Gridlock Extreme Red Energy Drink Review

Aldi comes back to the energy drink market with Extreme Red, the latest variety in their Gridlock brand. The textured aluminum is a nice touch on a generic potable, so my digits were pleasantly surprised at their grip here. The design remains approximate to earlier entries in the line, though with all this red this time around, your eyes struggle to make sense of it all. What is text and what is background noise? What text is important and what is fluffery?

The flavor is a murky one, an indistinct blend of every fruit but the kitchen sink, with the only reasoning being to vaguely resemble a fruit punch. Your tongue finds cherry, pineapple, red grape, passion fruit, and several more, arguing for dominance, with your palate caught in the whirlwind. They work inharmoniously, pushing and shoving each other for an experience that always offers a little more nuance than most, especially for a store-brand potation. Erythritol, ace-k and sucralose are in charge of sweetness, and the hodgepodge posse of produce taste tailored to the trilogy of sham sugars. The approach to have so much going on introduces an electric sourness, which not only distracts from the pseudo sweeteners but also helps bring order to the fruit stew chaos.

Each can contains a cool 150 milligrams of caffeine, as well as some B vitamins, taurine, ginseng, and l-carnitine. The buzz is arguably the weakest player here, lasting two hours only. In the end, Gridlock Extreme Red is not so extreme but is very red.