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.