Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce Review: I’m Still Alive

Certain food items just go together. Peanut butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Bacon and eggs. But Mountain Dew…and hot sauce? In the same bottle? That’s, uh…well, it’s something.

In recognition of National Hot Sauce Day a few months back on January 22, Mountain Dew teamed up with online hot sauce retailer iBurn to create Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce. The condiment combines the tropical lime flavor of Mountain Dew Baja Blast — the cult-favorite version of the soft drink that’s a staple offering at Taco Bell restaurants, where it first debuted in 2004 — with heat from spicy habanero peppers and green chiles.

On paper, at least, this seems like a strange combination. So, out of morbid curiosity, I decided I had to try it myself. Remarkably, I survived.

Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce: First Impressions

Johnny Brayson

My bottle of Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce arrived with a considerable amount of fanfare. It came packaged in a branded wooden crate filled with straw (for some reason) and accompanied by a metal taco holder, dip cup and various stickers. Clearly, The Dew wants to make experiencing the sauce an event, and the packaging certainly clues you into the fact that you’re about to undergo a unique ordeal.

Now, onto the bottle itself. The literal first thing I thought upon seeing the hot sauce was this is a color not found in nature: an almost neon-green bluish hue. I initially had a hard time believing that such an unnatural-looking product could actually contain anything natural. But upon closer inspection, I noticed quite of bit of biological material in the bottle: loads of seeds, bits of fragmented pepper and possibly even some lime pulp.

Looking over the ingredients, I was frankly surprised at the amount of “real” stuff in there. Tomatillo is the first ingredient, and later on in the list — past the sugary flavored syrup and high fructose corn syrup — you’ll find green chiles, lime juice and cilantro. It both looks and sounds like a spicy green salsa…with sweet soda flavoring added.

Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce: The Taste Test

There’s only so much one can learn from looking at and reading about a food, so I knew I had to try the sauce.

First, I tried it on some tortilla chips. The taste was surprising, and quite unlike anything I’d ever tried before. Initially, it’s sweet — very sweet. I’ve never had a hot sauce, or any condiment really, that’s as sweet as this. It really does taste like Mountain Dew, specifically Baja Blast; it’s somewhat akin to adding soda syrup to a chip. But the sweetness doesn’t linger. It instead gives way to a surprising spiciness that hits you in the back of the throat. We’re not talking crazy levels of spice here, but after a few bites, you will feel a burn.

Following my chip test, I wanted to try the sauce on something more substantial. I opted for pizza, since I had a frozen Newman’s Own White Thin Crust Pizza on hand. Looking back, this wasn’t the best choice. The sauce was far too sweet for the mild-tasting pizza, and the look was anything but appetizing.

Johnny Brayson

Still, I wanted to give the sauce a fair shake, so I decided to pair it with its most obvious mate: Taco Bell. (The fast food restaurant, surprisingly, is not actually involved in the promotion or production of the hot sauce). I ordered a Chalupa with chicken and a Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco. I dumped some sauce the Chalupa first, and it was better than the pizza — but not by much. The sauce was still too sweet for the greasy and savory Chalupa, and the heat wasn’t strong enough to cut through the dough’s heaviness. It was up to the Doritos Locos Taco to make or break Mountain Dew’s future as a hot sauce flavor.

I’m happy to report that the Baja Blast Hot Sauce actually tasted pretty good on the taco, with its syrup-iness somewhat quelled and its spiciness allowed to show through. I’m not sure if this was because the sweetness complemented the extreme saltiness of the cheesy seasoning, or that both products are sort of fated to go together because they’re both absurd culinary mashups, or because Mountain Dew and Doritos have been brothers-in-arms since home video game consoles were invented — but whatever the reason, the combo worked. It was the only time I tasted Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce and actually wanted to take another bite (and add more to my next bite).

Johnny Brayson

Johnny Brayson

Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce: The Verdict

I think it’s safe to say the Tapatíos and Tabascos of the world don’t have anything to worry about here. Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce is not set to become the de facto hot sauce in homes and restaurants anytime soon (or ever). It’s meant to be a fun gimmick more than a serious hot sauce, as evidenced by the fact that only 750 bottles are being produced and you can only get one by winning a contest — you can’t go to a store and buy a bottle.

And I have to say, Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce accomplished what it set out to do. It’s a fun product, and trying out its bizarre taste and appearance on different foods was an amusing experience. It also tells no lies about what it is. It claims to be a hot sauce that tastes like Mountain Dew Baja Blast soda, and that’s exactly what it is. If that sounds like something you’d be into, you can try your luck at snagging a bottle here.

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