Coca-Cola Energy

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom

It's pretty interesting that Coke is releasing an energy drink version of their flagship product.  I guess it's a wonder that they've waited this long, as Pepsi has been doing this for years and years now.

There's an original flavor, cherry, diet ("Zero Sugar") and diet cherry.  I'm not sure I'll get around to testing the others unless I can find them on sale.

This stuff is a pleasant surprise.  Like its competitors, caffeine is much higher up on the ingredients list than its original version, and the additional bitter caffeine makes this product taste much less sweet than the original as well, and more refreshing, to boot.  I'm also very glad that Coke has not added any 0-calorie sweeteners to this, unlike competing Pepsi products.  This stuff also has guarana added to it, which I can taste.  It's very pleasant, and a nice twist to the original recipe.

Overall, I'd say this is just as good as Coca-Cola classic, but in a different way.  I'm really pleased with this experiment.



Coca-Cola Energy: - Great
Original Coca-Cola(for comparison): - Great

Red Bull Summer Edition (2017)

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:- Good
Original Red Bull (for comparison):-Passable