San Francisco Energy Drink Journey 2015

Stay at Union Square, San Francisco

My stay this time was at a hotel in Union Square, right in the heart of San Francisco. The location was perfect, and from the night I arrived, I visited liquor shops and grocery stores to check out what they had.

Since February was a rush for new releases, I made sure to see how many of the small shops had them in stock. The new releases were all scattered, but there was a high rate of Rockstar, and of course, Red Bull was stocked everywhere. As for Red Bull's new releases, some places had them, while others didn't, but since I arrived a few days after their release, I think almost all stores will have them in stock soon.

There aren’t many large stores around Union Square, so if you're going to buy something, it’ll likely be at liquor stores, or big ones like Walgreens or CVS. If you just stick to these, you’re almost guaranteed to find Red Bull, Monster, and Rockstar. But getting every variety that’s currently on sale might be difficult. In terms of Monster, I didn’t come across Assault, M-80, Cuba Lima, or Uber Monster anywhere. It seems hard to get every series. Also, I think the ones that are going to be discontinued soon might be in short supply. Rockstar, however, had a surprising amount of new releases.

Stopped by Various Shops While Sightseeing

Since I wasn’t traveling alone, sightseeing was the main focus, but I made sure to drop by as many shops as I could along the way. This time, I also visited East Bay, across the bay from San Francisco.

While visiting tourist spots, I happened to find Rockstar Sports, a product that hadn’t been officially announced yet. When I asked the staff, they told me it had just arrived that day. I got lucky, haha!

I also came across a few stores that still had Red Bull’s Día de los Muertos version, which had been out for more than six months. That was impressive! One of the stores had Rockstar Sports in stock too, and I also found Unleaded, which I had been searching for. They even had a two-can set at a good price, so I bought a bunch there.

Searching for Rare Energy Drinks

Although sightseeing was still part of the plan, my main goal was to find rare cans. So I visited more than ten stores.

I found more than ten cans of Rockstar Relax, more than ten cans of Rockstar Punched Citrus, and over ten cans of Rockstar Recovery Grape. The products were somewhat limited, but I found quite a few that are now considered impossible to find.

Since I had already secured nearly 60 cans at the hotel, I only bought a little more. There was no need to buy too much, as I already had most of them.

Searching for Energy Drinks in San Francisco Is Tough

This was my first time searching for energy drinks in my hometown, and it’s clear that the small stores scattered around here don’t really make it easy to buy a large quantity of different kinds. If there were large supermarkets with a wide variety, it would be easier to get everything in one place.

Had Rare Energy Drinks Sent to My Hotel

Since international shipping wasn’t an option, I had five cans of Rockstar sent to my hotel while I was in America. The contents arrived safely, but the packaging was just normal, so if it had been international shipping, they probably would have arrived all crushed. I’m relieved that I was able to receive them here.

Although I had a headache for more than half a day and ran into a few dangerous situations, I think I had some kind of divine luck when it came to getting energy drinks. I got some regular ones and even found rare ones.

And once again, America is so interesting. Even though it was a short trip, it was great to be able to see both what had changed and what hadn’t. The only regret is that I didn’t have enough time to meet up with friends.