A Red Bull devotee attempted to further the myth of the mysterious “blue dot” underneath cans of the world-famous energy drink. However, some people denied that there was anything special about the blue marking, stating that the colored speck doesn’t carry any special meaning.
Miles Rubery (@milesruberybfdd) posted a viral clip that’s garnered over 2.4 million views on the popular social media platform, writing in a caption for the post: “Only my red bull lovers will understand.”
@milesruberybfdd Only my red bull lovers will understand 🫶🏼#fyp #foryoupage #foryoupageofficiall #foryou ♬ chúa tể mashup – Pụ¡
“Yes I’m one of them girls who will look underneath all the red bulls at the shop until I find my little blue dot underneath it if you don’t get it get to know,” the TikToker wrote in a text overlay of the video.
So, what do the dots on the bottom of the cans mean? TikTokers had varying opinions as to what Rubery could be talking about in her video. According to one user, it has everything to do with taste. “Apparently the dots make them taste different, yellow is sour i think, red is sweeter idk about blue tho,” they wrote.
According to users in a Grass City forum post, it would seem that other folks out there also believe this is the case. One person who looked into the phenomenon said they discovered that the dots correlated with the flavor profiles of the Red Bull drinks. “Did you know there was different varieties of Red Bull.. semi secret.. like some are sweeter, some are tarter, etc than others so they get marked accordingly with a different colored dot,” they wrote.
However, further research shows that these dots might not have anything to do with the actual taste of the Red Bull energy drinks, but rather the mechanical separation process of dispersing the cans. That is, according to several other folks online, like this Redditor who responded to a picture a fellow user on the site uploaded showing a blue dot on the bottom of a Red Bull can. According to them, this is part of an ink-ID system that helps troubleshoot potential issues with some of the canning machines involved in the packaging process.
“The Nordson Ink-Dot I.D. system identifies which spray machine coats each can on the line,” they said. “The system applies a small dot of ink on the bottom of each can as it enters the spray machine. A different ink color is used for each machine on the coating line, so the source of unacceptable coatings can be immediately identified. There is no need to shut down all machines on the line to determine which machine is producing the defect.”
Another user uploaded a clip to the r/whatisthisthing sub, where they showed off various cans with different colored dots painted on their respective bottoms. One commenter referenced the aforementioned post, while another served up a similar explanation, penning: “Different cans have different colors. Even cans from the same 12-pack will have different colors. But cans have dots because in a factory there might be several machines printing the cans and each machine uses a different color. This way, if there is a problem they will know which machine to shut down while the other machines continue working.”
The Daily Dot contacted Red Bull via email and Rubery via TikTok comment for further information.