After 18 years of war, many in GWOT have grown accustomed to having as many cases of energy drinks as they do water. We have seen many off-brand drinks that gave us the energy, power, and total activation we needed to stay awake. Yet, there are two cans of liquid energy that stayed true throughout the entire war, and even continue today being sold in the United States. Rip It is actually owned by National Beverage Corporation, the company behind LaCroix and Faygo. National Beverage Corp gained a contract with the military circa 2004 to offer the rip it to US military installations across the globe, especially in the Middle East. Lay and behold, the king of military GWOT energy was born. Then came another drink. Wild Tiger. Through a vast search of google, the internet, and even through the depths of Reddit, we could not find the origin story. With a majority of the original cans written in Arabic, the original wild tiger was spotted because of the tiger on the can. Wild Tiger was also rumored to have nicotine in it, though it was actually Nicotinamide, which is Vitamin B (Niacin). The most common reference to Wild Tiger was its nickname "Nectar of the Gods" referring to its instant effects of "Total Activation."
We asked troops which one they prefer, and this is the top ten comments:
1. "Wild tiger is just an Iraqi Redbull. Ripit has a good flavor and does a great job keeping me awake on 12hr shifts." @a_davis93
2. "Blue or yellow rip it’s. Gotta go with them sugar-free bad boys." @spydermirage
3. "Ripits and Otis chocolate muffins made you shit excellence." @jsantiago909
4. "Ohhh shit son!! Rip it > Wild tiger." @warchestpodcast
5. "Rip It zero sugar Citrus... ALL MF’in’ Day. No GD buts about it." @gerbetron9000
6. "Wild Tiger. Not even close. That shit in powder form is called meth." @jorge_diggler
7. "Wild Tiger. This is not debatable" @jayfay78
8. "Rip-it's are great, but that Wild Tiger was basically liquid meth." @mattiest_matt
9. "Wild Tiger snorting it was the only way to get to full Tiger Mode." @devia85
10. "Sugar-free citrus-x FTW. No contest." @revustcod
Below is the author's choice for best comment:
AC: "RipIt...is this really even up for debate? On my first deployment, I don’t even think I drank a drop of water and survived with Ripits loaded in my cargo pockets. Ha. Hit an IED once and Red RipIt exploded everywhere. Long story short, they cut my pants off thinking I was bleeding out. Nope. No legs were lost on this day. Only the lives of our small canned RipIt brothers. RIP." @combatcomedian
In the end, Rip It held its own, due to the sugar-free option, the actual flavors, and well...it was free. All hail the remaining GWOT energy drink king, Rip It Energy.
