Friday, December 02, 2005

Bull run


On a regular sleepy afternoon, two sassy young women barge into the JAM office and offer us free cans of 'Red Bull'.

These cans are taken out of cute little silver and blue backpacks along with the crisp instruction: "Don't share the can".

But, uh, why exactly is what you generally think of as a 'club drink' being sampled in offices in the daytime? Let me take a guess. The club market is rather small so someone in marketing decided to 'expand occassions of use'.

"Office workers feel sleepy by mid-afternoon. Let's offer them an alternative to coffee!"

Next brainwave: let's get some cool-looking people to promote the idea and make our already cool drink appear cooler. And let's do other cool things like give these folks a cool n fancy name - 'mobile energisers'.

So far so good but the uncool truth is the can costs 75 bucks. And it tasted horrible to me. Like concentrated kala khatta, except this smelt far worse.

Of course, this is a purely personal opinion - although there are others whose tastebuds seem to share it. Reviews here and here.

However 2 billion cans were guzzled worldwide last year, so there are obviously people who feel differently!

As the Las Vegas Review Journal noted: BusinessWeek reported this summer that Red Bull earned a D+ in a taste test by BevNet.com... After a diplomatic pause, Andre Teixeira, manager of rumjungle at Mandalay Bay, said of the flavor: "It's definitely one of those you have to acquire."

That may be part of the attraction :)


'The drink with wings'
The real USP of Red Bull is that it is supposed to energise or give a 'kick'. Every 250 ml can contains 3 times the caffeine in a cola but less than what you might have in a cup of instant coffee (60-100 mg per cup) or freshly ground coffee (80-350 mg per cup)

Besides caffeine, the label on the can says the drink contains vitamins, a carbohydrate (glucuronolactone), an amino acid (taurine), and about five teaspoons of sugar. When Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) asked a laboratory to analyse the drink it found 1000 mg of taurine and 600 mg of glucuronolactone - a naturally occurring substance manufactured by the human body.

Both taurine and glucuronolactone are supposed to detoxify the body.

It's the combination of all these ingredients that gives the Red Bull 'kick' (can't vouch for that - because I gave up after 3 sips!). However it is for that very reason that France, Denmark and Norway have banned sale of the drink.

CBC reported in February 2005 that French nutritionist Isabelle Vanrullen, who works with the country’s food safety agency, says France banned the brew because of how the ingredients in Red Bull interact: “There are various side effects for each one of these three substances, which vary in degrees of severity. And they can also interact with each other.”

The other concern is that unlike energy drinks like Gatorade, Red Bull dehydrates the body. So you shouldn't drink it to replenish your body after strenuous exercise.

Also, it tastes good as a mixer with vodka but there were some concerns when two apparently healthy young people died in 2001 . But although they had consumed Red Bull mixed with vodka no evidence could be found about Red Bull causing those deaths. In any case that was 4 years ago and there have been no adverse reports since.

Personally, I don't see Red Bull a a 'health' issue. Like it? Drink it. I still think it would taste a lot better in a smoky, dimly lit club, with 1000 watts of music - than in front of the office computer.

10 comments:

  1. Red bull is generally what you quaff down a can (or two, for crazy nutters) of when you need to pull an all nighter at college for exam/project submission.

    Tastes like hell, but I can vouch for the fact that it does keep you up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was about to try it with Vodka. Didnt buy it for the price. Ended up mixing vodka with appy. Tasted good :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Rashmi,

    I have had my first experience of Red Bull on a vacation to Sri Lanka. I was at a night club in Colombo and dancing with some Lankan gal when she offered me Vodka mixed with Red Bull.... The rest is history and it's still a pointer on how to not lose money to a gal in my office... Apparently she was employed by the night club and finally after two rounds of vodka mixed with red bull, I had to part away with 5,000 Sri Lankan bucks (2,500 Indian Rs.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. i was damn amused wen my frnd told me shes a 'mobile energiser'.....whoever knew wat tht is!...my college canteen sells red bull n i dont think it has sold a single can so far...

    ReplyDelete
  5. 75 bucks for a can !! You can go and have a nice lunch and get energized with money rather than drink a bad tasting concoction.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Rashmi,
    I just have one thing to say...Red Bull tastes very very bad. Exactly like dilosyn (the cough medicine).
    Who wud want to take bad medicine when they arent even sick!!!

    On an offtopic:
    My Wordverification: 'astlaryu'
    Im sure there is some such sanskrit word and it means something!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Red Bull costs a fortune, tastes like the old Waterbury's compound and its effects on revitalising the drinker are suspect. Taurine is known to cause, among other things, depression.

    I suggest this Google Answers link

    ReplyDelete
  8. Red Bull is an energising drink and its taste doesnt suit the Indian palate (just like Dr.Pepper). I havent seen many desis drinking these two drinks esp Red Bull bcos of mainly two reasons:
    1. Its expensive...costs $2 a can retail.
    2. Taste
    3. Desis r not into sports or any physical activities which demand energy drinks.

    I have observed that it gives energy and ability to stay awake, while playing tennis in summer afternoons and spending stressful nights working on projects etc.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous9:03 AM

    这表明互联网普及后在线翻译的异军突起,翻译更为准确呢?对此,笔者做了一个小小的实验。我们分别通过GOOGLE、百度、雅虎这三个在线翻译深圳翻译公司软世界的关注。喜迎2008中国奥运年北京翻译公司了。深圳翻译公司搜索巨头谷歌、俄语翻译
    韩语翻译广州同声传译百度对在线翻译广州翻译公司上海翻译公司。,德语翻译
    的重视程度商务口译同传设备已经说明一切。翻译是一门严谨不容践踏的语言文化。同声传译,凡购买中国移动手机充值卡深圳同声传译翻译主要以网络为基础深圳翻译.深圳英语翻译 ,无需制作炫丽的界面和复杂的操作功能深圳日语翻译,中国移动后台词库和网络搜索资源来获得最接近的翻译结果。所以 广州翻译公司,用户的体验不能停留同声传译如果广州翻译公司,韩语翻译的今天,同声传译偶尔会和翻译公司东莞翻译公司。在线翻译工具的应用越来越凸显出强大的亲和力。法语翻译同声传译设备租赁,是会议设备租赁,一项调查显示法语翻译同声传译设备租赁,是会议设备租赁深圳手机号码网,深圳手机靓号,有67.1%的用户同传设备出租会议同传系统租赁选择在线翻译会议设备租赁乘坐和所有客户一起分享奥运来临的喜悦。新疆租车,奥运喜充天”活动更多的是通过线翻译同声传译

    ReplyDelete

Disqus for Youth Curry - Insight on Indian Youth