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Two things about pre-workout flavour that are worth knowing before you spend money finding them out.
First: N.O.-XPLODE 2.0 is a legacy formula. BSN has revised the product several times since, and the flavour line-up has changed with it — some of the flavours people remember from the 2.0 era are no longer made, and the current versions taste different even where a name has carried over. If you are shopping for a specific remembered flavour, check what is actually in production rather than relying on an old review. A lot of the disappointment in this category is someone buying a name and getting a different product.
Second, and more useful: how you mix it changes the taste more than which flavour you buy. Pre-workout powders are intensely concentrated, and the scoop-to-water ratio on the label is the minimum water, not the recommended amount. Mixed with the stated 6 to 8 ounces, almost every flavour on the market is harsh, chemically sweet and slightly gritty. Mixed with 12 to 16 ounces, the same powder becomes a drinkable flavoured water. People who hate every pre-workout flavour they try are usually under-watering all of them.
There is a third factor that is not flavour at all and gets blamed on it. Beta-alanine causes a tingling, prickling sensation on the skin — face, scalp, hands — that begins a few minutes after drinking and passes within half an hour. It is harmless and it is a known effect of the ingredient, not an allergic reaction and not a sign the flavour disagrees with you. Knowing that in advance prevents a genuinely alarming first experience.
A note on the product category generally: these are stimulant products, typically containing a substantial dose of caffeine. If you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, or take any medication, talk to a doctor before using one. And do not take one late in the day unless you want to be awake at two in the morning.
Ten picks below.
| # | Product | Price | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fruit Punch | $25-$45 | Amazon · eBay |
| 2 | Blue Raspberry | $25-$45 | Amazon · eBay |
| 3 | Grape | $25-$45 | Amazon · eBay |
| 4 | Green Apple | $25-$45 | Amazon · eBay |
| 5 | Watermelon | $25-$45 | Amazon · eBay |
| 6 | Single-Serving Sample Packets | $3-$20 | Amazon |
| 7 | Unflavoured Pre-Workout | $25-$45 | Amazon |
| 8 | Large Shaker Bottle (24-32 oz) | $10-$30 | Amazon · eBay |
| 9 | Beta-Alanine-Free or Stimulant-Free Pre-Workout | $25-$50 | Amazon · eBay |
| 10 | Electrolyte Mix | $15-$40 | Amazon · eBay |
The picks, in detail
Fruit Punch
The default flavour in the category and the one most people start with, for a reason: fruit punch is a blend rather than a single fruit, which means it masks the bitterness of the active ingredients better than a clean single-note flavour does. That masking is the actual job a pre-workout flavour has to do. It is sweet and unsubtle. If you have no strong preference and want the lowest risk of disliking what arrives, this is it — and it is almost always in stock.
- Blended multi-fruit flavour profile
- Strong masking of ingredient bitterness
- Widely available
- The most common flavour in the category
- Masks the underlying taste better than single-note flavours
- Lowest risk of disliking it
- Always in stock
- Sweet and unsubtle
- Nothing distinctive about it
Blue Raspberry
The other perennial, and it works for the same reason fruit punch does — ‘blue raspberry’ is not a real fruit flavour, it is a confectionery flavour, and confectionery flavours are designed to be assertive. That assertiveness covers the bitterness underneath. It is sweeter than most and it stains a shaker bottle blue if you leave it, which is a genuinely annoying small thing. A safe second choice if fruit punch is not to your taste.
- Confectionery-style flavour profile
- Very assertive sweetness
- Widely stocked
- Distinctive blue colour
- Strong enough to mask the actives completely
- Consistently available
- Familiar and inoffensive
- Sweeter than most, which some find cloying
- Stains a shaker bottle if left standing
Grape
Divisive, and worth knowing why. Grape flavouring in supplements is usually the artificial confectionery version rather than anything resembling actual grapes, and people tend to have a strong existing reaction to that specific taste from childhood medicines and sweets. If you like it, it is one of the better maskers because it is so assertive. If you associate it with cough syrup, no amount of water will fix that. Buy a single-serving sample if one is available before committing to a tub.
- Artificial confectionery grape profile
- Strong masking of actives
- Available in most product lines
- Distinctive colour
- Among the most effective at hiding the underlying taste
- Distinct from the fruit punch and berry majority
- Consistent between batches
- Strong childhood associations, good or bad
- Some find it medicinal
Green Apple
The sour option, and sourness is the useful property here. Acidity cuts through the chemical sweetness that makes many pre-workouts unpleasant and gives the drink a sharpness that makes it easier to get through quickly — which matters, because the practical goal is to drink 12 to 16 ounces of a concentrated solution in a couple of minutes. For people who find fruit punch and blue raspberry sickly, green apple is usually the answer.
- Tart, acidic flavour profile
- Cuts through sweetness
- Refreshing when mixed with plenty of cold water
- Widely available
- Sourness counters the cloying sweetness problem
- Easier to drink quickly
- Good in a large volume of cold water
- Acidity is harsh on an empty stomach for some
- Less effective at masking bitterness than fruit punch
Watermelon
The lightest of the common options, and the one to choose if the problem is that pre-workouts feel heavy and syrupy. Watermelon flavouring is milder and more refreshing than the punch and berry flavours, which is both its appeal and its limitation — the milder it is, the less it covers the underlying taste of the actives. It works best mixed at the higher end of the water range and served very cold, where the lightness becomes the point rather than a weakness.
- Light, refreshing profile
- Less sweet than punch or berry flavours
- Best served very cold
- Common in summer product lines
- Refreshing rather than syrupy
- Pleasant in a large volume of cold water
- Less cloying than the sweeter options
- Milder, so it masks the actives less well
- Can taste thin if under-diluted or warm
Single-Serving Sample Packets
The obvious solution to the whole problem and the one people skip. A tub is thirty or more servings of a flavour you have not tasted, and the failure mode is a half-used tub in a cupboard. Single-serving sachets cost a little more per serving and let you try three or four before committing. Many retailers sell variety packs for exactly this reason. Given how much a full tub costs, spending a small amount to avoid buying the wrong one twice is straightforwardly sensible.
- Individual sachets, one serving each
- Variety packs across flavours
- Travel friendly
- Higher cost per serving
- Try before committing to thirty servings
- Removes the half-used-tub failure entirely
- Convenient for travel
- Noticeably more expensive per serving
- Not every flavour is available in sachets
Unflavoured Pre-Workout
The route around the flavour question entirely. An unflavoured pre-workout can be added to whatever you already like to drink — juice, squash, a flavoured electrolyte mix — which means you are never stuck with thirty servings of something you dislike. It will not be pleasant on its own, because the active ingredients genuinely are bitter, and that is the honest limitation. But mixed into something with its own strong flavour it disappears, and you control the sweetness entirely.
- No added flavouring or colouring
- Mix into any drink
- Often fewer additives overall
- Same active ingredients
- You never have to like a manufacturer’s flavour
- Full control over sweetness and dilution
- Usually a shorter ingredient list
- Genuinely unpleasant in plain water
- Needs a carrier drink with a strong flavour
Large Shaker Bottle (24-32 oz)
Directly addresses the point the introduction makes. If the label says to mix a scoop with 6 to 8 ounces and your shaker holds 20, you will mix it with 6 to 8 ounces — and it will be harsh. A 24 to 32 ounce bottle makes the correct amount of water the natural thing to pour. Get one with a wire ball or an agitator disc, since pre-workout powders clump, and a lid that seals properly, since a leaking shaker in a gym bag is a specific kind of misery.
- 24-32 oz capacity
- Wire ball or agitator disc
- Positively sealing lid
- Volume markings on the side
- Makes proper dilution the default
- Agitator prevents clumping
- Markings let you measure water accurately
- Bulky in a gym bag
- Cheap lids leak
Beta-Alanine-Free or Stimulant-Free Pre-Workout
Worth knowing about if the tingling is what you dislike. Beta-alanine causes a prickling sensation on the skin that some people find unpleasant, and a formula without it removes that entirely — the ingredient is included for endurance reasons rather than for the sensation, so losing it is a specific trade rather than a downgrade. Stimulant-free versions are the equivalent for anyone training in the evening or sensitive to caffeine, and they are increasingly common.
- Formulated without beta-alanine or caffeine
- Same pump and endurance ingredients otherwise
- Suitable for evening training
- Clearly labelled on the tub
- Removes the tingling if you dislike it
- Stimulant-free versions do not wreck your sleep
- Suits people sensitive to caffeine
- Loses the endurance benefit beta-alanine provides
- Stimulant-free versions feel like much less is happening
Electrolyte Mix
Worth having alongside, and useful for two reasons. It is a pleasant, well-flavoured thing to mix an unflavoured pre-workout into, which solves that product’s one weakness. And on its own it addresses something a pre-workout does not: sweat loss during a hard session, which affects how you feel afterwards more than most people credit. Mixed with plenty of water it also encourages the overall hydration that makes any stimulant product sit better.
- Sodium, potassium and magnesium
- Flavoured sachets or tablets
- Low or zero sugar options
- Mixes with plenty of water
- A good carrier for unflavoured pre-workout
- Addresses sweat loss, which pre-workout does not
- Encourages drinking enough water overall
- Another product and another cost
- Some brands are heavily sweetened
Buying tips
- Use far more water than the label says. The stated 6 to 8 ounces is a minimum, not a recommendation, and at that ratio almost every pre-workout is harsh and chemically sweet. Twelve to sixteen ounces turns the same powder into a drinkable flavoured water. People who dislike every flavour they try are usually under-watering all of them.
- The tingling is beta-alanine, not the flavour. It is a prickling sensation on the face, scalp and hands that starts a few minutes after drinking and passes within half an hour. It is a well-known effect of the ingredient and not an allergic reaction. Knowing that in advance prevents a genuinely alarming first experience.
- Check what is actually in production. N.O.-XPLODE 2.0 is a legacy formula and the product has been revised several times since, with the flavour line-up changing each time. Some remembered flavours no longer exist, and current versions taste different even where a name carried over. Verify before ordering a specific flavour from an old recommendation.
- Buy sachets before you buy a tub. A tub is thirty or more servings of something you have not tasted, and a half-used tub in a cupboard is the standard outcome of guessing wrong. Single-serving sachets and variety packs cost more per serving and far less than buying the wrong flavour twice.
- Blended and confectionery flavours mask the actives better. Fruit punch, blue raspberry and grape are not real fruit flavours — they are assertive constructed ones, and that assertiveness is doing the job of covering genuinely bitter ingredients. Milder flavours like watermelon taste cleaner and hide less. That is the real trade.
- Mix it very cold and drink it reasonably quickly. Cold suppresses bitterness and a pre-workout that sits warming while you get changed tastes considerably worse. Ice water, shake properly with an agitator ball, and get through it in a couple of minutes rather than sipping it through your warm-up.
- Do not take it late in the day. These are stimulant products with a substantial caffeine dose, and caffeine has a long half-life — a late-afternoon serving is still working at bedtime. If you train in the evening, a stimulant-free formula exists for exactly this, and it is the sensible choice rather than accepting a ruined night.
- Talk to a doctor first if you have any heart or blood pressure concern. Pre-workouts combine a large caffeine dose with other stimulant and vasoactive ingredients, and that combination is not appropriate for everyone. If you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, or take any regular medication, this is a conversation worth having before the first scoop rather than after.
As an Amazon Associate and eBay Partner, toptenpick.com earns from qualifying purchases. Prices and availability are subject to change.