Beverage director Nick Sinutko at all times thought Baja Blast tasted “similar to a coloration,” he says: some citrus, positive, however principally, the soda appeared just like the essence of vibrant aqua blue, no want to consider it additional. The Baja Blast was, naturally, Sinutko’s go-to order at Taco Bell, the fast-food chain at which the Mountain Dew variant was unique from its launch in 2004 till 2024.
Whereas growing drinks for fried rooster restaurant Chick & Hawk in Encinitas, California, Sinutko thought {that a} cocktail that riffed on a Baja Blast “simply appeared prefer it was a pure match” for the ’90s- and aughts-inspired menu. Plus, skateboarder Tony Hawk, who owns the restaurant with chef Andrew Bachelier, has completed adverts for Taco Bell.
Enter Sinutko’s homage, a fizzy teal highball often known as the Neon Bell. It begins with a cordial of black pepper, Thai basil and lemongrass, impressed by a video wherein somebody places a Baja Blast by means of a mass spectrometer and identifies taste compounds together with lemon and basil. That’s adopted by inexperienced Mommenpop lime aperitif, white vermouth and blue spirulina for coloration, earlier than the entire thing is force-carbonated. “All of it comes out as a bluish, greenish turquoise—Baja Blast,” Sinutko says. The identify, he provides, got here from “imagining that that iconic Taco Bell emblem lit up within the night time sky.”
Whereas early reporting on the soda was skeptical that it might achieve traction at Taco Bell, for whom it was developed, a Baja Blast and a Crunchwrap Supreme ultimately grew to become as normal a pairing as Hearth Sauce and a Tacky Gordita Crunch. It has much more cult enchantment than the basic Mountain Dew, and what entrepreneurs imagined 20 years in the past got here true: You go to Taco Bell, you get a Baja Blast. However the soda, not solely outlined by Taco Bell, has change into as a lot of a template because the endlessly riffed-on Filet-O-Fish. Everybody needs to drink a Baja Blast, so now right here come the boozy variations.
In Seattle, the kitschy Dreamland Bar & Diner has served a frozen drink often known as the Bajaja Explosion, a chaotic mix of vodka, tequila, Powerade, Mountain Dew, Sprite, coconut and blue Curaçao. Rocco’s Sports activities and Recreation, a sports activities bar in New York Metropolis, beforehand made a Florida Gator-ade. With a base of a blue Curaçao-Baja Blast discount, it evoked each a Baja Blast and the electrolyte drink.
“We will’t escape Taco Bell even once we’re in one other restaurant, we nonetheless know the unique reference even when the identify makes an attempt to masks it.”
The rendition at Soiled Fairly, a cocktail bar in Portland, Oregon, is named the Blåhaj Blast, which is the bar’s best-selling drink by a big margin. Whereas conceptualizing the drink, basic supervisor Emily McLean requested herself, The principle factor [Baja Blast] is, is vibrant blue—what does that invoke? She first settled on a mixture of tequila, blue Curaçao, lime, and orange juice to hit the citrusy notes of the unique.
There’s one thing a few blue drink—maybe the truth that this specific fantastical hue doesn’t actually exist in pure meals, however is made attainable by means of the magic of meals dyes—that evokes a loosened-up trip mentality. So when exams with Powerade or a Baja Blast itself didn’t prove proper, McLean shifted to asking, What does “fun-tropical” imply to me? “We ended up with a mixture of blue raspberry syrup and guava syrup,” she says. In keeping with McLean, the result’s extra of a “inventive interpretation” than a direct copy.
And did you catch the opposite reference? The drink, which comes with a gummy shark, is called for Blåhaj, the internet-beloved Ikea plushie that has additionally change into a logo of the trans neighborhood. “We wished to have just a little refined nod like, Hey, we see you. This can be a good spot so that you can are available,” McLean says.
In fact, the Blåhaj Blast isn’t the bar’s solely “inventive interpretation” of Taco Bell: It additionally serves takes on the Tacky Gordita Crunch and the Crunchwrap. Earlier this 12 months, in a New York Occasions piece about how the Crunchwrap has impressed all types of imitators, Luke Fortney concluded that, whereas the corporate might go after smaller companies for trademark enforcement, all these imitators are “basically free promoting.” They entrench the unique deeper into our collective cultural consciousness till it’s unavoidable: We will’t escape Taco Bell even once we’re in one other restaurant, we nonetheless know the unique reference even when the identify makes an attempt to masks it.
“Everybody’s at all times asking, ‘Is Taco Bell mad that you’ve got one among these on the menu?’” says Melina Moser, CEO of Soiled Fairly. “If Taco Bell catches wind, [it means] we’re doing okay.”
