They are vitamin C to the mixture, which is actually what is developing the film. There's a commercial developer (Xtol) made by Kodak which is I believe vitamin C based, and it's a very good developer.

It would be interesting to know if the caffeine in the red bull is making a significant contribution I guess, otherwise the jagerbomb isn't really doing that much I think.

> Developing black-and-white film with coffee is a better option for younger analog photographers. As a bonus, it should smell better.

I've made Caffenol in the past. It stinks.

Looks like the source the article is based around is https://www.diyphotography.net/develop-film-at-home-with-a-j..., which itself is a write-up of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Oja2mpYqg.

it's unfortunate that you can develop film even with something like coffee, but for the fixing step there aren't any similarly "not purely chemical" options

Can U still drink the Jägerbomb after developing?