Twinlab Energy Fuel Drink Review

Here we go with another one of the workout drinks. Twinlab joins GNC Kore, Go Fast, Stinger, Xcyto, Everlast, and Bally's. I guess they have a captive audience but look at this can. Would you buy this? It's 8 oz. of bright orange with people doing cartwheels. Sorry that is not going to cut it for hardcore energy junkies. The feeling the can is giving me is just too happy and not enough energy especially with the phrase "To energize your day." It makes me feel like I'm at summer camp or listening to a Richard Simmons video.

Twinlab Carbonated Fruit Splash looks like very sparkly apple juice with tons of very small bubbles. It's dominated by an artificial sweetener taste with small hints of apple and pear juice. There's also a plastic taste in there which is very noticeable and feels like the melted down a little plastic for a secret ingredient. There's nothing like drinking molten Zip Lock bags with your energy drink. A very subtle cherry undertone is present but it's overwhelmed by the massive artificial sweet taste. I found Twinlab's drink to be completely lacking any tartness or robust flavor but on the flipside there is also no gumminess. There's really not a whole lot going on in terms of flavor besides plastic and artificial sweetener. Making this a real boring drink and one that is not going to energize my day with any kinds of flavor.

The biggest thing Twinlab Fruit Splash has going for it is that it has zero calories so the diet crowd has another sugar free drink to choose from. The key ingredients are sucralose, guarana, caffeine, taurine, american ginseng, siberian ginseng, green tea leaf extract, gingko biloba, Vitamin C, and B Vitamins. It's a more than decent list of ingredients and gave an above average kick. It's too bad the ingredients are wasted since this really has such a bad taste.

Stacker Brazilian Guarana Energy Drink Review

Every once in a while a product comes along that is so bad you can't drink it. When that happens, I drink it anyway because I am dedicated to the energy drink cause. Brazilian Guarana is just such a product. Thanks to my trip to France where taurine seems to be outlawed I am no stranger to guarana energy drinks and feel fully qualified to critique this one. Let me start by saying it is one of the worst drinks easily and will be moving onto the BLACK LIST. There are good guarana drinks out there but this is not one of them. This drink manufactured by Stacker who has also brought us other BLACK LIST products like Pounding Punch comes in an 8 oz. can which is good, because of it was 16 oz. there is no way I would have drank the whole thing. It's got an interesting green color scheme that was unique before AMP redid there cans and features a three X sign that is sure to attract any male who sees it. That symbol should stand for serious danger though.

Brazilian Guarana is a dull copper color. It really is nearly undrinkable and is a new low, worse than previous worst offender, Deuce, by far. There is a heavy, heavy bubble gum flavor, massive bitterness, and a mix of fruit and cola. It's the complete opposite of nice guarana drinks like Pepsi X.

If you're still considering drinking it here are the ingredients: HFCS, caffeine, taurine, Vitamin C, B Vitamins, yerba mate, ginseng, and guarana. The sad thing is that even with those decent ingredients I didn't get a good buzz. Maybe its because I was so disgusted by the taste. AVOID!!!

Monster Energy Drink Review

Today's beverage of choice is the Monster Energy drink. The first thing I noticed is that the can is extremely large. A quick check on the back shows that this is really two servings, so you can get double the taurine in one package. The whole can is 16 oz, almost double the standard Red Bull or Amp can. Although Monster has quite the edgy look, the drink is produced by wholesome, all natural beverage maker, Hansens.

Monster goes with black and green hard core graphics. The M though supposed to be scary is kind of appealing. One cool feature on the can is on the pop tab at the top, where it has a little M punched out of the tab.

When I open the cap, the familiar bubble gum smell wafts up very strongly. It's not a pleasant way to begin thinking about downing this whole can. I'm surprised when I check out the color, I'm expecting an unnatural green but instead it looks basically the same as a light lager without the head. In comparison to the Amp the monster is much, much sweeter. It's also cleaner with no bitter aftertaste and much less of a sour bite. However, the bubble gum flavor is very strong. It literally tastes like bubble gum ice cream with the barest hint of citrus. There's almost a slight pear taste combined with some minerality. Monster seems to my palate to be more carbonated than Amp. It's definitely not the tastiest drink I've ever had but I could see making my way through the whole can. It's really tastes much better than Amp and that's coming from someone who likes Mountain Dew.

Monster doesn't screw around, taurine is ingredient number 6. I also like the fact that they don't use that cheap corn syrup crap and instead use real sugar - glucose and sucrose. Like Amp they use ginseng, caffeine, B vitamins, maltodextrin and guarana. They also add L-Carnitine, an amino acid that metabolizes fat. I don't think this is going to help you lose weight anytime soon, but maybe it'll burn a little fat and give you more energy. The increased sweetness comes from having sucralose (splenda) in it. Some don't like sucralose because it's basically sugar with a chlorine atom attached and chlorine is poison. If drinking a substance with your pool cleaner in it bothers you then watch out for Monster and a host of diet soft drinks.

The kick from this is pretty intense. It may have something to do with drinking the full two servings. I definitely suggest drinking this near a bathroom since my bladder feels like its going to burst. But I have some serious shakes going on and my alertness is heightened. I anticipate I'm going to have problems falling asleep tonight.

Amp Energy Drink Review

The obvious thing to do would be to ignore AMP Energy Drink and review Red Bull first. It is the most widely known energy drink in the field, but I decided to go a different direction. My favorite soft drink has always been Mountain Dew. I love that crisp unique flavor, so I thought what better than to do my first review on AMP Energy Drink from Pepsi's affiliate, Mountain Dew. So I'm doing my first energy drink review on an 8 ounce can of AMP.

The can is the same small (8.4 oz) can as Red Bull. It has a nice black and green with a funky A at the top. It also features the Mountain Dew logo to hook in suckers like me who like Mountain Dew, but are looking for more of a kick. Since I first reviewed AMP they have redesigned the can several times. The first was a move to a 16 ounce can with a look very similar to the one you can see for AMP Overdrive here, but in green. Then in January of 2008 they revamped the 16 ounce can making it more stylish, dark, angular and edgy. I think they did an excellent job as the new can is really a huge improvement on both the origianl 8 ounce can and the more AMP Overdrive/AMP Sugar Free can. I have a picture of the new can posted below.

A quick look at the nutrition facts and ingredients is both illuminating and scary. First off at the bottom you can see a "not recommended for children." Disturbing, but seems to be standard on most energy drinks. Looking at the ingredients we see that taurine is only the 13th ingredient. Other notable ingredients include high fructose corn syrup, guarana, maltodextrin, caffeine, panax ginseng, and B vitamins. The corn syrup and maltodextrin provide most of the 30 grams of sugar which is already starting to get me jittery. For those of you that don't know about ginseng, it's an herb that is supposed to increase the body's resistance to stress. It seems to be working as I'm not at all worried about my increasingly heightened senses. Ginseng is also supposed to increase circulation. Wikipedia says that guarana contains caffeine, maybe an aphrodisiac, and is also a cure for bowel complaints...

One last disturbing thing in the ingredients - brominated vegetable oil. BVO is used as an emulsifier to keep the citrus flavors suspended in the drink. I guess the long standing use in the soft drink industry should allay our fears but the fact that this is really vegetable oil mixed with the poisonous element Bromine doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Now on to the important things - taste and kick. I popped the tab on the Amp and guzzled some down. I noticed a citrus zing with a melon type aroma creeping in. At first it tastes pretty good kind of like Mountain Dew, but with the hint of bubble gum common to many energy drinks. Like Mountain Dew it also has a weird after-taste, I don't know if that's the BVO or gum arabic or what, but it tastes kind of like sipping on highly diluted wood polish. There's also a noticeable bitter/metallic kick, which makes you wince after sipping it. All in all this is definitely a drink that's made to be chugged rather than tried to enjoy a sip at a time. As for kick, I'm definitely noticeably jittier after drinking. I feel much more alert, mentally and physically. The kick is definitely more intense than drinking a Coke or a Mountain Dew. Since this original review of AMP, AMP has come out with three brand new flavors that are worth a look for you hardcore fans. The new flavors are Elevate, Traction and Relaunch.

Arizona Extreme Energy Shot Review

Arizona Extreme Energy ShotI've always felt that energy drinks need to be extreme. Putting yellow and black caution marks on the can is a great start for conveying that concept. Though it doesn't exactly work on the Arizona Extreme Energy can. The stripes are just a little too much here and are broken up by the big logo so that it ends up looking more like a yellow tiger than a big warning sign. I understand Arizona wants their logo on the can but couldn't they have just spiffed it up a bit so it was a little more edgy or come up with a subbrand like Hansens did with Monster? The can is the classic 16 oz. size and does feel intimidating before drinking.

The drink itself looks very similar to Lost 5-0 though maybe lighter in color it's more yellow that deep orange. It's a sweeter, less pulpy version of Orangina. Arizona Extreme Energy Shot is not very sour and has strong carbonation that gives it a mineral quality. No single juice flavor stands out but there definitely seems to be orange and pear with a tiny bit of mango. There is a noticeable honey flavor that is nice on the aftertaste. The Orangina comparison holds pretty well making this a beverage you'll drink for enjoyment but not one you're going to reach for as a thirst quencher. It's probably a pretty good one for women and would be a decent but not great mixer though it does have milk thistle to prevent hangovers. If you like the juicy ones but think they're too thick this might be a good one to try. It's worlds better than their Rx Energy Tonic and goes down much easier than the Diet Green Tea Energy.

While I don't think you could actually shoot such a big can of Arizona Energy SHOT, it does pack a pretty good punch. There's 2000 mg taurine, and what I also like is that they give a full listing of the amounts of all energy ingredients. Those guys know how important the ingredients are not just the lip service of being an energy drink. In addition to taurine there's sucrose, HFCS, orange honey, D-ribose, L-carnitine, guarana, inositol, ginseng, caffeine, glucuronolactone, Vitamin C, beta carotene, milk thistle, gum acacia, B Vitamins and 10% juice from pear, apple and peach juices, mango puree. I feel like someone opened the medicine cabinet and just dumped whatever vitamins they could find into this. And that's fine by me! I think this is a kickass product that with a little better can could be a real go to drink.