THOSE THIEVIN' VARMINTS!
The imitators and competition of Mountain Dew
In 1964 Pepsi-Cola bought a soft drink from the Southwest Virginia area, named Mountain Dew, and the drink's popularity grew at such a rate that, like Coca-Cola at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the market was instantly flooded with imitators of every kind. As a Mountain Dew collector I started becoming interesting in these brands as well and endeavored to start collecting them as well. These aren't all of the Mountain Dew imitators, there are many more with names like Hill Billy Joose (by the Cotton Club Bottling Company), Home Brew (by the Royal Crown Bottling Company of Winchester Inc.), Hill Billy Cola (very similar to the Hill Bill Brew), Stone Mountain Mist, and Hill Billy Beverages.
Sun Drop actually predates the modern formula of Mountain Dew by twenty years as it was created in 1928. It might have even been an inspiration for the flavor that Mountain Dew would become. The bottle above is from the early 1940’s and was at the time known as "Sun Drop Lemonade". The first franchise for Mountain Dew, Tri-City Beverage, had been bottling Sun Drop Lemonade since at least 1950. They didn't pick up Mountain Dew until 1954, when it was still a Lithiated Lemon drink similar to 7-UP. According to legend it was Tri-City Beverage's Tri-City Lemonade which would later become the flavor we know as modern Mountain Dew.
9oz Sun Drop bottles from the 1950's
9oz Sun Drop bottle, with a different design.
Two 12oz modern long neck Sun Drop bottles
Sharing a similar design to the 9oz Sun Drop above, this 10oz Hillbilly Brew mimicked heavily the Hillbilly motif of Mountain Dew.
White Lightning was one that also that borrowed heavily from Mountain Dew by using the other slang name for moonshine. Notice that there are two versions of the bottle, one says "White Lightnin" while the other says "White Lightning". Both are 10oz bottles
A later 10oz version of the White Lightnin bottle.
Here are a White Lightnin 12oz can, along with another of the imitators Moon Shine which was originally created by the Faygo Company, but this can is from the later owner who tried to re-establish the brand in the 1980's
Another that tried to play on the hillbilly motif was the National Nu-Grape Company's Kickapoo Joy Juice which used the Lil Abner characters as their mascots. This is one of the only Mountain Dew imitators that is still being bottled; however, only outside the United States. Pictured are the white and red version of the bottle and the yellow and red.
Royal Crown got into the mix with their Kick drink which featured a mule on the label.
