Powerade

History

In 1988, Powerade became the official sports drink of the Olympics, alongside Aquarius, another sports drink made by Coca-Cola. It is a rival of another sports drink, Gatorade. In July 2001, The Coca-Cola Company launched a new formula for Powerade including vitamins B₃, B₆ and B₁₂, which play a role in energy metabolism.

In July 2002, The Coca-Cola Company updated the bottles of the standard Powerade (previous logo styling) to a new sport-grip bottle.

In 2002, The Coca-Cola Company introduced Powerade Option to the United States, in response to Gatorade's popular Propel. Option is a "low Calorie sports drink" that is colorless and sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium, to provide sugar-conscious consumers with another rehydration choice. Powerade Option took 36% of the Fitness Water category behind Propel's 42%.

In 2007, Powerade Zero, a one hundred-calorie sports drink with electrolytes, which contains no sugar, no calories and no carbohydrates was released. Powerade Option was subsequently discontinued.

In June 2009, The Coca-Cola Company bought Glacéau, owner of brands such as VitaminWater and SmartWater, for $4.1 billion, a price tag that signaled the company’s seriousness in pursuing growth of non-carbonated beverages. Since then, the company has also given its Glacéau management team control of its Powerade sports drink brand.

Competition

Powerade's main competition is Gatorade marketed by the Quaker Oats Company, a division of PepsiCo. Gatorade, which was branded at the University of Florida in 1965, was the first commercially available sports drink in the United States. It now holds a commanding share of the market. As of 2011, Gatorade held a 70 percent market share to Powerade's 28.5 percent.

All Sport is a competitor marketed by All Sport, Inc and distributed by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. All Sport was marketed by PepsiCo until 2001, when Gatorade's maker, the Quaker Oats Company was acquired by PepsiCo. All Sport was sold to the Monarch Beverage Company soon after. Powerade and All Sport have each been distributed through their own direct store deliver channels. It was subsequently purchased by Gary Smith, the Chairman & CEO of All Sport, Inc. based in Austin, Texas.

Outside the United States the Lucozade energy drink (manufactured since 1927 by the pharmaceutical company now known as GlaxoSmithKline) competes with Gatorade. Lucozade's formulation differs in that it uses primarily glucose and contains caffeine. The more direct competitor to Gatorade and Powerade is Lucozade Sport.

Sponsorships

Powerade is the official sports drink of the Australian rugby league team, the Australian and Ireland rugby union teams, PGA Tour, NASCAR (2003–present), NHRA, NCAA, the U.S. Olympic Team (excluding U.S.A. Basketball and U.S. Soccer, which have deals with Gatorade) and many other national Olympic federations, The Football League and many other soccer leagues and teams around the world, FIFA, such as Club Universidad de Chile Football Club, Independiente de Avellaneda, O'Higgins or Club Atlético River Plate and the IOC in no small part due to their overall contracts with Coca-Cola. Various other competitions also have sponsorship deals with the brand, although Gatorade historically has secured the lion's share of sponsorships. The drink is also Sponsor of the Honduran Soccer Team C.D. Olimpia.

Powerade is the Official Hydration Partner of Melbourne Storm.

The brand is also the exclusive beverage sponsor of the Hoops in the Sun basketball summer league, based out at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, New York. It is the only summer basketball league to be sponsored by the brand.

Ingredients

Ingredient:

Water

High fructose corn syrup

Salt

Potassium citrate

Phenylalanine

Sucralose

Sodium citrate

Malic acid

Potassium phosphate

Vitamin B₆

Vitamin B₂

Note: Standard 8 ounce servings meet the FDA definition of 'low sodium' and have less sodium than a glass of chocolate milk.

Substitutions and differences

Ingredients may vary from flavor to flavor and by country with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) not used in Australia and other regions where sucrose is substituted.

Flavors

Currently, there are twelve flavors of Powerade available in the United States:

Mountain Berry Blast (blue, Initially titled Mountain Blast)

Orange (orange)

Fruit Punch (red)

Grape (purple)

Lemon Lime (yellow-green)

Blackberry (red-violet, Twisted)

Melon (green, Initially titled Green Squall, renamed and re-released after being discontinued)

White Cherry (white, Initially titled Arctic Blast)

Strawberry Lemonade (pink)

Tropical Mango (yellow-orange)

Lemonade (light yellow)

Watermelon Strawberry Wave (reddish pink)

Citrus Passionfruit (dark orange)

Kiwi Pineapple (green yellow)

In addition, there are six flavors of Powerade Zero, a zero calorie version of Powerade:

Mixed Berry (blue)

Grape (purple)

Lemon Lime (yellow-green)

Orange (orange)

Fruit Punch (red)

Strawberry (pink)

Discontinued flavors Flavors that were previously available in the United States, but have been discontinued:

Cherry Apple

Powerade Play (a reduced calorie version targeted towards children) Mixed Berry, Fruit Punch, Orange, and Grape flavors in 12 ounce bottles.

United Kingdom flavours

Berry & Tropical (blue)

Cherry (red)

Orange (orange)

Lemon-Lime (yellow-green)

Zero Berry & Tropical (blue)

Zero red fruits (red)

Energy- Berry

Energy- Orange

Australian flavors

Berry Ice (red)

Mountain Blast (blue)

Lemon Lime (yellow-green)

Blackcurrant (purple)

Gold Rush (yellow-orange)

White Cherry (white, discontinued)

Fuel+ Berry Ice (red, discontinued)

Fuel+ Mountain Blast (blue, discontinued)

Zero Berry Ice (red)

Zero Mountain Blast (blue)

Zero Lemon Lime (yellow-green)

South Korea flavors

Mountain Blast extreme

Vita Lemon juice

Energy Punch blast

Aqua Powerplus

Powerade Recover

Discontinued Flavors

Aqua Grapefruits

Tidal Burst

Guus Hiddink

Gold Fever

Iceland flavors

Mountain Blast (blue)

Orange (orange)

Citrus Charge (yellow-green)

Snow Storm (white)

Germany flavors

Mountain Blast (blue)

Orange (orange)

Wild Cherry (red)

Denmark flavors

Mountain Blast (blue)

Orange (orange)

France flavors

Ice Storm (blue)

Orange (orange)

Cherry (red)

Lemon (yellow)

Zero Ice Storm (blue)

Zero Red Fruits (red)

Blue Raspberry (blue)

Power Blast (fruit punch)

Spain flavors

Ice Storm (blue)

Blood Orange (red)

Citrus Charge (yellow-green)

Colombia flavors

Mandarin Orange

Mountain Blast

Tropical Fruits

Switzerland flavors

Mountain Blast (blue)

Orange (orange)

Mango Green (green)

Zero Berry & Tropical (blue)

Sweden flavors

Mountain Blast (blue)

Passionfruit (yellow)

Citrus/Lime (white)

Finland flavors

Mountain Blast (blue)

Orange (orange)

Venezuela flavors

Mountain Blast

Tropical Fruits

Mandarin

Norway flavors

Mountain Blast (blue)

Orange (orange)

Lemon (yellow)

South Africa flavors

Jagged Ice

Tangerine

Island Burst

Mountain Blast

Orange

Concentrated Tangerine

Concentrated Jagged Ice

Concentrated Mountain Blast

Concentrated Orange

New Zealand flavors

Mountain Blast

Berry Ice

Lemon Lime

Gold Burst

Silver Charge

Fever Pitch

Blackcurrant

Black

Turkey flavors

Ice Blast (Karışık Meyve)

Sun Rush (Mango ve Portakal)

Citrus Charge (Limon ve Portakal)

Russia flavors

Citrus Charge (yellow-green, Lemon Lime)

Gold (Orange)

Ice Storm (Blue)

Red (Cherry)

Snow Storm (White Cherry)

Pink Lemonade

Canada flavors

Mixed Berry (blue)

Fruit Punch (red)

Orange Tangerine (dark orange)

Grape (purple)

Melon-Pineapple (green)

Strawberry-Lemonade (pink)

Lemon Lime (yellow-green)

Tropical Mango (yellow-orange)

Criticism

Like its main competitor, Gatorade, Powerade is made with sugar, syrups and salt. One Powerade ad campaign saying that Powerade ION4 is superior to Gatorade has been accused of being deceptive and false by Pepsi, the parent owner of Gatorade. The courts ruled in favor of Powerade as of August 2009.