Energy-drink sales in the US were up 17% in August from a year earlier, and up 56% since the summer of 2019, according to analytics firm NielsenIQ.
People now drink energy drinks while going to the gym, at the office or to start the day. Many are struggling to promote caffeine as they return to more personal work and resume busy social lives as COVID-19 restrictions fade.
Analysts say a number of alternatives that claim to be healthier are fueling growth in the energy-drink market. Despite doctor’s warnings that they often contain too much sugar or caffeine, shoppers are gravitating to drinks with vitamins, electrolytes, better taste, and less sugar than older varieties.
During college, Nicole LoRusso chased friends who trusted Red Bull to reach the finals. “I was like, ‘That stuff’s going to kill you!'” says Ms. LoRusso, 23, a public relations coordinator in Holmdale, NJ.
Now, she gets two cases of Celsius every month and says she can’t start her workday without it. She feels the stigma of drinking energy drinks is diminishing and she openly drinks Celsius at her desk. She says her perspective changed this summer, when gym friends turned her to the drink she relied on for a pre-workout boost. She says she was also tired of paying $7 for a Starbucks iced latte when a can of Celsius cost about $2.
(Red Bull did not respond to requests for comment about its health effects.)
Ms. LoRusso tries to limit herself to one day. Still, he feels Celsius is less harmful than some other varieties. “At the very least it has a picture of a fruit on it,” she jokes.
While the established energy drink Red Bull and still accounts for more than half of the market, other options are seeing some of the biggest growth, according to data compiled by the trade publication Beverage Digest.
Celsius went on the market in 2005, but the business boomed only in the last three years. According to President John Fieldley, the company almost tripled sales in the first six months of 2022 from $93 million to $269 million compared to six months earlier. “We had run out of flavors because of demand,” says Mr. Fieldley. Popular varieties include Raspberry Acai Green Tea and Sparkling Strawberry Guava.
People who had never bought an energy drink before accounted for about a quarter of the company’s sales, Mr Fieldley says, citing data from consumer insights company Numerator.
He says the drink does not pose a health risk for the average adult, pointing to its lack of sugar. (The drink is sweetened with stevia and erythritol.)
Doctors are not convinced. Frank Hu, chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says he is concerned about the high caffeine and sugar content of the beverages. (Sugar-free alternatives aren’t necessarily better, he says, because of the uncertain long-term effects of artificial sweeteners.) Too many drinks can lead to high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, anxiety, and insomnia, he says, and are particularly dangerous. for teenagers. A 12-ounce cup contains 200 milligrams of caffeine, which is roughly the same as two standard cups of coffee.
“The big increase in consumption over the past few years is really worrying,” Dr. Hu says.
Beverage companies are following a change in consumer behavior. Pepsi-Cola picked up a $550 million stake in Celsius this summer and will begin selling Mountain Dew Energy in 2021. Gatorade introduced its first energy drink, Fast Twitch, exclusively last month with the National Football League, with a wider consumer rollout coming in February. Even Starbucks is getting in on the game: The coffee chain launched its first lineup of energy drinks in partnership with PepsiCo in January.
According to NielsenIQ, the ready-to-drink coffee market is only the fifth largest in the U.S. as an energy drink and grew 2% year-over-year as of August.
Taylor Brooks, 30, a Merck pharmaceutical scientist and yoga instructor in Dallas, often takes a Celsius sip before teaching a class. She says the drink doesn’t make her feel as irritable as a cold brew, and boggles her mind before a 6:30 a.m. workout.
“I work a corporate job and teach yoga for fun, so it can sometimes be difficult to switch gears into teacher mode,” she says.
For decades, the energy-drink market was a two-horse race between Red Bull and Monster, says Beverage Digest publisher Duane Stanford, who has been tracking the industry for the past 16 years. Recent players, including Celsius, Bang and C4, have succeeded in marketing themselves as healthier alternatives in a more health-conscious environment after the pandemic, he says.
“It’s debatable, but at the end of the day, it’s resonating with consumers,” he says. “They are a very affordable luxury.”
The B vitamins and amino acids bang adds to its cans, appeals to 44-year-old TJ Quigley, director of marketing for a medical device company living in Lake Forest, Calif.
In 1999, when he was the company’s brand ambassador at the University of Washington, he drank Red Bull heavily. He says he cut back after graduating due to health concerns and the metallic taste of the original Red Bull and Monster. (The distinctive, bitter taste is largely from supplemental taurine, Mr. Stanford says.)
Twenty years later, Mr. Quigley drinks a can of Bang, Red Bull or Celsius a day. He says that he likes to relax every afternoon while working from home.
“I don’t have time to walk away and go to Starbucks for half an hour,” says Mr. Quigley. “Actually, I’m going to grab one right now.”