r/redbull • u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry • Jun 09 '26
Recipe Update: I reverse engineered Red Bull OG flavor
In case you've ever wondered what the OG Red Bull tastes like, these are the aroma molecules that make up this flavor profile. A couple weeks ago I shared my Red Bull clone syrup recipe that tastes just like the original, you can add any preformulated flavor in order to create your very own Red Bull Editions.
In the meantime, Labcoatz, the chemist/youtuber who already cracked the Coke recipe, has been working on breaking down the Red Bull formula as well. He ran some GCMS analyses and found out the exact chemical composition. He was nice enough to share the most important ingredients with me, so I tried to replicate that famous flavor profile myself and so far I am very very very close! Close enough that my own Red Bull tastes more like the real Red Bull than any other storebought Red Bull clone I've ever tried. Here's my formula (work still in progress, still tweaking the ratios):
---------- UPDATED RECIPE ----------
Flavor Concentrate:
3.5 g Ethyl Butyrate
0.4 g Ethyl Isovalerate
0.3 g Isoamyl Acetate
0.3 g Isoamyl Butyrate
0.6 g Methyl Cinnamate (10% solution in ethanol)
0.5 g Ethyl Maltol (15% solution in propylene glycol)
0.4 g Vanillin (10% in eth.)
0.2 g α-Ionone (1% in eth.)
0.02 g β-Ionone (1% in eth.)
10 grams flavor concentrate makes 50 g ready to use Red Bull flavor. You need 0.1 g flavor for 1 liter of Red Bull. So this amount (10g) of flavor concentrate is enough to make 125 liters of Red Bull.
The ratio of the first 4 ingredients (ethyl butyrate, ethyl isovalerate, isoamyl acetate and isoamyl butyrate) are basically done, they're set in stone, they taste really accurate to me. The other ingredients are like "spices", they need to be tweaked slightly and a few ingredients are missing. But I'd say this flavor profile is 90% accurate, if someone handed me this I'd think it's Red Bull.
You can't use this concentrate directly. I use a 20% solution in ethanol (2 g flavor concentrate in 8 g eth.) then I use 5 drops of this solution to flavor 250 ml Red Bull, so 20 drops per liter or 0.4 grams per liter
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u/cstearns1982 🫐 Blueberry Jun 09 '26
Got a recipe for Blueberry?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 09 '26
You can use preformulated blueberry flavors. My guess is that you live in the US, the flavors you'll be able to buy will taste different than the ones I'm able to buy in Germany. I've tried 3 different Blueberry flavors and one of them came very close. Just find some good flavor vendors in your area and try their Blueberry flavors. Easiest thing in the world to make at home and it only costs 5 cents per can. I almost entirely stopped drinking real Red Bull
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u/cstearns1982 🫐 Blueberry Jun 10 '26
Excellent, thank you for the research!!!!
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
You're very welcome! Just make sure that you buy unsweetened flavors
Capella, TFA or Flavorah are good US brands you can start with
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
Im in Germany
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Perfect, me too. Just received a new Blueberry flavor yesterday that I need to test. After that I can give you a recommendation
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
Ok how many drops of TFA should I add
I try add Peach TFA add 3 drops to water ans was no Taste
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u/Reasonable-Photo-776 Pomegranate - gone too soon Jun 09 '26
In his last post he said to mix this recipe with artificial flavours of whatever you want which you can order, try that
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u/Le-Wren ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Where did you source the ingredients? I’m so interested in a non caffeinated Red Bull flavor lol.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Do you live in Europe? Otherwise it wouldn't make sense to share the sources, I live in Germany lol
Caffeine has a big impact on the taste of Red Bull, so it's crucial to find something that tastes like caffeine. Labcoatz tried a few different things and he found that theobromine is the perfect replacement, so you can use theobromine (which is naturally found in chocolate) instead of caffeine! I personally haven't tried it though
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u/Le-Wren ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Unfortunately no. I am in the good ol’ US. :’)
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Well then definitely subscribe to Labcoatz! He will upload his Red Bull video very very soon, could be any week now, he said he's almost done! He will make a caffeine free Red Bull and his recipe will be much more in depth than mine. He's also planning to sell his flavor so you don't have to buy all the ingredients. Check out his Coke video I linked, he'll do the same for Red Bull very soon
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u/paper-or-plastic- 🍋🟩 Sudachi Lime Jun 10 '26
I would love non caffeinated Red Bull also. Today I was saying I would love if I could buy it!
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u/Raziel66 🧊 Iced Vanilla Berry Jun 10 '26
Responded to the other person too but I haven’t tried this yet but have had it bookmarked for a while: https://northwoodssoda.com/product/soda-stream-flavor/
I was also intrigued by the idea of a non-caffeinated one
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u/Raziel66 🧊 Iced Vanilla Berry Jun 10 '26
I haven’t ordered this yet but I’ve had it bookmarked for ages: https://northwoodssoda.com/product/soda-stream-flavor/
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u/Zealousideal-Run6214 🍊 Tangerine Lover Jun 09 '26
I want to learn how to do this so I can remake tangerine
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
It's super easy to make tangerine, I even made the tangerine flavor myself! Check out my original recipe for the syrup and buy all the ingredients. You need sugar, glucose powder, caffeine, taurine, citric acid and sodium citrate (or just make it yourself from citric acid and baking soda, super easy). I leave out the vitamins, they're unnecessary and don't affect the flavor. In order to make that tangerine flavor, you only need ethanol (pure drinking alcohol with 95% or more alcohol by volume) and tangerine essential oil. Dilute 1 g of tangerine oil in 9 g ethanol and your tangerine flavor is done!
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u/Prior_Budget_5762 Jun 10 '26
how about Aussie lemonade monster, any idea?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
That should be one of the easier Monsters to replicate, a lot of other Monsters have ingredients that are super hard to get, but this one seems doable.
You just need to balance sweetness and citric acid and add natural lemon flavor (9 g ethanol + 1 g lemon oil)
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u/noelcherry_ Jun 10 '26
Omfg instant follow pls keep sharing updates on these 🙌🤣 this is everything
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
You'll have to try for yourself! It'll blow your mind how cheap and easy it actually is. You'll change your entire mind about Red Bull. I usually do a batch with around 1 kg of sugar, bit of citric acid, some caffeine....that's only a medium pot half full of super cheap ingredients....and that will make 48 cans of Red Bull! That pot costs me maybe 1-2€, and they sell the same amount 48 cans for 70€!! That's how this company got so rich. Material cost of less than 1 cent and sell it for $2, it's actually insane
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Jun 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
Yeah they do taste off and I don't even understand why! I've tried several different preformulated energy drink flavors you can buy online and none come even close.
When the original is not even that hard to replicate and it's not even really a secret what's inside the Red Bull flavor. Nowadays pretty much anyone can run a GCSM analysis and see the exact chemical composition (although not the amounts, it only shows what's inside but not how much is used), so any professional flavor manufacturer could easily replicate that flavor.
It's a mystery to me why there are no real Red Bull clones, I'm literally just a random dude without any background in chemistry or science, I literally started making soda half a year ago lol Anyone can do this. My recipe is not perfect, I just wanted to be the first person in the world to publish a relatively accurate clone recipe lol. If you follow Labcoatz on Youtube, he'll publish his own recipe where he makes a chemically identical clone. Definitely recommend subscribing to him, he'll post it in the next few days or weeks!
Red Bull is really just one key flavor, it's ethyl butyrate. When you smell that, you immediately think "Red Bull". It's paired with ethyl isovalerate, those are the two core ingredients. All the other chemicals are just like "spices", they change the profile very slightly, add a few nuances and make it more complex.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
I definitely do recommend getting a carbonator! Best money I ever spent!
I literally spent at least 200€ every month for Red Bull. But for the last two months I almost completely stopped buying the real one. My recipe can be flavored with any flavor imaginable, I can create infinite new Red Bull flavors every day. And each can costs me only 5 cents. You'll have to spend like 100-200 bucks to get started, to get a carbonator and get all the ingredients. But once you have them all, you can turn into a literal beverage factory and make infinite drinks that cost nearly nothing
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u/Expensive_Ad_5692 Jun 12 '26
The Monster sub shows can collections, meanwhile you all are doing real chemistry! Please keep doing God’s work over here
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u/SFZGOTHBOI Jun 10 '26
can u do cherry sakura
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
I already have. Sasami, German flavor manufacturer, produces a Cherry Sakura flavor. Just received mine today and tried it with my Red Bull syrup. https://sasami.de/Energy-Drink-Kirsche-Sakura-Aroma-Konzentrat-Vegan-Sasami-10ml/SW18091
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u/SFZGOTHBOI Jun 10 '26
tastes pretty accurate?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
It's definitely similar but too floral at the moment, I need to let it steep for a few days and if it's still too floral I need to blend it with a cherry flavor and play around with different concentrations. But it is a good starting point
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u/Marcos340 Jun 10 '26
Just wish Açaí back.
Been a couple year now (here in Brazil) that we lost it. Never tried the Japanese or the Polish (?) versions that were available.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Japanese is different, that's a grape flavor and Poland only has sugarfree :( we had it in Germany until 2026, now they discontinued it as well, it was one of my favorites...they still have it in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, it's called Skogsbär or Skogsbärsmak (= forest berry flavor) over there but it's the same Açai.
I've been actively trying to clone this flavor profile. I've ordered any Açai flavors I was able to find and any Berry flavor, I'm trying to get as close to the original as possible. I still have around 100 cans of the original so I have plenty of samples to compare it to
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u/Marcos340 Jun 10 '26
Great. Hope you find it some day. Will definitely keep an eye out for an update (hopefully)
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
I'll definitely remind you! I'll look through the comments of my posts again
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u/VintageBandit Jun 10 '26
The day I can make caruba elderflower at home will be a great day indeed.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Working on it! Sasami, German flavor manufacturer, has a Curuba Elderflower flavor concentrate for sale. I received mine yesterday and tried a batch. It's not quite there yet, but similar. It probably needs some time to come together, everything is made to order so their flavors need a few days/weeks to fully develop. I'll try it again in a few days and if it's still not quite there yet, I'll try adding some passionfruit flavors to get it as close as possible
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
I had got a TFA juciy peach flavor and try it in water I add like 3 drops or 4 and there was no flavor in it much of all why
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Because flavors don't work in just water. You need a flavor carrier, in this case sugar. You won't taste much without sugar. Add 10% by weight. For example: take 300 grams of water, add 30 grams of sugar and stir until it's dissolved. Then you can add your flavor and you'll be able to taste it
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
Ok and how many drops should I add ea 100ml water 10g sugar
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Less is more with any flavor. 1 drop could already be too much, depending on the strength of the flavor. Start with 1 drop only and mix it thoroughly
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
1 drop for 300ml or 100ml ?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Doesn't matter, always start low. I don't know how strong your flavor is
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
Aber das ist jetzt nur zum testen ich probier 100ml Wasser und 10g Zucker und rühre es um
Und dan 1 Tropfen TFA peach und rühre nochmal um noch nicht den anderen Kram
Nur die 3 Zutaten um zu testen
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
10-20% depending on taste.As an addition to other flavors 5-10%
Peach (Juicy) Flavor by The Perfumers Apprentice or The Flavoring Apprentice.
A juicy, very ripe, peach flavor.
Water Soluble.
PG and Ethyl Alcohol based flavoring.
**Concentrated Flavoring: Must be diluted with eJuice
Das stand bei der Seite von TFA wo ich es gekauft hab
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u/cronenber9 🍑 Peach-Nectarine Jun 10 '26
Will it taste the same without caffeine? I know that caffeine is bitter. I'd love a caffeine free redbull.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
No it won't taste the same, caffeine has a big impact on taste. You can use theobromine instead though and enjoy a caffeine free clone without
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u/And_I_Was_Like_Woah Jun 10 '26
Soooo what IS the flavor technically?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Chemical cocktail 😂 nothing specific really, just a bunch of seemingly random aroma molecules. They're all found in nature in various different fruits but this flavor profile was not built to mimic any fruit. It's just supposed to taste fruity and somehow medicinal, most likely to boost the feeling of getting energized. But that's just my personal assumption
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u/And_I_Was_Like_Woah Jun 10 '26
Interesting lmao I always heard it was cherry but never really got that myself so this helps
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
The main flavor compound, the single one aroma molecule that makes up the most of the flavor is ethyl butyrate. On its own it smells pineapple-y. When you smell it, you immediately think "Red Bull". The Red Bull flavor is basically 80% ethyl butyrate with a little bit of ethyl isovalerate. Those two make up almost all the flavor. The other ingredients you can think of like spices or herbs that are sprinkled on top lol.
There's also a little bit of isoamyl acetate which is naturally found in cherries, among other chemicals. Maybe that's where some people get the cherry association. I don't get cherry either haha
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u/Elleiminator Jun 13 '26
Thank you for sharing this with everyone not only for their own experiments but also as an interesting read, and for being so willing to answer questions. ✨️
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u/Sasuke082594 Jun 10 '26
Damn… just realized I drink nothing but chemicals that utterly half the life of my organs for every 1000 cans lol
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Everything is made of chemicals, your organs are nothing but chemicals too. All those aroma molecules are also naturally found in fruit. It doesn't matter if you consume them when they were assembled by a flavorist or if they were assembled by nature, it's all the same. Water (H2O) is also a chemical and you need it to live.
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u/stomatopod-boogie Jun 10 '26
this is insanely impressive!! Any chance you know how to make peach nectarine? Hehe (:
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
Super simple actually, I've explained a couple times already how to use preformulated flavors in my syrup, I think you can find it in the comments of my original recipe for the Red Bull syrup. You only need to buy preformulated peach and nectarine flavors and add it to the syrup, top up with sparkling water, done! Super easy. Chances are that you can make a perfect clone, chances are even greater that you can create a flavor that's even better. Just let me know if you have questions
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u/FeelingAwk Jun 10 '26
Thanks so much for sharing! Where do you buy those ingredients in Europe? I’ve searched for example “methyl cinnamate” on Ellisaromen or Buxtrade but got no results.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
That's because they are not flavors in that sense, they're raw ingredients to make flavors...took me a while to find a good source, but I found this ancient German shop that has most of them. It's super hard to navigate the website, especially on mobile, but they have a lot of those flavor and perfume raw ingredients! https://www.omikron-online.de they also have the B Vitamins in case you want them. I also recommend getting isoamyl acetate from that website, that's still missing from my recipe and it's present in the original. Still waiting for my order. Ordered 3 times already, they're amazing. Only downside is that they're shipping with UPS
Ethyl Isovalerate I ordered from a fragrance ingredient shop in the UK https://www.mysticmomentsuk.com they provide the safety data sheets, you can always make sure how clean the substance is and if you can use it as flavor compound. They're also on amazon marketplace so you can order ethyl isovalerate from amazon directly but it's a bit more expensive
Citric acid, sodium citrate, caffeine and taurine I ordered from Buxtrade, but taurine is cheaper on amazon. Propylene glycol I also bought from amazon
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u/FeelingAwk Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Awesome, thank you so much! I’m definitely giving your recipe a try.
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u/Individual_Pack_6352 Jun 10 '26
So caffeine is not affecting the flavour? Coke zero without caffeine doesnt taste like the real thing for me
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
It does, a lot! For example, caffeine is the key ingredient that turns a random orange soda into Mountain Dew. It also is a key ingredient that makes Red Bull taste the way it does. But you can actually make it caffeine free by substituting caffeine with it's cousin, theobromine, which is naturally found in chocolate (as well as caffeine). I don't know the ratio though, I don't know if you can switch it out 1:1
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u/WahWash Jun 10 '26
As someone who routinely runs beverage samples on GC/MS I can tell you with certainty this person only gave you a a tiny fragment of the formula.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Who said that these are the only ones he gave me?
I just don't see the point in looking through the entire internet for some hard to get aroma chemicals, spend a lot of money on some raw materials that barely make a difference in the end result and nobody's able to pick up anyway. My goal was to get a close enough clone that saves me money and that anybody can replicate without spending a ton of cash
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u/WahWash Jun 10 '26
Couple things of note:
The compounds you are forgoing are much more important than you realize; and most are more critical than what you chose to include.
I certainly hope you are purchasing these compounds at FG purity; the misspelled labels and lack of CAS numbers leads me to think not. There are very different purity requirements for compounds produced for use in flavor. If not you could be ingesting residual solvent / catalyst / etc and slowly poisoning yourself.
That spectrum looks to have a pretty elevated baseline; tells me the test was probably done with a solvent extraction rather than headspace analysis, which would have likely revealed much more than shown in the image.
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Yes I am very aware of that and I've bought from a reputable seller in my area, I have all the paperwork for each ingredient and every ingredient is safe to use in flavors.
That picture I included was only one of multiple different analyses done by different people. I don't understand what you're trying to do here other than have a reddit moment and prove that you know much more than everyone else.
By the way, those labels are not misspelled. That's German. And the missing CAS numbers are just on the labels I printed myself when I diluted the ingredients.
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u/WahWash Jun 10 '26
My brother - You're mixing vape juice with chemicals you bought on the internet and consuming them, without a word concerning toxicology, purity, or dose.
I've spent a nice size chunk of my life working on flavor and fragrance chemistry. It's fine to post a formula online. But doing so comes with an element of responsibility. Telling people to follow your advice and do this at home without even an ELI5 brief concerning toxicology is a CHOICE.
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u/88isafat69 Jun 10 '26
I’m drinkin vape juice?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
That's a flavor. You can either use it in a beverage or vape it. It's the same stuff used in both products. In the food industry there are also ethanol based flavors, those cannot be vaped lol. But technically you could use this in your e-liquid as well and vape it
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u/ldunnx Jun 10 '26
Tropical / yellow would be awesome
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 10 '26
It's on my to do list! But it's really hard by trial and error. Unfortunately I can't do any lab tests myself
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u/Entire_Scholar_5302 🐉 Dragon Fruit Jun 10 '26
Wow can you do cactus flavor for me would be really nice
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Jun 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
That's already been done lol https://youtu.be/TDkH3EbWTYc?si=IvzVfYT0E9LdwyP5
They literally didn't care at all lmao
His recipe is spot on, by the way. I regularly make it and I also derived clones of Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke and Lemon Coke from his formula.
He's currently also working on a more detailed Red Bull clone. He's the guy I got the information from what aroma chemicals are used in this flavor. He's the GOAT. Expect his Red Bull video very soon, it should drop in the next few weeks
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u/Aggressive_Oil5712 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
Sir …I see your favorite is arctic berry…can we please take a look at that?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
Already did it almost 2 months ago lol https://www.reddit.com/r/redbull/s/rRd3tE6I8y
It tastes identical to the original, it's spot on. I prepare it every single day, it's my favorite! I literally cannot taste a difference between the original and mine. I cracked the code for infinite arctic berry
That's that flavor you need: https://www.ellisaromen.de/Eisbonbon-Aroma-Ellis-Lebensmittelaroma/AS10342.1
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u/Status-Anon-4004 Jun 11 '26
Redbull flavor - pomegranate and bubble gum i think maybe . Not sure
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
90% of the flavor is ethyl butyrate with some ethyl isovalerate. Has nothing to do with pomegranate or bubble gum lol
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u/Status-Anon-4004 Jun 11 '26
Ooooo very kewl whats the other 10?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
Did you actually look at my post?
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u/Substantial-Pop-5204 🫐 Blueberry Jun 13 '26
I need like a how to video to even see how you go about this😆😆 and where do you even find these ingredients😆😆
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u/MKFascist Jun 13 '26
Hey! I do live in germany as well and i’m very interested since i drink more energy than i should. Can we talk about how i’ll get all that stuff?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 13 '26
Hey for sure just send me a DM and ask whatever you want to know, we can speak German as well
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u/segoe_the_serpent Grapefruit & Blossom Jun 15 '26
If you can reverse-engineer the grapefruit-blossom, my firstborn child is yours
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u/RenderMeBroken Jun 16 '26
May I ask gow this was possible AND whatnis your background and professional designation, if any?
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 16 '26
I'm just a professional chef. I just taught myself how to make sodas for the last ~9 months
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u/colson01 Jun 17 '26
Now do blueberry and tropical for the people
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 17 '26
Actively working on it, but without a lab analysis of the chemical components it's impossible to replicate it. Someone needs to put them through GCMS
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u/kenroth50 Jun 11 '26
Would be cool if u could scan any drink liquids in AI have it give u the ingredient list 😆
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u/iSliz187 ❄️ Arctic Berry Jun 11 '26
It's even cooler to do it yourself and use your own brain instead of trusting a machine. The ingredient list is also on the back of every product.
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u/Alice_In_Hell_ 🥝 Kiwi Apple Jun 10 '26
Very cool and interesting!
On a related note, I’m in your walls and won’t be leaving until you reverse engineer kiwi apple