11 Ghost Energy Drink Flavors, Ranked

If you're looking for an energy drink that doesn't pack a ton of sugar (but still tastes like it does), then you should look no further than Ghost. These sugar-free energy drinks are sweetened with alternative sweeteners that enhance a wide range of flavors, some of them inspired by candy or soda brands. This is a brand that's not exactly serving up subtle flavors but rather highlighting really bold, sour, and fruity tasting notes that provide a maximalist counterpoint to the more restrained, lightly flavored energy drink options out there. I decided to get a better sense of the hype around this brand by testing out 11 of its flavors. I then ranked them, starting with the worst and making my way to the favorite of the bunch.

While everyone has different tastes when it comes to energy drinks and you may not agree with me on every point here, maybe my descriptions can help you pick out a beverage that'll brighten your day, delivering the energy you need to take on all of your tasks. Flavor balance was my main focus in this ranking — I looked for flavors that didn't seem overpowered by artificial sweetness. Additionally, when relevant, I considered how closely each drink corresponded to the food product for which they're named. Pop open your favorite energy drink, and let's take a look at the Ghost Energy drink lineup.

I love orange soda, so I thought that there was a small chance I'd enjoy Ghost's Orange Cream energy drink. Ultimately, though, I was really disappointed by it. Yes, you get a hint of that signature orange flavor there, but it didn't quite have the citric brightness I was expecting. The orange flavor was subtle and muddled, with an overt fruitiness that tastes downright artificial. Without enough accompanying acidity, the flavor feels flat. Add in a note of vanilla, and things get even worse. The flavor is cloying on its own, but the vanilla makes it taste even sweeter. In fact, I think the vanilla note here is even stronger than that of orange.

Admittedly, it does taste like an orange cream drink ... if it was 10 times sweeter than an average soda and left an unpleasant lingering taste in your mouth. But honestly, since I generally don't adore creamsicle-like flavors, I don't think it's a flavor worth replicating in the first place. Even if you like that kind of thing, this seems like a pretty poor execution. Unless you want a drink that will overwhelm you with sweetness on the very first sip, I'd suggest opting for a different flavor.

If you've tasted one blue raspberry-flavored food item, you've tasted them all. That holds true for blue raspberry Ghost, which tastes, inexplicably, extremely blue. Now, does it taste like raspberry at all? Not really. Instead, I picked up on a generic fruitiness found in countless fruit-flavored food items that don't actually contain much, if any, real fruit. It's okay for that first sip, but you'll realize how sweet it is after the second. There's no subtlety here — you're just assaulted with a candy-like flavor that tastes cheap, with a thin but still overpowering sweetness. It's true that most of the drinks on this list share that cheap feeling, but in this case it's more egregious than in most of the others.

This was one of the first flavors I tried in the lineup, and I'll admit I was a little taken aback that the drink's hue was actually blue. That's probably a good thing if you don't want to show up to work with a completely blue mouth, but it immediately made the drink seem less appetizing to me. I guess that's part of the reason why this brand uses cans instead of clear plastic bottles. It's just one more reason it was one of my least favorite flavors in the lineup.

Are you a big fan of sour candies? If so, then Sour Strips might be one of your favorites. You get a mix of a sticky, gummy texture with sugar crystals and an overall fruity flavor profile that holds the sourness nicely. For an energy drink brand known for collabing with candy brands, it only makes sense to see a Sour Strips Rainbow-flavored Ghost drink. I really love sour candy. I was actually pretty excited to try this drink, but I ended up pretty disappointed with the result.

I don't think this drink tasted like Sour Strips Rainbow candy at all. It's sour, which isn't bad, but otherwise, this is another generically fruity energy drink. I do appreciate that the flavor here isn't so overpowering, as it is with some of the other flavors on this list. I found it more restrained than some of the others, despite its sweetness. But since it's supposed to taste like candy and doesn't, it easily ranks in the lower half of the lineup.

This candy-inspired energy drink is supposed to taste like Warheads Sour Watermelon. Since the candy is known for being especially bold, I was kind of surprised to see it in drink form. I wondered how Ghost was going to make the drink as sour as it needed to be, but once I took a sip, I realized that the brand absolutely succeeded — this stuff is wildly sour. If you like that kind of flavor in a candy, you might find it appealing in a drink. However, I think the extra-strong sourness gets unpleasant after a few sips, even if it tastes good at first.

Even though this is a really sweet drink, I think it's more balanced than some of the worse-ranked flavors here. Because the watermelon note is quite light, it allows that sourness to take center stage. I don't really like artificial watermelon flavoring, which affects its ranking. So, if you wanted to try this energy drink because you assume it tastes like sour watermelon, you're probably going to be disappointed.

There are plenty of grape juice brands, but Welch's is arguably the best known of them all. It only makes sense that Ghost Energy would team up with Welch's. I grew up drinking Welch's and still have a fondness for it in my heart, so I figured that this product mashup would be delicious. But this is another instance in which I was taken aback by the color of the drink ... there's no purple or red to be found. Once you take a closer look at the ingredients, you can see that there's no grape juice either. Obviously, that's not a good sign for a juice-flavored energy drink.

When I first took a sip of this stuff, I really did taste that signature concord grape flavor Welch's is known for. However, I found that the aftertaste wasn't pleasant. There was a bitterness there, along with an artificial-tasting floral flavor, that stayed on my palate for much longer than I expected. I think this may have to do with the use of sugar alternatives, but still, my impression of the flavor isn't good. That being said, I didn't find the sweetness here to be quite as overly powerful as it is in some of the recipes, which is why the flavor doesn't rank even lower on the list.

Even though I love peach fruit, I'm usually not a big fan of artificial peach flavoring. I think this is a flavor that food companies often lean too far into sweetness, which is antithetical to a fruit that has such a light, approachable flavor in its natural form. That's why I was surprised that Peaches Ghost Energy drink is actually kind of balanced. You get those round, fruity, and floral notes that you might already associate with peaches, with an alternative sugar flavor that's present but not too prominent. There's also some acidity there, which brightens things up and prevents the drink from feeling too heavy or cloying. I wouldn't necessarily say the acidity tastes natural to peach flavor, but it creates needed balance in the drink.

But if you tend to like peach-flavored products or seek out this kind of energy drink, you can likely get down with a pretty sweet beverage. However, this drink doesn't rank any higher largely because of my own anti-artificial peach preference and because I think it is quite sweet.  

Ghost Energy's original flavor is perfect for those times when you want an energy drink that's sweet and fruity but not quite as intensely bold as some of the others that appear on this list. Honestly, this option probably looks the least appealing of them all, since this can looks so plain. Plus, the flavor doesn't have a name to help you identify the taste. Therefore, I didn't know what to expect before taking a sip. When I did, though, I picked up on a candy-like, bubblegum note, and some citrus-like flavors that added acidity to an otherwise sweet flavor.

The original Ghost Energy isn't a drink I'd seek out if I had the option of choosing most other drinks in the grocery store refrigerated section, but I do think it's one of the better flavors in the brand's lineup. All of Ghost's energy drinks are sweet, including Original. That being said, it doesn't have as much of the cloying quality as you'll find in some of the other flavors that appear on this list, although you will taste that alternative sweetener quite clearly. If you don't mind the strange bitterness that flavor can sometimes impart, then this stuff is pretty solid.

Sometimes, you may want the jolt of energy you can get from an energy drink but ultimately crave the flavor of a soda instead. That's what you get with Ghost Energy's A&W Root Beer-flavored beverage. Now, there are a lot of root beer brands out there, and I don't think A&W is the best. Although I think all root beer has a toothpaste-like tinge of flavor, it's an especially egregious trait in this particular brand's beverage. This is the main reason this flavor doesn't rank higher, even though you'll find a similar quality in the original version of the soda.

However, if you know you already like A&W root beer, then there's an excellent chance that you'll enjoy this energy drink as well. The flavor is quite accurate, so it really just tastes like you're drinking a sugar-free version of root beer. Honestly, if you're not a fan of artificial-tasting fruity flavors, this may even be the very best flavor of the entire bunch. Personally, though, I think there are a few flavors that are just a bit tastier than this one.

Something that Ghost's drinks seem to do exceptionally well is sour flavors, so it only makes sense that the brand would be able to pull off a decent cherry limeade drink. But a lot of times when you see lime plus another flavor, that lime is really muted, fading to the background as the other fruity notes come to the foreground. That's not the case with this energy drink, though. Lime is the most prominent flavor, offering the drink a sourness and zinginess. It doesn't exactly taste natural (nor does the cherry), but it has a nice, sour candy-like note that I really enjoy. Because you're working with so much sourness, the accompanying intense sweetness here is relatively well-balanced.

Although the flavor of the cherry isn't quite as strong as that lime note, it's still very much present, offering a nice fruity background for those more citrus-forward flavors. Still, I don't think artificial cherry is quite as bad as other non-genuine flavors. After all, in my opinion, cherry-flavored candy is often a lot more enjoyable than other fruity flavors. When those berry notes meet the lime, the result is surprisingly refreshing. It's not my all-time favorite Ghost Energy flavor, but it's still worth checking out.

As much as I appreciate how creative Ghost Energy gets with its drinks, I often prefer a beverage that's a little more natural-tasting than what this brand mostly offers. That's why I gravitate toward Ghost's Sour Pink Lemonade, which seems a lot simpler than most of the other fruity or candy-inspired flavors on this list. Now, this stuff doesn't exactly taste like homemade lemonade, but it does have an easy-to-like lemony flavor. The sourness of the lemon flavor seems dialed up, though, giving you a nose-scrunching flavor that even the most sour-loving palates will think is strong.

Other than that lemon flavor, though, there's not a long going on here ... and that's exactly how I like it. There's the expected sweetness, but the sour notes are a lot stronger, making this seem like one of the less intensely sweet varieties from the brand. It's not exactly a groundbreaking flavor, and it may be less interesting than the candy-inspired ones. I think it's a great option for those who are looking for a bit of a tamer flavor from Ghost Energy.

I actually can't believe that Ghost's Warheads Sour Green Apple flavor ranks first. I was fully prepared to dislike this variety, but I actually consider it the absolute best of the lineup. Now, is this the kind of drink you should casually sip when you're looking for something easy-drinking and approachable? Definitely not. The sourness here is wildly intense, so you have to be prepared to have your taste buds stripped (in a good way) to enjoy this stuff. Since that sourness is so pronounced, though, it balances with the alternative sweeteners quite nicely. Yes, this stuff tastes quite sweet — all of Ghost's energy drink flavors do — but this flavor has the most manageable sweetness by far.

This is the classic sour green apple flavor you know and love from all of your favorite sour candies, including Warheads. I actually think this is the most accurate-tasting candy-flavored energy drink of them all. This certainly isn't for everyone, and it's definitely not something I would drink even semi-regularly. But if you're craving something ultra sour that'll give you a boost of energy to boot, then this is the Ghost flavor for you.

I selected all of the Ghost Energy flavors I could find at my local grocery store and tried each drink while it was cold. I poured them out into a glass and let the excess carbonation subside before taking the first sips. I ranked these varieties according to my personal perception of the flavors. The best-ranked are more balanced than the lowest-ranked varieties, featuring less cloying tastes (or sweetness that's at least tempered by sourness). I also thought about how closely each drink tasted like the food item it was meant to mimic, when relevant.