Ghost Energy’s Discontinued Flavors: What Happened and What’s Next
Ghost Energy, the sports-nutrition and energy drink brand majority-owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, has quietly said goodbye to several of its most popular flavors over the past year and a half. If you’ve gone looking for a Sour Patch Kids or Swedish Fish can and come up empty, there’s a real reason behind it, and it has nothing to do with sales.
What got discontinued, and why?
In spring 2025, Ghost founder and CEO Dan Lourenco confirmed that the remaining stock of several drink varieties was all that would be available, urging fans to grab them while they could. Mondelēz International separately confirmed that its licensing partnership with Ghost had concluded. That licensing split is the root cause of most of the discontinuations people are noticing right now. ParadeParade
The flavors caught in the fallout include Sour Patch Kids Redberry, Sour Patch Kids Blue Raspberry, and Swedish Fish energy drinks, along with Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, and Nutter Butter whey protein powders. The Ghost Wikipedia entry lists these Mondelēz-based products, tied to Swedish Fish, Chips Ahoy!, and Sour Patch Kids, as formerly produced and now discontinued. A bunch of fan favorite GHOST flavors are being discontinued IMMEDIATELY. +2
The split wasn’t entirely amicable. In late April 2025, Mondelēz International sued Ghost, alleging it had breached the licensing agreements covering those same co-branded products. Not every licensed flavor was affected, though: Ghost’s Warheads lineup is safe because Warheads is owned by Impact Confections, a separate company from Mondelēz. Wikipedia Sporked
What’s coming back—and what’s genuinely gone
Not every “discontinued” Ghost flavor stays that way. Ghost brought back two of its popular discontinued flavors, Bubblicious Cotton Candy and Bubblicious Strawberry Splash, returning them to store shelves in June 2025. Strawberry Smash first launched in 2021, and Cotton Candy followed in 2023, and both have a history of being pulled and then reappearing as limited-time releases. ParadeSporked
The Mondelēz-tied flavors are a different story. Because that split was a legal and contractual matter, not a limited-run marketing decision, Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish energy drinks are unlikely to return in their original branded form. There is some precedent for a workaround, though: two C4 Performance Energy flavors shed their licensed candy names but stayed on shelves under new ones, with C4’s Skittles flavor becoming “Cosmic Rainbow” and its Starburst flavor becoming “Strawberry Splash.” Given Ghost’s active lawsuit with Mondelēz, a rebrand-and-relaunch move like that seems less likely in the near term. Sporked
What’s replacing the gap?
Ghost hasn’t stood still. The brand launched a permanent blue raspberry energy drink in January 2026, widely seen as filling the space left by the discontinued Sour Patch Kids Blue Raspberry flavor. Ghost also revived its cult-favorite Sour Strips Rainbow flavor, a collaboration with the sour candy brand founded by YouTuber Maxx Chewning, timing the drop to line up with a milestone for that partner brand. SporkedSporked
Rumors have also pointed to new Ghost flavors modeled on 7-Up and A&W Root Beer, signaling the brand is leaning into more soda-inspired profiles as it rebuilds its lineup without the Mondelēz candy tie-ins.
