PepsiCo's Mountain Dew is back with its second Trolli crossover SKU — Mountain Dew x Trolli Mango Pineapple Punch — hitting U.S. c-store shelves August 24 in 12 oz. cans and 20 oz. bottles, with a Zero Sugar variety running alongside the regular offering through October.
The limited-edition carbonated soft drink is built around mango, pineapple, and a strawberry finish, and is intentionally designed to be consumed alongside Trolli Spicy Crawlers gummi worms. The pairing plays into the sweet-and-spicy flavor segment that has gained traction across dispensed beverages and packaged snacks at the forecourt and back-of-house.
The C-Store Opportunity
For single-store operators and regional chains, the SKU arrives during the summer-to-fall transition window — historically a soft stretch for carbonated soft drink velocity. Limited-edition flavor drops with a recognized candy co-brand have proven effective at driving incremental ring at the cooler door, particularly among younger shoppers who index high for both Mountain Dew and sour/spicy candy formats. Last year's Mountain Dew x Trolli Cherry Lemon was described by PepsiCo as one of the fastest-selling products in the Mountain Dew lineup, giving buyers reason to allocate cooler space for this follow-up.
Michael Smith, VP of Marketing for Mountain Dew at PepsiCo Beverages U.S., called the 2025 Cherry Lemon drop proof that "two iconic brands coming together in an unexpected way" generates shelf momentum. The 2026 iteration shifts from sour-forward to tropical-spicy, chasing a broader sweet-heat consumer trend that has surfaced across foodservice, snack, and packaged beverage categories in recent years.
Distribution and Retail Placement
The full lineup — 12 oz. multipacks and 20 oz. singles — is available at U.S. retailers broadly. Regular 20 oz. bottles also land at participating Pizza Hut locations nationwide, an on-premise channel that gives the brand foodservice visibility beyond the traditional c-store and grocery footprint. A limited-edition bundle kit — containing one 20 oz. regular, one 20 oz. Zero Sugar, and a 12 oz. bag of Trolli Spicy Crawlers — is available exclusively on Walmart.com while supplies last.
For convenience operators, the actionable play is the 20 oz. single-serve bottle at the cold vault, where impulse-driven limited-edition CSD launches have historically outperformed permanent SKUs on a per-facing basis during promotional windows. Placing Trolli Spicy Crawlers adjacent on the candy aisle or near the register as a suggested pairing could lift basket size modestly on snack-plus-beverage transactions.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
