Don't Worry Mello Yello Enthusiasts, It Wasn't Actually Discontinued

Though Pepsi and Coca-Cola may seem like the supreme rulers of the soda world, there are hundreds of other kinds of soda out there. Many other brands are owned by the Pepsi and Coca-Cola parent companies — for example, Sprite is owned by the Coca-Cola Company, while Starry, the brand taking over from the retired Sierra Mist, is owned by PepsiCo. However, the Coca-Cola Company is the owner of another soda brand that you may recognize: Mello Yello. Contrary to popular belief, this soda drink has not been discontinued.

Mello Yello has had its ups and downs, but you can technically still find it out in the wild. It was discontinued in a few countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, back in the 1990s, but that didn't last long. The 2010s saw a general rebrand of the Mello Yello line, with new cans and ad campaigns pushing the beverage, but nowadays, the drink is hardly advertised at all. While there were originally three Mello Yello flavors popular across North America, today you will generally find only the original and zero-sugar flavors for sale at fast food restaurants and grocery stores.

Mello Yello was introduced to the public for the first time in 1979, the Coca-Cola Company's response to PepsiCo's popular Mountain Dew. The drink has a surprisingly high caffeine content (alongside 24 other popular sodas) but managed to captivate customers with its unique taste, even to this day. In the height of its popularity, Mello Yello was front and center as a wrap on Tom Cruise's race car in the 1990 film "Days of Thunder" and went on to become a real NASCAR sponsor for a time. When the brand was redesigned a decade ago, the Coca-Cola Company tried to bring back some of that good ol' 80s nostalgia.

Once the rebrand took hold, Mello Yello was reintroduced across the United States but was largely distributed across Midwestern and Southeast states in particular. This may make it a little harder to find than a can of regular Pepsi, but not impossible. In 2022, the brand took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain that demand had shifted the brand's focus. Although Mello Yello was not discontinued, production would now be "limited." Despite this, you can still find Mello Yello at chains like Arby's, Hardee's, or Culver's, in select Coca-Cola Freestyle machines nationwide, and in grocery stores, such as Walmart, Kroger, and Publix.