Red Bull Can Energy Drink

Red Bull has been around for a few years and to be honest when I first tried it I hated it. It tastes a bit like medicine, being a very chemically taste mixed with fruit juices.

It's a bit like Vimto mixed with car battery acid, or that was my first impression.

How Red Bull was born.

Back in the early 80s, Dietrich Mateschitz, now managing partner of Red Bull GmbH, often travelled to Asia on business. There he came across some very popular "energy drinks". With his uncanny instinct for successful product innovations, he brought back to Austria a small sample of the energy drinks and a big idea. Then with a clear vision and a lot of scientific know-how he developed a new kind of drink hitherto unknown in Europe. And so the Red Bull Energy Drink was born.
In 1987 Dietrich Mateschitz launched Red Bull on the Austrian market. Then, one by one, he brought Red Bull to almost all European countries.

I have quoted the website there, www.redbull.com just in case you thought I was plagiarising.

Ingredients include Taurine, caffeine and Glucose as well as some vitamins. All this means you get a very big kick up the backside in terms of energy. The effects of the drink are, according to the website - increases physical endurance, improves reaction speed and concentration, increases mental alertness (stay awake), improves overall feeling of well being, stimulates metabolism and increases stamina.

Certainly it does give you extra energy and I use it when on holiday. After a hard days sunbathing I find it is good to have a can just before going out in the evening. The sun tends to make me sleepy and lethargic but this stuff does mean I am alert for my evening meal at least.

I have heard people use this when on a long drive and feel tired and also for the after effects of a drinking binge!

There are all kinds of scare stories about Red Bull, the website covers them and dispells the myths.

For example the ingredient Taurine is not derived from bulls blood or any other bovine extracts. It was originally found in cattle hence the name but is now produced synthetically. It is an amino acid which occurs in the human body naturally.

The amount of caffeine used is about the same as a cup of filtered coffee. Some other energy drinks can contain double this amount.

If you plan to mix it with alcohol be careful, there are all kinds of rumours about the risks of this and the website tends to fudge the question, blaming alcohol as the evil substance (which it can be). I have drunk it with vodka, but only one shot at a time.

My main question would be over the claims it is addictive. I found after my first can that I hated the drink, but drank a few more cans over the months as I needed the energy and found I grew to like the stuff. It isn't addictive to my mind but I am sure some people could become heavy drinkers of this. I know one person at least who drinks a can every day, the problem is that the energy boost it gives tends to be less each time you drink it.

It certainly is an acquired taste, I actually like it a lot now, I just drank a can and it took me two minutes to type (churn) this. And I didn't even fall asleep as I read it back again, must be powerful stuff!

Don't drink it if you want a good nights sleep, that's for sure! I would recommend not drinking it for at least 4 hours before you plan to catch some zedds!

Big drawback, far too expensive, it's at least 89p a can, the copycat products around 60p.