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Tucker Beaudin, a rising senior at Carnegie Mellon University, had his first Celsius (Peach Vibe, specifically) at 4 a.m. during a 2022 all-night study session at the library. It helped him to feel “locked in,” but that occasional emergency measure for marathon cramming became a daily habit.
“As the semester got more difficult, it became easier to justify drinking Celsius,” Beaudin says. “I went from drinking [it] maybe once every other week to once a day.”
Beaudin sees a lot of people around campus pounding cans of Celsius, which contain 200 milligrams of caffeine each, to stay ahead of coursework. But Celsius is popular outside of college campuses too. The company has invested in flashy sponsorships with Gen Z influencers like Jake Paul and David Dobrik, bolstering its reach and standing with young adults. Gen Z’ers on Capitol Hill reportedly can’t get enough. In 2022, PepsiCo invested $550 million in a partnership, resulting in the brand being stocked in approximately 95% of stores across the country, Celsius CEO John Fieldly told GQ. It’s not overwhelmingly surprising that Celsius Holdings, the company that sells Celsius, reported record revenue of $402 million in 2024’s second quarter alone.
We’ve entered a new, jittery era of energy drinks, and Celsius’s boom may be just beginning.
Celsius hasn’t always enjoyed the runaway success it sees today. In 2012, eight years after its founding, the company had branded the jewel-toned cans to focus on Celsius’s alleged weight loss prowess, but customers weren’t biting. The company was performing so poorly that it was delisted from the Nasdaq and removed from the shelves at Costco, where it made most of its revenue.
A rebrand changed Celsius’s fate. Can designs were simplified, and Celsius was strategically positioned as a “functional beverage” that would become a part of consumers’ existing fitness routines, according to Kyle Watson, Celsius’s chief marketing officer. The company made sure its drinks tasted good too. Since 2019, the formerly delisted drink has seen its stock price jump nearly 3,000%. Its cans, featuring flavors like Galaxy Vibe and Sparkling Raspberry Peach and a whole slew of energizing ingredients (caffeine, guarana seed extract, green tea extracts), are everywhere.
It’s no accident that Celsius is particularly popular with Gen Z: The product is marketed directly to people between the ages of 18 and 24. “Gen Z is a very important demographic for us,” Watson said to Bon Appétit. “We really see that as the future of energy.”
Celsius’s push comes at a time when drinking habits in young adults are changing. There are still some college students downing BORGs (an acronym for “black out rage gallon”) but, on the whole, Gen Z is drinking less alcohol. That means more market share for seltzers, juices, and yes, energy drinks.
While brands like Red Bull, Monster, and 5 Hour Energy have defined the category since the ’90s, many newer energy drinks like Celsius occupy a hazy category the industry has collectively identified as wellness adjacent.
That positioning was intentional, says Watson. “We built our brand in this fitness space,” she says. “Our DNA was all about living fit.” In fact, on the Celsius website, the company lists “live fit lifestyle” and “healthy lifestyle” (two separate ideas, somehow) among its core values.
Other energy drinks have adopted that same playbook. Alani Nu, another brand that sells energy drinks, supplements, and pre-workout powders, claims it wants to help you “hit your last rep” and “hold your next handstand.” Gorgie, an energy drink marketed toward women, boasts “only the good stuff,” which includes biotin, vitamins B6 and B12, and green tea caffeine. Tagged photos on the brand’s Instagram show consumers drinking Gorgie in athleisure and posing together after workout classes.
Celsius’s better-for-you messaging is a big part of why it’s equally popular with both men and women in a category that’s historically been “primarily male,” says Watson.
Twenty-one-year-old Ryan Katherine, who teaches dance classes while she waits to start her first year of grad school, was originally opposed to energy drinks—at least, she didn’t think beverages like Red Bull and Monster were for her. “I would see people with cans of Red Bull, and those were not the people I aspired to be,” she said.
Now she has a Celsius first thing every morning. She’s tried to quit before, but each time has been unsuccessful. “If Celsius made mini cans, with less caffeine, I would step down to that,” she says. Still, she sees Celsius as healthier than other options. “It has vitamins in it,” she says.
Celsius contains vitamins B and C, but it also has a big hit of caffeine. As the category has evolved, energy drinks have become more caffeinated than ever before. Celsius and Alani Nu each contain 200 milligrams of caffeine. Logan Paul’s energy drink, Prime Energy, also advertised 200 milligrams of caffeine, but it’s faced litigation for misleading packaging—the drink actually contains between 215 and 225 milligrams. If you really want a buzz, an energy drink called Cocaine contains 280 milligrams of caffeine. Bang, another popular energy drink, contains 300 milligrams of caffeine in a single 16-ounce can. That’s akin to four espresso shots, or four times the amount of caffeine found in an 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull.
Experts have warned that highly caffeinated energy drinks are particularly pernicious. Celsius made headlines after some imbibers reported being sent to the hospital. Panera’s Charged Lemonade was blamed for not one but two separate deaths, and resulting lawsuits have led the company to discontinue selling the drink, which contained more than 300 milligrams of caffeine in a single 30-ounce serving.
In fact, energy drinks should be “considered like cigarettes” according to John P. Higgins, a cardiologist based in Houston who has studied their effects. “They should not be allowed to be sold to those young, vulnerable populations,” he says.
A 2023 review of 57 studies on the effects of energy drinks showed that energy drink consumption in teens (up to the age of 21) is linked to a whole slew of scary sounding health issues, such as poor sleep quality, psychological distress, ADHD symptoms, depression, insulin resistance, and even increased risk of suicide. When asked about these health concerns, Celsius declined to comment. However, “we are careful as a brand to target people 18 and over,” Watson says. “That’s something that we're very adamant about.”
According to Bryan Roth, a consumer and market analyst for Feel Goods Company and editor of the beverage insights newsletter, “Sightlines,” Celsius resonates with Gen Z for three reasons. First, its branding diverged from the male-centric marketing of its predecessors. “It’s not even marketing to women,” he says. “It's just the sheer fact that this brand is not specifically ‘manly.’” More inclusive marketing means a broader customer base, which, in turn, means more sales.
Flavors that consumers actually enjoy, Roth says, is another draw. “That you can now find an energy drink that tastes good—that is still a relatively new concept,” he explains. Finally, Roth says Gen Z could be drawn to highly caffeinated energy drinks like Celsius because it gives them the energy boost they so badly need. “Maybe they’re just tired like the rest of us,” he says. (The data back him up: A 2022 survey by Cigna showed that nearly all the surveyed 18- to 24-year-olds experienced work burnout symptoms.)
For some Celsius drinkers, that Venn diagram of general ubiquity, buzzy flavors, and wallop of caffeine means that the drink has serious staying power.
Beaudin, the student drinking Celsius daily, knows that regularly consuming that amount of caffeine doesn’t make him feel good. “It’s a lot. Your heart starts pounding and it’s not the best feeling in the world,” he says. The caffeine makes him anxious and gives him a kind of hangover the next morning.
Still, Beaudin admits to cravings. “I really do want to quit it. I just don’t know how realistic that is.”