The sports drink aisle is flush with options, from your classic Gatorade flavors to the stealthy BodyArmors to all those shiny new PRIMEs and GHOSTs. And then, right there in the middle, is the oft-forgotten Powerade: Coca-Cola’s attempt at toppling the Gatorade throne.
This isn’t a ranking of all the Powerade flavors known to man, but it’s all the Powerade flavors I could find by my deadline. Missing from this lineup are this past summer’s three Sour Powerade flavors, as well as Melon and Strawberry Smash Zero. We’ll keep an eye out for these Powerade flavors and hopefully add them in alongside the new XTRA Sour Powerade flavors coming in 2025.
Before we get into the ranking, I do want to include one honorable mention: Powerade Jungle Juice. It isn’t a real flavor, but I had to know what one tablespoon from all 11 Powerade flavors mixed together would taste like. It is good. Like, “Powerade needs to sell this” good. Powerade scientists, go try this yourself and give me credit for the millions of dollars it’ll make next year.
Okay, now onto ranking the Powerade flavors (Powerade Zero flavors, included).
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- Powerade Grape
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I didn’t have high hopes for this Powerade flavor, but good lord—it’s awful. Some people have great nostalgia for Children’s Dimetapp; I’m not one of those people. I’ll stir table salt into tap water before buying another bottle of this.
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- Powerade Zero Grape
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In what would turn out to be a trend, I actually liked the Powerade Grape Zero variant slightly more than the full sugar version. A spoonful of sugar doesn’t always help the medicine go down any better. That said, this is still hyper-artificial concord grape flavoring at its worst.
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- Powerade Orange
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How is Powerade whiffing what should be the easiest flavors? Orange is as standard as they get, but this is just watered down Sunny D. The aroma right is promising, but the flavor does not deliver in the slightest.
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- Powerade Zero Orange
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Again, this Powerade Zero flavor is better than the full sugar version. It actually tastes what it smells like! Sure, it both smells and tastes like a cup of store-brand orange Jell-O, but at least it’s consistent.
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- Powerade Lemon Lime
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If you’ve ever smelled Lemon Pledge, you know exactly what my nose went through when I opened this Powerade flavor. That said, the flavor was pleasantly mellow compared to the abrasive aroma. This was also surprisingly heavy on the lime flavor for a lemon lime drink, which is a rarity. (That said, it’s nothing compared to my beloved Pocari Sweat.)
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- Powerade Zero Mixed Berry
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While the full sugar Mixed Berry Powerade easily places in the top three best Powerade flavors, this zero-sugar zero-calorie version didn’t impress me nearly as much. The flavor-to-sodium ratio is more unbalanced in this than any of the other flavors of Powerade Zero. That said, the berry flavor and sweetness is still strong enough to put this in the upper half of the many, many Powerades I’ve guzzled this month.
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- Powerade Fruit Punch
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This is the first Powerade flavor I’d actually consider to be “good!” If my beloved Gatorade Glacier Cherry is out of stock, this has just barely made it onto my reserve bench of full-sugar hydration drinks. Sure, it’s just lightly-salted Hawaiian Punch, but sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
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- Powerade Zero Fruit Punch
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This Powerade Zero is definitely sweeter tasting than the full-sugar version, but it’s also the most balanced of the Powerade Zero flavors with the extra salt. (Did I mention every single one of these bottles is bragging about having 50% more electrolytes than “the leading sports drink?”) I went back and forth between this and the full-sugar version trying to decide which I liked better; they’re truly equal. Follow your heart (or your diet) when choosing between the two.
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- Powerade Strawberry Lemonade
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On the tartness scale of lemonade to pink lemonade, this Powerade flavor is comfortably in the middle. The strawberry flavor is so “real” that it actually tastes unripe somehow. Not in a bad way; it’s just interesting that they went so far away from a more “candy” strawberry flavor. This is one of the two newest Powerade flavors; I hope this marks a trend for the brand moving forward.
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- Powerade Mountain Berry Blast
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This is the first Powerade flavor that I could honestly confuse with a Gatorade. This is nearly on par with the best of the blue Gatorades, and would fit right in with the lesser blues. It has a great berry flavor with a powerful sweetness that makes you forget this is supposed to be even close to good for you. (This feels like a good time to mention that anything on this list scoring seven and above is easily worth your time; these final placements just came down to personal bias towards certain kinds of flavors.)
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- Powerade Island Burst
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Here we are at the top of the mountain. Ten Powerade flavors down, we meet our last flavor standing: Island Burst. It’s a little funny that the best Powerade flavor is also the one that sounds most like an obscure Gatorade flavor. And, true to form, the only flavor this bottle claims is “Tropical Punch.” Pineapple, guava, mango, kiwi—whatever flavors are actually in this, the mix is fantastic. This is another new Powerade flavor; I can’t wait to try whatever they think is gonna top it.
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Grape
Grape Zero
Orange
Orange Zero
Lemon Lime
Mixed Berry Zero
Fruit Punch
Fruit Punch Zero
Strawberry Lemonade
Mountain Berry Blast
Island Burst
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!