Our Honest Review of GHOST Welch’s Cranberry Grape Energy

As Sporked‘s most prolific energy drink reviewer, I try to use the official nomenclature for drink brands whenever I can. It’s not “Alani”, it’s Alani Nu. It’s not Arizona, it’s AriZona. It’s not “Ghost”, it’s GHOST. (And don’t get me started on “Oreos” vs OREO cookies—folks, I get annoying about this.)

Speaking of GHOST, the Keurig Dr Pepper-owned brand has a new energy drink on shelves now. (Actually, there are three; read on for details on the two I’ll be reviewing next.) We got our hands on a can of the brand new GHOST Welch’s Grape-Cran Energy; let’s crack it open and see whether it lives up to GHOST’s first Welch’s collaboration.

New GHOST Energy!

GHOST Welch’s Grape-Cran Energy

Pros: I don’t often use the word “dry” to describe an energy drink, but GHOST absolutely nailed the mouthfeel of cranberry juice. I could say it a thousand times and it wouldn’t be enough: How is this sugar free? This is a wildly authentic juice-esque drink that could definitely trick an energy drink hater. It’s a shame this is a limited-time-only flavor; I definitely prefer GHOST Welch’s Grape-Cran to the other “tart” energy drink released by GHOST recently.

Cons: Call me crazy, but not every energy drink needs to be carbonated. Celsius has a very popular Fizz-Free line, and I think some GHOST Energy flavors would definitely lend themselves to that concept as well. This flavor has no business being carbonated. While Welch’s is known for their sparkling juices, I think “juice” as a broader concept isn’t – and this tastes so close to juice that the carbonation feels weird.

Credit: Griffin Parker / GHOST Energy

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

What’s coming next from GHOST Energy?

As mentioned earlier, GHOST has a pair of new flavors hitting convienence store shelves now exclusively in 8.4oz cans. GHOST Energy is mostly known for their tallboy 16oz cans, but they’ve actually offered select flavors of their energy drinks in Red Bull‘s classic 8.4oz size for a while now. GHOST’s “Original” flavor (which, despite the name, was nowhere near the first flavor released by the brand) was first released exclusively in 8.4oz cans to attempt tackling Red Bull’s stronghold as a mixer in bars. GHOST was nice enough to send over a few early cans of Strawberry Watermelon and Original Tropical; I’ll be reviewing them here on Sporked as soon as I can responsibly down another 200 milligrams of caffeine.