Furious fans accuse YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul of not making enough Prime Energy to meet demand for the drink ‘in bid to keep the hype going’
- Thousands of bottles of viral drink at centre of UK craze have to be destroyed
- The Prime energy drink sparked chaotic scenes in Aldi yesterday while on sale
- It is fronted by viral YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul and is in heavy demand
- Some were listed on sale for £50,000 on eBay previously but Aldi sold for £2
One of the YouTubers behind the viral energy drink that sparked UK supermarket chaos yesterday has denied restricting supply to ‘keep the hype going’.
Prime – which is fronted by KSI and Logan Paul – has been difficult to find anywhere, with new stock quickly snapped by fans of the pair.
The scarcity of the brightly-coloured beverage has prompted questions by admirers of the social media stars.
But to one who accused them of making the product ‘less available to keep the hype’, KSI insisted they were trying to increase supply massively.
Aldi today apologised to customers who were unable to buy the £1.99 energy drink when carnage broke out in stores yesterday
He said: We’re not even trying to do that. We’re making loads of Prime daily, the demand is literally too high man.’
KSI added when asked if other stores would stock it: ‘We’re working on it, just takes longer than I thought.’
It came after MailOnline discovered thousands of bottles of the viral drink had to be destroyed in the UK – because they have been mixed too strong.
In footage, which will stun fans desperate to grab a bottle, thousands are shown wrapped up and marked ‘not for human consumption’ after the bungle.
MailOnline understands the video was taken at manufacturer Refresco’s plant in Kegworth, Derbyshire. It has not responded to requests for a comment
KSI said the bottles had too much electrolyte blend in them so had to be destroyed at source
The footage was leaked to the Prime Tracker UK Twitter account, which updates followers on where they can buy the drink.
MailOnline understands the video was taken at manufacturer Refresco’s plant in Kegworth, Derbyshire. It has not responded to requests for a comment.
Refresco has factories and HQs in Buckinghamshire, Somerset, North Wales, Derbyshire, Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Aberdeenshire.
The production error was even remarked upon by KSI who spoke online about the problem when it happened last month.
He explained: ‘You lot don’t miss anything. The manufacturer out too much electrolyte blend in an ice pop batch so we got our quality team to have them destroyed.
‘We quality check every batch, so this is just part of the game lol. RIP to those Prime bottles.’
Footage leaked of the bottles showed thousands that were set to be destroyed by the factory
The wrapped up pallets will break the hearts of fans desperate to get their hands on the drink
It goes some way to suggest why bottles of the popular drink are in such short supply.
Aldi today apologised to customers who were unable to buy the £1.99 energy drink when carnage broke out in stores yesterday.
Scenes of pandemonium exploded in some stores on Thursday, with children captured on video climbing over the aisles in one shop to try and get them.
In some stores the drink sold out within three minutes.
Some youngsters were seen climbing over the aisles as they battled to try and get the drink
It sparked scuffles and ugly scenes in store as children and adults alike scrambled for them
An Aldi spokesman said today: ‘We’re sorry that some customers were unable to get their hands on this product, however, demand has been extremely high.
‘We limited purchases to one of each variant per customer so that as many customers as possible had a chance to buy it.’
They did not confirm whether or not Aldi would be stocking Prime again soon.
One mother told MailOnline her son had a bottle stolen out of his hand by an elderly pensioner while another father said: ‘People who were in the queue first were pushed and shoved out the way when the doors opened.
‘People losing their minds – my kids were pushed by grown adults over a drink.’
Lengthy queues were seen forming from 6am with footage inside the shops showing adults tussling with children to try and get their hands on them.
KSI denied they were making the product scarce to increase its hype and desirability
Kristina Sheppard with her two bottles of Prime energy drink after witnessing instore chaos
There were troubling scenes in some of Aldi’s branches as the scrum to get the drink erupted
Aldi had limited customers to one bottle of each flavour per person but people were seen attempting to grab more
Stampede at Aldi for the Prime energy drink, which is made by two famous YouTubers
So what is actually in the viral Prime drink?
The drink launched by influencer boxers Logan Paul and KSI has been marketed as a healthy alternative to many energy drinks.
The vast majority of each 500ml bottle is filtered water, mixed with 10 per cent coconut water.
The latter is good source of minerals like potassium, magnesium, calcium and sodium important components of in heart, skeletal and muscle health.
Branding around Prime boasts it contains no added sugar and zero caffeine. Therefore it isn’t really an energy drink.
Cans of energy drinks, and in particular their consumption by young people, have been controversial as some can contain more than 80g of sugar and have as much caffeine as three cups of coffee.
In comparison, prime only has 2g of sugar per bottle, about 7 per cent of an adult’s recommended intake. It instead gets its sweetness from a substances Sucralose and Acesulfame K.
These are both artificial sweeteners, a family of low-calorie chemicals used instead of sugar.
While there have been some health concerns about these substances, including that they raise the risk of cancer, health authorities them say they are safe.
However, some studies have suggested sweeteners can stimulate appetite or alter the gut microbiome and therefore increase the risk of weight gain and obesity.
Other ingredients in Prime include a range of vitamins and Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs).
BCAAs helps muscles form and are taken by athletes and bodybuilders to help build up mass.
Prime also contains 113 per cent of the daily recommended intake of Vitamin A, 125 per cent of Vitamin E, 243 per cent of Vitamin B6 and 192 per cent of Vitamin B12.
While these vitamins form part of a healthy and balanced diet, too much of them can actually be harmful.
However, the quantities in Prime, while above the daily requirements, shouldn’t be high enough to cause problems.
For example, Prime contains 3.4mg of Vitamin B6, which helps the body process food. Adults generally only need about 1.3mg of Vitamin B6 per day. The NHS says taking 200mg or Vitamin B6 per day can cause nerve problems.
Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian and researcher at Aston Medical School in Birmingham, told MailOnline: ‘It seems to have a few more expensive ingredients than the average sports or energy drink in the form of branch chain amino acids.
‘These have been claimed to improve exercise performance, recovery and building muscle.
‘However, none of these claims have been accepted by regulators and should not be used when marketing products like this. It’s interesting that it uses a potassium salt as most sports products used sodium as that can help absorption of water, glucose and amino acids.
‘Although this products may contain some interesting sounding nutrients it is unlikely to offer any meaningful nutritional benefits.’
Commenting on one of the videos, KSI denied they were making too few drinks in order to increase hype.
He tweeted: ‘We’re not even trying to do that. We’re making loads of Prime daily, the demand is literally too high man.’
When it was launched the drink was shipped in from the US to be sold.
But now it is also made with the help of Refresco in the UK, which also produces Old Jamaica and Calypso.
The drink is fronted by the two YouTubers but according to bottles in the UK the company here is actually owned by US firm Congo Brands.
That firm is run by US businessmen Trey Steiger and Max Clemons.
Yesterday Aldi – which is Britain’s cheapest supermarket – limited customers to one bottle of each flavour per person but people were seen attempting to grab more.
Student Kristina Sheppard, 19, captured a brief video from her local store in Sydenham, east London, as customers battled it out to get their hands on the limited edition drink.
She said adults were ‘pushing children’ and people were walking out with crates of the drink, which Aldi is selling for knockdown price of £1.99.
Kristina, a PE and Sports Exercise Science student said: ‘I got there at around 7.45am and I took the video at 8.04am.
‘It was just hectic. I didn’t push anyone, but there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on.
‘I thought there was a limit of one bottle per flavour, but I saw people getting cases of them.
‘There were parents pushing children. There were kids between the ages of 7 and 14, they were being pushed out of the way.
‘One of the staff was shouting ‘parents, stop pushing the kids’. It was absolute carnage.
‘I just got my bottles and left, I didn’t want to stick around much longer.’
Another mother – who had previously tried to get them at Asda – said her effort to get to Aldi early had been worth it.
She told MailOnline: ‘After many, many mornings at Asda before 6am with no luck we finally got lucky at Aldi.
‘Only because of the manager and the way he did it.
‘When the doors opened everyone ran in pushing and shoving.
‘He shouted ‘there won’t be none of that, if you want the Prime drinks then form two queues, they are behind the tills and there will be strictly three per customer’.’
The manager told them the tills had been programmed not to let more than three bottles through.
The shopper added: ‘They went on sale at 8am and they were sold out completely at 8.05am.
‘Half the queue was left disappointed, they must not have got many in really, I would estimate about 40 to 50 people max were successful.
‘I’m just glad we got there early.
‘I thought we would be the only ones there as it was 7.15am pitch black before sunrise, but as we rounded the corner to Aldi there was already a dozen teenage boys waiting.’
Another lucky mother told Mailonline she had seen children crying after they had missed out.
She added: ‘We were at Aldi for 8am this morning in Studley – by 8.05am the shelf had been cleared.
‘Asda are causing lots of problems with prime with low stock levels, adults are swiping the shelves in Asda to re-sell for ridiculous prices on eBay.
Lengthy queues were seen forming from 6am as adults lined up with their children to get some
Bottles of Prime sold in the UK show this unassuming Amsterdam building as its address
‘No one knows what flavours Asda will have or what time they re-stock, they have also put no limits on how many each customer can buy.
‘We were in Asda later this morning and saw children crying as there was no Prime on Asda shelves and none left at Aldi.’
There was success for some in Fareham as the Porthester Aldi appeared to have enough for those queuing – reportedly clad in their pyjamas and slippers.
Hundreds of customers in Gravesend, Kent, were packed shoulder-to-shoulder as they filed through one store to get hold of a bottle of the sought-after drink.
Adam Smith took his son Charlie to Aldi this morning and managed to get three bottles of Prime
Thousands of customers have been left disappointed after Aldi stores across the country sold out. Pictured: Aldi in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire
Pandemonium seen in some of the Aldi stores in footage posted online by stunned shoppers
The blurry video captured the chaos inside the stores once the drinks went on sale yesterday
This Aldi store was extremely busy with customers desperate to get their hands on the drink
The Prime drinks -– which can cost £20 online – was up for sale instore for £1.99 this morning
Who are Logan Paul and KSI?
Logan Paul is a YouTuber, actor and social media personality who first found fame on the former video-sharing platform, Vine before becoming one of the most viewed personalities on YouTube.
He created a new YouTube channel in August 2015, ‘Logan Paul Vlogs’, which now boasts over 23 million subscribers and over 5.8 billion views, making it one of the most viewed YouTube channels ever.
Logan faced backlash at the end of 2017 and early 2018 after he posted a video to his YouTube channel showing a man who had committed suicide by hanging himself.
Logan filmed the video in Aokigahara, also known as the ‘suicide forest’, which can be found at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan.
Logan turned his hand to amateur boxing.
British YouTube and rapper KSI challenged Logan to a boxing match, which ended up seeing Logan Paul and his brother Jake Paul fight KSI and his brother Deji in two white-collar boxing matches.
Logan Paul was then eligible to fight in professional boxing matches, and his first proper bout was once again against KSI.
KSI, whose real name is Olajide William Olatunji, reportedly earns £2.9 million ($4.5m) a year from his work on YouTube.
Hs pay will fluctuate as he is paid based on his activity, sponsorship and advertising revenue, rather than a salary from the video-hosting website.
Forbes listed KSI at No 5 in their ‘World’s Highest-Paid YouTube Stars’ list in 2015, but has since been overtaken by the Paul brothers, Logan and Jake, since then.
And the British YouTuber isn’t shy about flaunting his wealth.
In 2016, the 26-year-old moved into a £4.5m mansion with three of his close friends, who were all part of a group of YouTubers dubbed as ‘The Sidemen’.
The luxury estate boasted six en-suite bedrooms, cinema, gym, large indoor swimming pool and sauna.
The group also had 24-hour security to guard the property. They all moved out of the house earlier this year.
‘JJ’ as he is known to close friends, also shelled out £388,000 ($500,000) on a one-of-a-kind, diamond encrusted necklace, which was modelled on the Dragon Ball Z character ‘Beerus’.
KSI also brought to light how much money YouTubers could actually make, if successful, after he splashed out on a Lamborghini Aventador back in 2014.
Source: dmarge.com
And there were large queues at the Aldi branch near the O2 Arena at North Greenwich in south-east London.
While in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, shoppers started queuing from 7am to get their hands on the product.
Adam Smith, 36, was one of them and calmly managed to get some before they quickly sold out.
He said: ‘Every child is obsessed with this Prime Hydration drink so my son insisted that we got up this morning before Aldi opened at 8am because they are stocking it.
‘We joined the queue at 7.20 and it was carnage but there wasn’t enough for everyone.
‘At least half the queue was disappointed and there were three per customer.. It’s absolutely insane for a drink.
‘We managed to get three as there were different flavours. They had them up the front near the checkouts and apparently, it’s a one-hit-wonder that they will not be restocking.
‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Each store was limited to a certain amount and that’s it.
‘There were about fifty people in front of us with at least a hundred behind us.’
The drinks are so popular due to the fame of the two figures behind the beverage.
KSI has 24million YouTube subscribers, while Logan Paul has 23.6million.
On social media one shopper was critical of the queues.
He said: ‘I’m sorry, but really all of this over a drink, there are for more important things in life than a celebrity drink.’
Another person simply added: ‘Absolutely crazy.’
On the Isle of Wight, stock sold out within three minutes of the store opening.
Sam Ford tweeted: ‘Aldi on the Isle of Wight was sold out within three minutes of opening. Nothing but Prime at the checkouts.’
As is the case with all of Aldi’s Specialbuy products, once the stock in store has sold out, it will not be replenished.
A spokesman for the supermarket said: ‘Aldi has primed its shelves to stock the latest internet sensation, Prime Hydration Drink.
‘The viral hydration drink created by two popular YouTube stars, KSI and Logan Paul, is available to buy for just £1.99 in Aldi stores nationwide on December 29.
‘The drink will be a Specialbuy – and as with all Specialbuys, once they’re gone, they’re gone!
‘The supermarket is expecting high demand so a purchase limit of one of each variant per customer has been set to ensure as many people as possible get the opportunity to buy the product.
‘The drink, which is 10 per cent coconut water, contains electrolytes and B vitamins and BCAAs, has zero sugar and around 20 calories per bottle.
‘Aldi shoppers can choose from three different flavours: Blue Raspberry, Lemon and Lime, and Ice Pop.
‘Prime Hydration Drink lands in Aldi stores on 29th December – but is only available while stocks last.’
The viral hydration drink created by two popular YouTube stars, KSI and Logan Paul
Logan Paul (right) and KSI (left) exchange punches their pro debut cruiserweight fight at Staples Center on November 9, 2019
Energy drink created by millionaire YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI sparks frenzy among young people leading to a spate of muggings and thefts amid huge demand
A sports drink created by a pair of YouTube stars has become a phenomenon amongst youngsters, leading to a spate of muggings and thefts.
Children as young as ten have been threatened in playgrounds and punched in order to force them to hand over bottles of Prime.
Unlike many child vices, from smoking behind the bike sheds to passing around a bottle of cider, Prime is entirely harmless, given it is mainly water with added vitamins and minerals.
Such is demand that youngsters are pestering parents to travel long distances to get their hands on the drink, with some touring hundreds of miles during fruitless hunts.
Logan Paul, who has become a multimillionaire on the back of his YouTube fame, has promoted the drink
A 17-year-old was arrested in Ashford, Kent, for attempting to shoplift a case of the drinks from an Asda store.
KSI and Paul, who have become multimillionaires on the back of their YouTube fame, have promoted the drink around high profile celebrity boxing bouts in the UK.
Demand for the drinks is massively outpacing supply as youngsters try to emulate their social media heroes.
Currently, Prime is only sold though Asda outlets in the UK, however, sales have been so strong that the supermarket has been rationing purchases to no more than three per customer.
Such is the demand that youngsters who manage to get their hands on a bottle are being bullied, mugged and robbed.
One worried parent said: ‘A mum I know sent her ten-year-old off to the park on Sunday to let off some steam.
‘A small group of teenagers – two boys and a girl – were hanging about in the park and told him to give them his drink. He refused and he was punched in the face and obviously left very upset and traumatised.
‘Kids are getting bullied into handing them over at school too. I think they are becoming social currency amongst kids and unfortunately that can also bring violence.’
Fellow YouTuber KSI has also been promoting the drink around boxing events in the UK
The hype around the drink has been fuelled by the fact some people have been advertising bottles on eBay and social media at vastly inflated prices
The hype around the drink has been fuelled by the fact some people have been advertising bottles on eBay and social media at vastly inflated prices.
The official list price for a 500ml bottle is £2, however sellers are asking anything from £7 to £19.99 on eBay. Bizarrely, one seller even quoted an ambitious £50,000.
On Teeside a group of teens, who had been queuing from 6am, rushed a branch of Asda and cleared the shelves.
Unlike sports energy drinks, Prime does not contain any caffeine and, in fact, is largely water with added vitamins and minerals designed to boost exercise performance.
As a result, it is a harmless – even healthy alternative – to the high caffeine energy drinks popular with youngsters.
Prime comes in a range of fruity flavours, including Lemon Lime, Tropical Punch, Ice Pop and Blue Raspberry, and the ingredients are typical of many other sports and nutrition drinks used by athletes.
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