We Ranked Every Celsius Flavor From Worst To Best

In a world of popular energy drink brands like Monster, Red Bull, and Body Armor, Celsius stands alone. Its 12-ounce cans are slender and low-profile, making them the perfect companion for walking to class, grabbing from a gas station on the way to work, or sipping in the gym before a workout. Each one is filled with 200 milligrams of caffeine (the same as two cups of coffee) derived from green tea and guarana extract. The brand touts the former's other health benefits, including antioxidants, vitamins, and metabolism-boosting compounds. In addition, the flavors are all sugar-free, vegan, gluten-free, and derived from sucralose, which is a low-calorie alternative to aspartame.

We've taken the time to carefully rank every Celsius flavor based on how accurate the name of the beverage was to the flavors present, how refreshing the taste was on the palate, and what the drink was missing to make it a more well-rounded sipping experience. Considering that every flavor we reviewed had the same nutritional profile with around 10 calories a can, we did not rank each on their dietary components. Here are the flavors that supercharged our workout and the ones that failed to PR.

Read more: 25 Popular Bottled Water Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

Sparkling Green Apple Cherry

Thinking about drinking anything green apple-flavored seems to bring back memories of poorly concocted drinks in college. Plus, this flavor is exclusively available at 7-Eleven or on Amazon, so there's very little opportunity for you to get your hands on a can. And we're honestly thankful for that since this is a flavor that should be relegated to the back of the shelf.

Sparkling Green Apple Cherry is nothing short of confusing. The green apple dominates the cherry and comes off as having more of a sour profile than that of a Jolly Rancher candy. The cherry pops its head out occasionally, but it's not apparent enough to make us think this beverage deserves to bear the name of both flavors. It's not pleasantly fruity, and it does just remind us of sour apple cocktails and unpleasant memories. This beverage doesn't deliver, and it's not worth the caffeine.

Sparkling Cola

The whole "cola" flavor label is concerning, especially considering the rest of the Celsius flavors lacked the carbonation needed to make this drink even close to sparkling. Despite having the same profile as a diet soda, the Cola Celsius flavor fell flat in our rankings. It tastes like a bottom-shelf diet soda with an overwhelming artificial syrup aftertaste.

The Cola flavor can potentially make a splash in the energy drink world because it could serve as the fuel Diet Coke drinkers choose for their workouts. But Celsius needs to take this flavor back to the drawing board to curb its artificial sweetener profile and boost carbonation. Nobody likes a flat soda, even when it comes with the supercharge of caffeine.

Sparkling Grape Rush

We were not jumping for joy with even the thought of trying the Sparkling Grape Rush flavor. Grape tends to brings back memories of children's cough syrup, flat purple Fanta soda, and grape-flavored candies. Unfortunately, Celsius failed to change our mind about grape-flavored things with this beverage. The flavor is grape-forward, but there are notes of coffee, chocolate, or something much darker with every sip. It dries your mouth out, leaving a putrid residual taste on your tastebuds.

There aren't any ways that we could foresee changing this beverage to make it more palatable rather than just wiping it from the Celsius inventory altogether. Adding more carbonation would likely make it a bit easier to stomach, but this flavor seems like it's on a trajectory of doom and gloom.

Cosmic Vibe

Cosmic Vibe is marketed as a flavor that will take your tastebuds to outer space. It's supposed to be flavored like fruit punch — which can mean a lot of things. Could it taste like watered-down red Gatorade? Sure. Or, sugary sweet Hawaiian Punch? Possibly, yes.

This flavor is nothing short of the latter. It's confectionary, sugary, and will likely have you bouncing off the walls after chugging it before a lift session. It tastes disappointingly artificial, and it's hard to keep it down when you're drinking it because it's so sweet. Plus, you get an overwhelming element of cherry and a little pineapple in the background, but there's no real flavor besides the sweetness that makes this beverage worth drinking. If you love the taste of Hawaiian Punch, it might be the only justifiable reason to crack open a can.

Sparkling Kiwi Guava

Our biggest concern with the Sparkling Kiwi Guava Celsius flavor was that it's so hard to replicate the taste of either element without crossing into the cough syrup category. In addition, this flavor features a combination of two less robust flavor profiles, which means that it's relatively easy for one to overpower the other. In this case, we get very evident notes of guava compared to the subdued flavors of the kiwi. This would be more true-to-brand if it were styled as just guava rather than kiwi guava.

Unsurprisingly, the guava that does appear in this drink is more reflective of a concentrated guava syrup like you'd find used in a mixed drink or a guava soda. Overall, this flavor has potential but needs direction.

Sparkling Strawberry Guava

Sparkling Strawberry Guava falls into the same boat as Sparkling Kiwi Guava — the guava is way too overcharged to compete with the strawberry, which results in a mismatch of flavors. Drinking this Celsius can was like asking, "Okay, I know there's guava — but what is the other flavor here?" While it's clear that the beverage is more than just guava, the strawberry just isn't discernable. This can be a blessing and a curse, considering that adding strawberry flavor to beverages can seem like you're making a cough syrup concoction.

The strawberry that's in here has the potential to complement the guava and transform this can into a really pleasant beverage, but it's a promise Celsius has failed to deliver on. It's unfortunate, but there are other flavors to choose from in the meantime.

Sparkling Wild Berry

We're always mildly concerned whenever a beverage is marketed as being "Wild Berry" flavored. It always seemed like a cop-out for manufacturers that couldn't decide if they wanted raspberry, blackberry, or blueberry, so they threw all three into a can and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, Celsius is no different.

Unlike the lower-ranked flavors, it's clear that the flavor of this beverage is berry. But that doesn't mean that the execution of this beverage was as flawless as it needed to be. Every sip is a blend of fruit thrown together haphazardly with a couple of bubbles here and there. Unfortunately, it is reminiscent of a gummy vitamin mixed with a berry cereal, so we were a bit turned off by the flavor altogether.

Peach Mango And Green Tea

We had high hopes for the Peach Mango and Green Tea, considering that we love drinking a refreshing iced tea in the summertime. However, there were some odd flavor notes in this can that made us a little hesitant to take a sip. The smell of this beverage was very peachy — bordering on the line of being artificial peachy — with the floral notes of a hyped-up green tea concentrate.

Despite the aromatic warning signs, drinking this flavor Celsius was more pleasurable than the others. You get a light kiss of mango with a predominant peach backdrop. The company could theoretically strip the can of its mango flavor label, and you wouldn't miss a thing. The green tea was also in the background, but it couldn't compete with the mango.

Raspberry Açaí And Green Tea

It seemed like all the other beverages in Celsius' flavor lineup had some element of green tea, so we were hesitant to try a flavor that isolated it and combined it with a potent raspberry açaí. The flavor of this beverage didn't taste much like the açaí bowls we dreamed of for breakfast, but it did have some refreshing herbal notes that made for a pleasurable drinking experience. This flavor was also one of the only ones in the lineup that didn't have the "sparkling" effect, so we didn't have to be disappointed when there were no bubbles at all.

Our biggest qualm with the Rasberry Açaí and Green Tea flavor was that the raspberry came across more as a muted cranberry. It's not a massive deal in the grand scheme of things, but it might lead to a bit more accurate marketing for the company.

Arctic Vibe

When you think about what exactly Arctic Vibe is trying to get at, your mind probably drifts to a bright blue or white Gatorade bottle. And this flavor certainly delivers on that expectation. There are mild, pleasant blueberry and cotton candy notes, along with an overwhelmingly cool drinking experience. It was about as artificial as you'd expect it to be, with a sweetness akin to the corresponding Gatorade flavors. Moreover, there weren't any flavor notes left lingering on our tongue like cough syrup, and it was just about as pleasurable as drinking a sports drink.

Despite our neutral tasting experience for this flavor, we would still choose one of the fruity varieties as our top pick. It might just be the feeling that we're drinking something chemical, but we're not diehard fans of this one.

Oasis Vibe

The Oasis Vibe flavor is supposed to be a prickly pear and lime concoction, but it's very difficult to pinpoint any of those flavors in the can. It's refreshing and easy to drink with very few sickeningly sweet notes, but it is concerning that there really isn't an exact flavor that shines through more than the others. We taste citrus and a mild tang, but otherwise, the flavors are too muddled.

If you're a fan of sipping margaritas, you might be a good candidate to try this Celsius flavor, but if you want something more definitive, you're better off going with the other options in the Vibe collection. The Oasis Vibe scores in the middle of the pack for us.

Peach Vibe

Peach Vibe was the first flavor of Celsius we tried. After all, we love a fresh summer peach from time to time, so why would this flavor be any different?

The Peach Vibe was heavy on the peach notes without getting too artificial. This flavor also had a green tea element, but it wasn't in the spotlight as much as the peach. In short, the flavor is just as we expected, but it didn't wow us any more than the other lower-ranked varieties. Our biggest complaint with this flavor was that the sparkling element just wasn't sparkling enough. Compared to a freshly cracked can of seltzer, you only get a few of the bubbles, and they almost all fade away once you crack the can.

Fantasy Vibe

The idea of adding marshmallow flavor to a beverage is pretty wild. If you want to add more sweetness, more sugar feels like the way to go (or whatever artificial sweetener blend Celsius uses) — don't try to be creative or whimsical with it.

That said, we were pleasantly surprised by the Fantasy Vibe flavor. It's a play on an orange creamsicle where the vanilla just acts as a stand-in for the marshmallow. In fact, we think that if Celsius rebranded this beverage to use "vanilla" instead of "marshmallow" it would probably scare fewer people off. The mandarin flavor can also come off as a plain orange flavor, so theoretically, the whole beverage could just be rebranded as "creamsicle" without an issue.

For as much as we enjoyed it, we'd like to see an improvement in this beverage's carbonation. Creamsicles and fizzy beverages need this element of pop and lightness, and the Fantasy Vibe flavor is no different.

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

Summer is the season for classic strawberry lemonade. But strawberry lemonade that has a punch of energy and caffeine? Count us in all year round.

Although the base of the beverage has an even mixture of strawberry and lemons, you also have some more strange flavors that come to the fore like guava and a tinge of sour apple. These novel flavors don't detract from the promise of strawberry lemonade, but it does make us question why the company couldn't just stick to a good recipe without any subliminal flavors getting involved.

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade is relatively easy to drink and sip on a hot day or on your way to class or the gym. It also doesn't leave an aftertaste on your tongue like regular lemonade — especially brands made with artificial sweeteners — which makes it a refreshing addition to your workout routine.

Sparkling Fuji Apple Pear

There's a reason why you don't often see pear-flavored beverages on the market. The fruit doesn't have enough flavor or distinct notes for it to be discernable, and that's the big problem we encountered with Sparkling Fuji Apple Pear Celsius.

We do, however, give props to Celsius for channeling the mild, bright flavor of the Fuji apple without crossing into the sour apple cocktail zone. Its fresh-from-the-orchard flavor elevates it among the other beverages and is nothing short of a pleasure to drink. We just wish there was more pear flavor rather than apple and a mystery citrus. It would be ideal for someone who likes the taste of sparkling cider but needs the extra charge of energy to finish their workouts.

Sparkling Watermelon

There's no right way to cram the flavor of a sweet, juicy summer watermelon into a can, let alone an energy drink. So, we approached Sparkling Watermelon Celsius with the idea that it had to have some artificial qualities to it. We were pleasantly surprised by the flavors of this beverage, which were not as sweet as what we would have expected.

There were no watermelon cocktail traces nor flavored Sour Patch Kids, which was a pleasure in itself. Besides the watermelon notes, there are also undertones of honey and hibiscus, which transforms the Watermelon Celsius into an ethereal summer beverage that we want to sip on any time of year. While we may have walked into this tasting experience skeptical, we walked out true believers.

Sparkling Orange

Orange-flavored beverages can cover two ends of the spectrum: a pleasant, citrusy pick-me-up or a drowning, syrupy orange soda profile. Luckily, this orange energy drink falls in the former category. It's effervescent, light, and does not bog you down compared to the other flavor suggestions. It's the perfect flavor for sipping before a workout or one that you'll want to enjoy on a hot summer day on the boat.

The one thing that this beverage is missing is the bubbles. It could also have a little more sour tang to it to add some depth, but there isn't much sweetness that needs to get balanced out anyway. We expected to be a bit turned off by this flavor, but it's one that Celsius really surprised us with.

Sparkling Lemon Lime

We all know the feeling of cracking open a cold can of Sprite or 7-Up on a hot summer day. And despite the fact that this flavor isn't the go-to for many folks when selecting a Celsius, we think it should be. The Sparkling Lemon Lime was our favorite flavor because of how refreshing it was when we were sipping on it. Although the bubbly sparkling effect wasn't present as much as we would have expected, the flavors within this can didn't bog us down for our workouts nor left a residual taste in our mouths.

Another facet of this flavor we appreciated was how toned down its sweetness was. While there was a little bit to make it pleasant to drink, it wasn't as sugary as a soda. With the variety of different fruit and flavor combos Celsius offers, Sparkling Lemon Lime won out in the end.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.