If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The mocktail is getting a caffeine boost. As non-alcoholic cocktails have migrated from sad club sodas to increasingly elaborate bar menus, 5-hour Energy is pitching its pocket-size energy shots as an unlikely new mixology ingredient.
The brand has built out an entire collection of mocktail recipes around its increasingly playful flavor lineup, including Cotton Candy, Fruity Rainbow and birthday cake-inspired Confetti Craze. Those three flavors became permanent additions after previously launching as limited releases, and 5-hour Energy marked the move with a Dry January event at New York’s Pebble Bar, where beverage director Tim Sweeney created zero-proof cocktails around each one. Among the recipes are a Cotton Candy Spritz, which pairs the brand’s Cotton Candy flavor with non-alcoholic sparkling wine, club soda and lime; a Strawberry Rainbow Lemonade made with Fruity Rainbow, strawberry, ginger and Seedlip Garden; and the dessert-like Confetti Cake Break, which combines Confetti Craze with coconut, pineapple and orange.
Its Extra Strength shots contain 230 milligrams of caffeine, and the expanding assortment has moved well beyond the brand’s old-school berry and citrus options. Its current lineup includes candy- and dessert-inspired flavors like Fruity Rainbow, Cotton Candy, Jelly Donut and Boston Cream Donut, alongside Firework Freeze — a cherry, lime and blue-raspberry riff on the classic freezer pop — and limited seasonal releases including Caramel Apple and Pumpkin Spice. That push arrives as the non-alcoholic category has become increasingly intertwined with celebrity culture.
Tom Holland is among the most prominent celebrities to enter the non-alcoholic space. The “Spider-Man” star launched Bero after giving up drinking, building the premium beer brand around the idea of having something that still felt social and occasion-worthy. Katy Perry took a more aperitivo-minded approach with De Soi, the botanical, adaptogen-infused non-alcoholic brand she co-founded with Morgan McLachlan for long dinners and nights out without the next-morning fallout.
Bella Hadid’s Kin Euphorics leans even further into the functional-drink trend, with non-alcoholic beverages formulated with adaptogens, nootropics and botanicals; its Kin Spritz also contains caffeine and is marketed as an energizing social drink. Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, founded Almave as an alcohol-free alternative to tequila, made with blue agave in Jalisco and designed for cocktails like margaritas and palomas or sipping on the rocks. 5-hour ENERGY is coming at the same desire from the opposite direction. Rather than stripping the alcohol out of beer or spirits, it is taking a product whose entire reason for being is alertness and dressing it up for cocktail hour.
That shift has coincided with an unusually ambitious flavor expansion. Cotton Candy, Fruity Rainbow and birthday cake-inspired Confetti Craze recently graduated from limited-edition drops to the permanent lineup, while the brand has spent 2026 rolling out novelty flavors including Red Licorice, Firework Freeze, OrangeSicle, Raspberry Cooler and donut-inspired Jelly Donut and Boston Cream Donut. Check out a few of our favorite 5-hour Energy mocktail recipes below: DirectionsCombine ingredients over ice and finish with an orange twist.
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