In the UK Mountain Dew was a complete unknown, until 1995, when
Pepsi decided to find out if the British stomach could cope with it. Unfortunately, it was as great a success as
Wired UK, and since 1998 it has no longer been offered in large stores (
petrol stations and smaller shops carried it for a while longer, but no more). The television adverts played on the fact that it was yellow and used the slogan 'Wild
colour, smooth taste' - they would have been better off showing footage of
student hackers coding late into the night (cases were given out to local student unions), or
ravers wired to the gills on the stuff.
Its demise is a shame as, although it was basically lemonade with lots of sugar and yellow, it seemed a lot more palatable than 7-Up, and the two-litre bottles were useful as substitutes for a healthy diet. The label was very different to the American variety, with the words 'Mountain' (white) and 'Dew' (yellow) at a 45 degree angle against a green background with a red slash underlining them. I have no idea if the British variety tasted the same as the original; judging by the descriptions above, it's not the taste that mattered, but the caffeine.