Taco Bell’s new purple soda is a big ‘screw you’ to MAHA

In Taco Bell restaurants across the nation, a new electric purple beverage is now available on tap. It’s called Mountain Dew Baja Midnight, and one sip would probably send a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) supporter into a cold faint.

Baja Midnight is the first permanent menu expansion in 20 years of Taco Bell’s iconic collaboration with Mountain Dew, Baja Blast. The new beverage rolled out nationwide on August 14th in both liquid and frozen forms. According to a press release, Baja Midnight is designed specifically with younger generations and “modern flavors” in mind.

As Gen Z has become increasingly obsessed with colorful beverage creations like bubble tea, functional soda, and energy drinks, restaurants like Starbucks, Dunkin’, and McDonald’s have all rushed to meet the demand. For Taco Bell’s part, the company is currently experimenting with a beverage-only spin-off called Live Más Café. In a June news release, Taco Bell announced plans to open 30 new Live Más Café locations this year, aiming to grow its beverage sales to $5 billion in the next five years.

One glance at Baja Midnight’s ingredient list is enough to know that this goal stands in direct opposition with the core tenets of the MAHA movement, the initiative and PAC championed by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Where MAHA stands on soda

Generally, the MAHA PAC has aligned itself with the goals of reducing corporate influence in public health and environmental policy decisions, and eliminating harmful chemicals from food, water, and air. RFK Jr. has also repeatedly voiced his opposition to fluoride in drinking water and vaccine mandates.

When it comes to soda, RFK Jr. has proposed a ban on eight widely used synthetic food dyes that are common in major soda brands, including Yellow 5 and Red 40, both of which are already restricted in Europe. In response to the potential ban, companies including Heinz and General Mills have promised to remove said dyes from their product lines in a matter of years. 

Alongside President Trump, RFK Jr. has also called for soda brands to replace high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar—a move that seemingly caused Coca-Cola to announce it would roll out a cane sugar soda in the U.S. this fall. Taco Bell, meanwhile, is going full steam ahead with both of these ingredient categories—and nothing encapsulates that more than Baja Midnight.

I tried Baja Midnight. It was terrible

To see what Taco Bell’s hype around this new soda was all about, I headed to my local Taco Bell to give it a try. For the sake of a fair comparison, I grabbed both a Baja Midnight and a regular Baja Blast.

Classic Baja Blast is a bright teal color, achieved using Yellow 5 and Blue 1 food dye. Its second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup after only carbonated water, clocking in at 44 grams of sugar in a 12 fluid ounce serving, which is equivalent to 89% of the average person’s daily sugar intake. A serving of Baja Midnight contains the same amount of sugar, although its dark purple hue requires both Red 40 and Blue 1.

Per Taco Bell’s official descriptions, Baja Blast is a “tropical lime” soda, and Baja Midnight adds a “refreshing blast of passion fruit flavor” to the classic drink. Consistent with that description, my Baja Blast had a fruity flavor with a definite citrus note. Baja Midnight was something else entirely.

I’m no stranger to an artificially flavored beverage, but there is something seriously weird with this purple liquid. Right off the bat, it has none of Baja Blast’s refreshing citrus flavor, but it also doesn’t taste like anything else that I’ve ever tried before—it could be passion fruit, but if you told me it was every soda in the fountain mixed together, I would be equally willing to believe that. Somehow it tasted like artificial sweetener, though I’m fairly certain I got the full 44 grams of sugar. The whole experience ended with a deeply unpleasant aftertaste of bubblegum.

Health risks aside, I would recommend steering clear of Baja Midnight. If you need to get your anti-MAHA beverage kicks, stick with the timeless Baja Blast.