Alongside multivitamins, energy drinks just may be the most popular dietary supplement consumed by teens and young adults, with one third of teens between 12 and 17 drinking them on a regular basis.
Energy drinks are everywhere. Despite how much controversy surrounds energy drinks and how harmful or healthy they are, they are here to stay and it seems that students of Sartell especially love them. So today, rather than debating the healthiness of energy drinks, let’s rank/rate some of the most popular brands and flavors of energy drinks. From RedBull to Celsius, I’ve gathered 10 popular choices from different brands of energy drinks, and a diverse group of Sartell seniors are here to determine what’s bad, what’s mediocre, and what drink you should try next.
For a selection of 10 drinks total, we picked out (left to right): Cherry Limeade Reign, Fruit Punch Rockstar, Orange Cream Ghost, Peach Mango Bang, Peach Vibe Celsius, Watermelon Twist Starbucks Iced Energy, White Monster, Coconut RedBull, Hawaiian Punch C4, and a Breezeberry Alani. (Harry Hang)
For our main ranking sequence, I invited cherished friends Josh Zipp (Senior), Grant Traver (Senior), and Natalie Spoden (Senior) to establish the a general worst to best ranking as a group of four. As a diverse group of individuals, we tried our best to set aside our biases and personal preferences to form the best objective ranking.
We decided to rank them on a line sequenced from worst to best as we try them one by one, moving around the cans as we discuss our thoughts and opinions on each drink.
(Left to Right) Senior Journalist Natalie Spoden, College Chem student Grant Traver, and Mrs. Nelson’s student TA Josh Zipp are trying all of the drinks. (Harry Hang)
Right away, the group establishes the Cherry Limeade Reign as the worst energy drink flavor they’ve ever had, and we put it immediately at dead last, where it stayed for the almost the entire rest of the review.
It was hard at times to decide which flavor or which brands we should get for this tasting, but in the end we felt that the choices we made were fitting and representative of the brands they come from. (Harry Hang)Three drinks in, and the Orange Cream Ghost emerges as a fan favorite. (Harry Hang)The squad collectively takes a sip of White Monster, a classic staple in energy drink discourse. (Michele Nelson)As more drinks came into consideration, it became harder to rank each one over others, creating differing opinions in the group. (Harry Hang)Special Guest Abby Sanborn stops by and tries a couple drinks. (Harry Hang)
It was safe to say, she also disliked the Cherry Limeade Reign.
We started being shocked at our own rankings as we realized some of the most popular choices were not actually ranked the highest, but rather some underrated picks began taking up the top spots. (Harry Hang)
Shockingly, the Peach Mango Bang was currently our number 1, a drink almost none of us had previously had. Showing that there are in fact underrated sleepers out there waiting to garner more love.
Natalie has her top two favorites displayed here. (Harry Hang)We tasted every drink at least twice by this point because there really were hard choices to be made, as seen in the photo where the group is discussing the placements. (Harry Hang)At last, between the four of us, we established this as our definitive rankings. With the best being on the left and the worst to the right. (Harry Hang)
To my surprise, despite my go-to, acclaimed drinks being the Coconut RedBull and the White Monster, they didn’t hold up to be top players during our taste test. Another shock was the Peach Vibe Celsius ending up in dead last, with such a popular flavor from an even popular brand, it really fell short for us.
It’s arguable that our top three are basically interchangeable, but we put the Mango Peach Bang as number 1 simply because of how good it was while being very niche.
And just for fun, we decided to recruit the rest of the journalism crew to share their opinions as they came out for a taste test.
(Left to right) Senior journalists Alex Bird and Mike Hamak tries out the drink selection, and Alex advocates for the White Monster. (Harry Hang)There are good drinks, then there are bad drinks, and it shows. (Left to Right: Mason Linn, Owen Nystedt, Sophie Heathcote, Abby Sanborn (Harry Hang)The guys enjoyed popular mainstays like the White Monster but were very open towards a lot of the choices. (Harry Hang)The girls general opinion was more in line with our pre-established ranking, with our top 3 also being their top 3. (Harry Hang)Overall the drink with the most positive notes was the Orange Cream Ghost with many people selecting it as the best drink. (Harry Hang)
Grade: Senior
Favorite Color: Black
Favorite Book: We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Second Favorite Color: Brown
Favorite Activity: Snowboarding
