I tried KSI and Logan Paul’s viral Prime ‘hydration’ drink - and one flavour tasted like cough medicine

I tried the Tropical Punch and Raspberry Blue flavours to find out if Prime was worth the hype
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I didn’t even intend to buy it. It was last Thursday and I was waiting to pay for food at a shop counter, when suddenly a middle-aged woman hurriedly came up beside me. She wore the uneasy smile of someone about to push to the front of the queue. ‘Any Prime?’ she called out to the young woman on the till.

The shop worker responded without saying a word. She pointed down to several cellophane-wrapped crates at her feet. They’ had been opened and I could just about make out the multi-coloured bottles of drink inside. ‘I’ll take two’, the customer snapped. ‘For the kids’, she added as she glanced back me while swiftly walking out.

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I turned back to the shop worker and curiousity got the better of me. ‘What’s that?’ I asked. Minutes later, I walked out of the SPAR shop in Bishop Sutton with two bottles in my hand. I must admit, I felt quite pleased.

That smug feeling increased somewhat when my partner, waiting patiently back in the car, informed me that the drink - created by YouTube stars KSI and Logal Paul - had been selling for £100 on eBay. I’d paid £2.29. Still over the RRP of £1.99, but not bad.

Getting home, I did my research, on Google, of course. The range of Prime drinks was launched in January last year by KSI and Logan Paul, who I could see had been actively promoted them to their 140million followers.

The drinks were marketed as a hydration drink’ with coconut water (10%) and electrolytes making up the ingredients. And, basically, since launching people have gone mad for them. Aldi has even decided to stop selling them after chaotic scenes at its stores with shoppers competing to get a bottle at opening time.

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A further look online and my partner is right. People were selling them on for extortionate amounts. But was it all worth it?

Alongside our video journalist, I sat in my living room with two flavours of the drink - Blue Raspberry and Tropical Punch - in my hands. My first thoughts were that they appeared to be packaged like any soft drink. You had your clear bottle, coloured wrapping and the big brand name ‘Prime’ across the front.

The face says it all - I wasn’t too impressed with the taste of the Tropical Punch flavourThe face says it all - I wasn’t too impressed with the taste of the Tropical Punch flavour
The face says it all - I wasn’t too impressed with the taste of the Tropical Punch flavour

I went first for the Tropical Punch. Pouring it into a glass, it had the colour of a stale margarita. The smell was sweet. The taste? Frankly awful. My first thought was cough medicine. A couple more sips, no. It was bad.

On to Blue Raspberry. I felt things couldn’t get worse. The packaging was brighter and when pouring into a glass, it looked like Powerade energy drink. Tasting it, it was good. It was like lemonade and the flavour reminded me of those blueberry lollipops you had as a child.

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I even wondered if it could be made better with a measure of vodka. I blurted this out during the filming and immediately regretted it, realising I’d potentially given KSI and Logan Paul another money-spinning idea.

Taste test over and I can honestly say that although Blue Raspberry tasted good, the drinks were definitely not worth the hype, and definitely not worth paying over £2 for. God help the person who spent £100 or more on a bottle, which I expect we will see on the shelves in Poundland later this year.

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