Personal tastes aside (I'd rank blue and yellow outside my top 5 Gatorade flavours for instance), that's a pretty repetitive line-up so I thought I'd ask around and see if my take on the lack of variety was correct.
"I've been saying it all year," said Mike Condon. "I've been getting on the equipment staff here to mix it up a little bit and add some variety. Let's get that Glacier Cherry Frost in here at least but I think you need at least 500 games under your belt before you can start making demands like that."
So maybe one of the veterans has a blue and yellow only request? Is there perhaps a deeper meaning to those colours? That's when my journalistic instincts uncovered a new piece of evidence.
"I know what it stands for though," said Fredrik Claesson about the chosen colours. "It's for all the Swedes (laughs). Our captain is Swedish too so I think that's why it is the way it is."
That's some potentially game changing info but before we go down the rabbit hole trying to unwind the hidden messages in the flavours of Gatorade available at practice, let's get back on track and play a little armchair quarterback with the beverage selection. For me, it doesn't get much better than grape (aka purple) but very few people care about my opinion. So what about the players?
"I like the pink one," said Claesson. "And then the darker pink one. I like those two: pink and darker pink."
Through some research, I think Freddy is talking about Frost Rain Berry (pink) and Fierce Strawberry (dark pink) but that's pure speculation on my part.
"Gatorade has been getting out there with some wild flavours," shared Condon. "Remember the clear one? That one was pretty good. The fact that it didn't need colour just proves it's nutritional value and how good it was for you."
Wild theories and listing potential replacements are all fun and good but sometimes the truth is a little more logical and that turns out to be the case here as well. I went to the source and spoke with the equipment staff and it turns out that they are limited in what flavours they can order because they need the bottles with the twist cap for obvious reasons. Makes sense, you don't want an entire team of players sipping out of the classic bottles. And then of those flavours that are available with the handy spray nozzle, blue and yellow are the two that "stain the least" which I can see why that's being taking into consideration.
So there you have it. Case closed...
...for now.
