With Halloween over, the holiday spirit now fills the air. The scents of turkey, pumpkin, pine, and cheer surround us with a jolly feeling. However, a new scent has entered the scene, and it’s most certainly a unique one: Pear and cinnamon-flavored Red Bull.

Red Bull- the famous energy drink created in 1987, has sold over 100 billion cans worldwide- including 11.5 billion cans in 2022 alone! This drink from Austria has been voted as the most popular energy drink brand in 2020 and is ranked as the third most valuable soft drink brand- behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi, of course.

In 2013, Red Bull started making flavors other than the classic, nondescript flavor that comes in regular and sugar-free varieties. They started with three interesting flavors: Cranberry, Blueberry, and Dry Lime. Cranberry and Dry Lime were eventually discontinued later on but Blueberry stayed. Now, with seven staple flavor editions, Red Bull has a variety of options available.

However, if none of these flavors fit your particular tastes, Red Bull also has seasonal, limited-edition flavors that are released twice a year. They come in Summer and Winter packs and are released during those times.

During this past summer, the summer edition flavor was Juneberry, which according to the Red Bull website, is a mix between cherry and grape. The Winter Edition flavor last year was Fig and Apple, a delightful combination of autumnal fruits.

Oftentimes, these flavors follow seasonal trends, as well as trying to pertain to the seasonal atmosphere of the flavors. For example, a Juneberry is a summer fruit- so it is a summer flavor.

This year’s Winter Flavor is Pear Cinnamon, an interesting combination of flavors that are holiday/winter-themed. Overall, the drink is simply ok. It’s not horrible but does not compare to past seasonal flavors.

Initially, the smell of the Pear Cinnamon flavor is very Peary. The flavor tastes exactly how it smells, with a strong flavor of pear that isn’t too sweet and a little sour. There isn’t much of a cinnamon flavor in the drink unless you really look for it. However, that is definitely a blessing in disguise! There aren’t many cinnamon-flavored non-alcoholic soft drinks and for a reason. Cinnamon is definitely more of a baked-good or tea flavor, most certainly ot something that should have 114 milligrams of caffeine.

All in all, this Red Bull flavor gets a six out of ten… It tastes more like a slightly expired Martinelli’s sparkling cider than a drink that supposedly “gives you wings.” It is pretty hard to taste the cinnamon flavoring and it honestly should have been just a little sweeter and spicier. Instead of calling it Pear Cinnamon, they could have just called it Pear or Spicy Pear. Cinnamon isn’t even on the list of ingredients!

Often seasonal flavors can be a hit or a miss and this one was just barely a miss. If there was a little more effort of holiday cheer put into this drink, it definitely could have improved it so much! This was a poor effort given by Red Bull and it
surely doesn’t compare to last year’s flavor Fig and Apple. Sorry Red Bull, maybe you will have better luck next year.