# How can anyone stand Red Bull energy drink it's just vile! It's like liquid Smarties! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2006, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863 "2006-10-18T00:47:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/41 "2006-10-19T07:00:05Z")
What else would you make a Jäger Bomb with? ---
**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/42 "2006-10-19T07:20:30Z")
What the heck makes the stuff smell so vile? I can be sitting 75 feet away at the other end of a smoky bar full of guys that worked physically all day and can tell instantly when one is opened. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/43 "2006-10-19T09:43:55Z")
[QUOTE=Weird With Words] Actually, the Urban Legend (at least, the one someone tried to pass off on me, causing me to look it up) is that Taurine is called such because it’s made from bull testicles [/QUOTE] That’s the only UL I’ve heard of relating to Red Bull. I’ve tried Red Bull and Smirnoff on a night out as well as its poorer cousin, Shark and Boru. Both go down too easily :o ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/44 "2006-10-19T09:56:45Z")
I really like Lo-Carb Monsters, and Costco sells them for about a buck a can in a 24 case. Works better at curbing my appetite for at least half a day than a SlimFast or Atkins shake, and only 20 calories for the big honkin’ can. Diet Rockstar’s not bad - more like cherry cough syrup. Red Bull? Ugh. Icky stuff, and the can’s way too small! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/45 "2006-10-19T10:03:03Z")
The notion behind Red Bull is that it’s a mixer for vodka, right? It’s to give you that nice legal speedball feeling of drunk but energized, with a syrupy sweet taste because alcohol is icky and you’re not of legal age (or just barely) and don’t have a lot of experience with drinking and it’s no longer 1981 when you could just get cocaine and be done with it. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/46 "2006-10-19T10:23:32Z")
[QUOTE=Omniscient] Been to a bar recently? It outsells all but a couple brands of beer easily and costs 3 times as much per unit. [/QUOTE] The only mixer that costs more than the actual drink: ya gotta admit, it’s one hell of a scam. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/47 "2006-10-19T11:26:38Z")
I guess I’m one of the oddballs who actually likes the stuff for the taste, which I will admit is odd, since I don’t particularly like candy. I assume many others must enjoy the taste of it by itself, too, since liquor isn’t sold in convenience stores in my state, yet the average 7-11 here has enough energy drinks to wire a third-world country. > [@Steve MB's link](#): > > Like a moron, I actually began to check out the ingredients list, and didn’t get much farther than something called “Yerba Mate”. Yerba Mate? What the fuck? Isn’t that the birthplace of Richard Nixon? Mate is a kind of South American tea which contains caffeine, but also other naturally occuring chemicals that (anecdotally) offset the negative effects associated with large doses of caffeine. My ex used to drink the hell out of the stuff. I thought it tasted like dirt. Literally. > [@Shoshana](#): > > it’s no longer 1981 when you could just get cocaine and be done with it You can’t? Granted, its usage might not be as widespread as it was back then, but cocaine prices have decreased [_drastically_](http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/fed-data/cocaine-prices.htm) since 1981. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863/48 "2006-10-19T14:21:50Z")
I love Mate! (I thought it was “Maté” though?) There is an energy drink that I tried once that I don’t remember the name of. It wasn’t bad tasting, and while it was caffeinated, it’s main “drug” ingredient was about nine billion times the recommended daily allowance of B12. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-stand-red-bull-energy-drink-its-just-vile-its-like-liquid-smarties/376863.md?page=2)