What's the pH of a Redbull?

An energy drink is a glorified supplement.

It’s the concoction that some manufacturer mass produces. It’s not tailored to the individual. With that said, it’s always interesting to see the what’s in these things, as the ingredients inside say quite a lot about the target audience.

For example, an Alani Nu has L-Theanine, and a Celsius doesn’t. Make of that what you will.

Since a lot of these things have proprietary blends (they shouldn’t), and contain ingredients where it’s not the law to list the amount (it should be the law), we have a few tricks up our sleeve to deduce what’s in them, mainly the fact that ingredients are listed in order of descending weight.

My office stocks Redbulls. One of the og’s of the game. Redbull seems to be big on taurine for some reason. Since it’s part of their marketing pitch I naturally thought that they’d list the amount of taurine on the can. At least on the one’s in my office, they don’t.

Yet they say on their website that there’s about a gram per 8.4oz can.

But I noticed that citric acid is listed above taurine on the ingredient list. That’s over a gram of citric acid per 8oz can.

Should be about a pH of 3 ☠️. Say goodbye to enamel (anything below 5.5 is detrimental).

The funniest thing is that I noticed baking soda on the ingredient list as well. Haven’t seen that one in an energy drink before, so the people at Redbull must have realized that their drink is so acidic that they better buffer it.

Anyways, with my pH test strips, it does seem like it’s a pH of between 3 and 4. So use a straw if you ever drink it. (Regardless, any carbonated beverage should be drank with a straw, but this is particularly egregious)