The Dad Bods and Dumbbells Podcast

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly of Energy Drinks like Ghost, Red Bull, and Monster

• Barton Bryan and Mitch Royer • Season 2 • Episode 92

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 33:06

Send us Fan Mail

 break down the energy drink landscape with a clear plan for smarter caffeine: how much to have, when to stop, and which cans keep it clean without wrecking sleep. We compare brands, sugar vs sweetener, strength vs cardio timing, ketones hype, and our Ghost flavor tier list.

• key FDA guideline of 400 mg caffeine per day
• why tolerance builds and how to reset it
• risks of mixing alcohol with energy drinks
• top sellers: Red Bull, Monster, Celsius, Reign, 5-hour, Ghost
• sugar vs zero-sugar trade-offs and calories
• acids and dental health concerns
• timing caffeine to protect sleep quality
• strength vs cardio: when stimulants help or harm
• ketone shots vs caffeine for athletes
• healthiest-to-least list with label literacy
• Ghost flavor rankings and the Hard to Find "Strawbango" flavor at Circle K gas Stations! 

Thanks for listening, liking, subscribing, and sharing


Barton’s RIVIAN Referral Code: BARTON16694413

Become a Premium Member of Dadbods and Dumbbells by visiting: 

https://dadbodsanddumbbells.supercast.com

----------

Follow Mitch: http://instagram.com/runwithmitch

Follow Bart:  http://instagram.com/bartonguybryan

Follow the Podcast:  http://instagram.com/dad_bods_and_dumbbells

Visit Mitch's website: http://Bigboysruntoo.com

Visit Barton's Training Website: http://teambryanwellness.com
 

Birthday Week And Opening Banter

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Dad Bods and Dumbbells. My name's Mitch. Hey, I'm Bart. Thanks so much for listening, liking, subscribing, and sharing. We're so glad you came to join us today. Bart, how are we doing, man?

SPEAKER_00

Man, doing good. Uh, I'm about well, last week we really talked about my 51st birthday. It's actually it actually is the day that this comes out, which is for us tomorrow. Yeah. Let's go. We won't go into the 51st birthday because we already kind of did that. But yeah, I mean, that's like I told I keep telling my wife, like, this is birthday week. Like, yeah, I want birthday eve gifts, post-birthday gift. They haven't bought into it, but uh, I'm really trying to work it. I I want an entire like 12 days of Christmas. I want seven days of Bart, but uh so far not getting quite what I want on that apartment. But uh excited about the next couple days. We're gonna do Eddie V's on Fridays. Um friend of mine plays the drums at Eddie V's on Fridays, a little jazz quartet or trio. So that's fun. So we're gonna hit that do some stakes.

SPEAKER_01

Week of Bart. We can make that happen year 52 for the 50. We need a week.

SPEAKER_00

We need a year to plan it.

SPEAKER_01

It's gonna be so crazy. Yeah, it's gonna be so crazy. I I think uh, well, happy birthday this coming out. Happy birthday. Um, I you know, there's a there's an interesting group of people. There, there's either the birthday week people, there's the birthday, hey, I'm a big birthday guy, so like let's do something special for my birthday. There's people who don't care, and then there's people that I discovered that are birthday month people that are just straight up like, what are we doing this week, four weeks before my birthday? It's just a full-on birthday month excuse to go out, have a have a blast, get gifts, all those things. I mean, it the first person that ever did that to me was my assistant, uh, my administrator at one of my jobs. She's like, So what are we planning for my birthday month? It was October, and I was like, birthday month? What's that? So she educated me on what Gen Z like for birthday months.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm gonna go ahead and say that I think women can get away with that because like there's like a I think I feel like there is a need to celebrate, you know, somebody like a female longer than than like a 51-year-old guy. Like, why are we even doing birthdays after 50? I don't know. That I think you know, a lot of guys will say, I don't care about birthdays. I don't even want, you know, I don't even really celebrate it. I think one day is fine.

SPEAKER_01

Two, you're maybe, maybe a weekend, a week, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like, do that, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, I'm I'm a little disappointed that uh Mitch hasn't got me a gift, but uh you know, we can talk about that later. But you know, you know, I here's what I'd like from you, Mitch. I'm just gonna go ahead and you know, just tell people what you want. All right. I want I want some energy drinks, you know. I want you know I love me some ghosts, and that's the topic of today, anyway. We're gonna roll right

Setting Up Today’s Topic: Energy Drinks

SPEAKER_00

into the topic. Um, we're we're you and I are both fans of ghosts. Yes, but we decided not a sponsor. They should be, not a sponsor yet. Um but uh so we're gonna talk about energy drinks. We actually did some research on it, um, and we're gonna talk about kind of the 10 most popular and then rank those uh help with the help of Chat GPT, um see which ones are the healthiest, some some good, bad, and ugly stuff that you're you may or may not

FDA Guidelines And Daily Caffeine Limits

SPEAKER_00

note about energy drinks. Uh Mitch, you want to kick us off? What are what are some of the uh what what what's a big uh FDA thing that people may not know about energy drinks?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so uh when we were doing a little research about this, because you know, our consumption of caffeine, I don't know what yours is, but mine starts with a pot of coffee I share with my spouse. So three, four cups of coffee just right off the bat before I leave for work. Yeah, then when I get to work, I either have a ghost energy drink later in the day or a FKT, which has like 70 milligrams of natural, but still like straight up. Then there's always somebody in the office that goes, coffee run, and I do not, I'm like, yes, all the time.

SPEAKER_00

So you're gonna be a better salesperson if you're a little bit. Absolutely. I'm gonna slip some trees even harder, dude. Hey, it's the difference, you know? I guess you don't want to be you don't want to be low energy.

SPEAKER_01

But the crazy thing about it, the FDA, which think of it what you want, recommends that you have less than or equal to 400 milligrams a day of coffee for most healthy advances. Yes, of caffeine. So like a normal energy drink would have what in it? Like our ghost that we do has 200. So there's been days where I've had two of those plus coffee. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think the 400, it's uh that's I mean, look, a cup of coffee, regular cup of coffee is probably a hundred. So 200 is probably double that. So you have an energy drink, you're most of them are around 200. Yeah. Um, and then of course, so if you do like two cups of coffee and one energy drink in a day, you're at you probably hit your limit.

SPEAKER_01

And how about a how about like a no-dose? That's like 200 milligrams of caffeine, but you're not drinking it. Does that count?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. So here's another FDA fact. They don't actually pre-approve energy drinks before they hit the market. So dang. You know, like uh a lot of a lot of influencers, podcasters will come out with their own energy drink. I think uh Chris Williamson from uh what is it uh Modern Wisdom? He has his own energy drink. You know, they do a lot of, you know, and but nobody's there's no actual like this. Is why a lot of times like pre-workout, they get on the market, they get a lot of buzz, literally, but like you get buzzed, and then they like fall out of out of favor because finally the FDA gets around to saying, Oh, yeah, this is all speed. You're just it's a speedball in a box.

SPEAKER_01

So I'm trying to think of like the my favorite energy drink that I know was illegal later. Uh and all I can think about is four loco, but that was like that was an alcoholic beverage that had like liquid speed in it. Do you remember those?

Regulation Gaps And Preworkout Pitfalls

SPEAKER_00

Uh not not particularly, but you didn't ever use those?

SPEAKER_01

Those were amazing. They're like tall boys, and they just destroyed you.

SPEAKER_00

I was I my drinking was in New York City at high-end restaurants that I worked at. Oh, yeah. Martinis, of course. $16 uh martinis and and yeah, mojitos and all that kind of stuff. I don't mess with these low budge. No, I'm just dude.

SPEAKER_01

Uh there was uh they changed the they so there was a phase. This is when I lived in Phoenix. So there was a whole group of my buddies that like four locos were the jam. But if you take a if you do a four loco, you don't remember after that. And there was like this big push by the FDA to change the ingredients so it was less harsh or whatever. So these guys bought cases, cases of the old four locos so that they could have those things.

SPEAKER_00

They didn't want anyone messing with their high.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. So for those of you that know the four locos before they started regulating it, congrats. I never partook because I was too afraid. I'm still a good conservative Christian boy in a lot of ways. But uh, here's a couple of things to watch for according to our research. Energy drinks with alcohol is particularly risky.

SPEAKER_00

Do you know why, Bart? I don't I don't care. I don't care. If you're mixing energy drinks with alcohol, you're an idiot. Okay. I and if I if I hurt somebody's feelings on this podcast, I don't apologize. Do not, I mean, Red Village vodka. We get I get that Redville vodka was a thing, you know, back in the day, but like let's calm down. If you're putting monster in with like tequila or that would be disgusting, but what are you doing? Let me let me do a quick thing. These are the most popular energy drinks in Texas. I put Texas for the search because I wanted to kind of see, you know, a lot of grocery chains, Walmart, HEB, gas stations. This is what they're selling the most of. So the first is Red Bull. Yeah, it's the it's the old dog, it's been there forever. You know, big market share. Big market share. Yeah. Second, obvious monster energy drinks. That's gonna be uh second in the market share. Then Celsius, where marketed in that kind of fit and active lifespan, a little bit crossfitty uh vibes. Uh there's

Alcohol + Energy Drinks Risks

SPEAKER_00

podcasty. Yeah, a lot of podcasters have Celsius in the background. Um Rain Energy Drink. Uh they're out of Houston, actually.

SPEAKER_01

R-E-I-G-N.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, Rain like Rain. Rain of the King. King's Rain is uh, you know. Nice. Okay. And then five hour energy. Yeah. And then Ghost. I was I wanted to make sure Ghost was on there. I was very happy to see Ghost. Whoa, what number was Ghost? Ghost is like set sixth. Not bad. Man, people need to wake up. It says growing niche brand with influencer marketing and transparent labeling, caffeine and ingredients. Highball comes next, cleaner sparkling energy entry in the city.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know if I've ever had a highball.

SPEAKER_00

Highball's pretty good. Yeah, they used to they used to market a lot with the Camp Gladiator. Got it. And then some of the smaller boutique ones are like Bloom, which is more marketed towards women. Um, you know, but it's always, you know, in this space, it's always gonna be kind of you know, marketing to a health, more of a health angle where their bottle or can is a little bit more like you know, like women friendly or like looks a little bit more like organic friendly and not just like monster.

SPEAKER_01

You know, there's gonna be a lot of flowers, no does they're gonna feel very happy. Yeah, dude, no does is uh clutch,

What’s Popular: Red Bull To Ghost

SPEAKER_01

dude. Nobody, I don't think the world knows about no do's as they should. They're not caffeine pills, they changed my life. I used to have a real issue with falling asleep at the wheel, just if it's quiet, if no one's talking, which is like anytime I'm in the car with my family, because the kids are on their whatever's my wife will fall asleep almost instantly. No-dose and sunflower seeds, just in a nice like every 30 minutes, I'll take a half a no-dose. I'll be busting up sunflower seeds, is the only way I stay awake from falling asleep.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm just I'm not even gonna comment on that because good I'm good for you, but like, wow. Um, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Cocaine? Is that better, Barbara? I don't know. Basically, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

So there I think there's something, there's something there's a differentiator in a lot of the energy drinks. Yeah, ghosts, for example, uh, sweet, artificial sweeteners versus full sugar, right? Like one of the option opportunities, just like Coke, Diet Coke, or Coke Zero, is you know, hey, I want to get the caffeine, I want to get the the kind of the flavor without all the calories. And so a lot of the energy drinks are now off if they don't offer, if they don't have it in their regular version, they have it off, they offer some sort of a locale version. But Yost, you know, which is one something we drink a lot of, that has uh that's like 10 grams of you know, or 10 calories per can. Because it's most it's they do it with a with a uh sweetener that doesn't, you know, it's not sugar related and all that kind of stuff. So yeah. Anyway, yeah, so that does if if you're somebody who just tends to consume a lot of sugar, that that can be a positive benefit of drinking a uh an energy drink versus drinking like really sugary coffee or you know, coke or something like that, or root beer or something like that. Yeah, yeah, you're you're you're so that could be a positive, but again, you get into like you know, everyone has their thoughts on like if sweetener's gonna kill us all. I don't I don't I don't buy it.

SPEAKER_01

I mean I think we're fine. I think what's gonna kill us all is our mostly the fact that the majority of Americans are obese. That's gonna kill us.

SPEAKER_00

So nobody nobody wants to say, you know what's worse than any of these like single ingredients is your ass eating way too many calories every day. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's eating too much food. It's overeating. Overeating.

SPEAKER_01

I I don't think I I the lack of protein, like I think when I realized what the problems for me were was I may have been eating less calories, but I was consuming a lot of

Sugar Vs Sweeteners And Weight Gain

SPEAKER_01

carbs for the lot light of calories. And when I started really noticing how many like grams of protein I was having within that those calories, it was catastrophic based on what I should be eating every day, which is like 200 milli uh grams of protein, and I was probably in the 50s, so like even just noticing that is a huge difference. So so fitness bar, bar, fit by bar, tell me what can I drink and be healthy? What is my what is should be my go-to you know, perspective of caffeine is gonna hop, it's gonna hit me, it's gonna be good, but also not gonna kill me.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I just think I think you wanna first thing I think it generally, if if you get a drink that's clear, that they don't they don't they didn't they didn't put any artificial colors just to like make it look dark or like a certain color, yeah. Red, whatever, just clear clear liquid. Caffeine's fine, uh L-thenatine. There's they add some time some kind of like also some different uh let's see what what's kind of listed here. Um yeah, it's at the top. Yeah, they do add some like B12, like B vitamins, L Theny, uh I can't say that Ltanine. Um you know, which is and they also have some like like neurotrophic stuff that can help with like just alertness. I think I just want to be strategic about when you use it. I think the idea that we're just should be drinking energy drinks all day long, first of all, it really wears down your your like receptor sites where you take in caffeine. Where it's like if you drink a cup of coffee and you feel zero effects from the from at from that caffeine, that usually means your receptors are pretty fatigued because you're drinking too much caffeine all day long. Yeah. So you know, you know, if you're gonna drink a cup of coffee or a Red Bull or Ghost or whatever you like it should you should feel it, you should feel a buzz, you should feel an alertness, an energy level increase. If you don't, you're probably really, really like used to it, and you might want to do like a bit of a detox where you just stop doing it

Smarter Use: Timing, Sleep, And Tolerance

SPEAKER_00

for a while. Um it doesn't say here on this thing, but there's some the dentist um that I went to was saying how a lot of these like a lot of kids who drink a lot of like energy drinks are coming in with it's a lot of tooth decay. Yeah I I didn't dig into like whether or not that was because of the sugar or because of like a lot of like just the kind of acid that they're putting, you know, they're putting in the drinks. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01

But uh it could be. I mean, the fact is, my son, so like there's a whole perspective of like ketone energy drinks compared to caffeine energy drinks, and I have a lot of people that have sent me stuff like kinetic, which is uh ketone energy, and ketone IQ has sent me a bunch of stuff, and that's something that actually does have a nice bump in energy and a little in alertness, but it just doesn't have the it just doesn't have the ump like a ghost does, you know. So it doesn't have that caffeine side, but like there's also that ketone side, which is no caffeine, they're just pumping you full of vitamins and uh trying to get you into ketosis. Um, you know, that's something that actually because I get these little like you know, like four-ounce shots, like five-hour energy they send me. Um shout out uh kinetic, they sent me a whole bunch of cool stuff. Um, but they uh I let my son drink half a one before a soccer game in the morning because they're not harmful to kids, it's already producing ketones. I don't let them do the whole thing, but he has a little bit, and it really it does seem to pop without the without the crash. I mean, the problem with energy drinks is there's usually so many chemicals in it to make it feel a certain way. That's why I love Celsius because it seemed like it was a little good alternative. But ghost feels the same way for me. I think I think ghost is a good alternative for all the stuff. I mean, definitely not a monster, but um, but for those that are trying to get off kind of caffeine, I think uh ketones are a good alternative, especially

Ketones Debate And Athletic Use

SPEAKER_01

for athletes to get a ketone shot before you go.

SPEAKER_00

My respectful statement on that is you know, I don't know the research on ketones. My gut tells me it's bullshit. Um because ketosis is just the like I don't have carbs in my body, so my body goes into ketosis where it uses protein, converts it to sugar, and like and like there's a there's a process of the body goes into ketosis when you've like starved it of energy. And like, so the idea that like ketosis is some place we want to be in, it all of ketosis our body is in ketosis when it has no food for energy. All it has is protein, and it's going to then use protein the through the process of ketosis, turn protein into carbs, so that it so and I I'm not a guru on the whole keto diet, and all that. I know it has a lot of legs. I I just it's it's it's very culty. People really get excited because it it because ketosis seemed like a get weight loss like cure for like for a while until until somebody actually came out with you know semiglutide that actually Yeah, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Semaglutide, let's go.

SPEAKER_00

Of course, semiglutides, everyone's like, oh, you know, uh you know, I take these keto tablets and I'm losing weight. It's amazing. Like, I can't believe it's a good one.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's just like the hack this diets. I mean, those ketone diets or whatever they're called, yeah. Um, it it's just not sustainable, you know, and everyone's like, oh, I'm still focused.

SPEAKER_00

You know what happens when you stop eating all that carbs? You actually eat less food than you burn because nobody can eat that much protein. Exactly. It's just exactly it's impossible. It's the it's the keto diet, or you just ate less shit.

SPEAKER_01

Like, can we just say you you are still eating less calories because of it, you know? Like that that is a huge deal. So, anyway, I'm gonna bring you a little packet of ketone shots, and I'm gonna see how you feel because it is a great before workout.

SPEAKER_00

I'll drink it before the next squat day. Let's go get 400, baby. All right, well, so what I did here, I so we this we kind of went through the the positives and negatives here. Let's get into um best of those kind of listed. What does uh Chat GPT consider their the best? So healthiest to least healthiest. So the healthiest it puts at the highball energy, which you can find at this uh at Whole Foods. You cannot find ghosts at Whole Foods. So there's

Healthiest-To-Least List And Why

SPEAKER_00

there's a thought right there. Uh why it ranks the highest.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you, Jeff Bezos of Whole Foods. 160, what's up?

SPEAKER_00

So highball energy has 160 uh milligrams of caffeine, no sugar, very simple ingredient profile, uh, no megadose B vitamins, no proprietary stimulant blends. Um someone who wants just caffeine similar to strong coffee without any extras highball. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Next I think I've had I think I've had a highball coffee. They have high, like they started as a coffee.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, no. This is different. This is different. Well, I mean, they have a they have a coffee. It's like sparkling, it tastes like sparkling flavored water with a kick. So anyway, there I know there's a highball coffee. I don't know if they're the same. I don't want to. It's apples and oranges. That stuff tastes like ass. Okay. Celsius, 200 milligrams of caffeine, no sugar. Sugar, no artificial preservatives, includes green tea extract and ginger. Um, still stimulant heavy, but uh people experience less uh uh bitterness. Um then ghost is third. Yeah. Let's let's see why. Let's see. So and we can talk about best flavors of ghost after this because that's that's really what I want to talk about.

SPEAKER_01

Great.

SPEAKER_00

Well, 200 milligrams of caffeine. We know about that. Uh zero sugar, transparent labeling, no proper proprietary blends. Uh does contain um L-carnitine and alpha GPC, which is a kind of a brain uh neurotropic stimulant. Um then just still says still still a high daily supplement load if consumed routinely. And then I always recommend people don't drink a ghost or any energy drinks after three, because one of the like one of the real dis uh mistakes people make is they drink it too late and then they don't sleep well. They can't sleep, they're uh they wake up a lot,

Strength Vs Cardio: When To Use Caffeine

SPEAKER_00

that kind of stuff. So anyway, and then it goes to Red Bull. Uh it's less, it's smaller.

SPEAKER_01

Red Bull's number four?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, compared to like Red Bull, then five hour energy, then rain is way low. Bang below that. Ugh. Dude, bang, bang has bang has 300 grams of caffeine. Jeez. Bang will bang will f you up, dude. Monster. Monster. Um rockstar, horrible. Rockstar, rockstar high in sugar, high in sugar, uh, up to 300 grams of uh milligrams of caffeine. And yeah, like soda level sugar uh in a lot of their uh their versions of it. Bloom, sparkling energy. I don't know why. Um it's ranked so low.

SPEAKER_01

Women don't don't drink bloom. Don't do it. Yeah. It's ranked 11th. Well, I I think that's a good so I think the conclusion to all of this is uh moderation. It's just like any fad diet, anything you're dealing with is you consume less calories than you need, you will lose weight. Eat less calories, you will lose weight.

Ghost Flavor Tier List And Wrap

SPEAKER_01

It's the same thing with energy. Consume way too much caffeine over time, you will become immune to the caffeine, and it won't make any impact. That's why people drink, I'm guilty of this, a pot of coffee a day, and it consume an energy drink. You know, so ultimately what it comes down to is moderation is finding, yes, what works for you, but the fact is we don't need more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day to stay alive. If we're consuming more than that, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the other, the other cat, the other the elephant in the room is what the fuck does the FDA know about anything?

SPEAKER_01

It's true. I mean, they created the food pyramid, right? I mean, the food pyramid's all fucked up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Anyway, so that's crazy. But yeah, I think you know, it's funny because sometimes we like take the FDA recommendations as like, well, that's science, right? That must be from a scientific study. And other times we're like, we just we just kind of uh brush it aside, like, yeah, we're doing now.

SPEAKER_01

Like, so I mean more than 400 milligrams of caffeine is a lot. It does seem like a lot, and it does create a high uh blood pressure, it does create palpitations of the heart, like you also those things can occur with too much caffeine.

SPEAKER_00

Caffeine's good for you, but an overabundance of it could create high blood pressure, palpitations, you know, poor sleep, a lot of a lot of uh things that you do not want to have happen to you. So it's always good to to like consult your doctor, decide what you want to do. Uh if you're if you're going to do a big workout day that isn't cardiovascularly heavy, you don't another thing is like it's great to have a bunch of stimulants when you're when you're uh gonna go in the gym and like lift weights. It's not necessarily great to like pound a ghost and then go for a 10-mile run. You don't know. It works. Again, when you're when you're when you're tone. You're you're putting more stress on your heart by by creating stimulants that are gonna impact your heart. So strength training, you're less heart rate-based, it's more effort focus, intensity based. So it's a little safer to do this type of stuff for strength training versus cardiovascular training. Absolutely. So that's that's that's my little two cents there.

SPEAKER_01

Hey, you're the fitness expert. I'm just a ramp up.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I know, but you you're you're getting there, bud. Um I want a top three ghost flavors from you, and then I'm gonna I'm gonna blow your mind when you come when it's my turn.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I love uh number one.

SPEAKER_00

Start at three. Three, two, one.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Three is the uh it's like a tea version. It's like uh almost like an Arnold Palmer. I see. Yes, I see lemonade is number three. Solid, so I'm not gonna. It actually might be tied for three tied for number one. Like it's just something I go to. Number two is the cherry limeade, and number three is the Welch's grape juice. 100%. Welch's grape. I order it on Amazon so that my wife doesn't kick me when I go to the gas station and get two of them, you know. So I I order them on Amazon on a monthly subscription. They are my go-to. Let's hear yours.

SPEAKER_00

All right. So you've never even heard of my top choice, I bet. It's gonna blow your mind. All right. Okay. So I would say third place. I'm gonna list a couple for third place. Okay. Grape, peaches. What? Stop.

SPEAKER_01

Wait, stop, stop, stop. No, you stop. Grape was what you got me into. I thought that was the one of one, man.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, wait, because it's gonna get better. Oh, dude. Grape peaches. Ugh. I know. It's so good. Grape peaches, and I will say the iced tea lemonade. That's my that's my all right. That's like B tier.

SPEAKER_01

I'll accept it. I'm worried that you put grape there, but go next. Please continue.

SPEAKER_00

A tier is crayon grape. It's you crayon grape. I've never even heard of it. Oh, it's it's still a Welch's drink. It's Welch's grape juice, but it's Welch's drink.

SPEAKER_01

I think I would definitely talk about it.

SPEAKER_00

It's got a little bit more of a tang to it, a little bit more of a like a little cranberry. I love little cranberry. Oh, buddy. That's next to me. So get it. You but I I'll look for it. That's why you got upset. You got you were concerned at first. Sorry, I was.

SPEAKER_01

I I may have responded too soon.

SPEAKER_00

I believe overreacted. That's not like me. All right, now the last and the top, the S tier, superior top shelf, the equivalent of like a 20-year scotch.

SPEAKER_01

I'm excited. You don't even know what that tastes. Like, stop it.

SPEAKER_00

Straw bango. Is it even like I've never even seen it? Dude, you gotta get it. It's most common, it's not in like grocery stores, it's most commonly found at Circle K.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

All right.

SPEAKER_01

Straw Bango. Straw Bango.

SPEAKER_00

It's orange and red. Okay. I'm all in. Unbelievable, buddy. I swear, there's a there's a circle K near my house on William Cannon, and like I there was a time when I was in there, I said, Hey, do you have any straw mangoes? And the guy's like, I think I got some in the back. And he found like a case of them, and like three other people were like waiting, and then all like we literally like like just straw straw bango, like strawberry mango, straw bango. Straw bango, but bang. Because it's just from a marketing angle, just slamming those two words together with like straw bango just makes makes me tingle. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna get to it makes my 51-year-old friend tingle. Yeah, so uh I think that is a very good tier. Good job. I'm a basic bitch when it comes to like flavors and stuff, but I will try a straw bango. I will I want to try crane grapes, so I'm gonna find these. I'm gonna try them because they sound amazing.

SPEAKER_00

But uh, if if you like what you like right now, these these are only gonna just add to these are not left field of where you're at. You're right, this is right down center field for you.

SPEAKER_01

Got it, got it. Okay. That that makes me happy. So I'll accept your top three, but basically, it seems like in your your top three, in your third, you've named every flavor of bang of uh ghost.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, no. I there's a lot of flavors that are not even close. It's peaches, it's what do we stay away from?

SPEAKER_01

What's the one you see lemonade and it's grape?

SPEAKER_00

Those are the three that are in that third. I like all of those. And then it goes crayon grape, and then it goes straw bango. Strawbango.

SPEAKER_01

All right. What's the one you hate the most?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, let's see. I think there's like an electric limeade that I don't love. Oh, yeah, it's so bad. Yeah, I didn't, I don't even try. I've never okay. There's a red raspberry that I'm not a huge fan of. Um so I had I the bomb pop or the American, whatever it is, you know what I'm talking about. America pop, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I I hate that one. Yeah, yeah. It's only if like I have to. It's the worst. I and I hate saying that because I love America.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I'm all in. You don't that's that that's proof you don't love America. If you loved America, you would love that that that flavor, but come on now.

SPEAKER_01

Well, hey, we need to wrap up because I gotta go. I got things to do. But uh, I love you, man. Thanks for uh talking energy drinks. I think this is a big topic. Uh, for all those of you listening, thanks for listening. Thanks for liking, subscribing, and sharing. We love you guys. Have an amazing day.