The energy drink world just got a bit smaller and people have mixed feelings about it. For too long, it’s been Alani Nu vs Celsius. People were either team Celsius or team Alani Nu, throwing their entire personalities behind one zero sugar energy drink or the other, defending their caffeine source of choice with all of the fervent and strangely academic passion Reddit has to offer, but we are here to tell you those days are officially over. Why? Because there is some breaking Nus in the energy drink world: Celsius just bought Alani Nu.
Will Alani Nu change? Will they get a Nu look? Will they change their name to Fahrenheit Nu?
A lot is still unknown when it comes to what this will change for Alani Nu (or for Celsius), but don’t you fret, dear reader. We pored over the press release so you don’t have to, and it seems like the biggest change we can expect from Alani Nu is more widespread distribution and resources to keep them growing. The head of Celsius mentioned that this change will “broaden the availability of Alani Nu’s functional products” and the current heads of Alani Nu mentioned how “Celsius can unlock key growth opportunities for Alani Nu.” My guess is that this means we can expect to see not only more Alani Nu available in more stores, but maybe more flavors (??) eventually as well.
Okay, so that’s how the brand feels—but how do people feel about this? To find out, I poked around on Reddit to get a Celsius temp check from Alani fans, and it was not all Dream Floats over there (get it? like the Alani flavor?). There is some worry that Alani Nu, a classically female-focused, aesthetic, very sweet brand with nostalgic flavor inspo will change to be more neutral like Celsius—a change to which many die-hard Alani fans are extremely opposed. Why? Well, it seems a lot of people on team Alani Nu hate the aftertaste of Celsius. One redditor even called it “Celsius’ biggest weakness”.
So where does this leave us? Well, we still don’t really know how the acquisition will impact the drinks themselves. Some online posters posit that Celsius would never change Alani Nu’s formula because it would defeat the purpose of one brand acquiring another brand that has its own set of loyal followers independent from their own. Others think they might make changes to the production process that we will be able to taste. Y’all thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’? Let’s say it at the same time: Time to get a bunch of current product, wait six months, and then try a new can side by side with an old one to see if anything has changed or if the internet was worried for nothing and our Breezeberry is safe!
Did we say the same thing? Yeah, I bet we did.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!