Red Bull Energy Drinks are NOT No-Doz!!!
Written: Sep 20 '01 (Updated Sep 20 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Interesting taste, nice gossip subject.
Cons: It's linked to some deaths, at least that's what they're saying.
The Bottom Line: Got a nice bite to the taste, but I'm betting Dr. Kevorkian has these things stockpiled away.
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| flamepillar's Full Review: Red Bull Energy Drink |
I got a short one for ya today.
For the last month and a half, I've been shelling out the two buckaroos for these little 8-ounce cans of the infamous Red Bull Energy Drink.
With a name containing the word "energy", what more could a graveyard shift worker ask for when he's on his last two hours of work and starting to feel a little drowsy?
So lastnight, my friend Josh came to visit me while I was at work, and eventually we got on the subject of the Red Bull Energy Drink.
The taste is, for lack of a better word, quite exciting. A lot of people have ragged on it, but I have found that I actually enjoy it. It's sort of like orange juice, mixed with lemonade, and enough carbonation thrown in there to guarantee a few good, long, loud, ripe, obnoxious, rotten, revolting, Earth-shattering, rumbling, monumental burps. Others have said it tastes like grapefruit juice, but since my memory bank is overly devoid of such a taste, I couldn't do much to confirm or deny this.
I often wondered if the "energy" was really there, or if maybe it was just me. At first, my concentration would improve somewhat after drinking one, but after a week, I was pretty much "immune" to the stuff. For people like me who have been drinking Coke by the liter for the last ten years, caffeine is no object. I'm sure that's not the case for just anybody.
I think probably the funniest thing about the energy drink I've seen so far is where it's stocked in our store... right next to the liquor products. I have people coming in, "Does this stuff have liquor in it?" and I'm just like "No, I don't think so anyway."
Here's what it does contain, though. 113 calories, so that's 226 for every 16 ounces, as opposed to 140-160 calories in your run-of-the-mill 16-ounce soda pop. The one you probably really want to watch out for is the sodium, which amounts to 215 milligrams.
Other ingredients include: carbonated water, sucrose, glucose, sodium citrate, taurine, glucoronolactone, caffeine, inositol, niacin, D-pantothenol, pyridoxine HCL, vitamin B12 (250% of the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of it!), and of course, the artificial colors and flavors that make it look nearly identical to beer (or pee, depending on how you wanna look at it).
The taurine is the main energy component here; it is an amino acid formally known as 2-Aminoethanesulfonic Acid with the chemical formula: C2-H7-NO3-S. (Every chemistry student's worst nightmare.)
So about lastnight... Josh proceeded to tell me about how the Red Bull drinks had allegedly been connected with some mysterious deaths. So I came home this morning and did a little snooping around. I happened upon an article that said the same friggin' thing. It is located at...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1435000/1435409.stm
I found this article by running a search on "Red Bull energy drink death" at http://www.google.com.
So Josh hadn't been pulling my leg after all! According to him, the drinks are geared more toward active people, and that if you don't burn up the chemicals pretty soon after drinking the drink, they can be harmful. So there were people out there drinking these things, one after another, because they thought it would help them to stay awake. Then they would sit down and watch TV. Next thing you know, they're on the floor, and their heart has stopped.
Well, I haven't died yet as a result of drinking the Red Bull Energy Drink (as you might have figured out), so it could be media hype. However, I have my doubts about whether I'll shell out another two bucks for one of them.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
flamepillar
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Member: Timothy Bishop
Location: Neenah, WI
Reviews written: 663
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Mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down with?
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