enthusiastic about experiencing the Strawberry flavor in the Tropicana Twister Soda family. Pepsi markets this drink as the "The Intensely Strawberry Strawberry". Like the other drinks in the line, they claim an inclusion of 1% fruit juice. Not exactly a ton, but it's something. In the case of strawberry, interestingly the ingredients note that the real juice is actually grape juice from concentrate.

There aren't a lot of strawberry-flavored drinks on the market these days, so it's hard to know what this flavor is really supposed to taste like. My experience with Fanta Strawberry was quite negative. It tasted quite fake. I must say the same is true for Tropicana Twister Soda Strawberry. It was not a pleasurable experience. The sweetener was not very authentic, at least what I perceive to be what a strawberry beverage should taste like (then again, it does use high fructose corn syrup, so there is very little room to actually improve the taste).

Overall, the strawberry version of Tropicana Twister Soda lives up to the expectations of the rest of this lineup from Pepsi… and that's not a good thing.

I remember the fruity flavors of Crush that used to be available when I was a kid. Orange, Grape, Strawberry. That's a reason I went with this flavor of Fanta, to see if it tasted the same. You just don't find many strawberry-flavored beverages out there these days.

Outside of North America, Fanta is Coca-Cola's second-biggest brand (behind Coke). Mainly it's been sold as a popular orange-flavored beverage, and has had great success with Hispanic consumers outside of the U.S. Around the world there are probably about 70 different flavors of Fanta.

I found Fanta Strawberry to be a little too sweet when it came to the strawberry flavor. It's like they really overdosed on the syrup. It was a different taste, but one that I really can't see drinking with anything you eat (similar to the problem with Pepsi Blue). My overall feeling was that it tasted very "fake." On the bright side, I won another bottle of Fanta free thanks to a winning bottle cap!

The other mainstream flavors of Fanta include Orange, Grape, and Pineapple. Some harder-to-find flavors are Peach, Black Cherry, Apple, and Citrus.