It was 2004 when Pepsi and Taco Bell created Baja Blast, a special flavor of Mountain Dew (now stylized as Mtn Dew) that found fans and endured. You can’t quite say the same of Baja Blast Hot Sauce, a one-off hot sauce created in 2023 and flavored like the soda.
It’s possible to still get Baja Blast Hot Sauce and try it, if you really want it. But it will cost you and require you to embark upon the wilds of eBay to find it.
What is Baja Blast hot sauce?
It’s exactly that: A hot sauce flavored like Baja Blast, a soft drink that the original press coverage of the 2004 launch describes as regular Mtn Dew mixed with tropical lime. As the Daily Dot’s explainer elaborates, phrases like “refreshing citrus zing,” “chemically developed,” and from Taco Bell’s own website, “like drinking a real hurricane” have been applied to the not-easily-defined soda.
In January 2023, as the Food Network reported, Houston-based hot sauce makers iBurn collaborated with the Mtn Dew folks to create the one-of-a-kind sauce described as being in “extremely limited edition,” with just 750 bottles distributed among those who signed up online to be among those lucky enough to score.
The publication described it as blending “the tropical lime taste of Mtn Dew Baja Blast with fiery habanero peppers, green chiles, tomatillos and jalapenos.”
It wasn’t iBurn and Mtn Dew’s first rodeo, however. The two companies combined on a habanero-flavored hot sauce in October 2020, inspired by Philadelphia 76ers basketball star Joel Embiid. According to Thrillist, “Embiid is “a self-proclaimed spicy food aficionado who’s said to have sampled hot sauce measuring 2,000,000+ on the Scoville scale.” Only 500 bottles were made, and like the Baja Blast hot sauce, were given away.
But is Baja Blast Hot Sauce actually good?
A reviewer for Gear Patrol, Johnny Brayson, assessed one of the rare bottles of Baja Blast Hot Sauce, taking the reader through the whole unboxing journey. “The literal first thing I thought upon seeing the hot sauce was this is a color not found in nature,” the writer said upon glimpsing it, describing it as “an almost neon-green bluish hue.”
“But the sweetness doesn’t linger,” Brayson reports. “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.”
He tried it on a few items, including Newman’s Own White Thin Crust Pizza and several different offerings from Taco Bell. It did best paired with the Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco; Brayson remarked, “It was the only time I tasted Mountain Dew Baja Blast Hot Sauce and actually wanted to take another bite.”
Food & Wine didn’t go as far as to review the hot sauce reporting on it. But it did contend that Mountain Dew “does have a penchant for food,” citing an official cookbook, The Big Bold Book of MTN DEW Recipes, released in 2020 to commemorate its 80th anniversary. Mountain Dew declared the cookbook “a compilation of fan-made, fan-inspired, and fan-favorite creations from some of the most imaginative culinary minds on the planet,” with 40 recipes “ranging from the quick and easy two-ingredient cupcake treats, to the advanced Code Red Brisket that will entice any BBQ pitmaster.”
How do I get Baja Blast Hot Sauce?
Well, it seems that even though 750 bottles of the hot sauce were created, 750 were not consumed right away. As of the writing of this article in October 2023, 12 different bottles, most in their original promotional package, could be procured via eBay.
Prices started from $99 for a biddable bottle, with a $149 “buy it now” price, designated “for charity” with 15% of the sale for American Military Family, Inc.. The highest individual price for a Baja Blast Hot Sauce package on the platform was $300 (but with free shipping).
Interestingly enough, the Joel Embiid Mtn Dew bottle was available as well, but in much lower supply. The same charity retailer who was offering the Baja Blast Hot Sauce bottle also had a bottle of Joel Embiid for the same price, with two other sellers offering a bottle at much higher price points, $200 and $350. There was also an empty bottle being offered on the site for $154.99.
For those wondering whether to buy a bottle of Baja Blast Hot Sauce through eBay now, you still have some time: One of the eBay sellers noted in their entry that its expiration date was January 2028.
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*First Published: Oct 12, 2023, 11:52 am CDT
Phil West
Phil West is a veteran professional writer and editor, and the author of two books on soccer, ‘The United States of Soccer,’ and ‘I Believe That We Will Win,’ both from The Overlook Press. His work has appeared most recently in The Striker (where he served as managing editor), MLSSoccer.com, Next City, and Texas Highways. Based in Austin, he is also a lecturer in the Writing Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
