Luke Field
I’m not a Red Bull guy. My go-to for my rampant caffeine addiction is a big ol’ cup of black coffee as soon as I get out of bed. One of the reasons I don’t like Red Bull is because I think it tastes like battery acid. I recognize the irony of me criticizing the taste of an energy drink when I consume coffee so bitter it makes my face hurt. But I just can’t get over that intangible, unrecognizable flavor of Red Bull. It’s time for all of us to figure out what flavor Red Bull actually is.
What flavor is the original Red Bull?
For me, the first sip of Red Bull is an overwhelming feeling of confusion. It’s very sweet like candy, but just generic candy, not any specific flavor. There’s a little bit of a citrusy tang, but also the chemical notes of a cough syrup with bubbles in it. It’s a beverage that would send the best sommeliers into a tailspin.
So let’s take a look at the full list of ingredients in a Red Bull. We’ve got carbonated water, sucrose, glucose, citric acid, taurine, sodium bicarbonate, magnesium carbonate, caffeine, niacinamide, calcium pantothenate, Pyridoxine HCl, Vitamin B12, natural and artificial flavors, colors. There’s also a fun little warning: Not recommended for children, pregnant or nursing women, or persons sensitive to caffeine.
I’m not a food scientist, and I take every opportunity to let people know that; it’s often my opening line on first dates. So when I look at this ingredient list, the only things that stand out to me as “flavor” contributors are sucrose, glucose, and the citric part of citric acid. So it’s sugar and… a citrus fruit, but which one? To me there’s a big difference between a lime and kumquat.
What the heck is taurine?
The -ates and -ides in the ingredient list, I kind of understand. They are food chemicals that appear in a lot of processed foods for whatever reason. The only ingredient on the list that is a real mystery to me is taurine. I know it as a buzzword from when Red Bull was getting very popular and there were rumors going around that it was something extracted from a certain liquid produced by a bull. But what exactly is it?
I’ve read some internet articles about it and I can safely say… I still have no idea. Taurine is an essential amino acid that occurs naturally in our bodies and is also present in animal proteins. The taurine that appears in Red Bull and workout supplements is synthetic and usually far exceeds the recommended daily allotment of taurine intake. But does taurine have a flavor? Again, I can’t stress enough that I am not a food scientist. But actual food scientists do say that amino acids do have a flavor—some are sweet, some are bitter, some are umami. According to a Healthline article, taurine has a slightly bitter taste, which jives with Red Bull’s flavor. So, what does Red Bull taste like? A little bit like taurine.
How many Red Bull flavors are there?
Thankfully, Red Bull has released several other versions of their energy drink that contain specific flavors that are much easier to pin down. These include watermelon, blueberry, dragon fruit, peach-nectarine, coconut berry, strawberry apricot, fig apple, and “tropical.” At the very least, these are actual foods with recognizable flavors, so they probably cut through the confusion you might feel after drinking the original Red Bull.
Best Red Bull Flavors
Now that you know all about Red Bull (or, at least, you know a little bit more about it), find out what the best Red Bull flavors are. We got absolutely amped sipping every flavor to find the best tasting Red Bull flavors.
Gwynedd Stuart
I went on a hardcore deep dive for this answer and I think I know the fruit. But first.. cliff notes history:
– Some austrian dude went to Thailand on a business trip and found the original stuff, called “Krating Daeng”
– He tweeked it a little for Europeans. I’ve heard the original is even sweeter, so maybe he just made it less sweet. IDK to be honest..
Considerations:
-The drink was marketed to truckers. Its an affordable working class person energy drink.
-They aren’t going to import anything for economical reasons.
-It has to be a citrus fruit, because thats kind of obvious.
So what citrus fruits are local to Thailand?
And of those, which ones are grown in abundance and are cheap enough to make Thailand lemonade out of?
-Kaffir Lime
-Pomelo
-Tangerine
There are others but those are the most polular ones from my searching.
There are two tytpes of Pomelos. We get the ones that are pink inside and they tase like grapefruit. Not it.
But they also have a Honey Pomelo thats yellow colored on the inside and I cannot get one to taste.
My gut says original Red Bull is most likely Honey Pomelo.
If someone reads this and can get me a real Honey Pomelo, I will pay to ship it. let me know.
Food scientist here! The actual flavour of red bull original is cherry and vanilla.
You’re welcome
I one time contacted the creator of Red Bull and asked him the flavor. He said it was a slight mix of…Luke Field is an ignorant idiot that will make an article for the internet about a turd if he’d thought it get him farther….smh
Terrible article. Citric acid is not a citrus fruit, it’s the main acid present in citrus fruits. And it clearly says “Artificial and Natural flavors” which the writer ignores and then focuses on sugar and aforementioned acid; doesn’t discuss what those flavors are.
And the first date joke just fell flat. Fluff
The one time I tried it I got the impression of carbonated apple juice. It wasn’t for me.
I can’t believe no one on the internet has figured this out yet.
Redbull tastes like two things:
1) Midori, green melon flavor
2) Those “latrine mints”, the toilet biscuits used in some public bathrooms.
I got into the habit of mixing Redbull with about an equal amount of water, maybe 1:1.1 ratio with one fresh lime. It was then that I realized the truth xD
this article was soooooooo helpful, thank you, somehow you managed to not name one single flavor good job!