Why hasn’t there been an apple-flavored ginger ale, Canada Dry, Seagram’s, and Schweppes?

It sounds like a tasty idea that none of you have had the gingers to create. Instead, we have Red Bull, an energy drink brand, might I remind you, coming up with this Red Bull Winter Edition Fuji Apple & Ginger Energy Drink, which, sure, isn’t ginger ale, but has the flavor of one.

Y’all too tired to come up with new flavors, you say? More like too lazy, Seagram’s, because you never come up with new varieties. And you, Schweppes, how about you Schwep yourself onto your feet and put some blood, Schwep, and tears into flavor development. And you, Canada Dry… well, I hope you’ll read this and make an apple ginger ale a reality, because you’re the only one making a real effort with new varieties.

But for all of you ginger ale makers, this Red Bull Fuji Apple & Ginger Energy Drink will give you wings, caffeine, and an idea of what an apple-flavored ginger ale could taste like.

Although I must admit, my first experience with this energy drink was a little weird. It smelled very apple-y, and didn’t really give a hint that some ginger was involved. When I took my first sip, the sweet apple flavor hit my taste buds first, but as the transition to the ginger began, it tasted like dirt —or “earthy,” if I want to be less harsh about it. However, that twist was brief. As the earthiness mellowed, the ginger kicked in, and together with the apple, it was pretty good. But that fleeting dirt taste was odd.

But you know what they say, “Never judge an energy drink by the first can you try.” Thinking I’d love this before even trying it, I bought two cans. My experience with the second can was much better, and I didn’t get that earthiness. Maybe because the can got to chill in the fridge overnight, while the first one didn’t? Whatever it was, it made a difference, and what you’re basically going to taste here is a delicious apple-flavored ginger ale, with a balance between the two flavors. Although it has a slightly less satisfying apple flavor than the also recently introduced Monster Bad Apple Energy Juice, it’s still very pleasing.

This year’s Winter Edition Red Bull also comes in a sugar-free version. But I’d really like the Big Ginger Ale to come up with an apple version of their ginger ales. Maybe next holiday season, as a gift for all of us?

Purchased Price: $3.29
Size: 12 fl oz can
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) 160 calories, 0 grams of fat, 125 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 38 grams of sugar (including 38 grams of added sugar), and 0 grams of protein.

Peach is a popular summer palate pleaser, and it’s the flavor of Red Bull’s newest Summer Edition. But it’s not the yellow one we’re most familiar with, thanks to the state of Georgia and Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” music video. Instead, it’s the equally as delicious, but sweeter white peach. This energy drink’s colors match the fruit’s, with its pink can and opaque white liquid being inspired by the fruit’s pink skin and white flesh.

The peachy Summer Edition is available in regular and sugar-free varieties, which Red Bull kindly sent me. The full sugar version is much more fragrant than its sugarless counterpart. However, the sugar-free one has a more potent peach punch when it comes to taste. But I find its fruity hit milder than Monster’s Ultra Peachy Keen. However, with both Summer Edition versions, if you told me it was a yellow peach-flavored energy drink, I’d believe you because it has that typical fruitiness that I’ve tasted with similar flavored drinks.

Between the regular and sugar-free versions, I’d have to give an enthusiastic nod to the latter. A weird sour aftertaste happens with the regular one after the fruitiness fades. It’s not off-putting, but it gives me a good reason to prefer the sugar-free one, which is smoother to drink and maintains its flavor from start to finish. However, I find that the artificial sweeteners in this are more noticeable in the aftertaste than with the peach-flavored Monster Ultra.

While I enjoyed the sugar-free one much more than the regular version, I’m surprised I did. I usually prefer the full sugar one when it comes to Red Bull flavors and their sugar-free counterparts. However, not even sugar can overcome the aftertaste and milder peach flavor that regular peach has.

If you ever need a peach-tasting pick-me-up and don’t mind sugar-free beverages, Red Bull’s Sugar Free Summer Edition White Peach is a peachy keen energy drink. As for the regular version, you might not find it to be as peachy.

DISCLOSURE: I received free product samples from Red Bull. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 12 fl oz cans
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Regular), 8 out of 10 (Sugar Free)
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) Regular – 160 calories, 0 grams of fat, 125 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 38 grams of sugar (including 38 grams of added sugar), 0 grams of protein, and 114 milligrams of caffeine. Sugar Free – 0 calories, 0 grams of fat, 200 milligrams of sodium, 3 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, and 114 milligrams of caffeine.

With daylight saving time just settling in and the equinox approaching, do you know what time it is? It’s new Red Bull time. For the first time ever, the oldest energy drink in the game, has brought a Spring Edition to the United States — Grapefruit & Blossom. As with the usual Red Bull products, boasts 80 milligrams of caffeine in an 8.4-ounce can, along with some B vitamins, niacin, and a little smooch of taurine.

Full disclosure: I haven’t had a full-sugar Red Bull in a long time (although I had the Cinnamon Pear Winter Edition a couple years back, and it was awesome). As a rule of thumb, I try to stick with sugar-free energy drinks and soda, but purple is my favorite color, and the store didn’t have sugar-free, so I said, “screw it,” and took a chance. That chance paid off because the first annual US Red Bull Spring Edition is quite delicious.

The unexpectedly vibrant green color of the drink gives way to a nice, sweet, and zesty grapefruit flavor that reminds me of the ruby red variety, and then it rounds out with a gentle floral note. The floral quality isn’t bold or in your face like rose water or hibiscus; it just coasts on the backend in a very complementary role. I mostly detect the “blossom” in a way that smooths the usually top-heavy and sharp grapefruit flavor into something very palatable and truly tasty.

As someone who usually leans into sugar-free options, I was surprised this didn’t come across as more aggressively over the top and sweet. But then I had to remind myself that sucralose, the sweetener most commonly used in energy drinks these days, is said to be up to 600 times sweeter than table sugar. While it is definitely sweet, the drink is refreshing and seamlessly sip-able.

Grapefruit & Blossom Red Bull is perfectly balanced and a worthy introduction of the Spring Edition to the States with a flavor profile that delightfully honors the changing of seasons. It’s good enough that I will try to track down the sugar-free iteration to see if it can hold up to its sugar-laden counterpart to toss more regularly into the pick-me-up rotation.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 8.4 ounces
Purchased at: Nob Hill
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (One Can) 110 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 90 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 26 grams of total sugars, 0 grams of protein.

I was wracking my brain, trying to find the perfect song from Alecia Moore, aka Pink, to sum up my feelings about Red Bull’s new “The Pink Edition.” Surely, a pop star with such myriad hits would have something – some song, some lyric – to help me express how this wild berry energy drink made me feel.

Alas, my search came up empty. It didn’t make me want to “get the party started.” It didn’t make me want to “raise my glass.” It was not “(censored) perfect.” I did, however, find the opening “lyrics” of her smash hit, “So What,” appropriate:

Na-na-na-na, na-na, na
Na-na-na-na na-na –
… and so on and so forth…

Nah. This ain’t it.

Now that I got that extremely clunky reach for an intro out of the way, allow me to introduce “The Pink Edition,” which, in an ironic turn of events, is a real snoozefest from Red Bull.

The Pink Edition tastes of “wild berries,” which seems like a flavor profile Red Bull would have tackled by now, but apparently not. Whenever I have something “berry” flavored, I like to try and guess which berries are being used, so I took my first sip without research.

First of all, this isn’t even really pink. It’s more red. It’s too red. Anyway, flavor-wise, I assumed rasp, black, and one of cran, blue, or straw. The standards. Sometimes something crazy happens and brands sneak in a boysen or a snozz, but those are usually the main “mixed” berries.

The Pink Edition smells like Strawberry Jell-o but just kinda tastes like a slightly underripe raspberry. On the surface, that’s not bad, but there was also a strange chaser in there. I couldn’t pinpoint whatever berry it was, so I cheated and checked Red Bull’s official summarization:

“Raspberry and other fruits complemented with exciting herbal notes.”

It’s red, and it’s just one berry. This is literally red bull.

Ignoring how they just hand-waved the other potential fruits, THAT made sense. This has a slight herbal taste to it. It’s not very exciting, but it made me feel a very specific way. As just an everyday energy booster, I wouldn’t recommend this flavor at all. It’s one of the most middling Red Bulls I’ve had in ages.

That being said, if I was sick, I would absolutely love this. I don’t wanna jinx myself, but when I’m under the weather, I live on Ricola cough drops and drink ice cold seltzer almost exclusively. That’s what this tasted like – an herby fruity cough drop melted into a seltzer.

Does that appeal to anyone except sick me? I’d imagine it doesn’t. It’s maybe not as medicinal as I’m making it seem, but that herbal element really leans towards it.

So yeah, not great. Unless you’re a sicko like me, skip it. You’ll probably wanna pour this pink drink down the sink. I wish I had Alecia LESS of this flavor.

Yeah, that’s a bookend, I guess. Hmm, maybe I am getting sick.

Purchased Price: $2.38
Size: 8.4 Fl. Oz.
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 3 out of 10 (8 out of 10 if I had a fever)
Nutrition Facts: 110 calories, 0 grams of fat, 90 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of total carbohydrates, 26 grams of total sugars, 0 grams of protein.

Red Bull says its new Winter Edition Iced Vanilla Berry combines the taste of blueberry, vanilla, and “icy-fresh” notes of eucalyptus. So koalas everywhere must be ecstatic about this flavor. Also, the mini bears could use some Red Bull because every time I’ve been to a zoo with koalas, they’re always sleeping.

There are many similarities between Red Bull’s Iced Vanilla Berry and . Let’s start with the can. Both mainly feature a light blue color, but the older one had a dark blue bull, while this can has a silver one. Inside both are beverages that look like what would happen if Gargamel finally got his hands on some Smurfs and made soup stock.

But the similarities don’t stop with looks. After tasting this new Winter Edition and rereading my Arctic Berry review, I can’t help but think Iced Vanilla Berry might just be a slight tweak of the older one.

First off, this has a wonderful cotton candy aroma, which I also experienced with Arctic Berry, and it made me believe I was about to treat my taste buds to a great-tasting energy drink. However, that smell didn’t translate into the beverage’s flavor. Instead, I got a tart blueberry taste that reminded me of the initial sips I took of Arctic Berry. If you didn’t read the review of the older Winter Edition, it’s supposed to be blue raspberry, which I eventually did taste, but at first, I thought I was drinking a blueberry-flavored beverage.

As for the vanilla, it’s not entirely noticeable. It’s like the vanilla you’d taste with Vanilla Coke, but not as strong, which is disappointing. If it had a more intense flavor, I think this would’ve been better than it was. Also, the berry and vanilla don’t stick around throughout every sip. When they fade, they’re replaced by that sour, medicinal finish that reminds me of regular Red Bull.

Red Bull Winter Edition Iced Vanilla Berry could’ve been a great flavor if it tasted as delicious as it smelled, but it’s a bit mid. It’s slightly better than Arctic Berry but less enjoyable than the most recent Winter Editions. But there’s one thing I can say about this newest version that I can’t say about any previous ones, and that’s if you’re a sleepy koala who’s looking for a sugar-free version of Iced Vanilla Berry, Red Bull has got you covered like a marsupial’s pouch.

Purchased Price: More than one should pay on eBay
Size: 12 fl oz can
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 160 calories, 0 grams of fat, 125 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 38 grams of sugar (including 38 grams of added sugar), 0 grams of protein, and 114 milligrams of caffeine.