;Gatorade
Erioglaucine, a food colorant and a redox dye, was found to be an effective substitute for methylene blue in the blue bottle experiment. Since some candies and drinks such as Gatorade contain the dye and a reducing sugar, only sodium hydroxide need be added to turn these food products into a blue bottle solution.
;Purple flask
Thionine can be used in the green version of the experiment in combination with copper/iron catalyst to create the purple flask.