In Taco Bell eating places throughout the nation, a brand new electrical purple beverage is now accessible on faucet. It’s known as Mountain Dew Baja Midnight, and one sip would in all probability ship a Make America Wholesome Once more (MAHA) supporter into a chilly faint.
Baja Midnight is the primary everlasting menu growth in 20 years of Taco Bell’s iconic collaboration with Mountain Dew, Baja Blast. The brand new beverage rolled out nationwide on August 14th in each liquid and frozen types. In response to a press launch, Baja Midnight is designed particularly with youthful generations and “fashionable flavors” in thoughts.
As Gen Z has turn into more and more obsessive about colourful beverage creations like bubble tea, useful soda, and vitality drinks, eating places like Starbucks, Dunkin’, and McDonald’s have all rushed to satisfy the demand. For Taco Bell’s half, the corporate is at the moment experimenting with a beverage-only spin-off known as Dwell Más Café. In a June information launch, Taco Bell introduced plans to open 30 new Dwell Más Café areas this yr, aiming to develop its beverage gross sales to $5 billion within the subsequent 5 years.
One look at Baja Midnight’s ingredient listing is sufficient to know that this objective stands in direct opposition with the core tenets of the MAHA motion, the initiative and PAC championed by Secretary of Well being and Human Providers, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
[Photo: Taco Bell]
The place MAHA stands on soda
Typically, the MAHA PAC has aligned itself with the targets of lowering company affect in public well being and environmental coverage selections, and eliminating dangerous chemical substances from meals, water, and air. RFK Jr. has additionally repeatedly voiced his opposition to fluoride in ingesting water and vaccine mandates.
Relating to soda, RFK Jr. has proposed a ban on eight broadly used artificial meals dyes which might be frequent in main soda manufacturers, together with Yellow 5 and Crimson 40, each of that are already restricted in Europe. In response to the potential ban, corporations together with Heinz and Normal Mills have promised to take away mentioned dyes from their product strains in a matter of years.
Alongside President Trump, RFK Jr. has additionally known as for soda manufacturers to switch excessive fructose corn syrup with cane sugar—a transfer that seemingly brought about Coca-Cola to announce it will roll out a cane sugar soda within the U.S. this fall. Taco Bell, in the meantime, goes full steam forward with each of those ingredient classes—and nothing encapsulates that greater than Baja Midnight.
[Photo: courtesy of the author]
I attempted Baja Midnight. It was horrible
To see what Taco Bell’s hype round this new soda was all about, I headed to my native Taco Bell to offer it a strive. For the sake of a good comparability, I grabbed each a Baja Midnight and an everyday Baja Blast.
Basic Baja Blast is a brilliant teal shade, achieved utilizing Yellow 5 and Blue 1 meals dye. Its second ingredient is excessive fructose corn syrup after solely carbonated water, clocking in at 44 grams of sugar in a 12 fluid ounce serving, which is equal to 89% of the typical particular person’s every day sugar consumption. A serving of Baja Midnight incorporates the identical quantity of sugar, though its darkish purple hue requires each Crimson 40 and Blue 1.
Per Taco Bell’s official descriptions, Baja Blast is a “tropical lime” soda, and Baja Midnight provides a “refreshing blast of ardour fruit taste” to the basic drink. In step with that description, my Baja Blast had a fruity taste with a particular citrus word. Baja Midnight was one thing else solely.
I’m no stranger to an artificially flavored beverage, however there’s something critically bizarre with this purple liquid. Proper off the bat, it has none of Baja Blast’s refreshing citrus taste, but it surely additionally doesn’t style like anything that I’ve ever tried earlier than—it may very well be ardour fruit, however should you instructed me it was each soda within the fountain blended collectively, I might be equally prepared to consider that. One way or the other it tasted like synthetic sweetener, although I’m pretty sure I acquired the total 44 grams of sugar. The entire expertise ended with a deeply disagreeable aftertaste of bubblegum.
Well being dangers apart, I might advocate steering away from Baja Midnight. If you could get your anti-MAHA beverage kicks, follow the timeless Baja Blast.
