Cocaine in Red Bull Energy Drinks??

Energy Drinks are constantly in the news; albeit if usually for the wrong reasons… And this is exactly where Red Bull Cola found themselves a couple days ago after being banned in Germany. Red Bull, the Energy Drink that gives you wings is apparently doing more than that as trace amounts of cocaine have been found in the energy cola. That’s right, Red Bull Cola was found to have trace amounts of cocaine in it by officials in Germany from the federal ministry of consumer protection.

Red Bull responded by saying that they have always been up front with their ingredients and that the coca leaves used in Red Bull Cola are for natural flavoring and that the illegal property alkaloid is removed. They also go on to say that this type of natural flavoring is used worldwide.

Experts have chimed in on the situation saying that the ingredients used in Red Bull Cola are really not similar at all to cocaine as they have not been put through the intensive chemical process needed to get the end result of cocaine. So it’s basically not active and the amounts found are so small it should not be an issue.

So again, because of the (extremely trace amounts) of (not actual) cocaine in Red Bull Cola, the drink was banned in six German states, and they will be recommending a nation wide ban. I guess it’s not harmful unless you drink 12,000 liters of Red Bull Cola… Now come on, that’s quite a bit of Red Bull. I have had quite a few Energy Drinks in my day but I haven’t even had that many. I think Amy Winehouse might be hard pressed to even get addicted to this…

So what did this ban actually do? In BevUniverse’s personal (yet highly accurate) opinion the only thing this Red Bull Cola cocaine ban will accomplish is bringing a little attention to the lackluster product line offered by Red Bull.

START RANT: Now I know the energy drink market is highly competitive, but come on Red Bull… these drinks are addictive enough, there is no need to put actual addictive narcotics in them as well. Besides instead of adding addictive chemicals to your energy cola, why don’t you focus on coming out with new and innovative products? You stuck with the same formula of your energy drink (your competition has multiple flavors), it took you years to make a 16 ounce can (which you charge an obscene amount for), you finally came out with an energy shot (years behind the competition) and you don’t have any variations of energy levels in your drinks (which your competition also has). Now I understand branding and image and riding the wave of success. But come on, you are losing market share. Come out with something original already. END RANT