Product circa: summer 2017
In addition to the rainbow-ification that Red Bull has seen over the past year or two with all its new colored versions, Red Bull has also been issuing Summer Editions of their beverage for several years now. I'm not sure if the flavor is always different for each summer, but it was for this vintage.
Red Bull went with grapefruit in 2017, one of my favorite flavors, bar none. Grapefruit can be fairly polarizing, however, and they didn't pull any punches here.
Despite the fact that this product uses sucrose as a sweetener, it's short-lived on the tongue. You'll get the sweetness first, and then it disappears, never to return. Sourness pushes back against the sugar, making you forget it. The flavor, however, is great; it's like biting into a fresh grapefruit. It is at this point that the caffeine-driven bitterness makes itself known, and it's considerable, though not inappropriate for a grapefruit product. Finally, the sourness kicks back in and lingers endlessly on the aftertaste.
This could be called refreshing if it weren't a bitter, caffeine-dense energy drink. It's a great attempt, but I think a little more sugar would bump it up to 3 NOMs.
Red Bull Summer Edition 2017:
- GoodOriginal Red Bull (for comparison):
-Passable