It has been a while since I last posted a beverage review in the humble student newspaper; however, recently, a new flavor was added to the Red Bull product line. 

It sent shockwaves that nearly knocked me out of my wheelchair. Even more shocking was the flavor that the Red Bull overlords had chosen: grapefruit. Grapefruit has never been a popular flavor for soft drinks in the United States, given its reputation as a bitter, nonutilitarian citrus fruit. However, in recent years, there has been somewhat of a trend in grapefruit energy drinks with companies dumping tons of sugar in them to balance out the strong, bitter flavor of the grapefruit. 

I went to my local 7/11 to pick up the cans as it comes in both a sugar and sugar-free variant. At the time I did not think they would taste that much different, but later in the review, you will see how wrong I was. The drink came in a purple can marked as “spring edition,” as Red Bull releases its flavors by season as some sort of 4D-chess marketing strategy. 

The spring edition had a nice fizzy citrus flavor that was not too bitter, not too sweet and perfectly captured the essence of what a grapefruit drink ought to be. The flavor is officially called “grapefruit and blossom,” but it is certainly more grapefruit than blossom, offering a refreshing flavor. However, the sugar-free version is disgusting and tastes nothing like the version with sugar; it tastes more like the “blossom” part. But the blossom parts ends up tasting like a blended store-bought sugar cookie with fondant frosting. The sugar-free variant is abhorrent and I would not recommend it.    

Overall, I would highly recommend the spring edition with sugar and give it a solid 8/10 on the Gabe scale while the sugar-free version gets a 2/10.