The Drink Needed For A Copycat Taco Bell Baja Blast Freeze (Besides Mtn Dew)

Taco Bell's website is very mysterious when it comes to describing the flavor of its Mountain Dew Baja Blast. We know the beverage is made with its eponymous soft drink and, as such, does taste very Dew-ish, but apart from that, well, we're not going to get much help from the chain's copywriters. They prefer to fly off into flights of poetic fancy, comparing the fountain beverage to "drinking a real hurricane" and the Freeze version to ... we're not even sure what. Something about Baja, California, freezing over, thus negating the effect of brain freezes. It's a bit too deep in the weeds for us, although there is some reference made to the drink tasting of lime. And also tasting awesome, but then, they would say that.

If you agree with Taco Bell that the Baja Blast Freeze is awesome, but don't feel like making a run for the border (as Taco Bell's old ads used to put it), you can easily make your own version. Mashed developer Angela Latimer uses just two ingredients (plus a splash of water) for her copycat Taco Bell Baja Blast Freeze recipe. There's Mountain Dew, of course, plus a little something to make it blue. While the original Baja Blast may not have much of a berry flavor, Latimer uses Powerade Mountain Berry Blast in her version. As she tells us, "Personally, I like a bit more of the Berry Blast flavor, so I use the excess Powerade for making my slushie."

So, does Taco Bell really make its Baja Blast drinks with Powerade? Internet lore says it does, with one Reddit post from the 20-teens insisting the secret formula is 85% Mountain Dew to 15% blue Powerade (berry flavor isn't specified, but Mountain Berry Blast and Zero Mixed Berry are the only blue hues in the current Powerade lineup). Still, a little research indicates that a Mountain Dew-Powerade mashup is extremely unlikely, and it's certainly not the kind of thing you'll find at Taco Bell.

The reason for this is that Powerade is owned and distributed by the Coca-Cola company, whereas Mountain Dew is a Pepsi product. Taco Bell is a Pepsi-only establishment. In fact, at one point, the chain was even owned by PepsiCo, so there's little chance of it stocking Coke products.

Ergo, if you want a more authentic, Taco Bell-like experience, you might want to opt for using blue Gatorade in your knockoff Baja Blast Freeze, since this sports drink is owned by Pepsi. Gatorade also offers a choice of flavors that come in blue: not just berry, but Glacier Freeze. Cool Blue, Frost Arctic Blitz, and Fierce Blue Cherry. Of course, since the blue sports drink is primarily for coloring, you don't even need to stick with Gatorade but can instead save money by using a generic blue sports drink. If you want your copycat Taco Bell Baja Blast Freeze to taste as good as ours, though, stick with Powerade Mountain Berry Blast.