Rosary is known for its many strengths, one being our great academics. Unfortunately, this usually means students are required to work harder in their classes. Many Royals are also part of various extracurriculars which can be hard to balance with school. One trend throughout Rosary to help students stay awake at school after their 42 and a half minutes of sleep the night before is the consumption of energy drinks.

If you walk into any classroom on our campus, you’ll probably see at least half of the girls with some sort of caffeinated drink. Because of my busy schedule, I have acquired a raging caffeine addiction that can only be satisfied by having my daily four shots of espresso and the occasional energy drink if I need (or want) it. People try to convince me that it’s unhealthy for a 16-year-old girl to be approaching 450 milligrams of caffeine per day, but I like to look on the bright side: I’ve had the opportunity to try several different brands of energy drinks.

Due to my borderline concerning and definitely unhealthy caffeine addiction, I think I’m more than qualified to rank these brands based off of their taste, their nutrition facts, and how much they satisfy my need for caffeine. 

1) Celsius

Some say Celsius drinks are overrated. I completely disagree. There are so many different flavors, and I have tried at least 90% of them. I have NEVER had a flavor that I didn’t like. This drink also has options for different levels of caffeine. They have the normal ones which have 200 milligrams, or they have their Heat option with 300 milligrams. These drinks also boost your metabolism and have various health benefits. Personally, I love drinking them before I go to the gym. These definitely help wake me up for my workout before school at 4:30 a.m.

2) Rockstar

I’ve only had one flavor of Rockstar, but I was far from disappointed; I was amazed. The Silver Ice Pure Zero flavor has a magnificent sweet grapefruit flavor without any sugar. This drink has 160 milligrams of caffeine per can which isn’t quite enough for my personal needs, but it’s a decent amount for any person with a normally functioning liver.

3) Monster

I’ve only had two flavors of Monster energy drinks, but both of them were really good. The watermelon flavor is sweet and smooth to drink, and the sugar free original flavor is also fantastic and a lot more healthy. Monster energy drinks also have 160 milligrams of caffeine per can.

4) Red Bull

I’ve had two flavors of Red Bull: Original Sugar Free and Coconut Berry. Although the Coconut Berry flavor was truly a magical thing to experience, the effects were not fun. This gave me quite possibly the worst headache I’ve ever had in my entire 16 years of living. However, the Original Sugar Free had a great flavor and spared me from a headache. Red Bull has 111 milligrams of caffeine per can which isn’t nearly enough to prevent my withdrawal headaches.

5) Sparkling Ice

I’ve had two different flavors of these drinks which were both really good: Blue Raspberry and Black Raspberry. Although these taste really good, they make me nauseous and only have 70 milligrams of caffeine which is definitely not enough for me.

If you’re looking for a new energy drink to try, these are all good options. However, for liability issues, I am not recommending that you drink any of them. Definitely do not form an addiction like mine; you might actually need your liver one day.

In all seriousness, drinking caffeine is not recommeded and can be dangerous is not moderated. Although fully grown adults can safely consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day, according to the Mayo Clinic, kids and teens between the ages of 12 and 18 should limit their intake to 100 milligrams per day. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children younger than 12 should not consume caffeine at all. I do not recommend nor encourage you to try these if you have not had much experience with caffeine and do not know how it effects you.