Dear PepsiCo,
As you may or may not already know, I am a huge fan of Mountain Dew. Before I started drinking alcohol, you were there for me. You made sure that all nights of Wrestlemania 2000 or JetMoto were full of XTREME. You taught me that backyard wrestling could be fun if I was jacked up on your citrusy nectar. When I turned 17, you did something that could honestly be noted as one of the greatest things ever: you made Mountain Dew: Code Red.
When I first tasted this delicious cherry-citrus beverage, I knew I was tasting something truly special. It was quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to my palate. Then you went and did something even better by putting Code Red in Taco Bell’s across america, combining my love of garbage food and drink.
For the next few years I enjoyed the gift of Code Red frequently, often combining it with any liquor as it was one of the best Jungle Juice ingredients. My first few years of college I owe almost solely to C.R. However, someone got on their high horse and decided that change was in order. Mountain Dew was pulled from the fountains of Taco Bell’s across america, ending what was easily one of the most harmonious pairing ever. Not only was it pulled, but also a new Mountain Dew flavor, Baja Blast was brought in to replace C.R. Here is part of the issue: Baja Blast is delicious and easily my second favorite Mountain Dew flavor to date, but you just don’t go fucking around with a good formula. C.R. and the Bell was perfect. Baja Blast spent it’s first few years having to live in the shadow of greatness and that isn’t fair for anyone.
I learned over the next couple of years to simply deal with the lack of C.R. in Taco Bell by coping and mixing other things together. I grew up and I got over it, because I could easily go home and buy a 2-Liter of C.R. I also experimented with other citrus-based soda’s (Vault, Vault Red Blitz, Livewire, etc) and all was good with the world, but as of recent, I have not been able to locate 2-Liter bottles of C.R. anywhere. I’ve even checked Amazon.com numerous times to find that it is never in-stock. I did a bit more digging and I have found that the only Mountain Dew’s found in the 2-Liter variety appear to be Regular and Diet Mountain Dew. I get the Voltage, Whiteout, Supernova, Game Fuel etc would only come in the traditional 20oz variety and cans, but why does this fate also befall Code Red? It is easily one of the greatest products of the new millenia. Remember Pepsi Blue? Yea no one does cause it was gross, but ask anyone who knows anything about soda and they will easily rate C.R. at the top of their list. It is the Citizen Kane of soda, but it’s being treated like the Beverly Hills Chihuahua. This can no longer go on. Please reconsider bringing C.R. back the it’s prominence. If you do not, I will stop drinking soda altogether.
Thank you for your time,
Russell A. Stevens.
p.s. Surge was better than all of this.
