amp Traction

My philosophy is to do what you don't want to do before you do something you want to do, and that is exactly what I am doing with the amp line. As my ultimate goal is to review every energy drink available, I've decided to get the amp line out of the way. amp Traction is supposedly grape flavoured, and since my past experience with grape flavoured energy drinks have been decent at best, I'm not too excited for this review.

FIRST IMPRESSION: The can to amp Traction is a mixed bag. While I think the purple fits the can design quite well, the can is simply too cluttered. And while the top of the can looks good, the bottom of the can seems to have been bit by the clutter bug, heck, it ate it. Six total lines of mostly useless text under the logo really makes it hard to figure out what to call it. All in all, not even the misplaced Mountain Dew logo on the bottom right corner can't help the can escape its shortcomings.

TASTE: I opened the can and took a sip. The flavour starts out a fake grape-like flavour, reminiscent of a melted purple Popsicle, that gradually gets lighter, letting a light blend of various citrus, namely lemon and lime, take over. The grape flavour isn't as overwhelmingly strong as NOS Grape, which improves drink-ability. The lemon and lime are balanced and are relatively sweet. The fake grape flavour underlies the whole flavour and lasts well after you've stopped drinking. Though the overall flavour isn't very sweet, there is still a slight syrupy residue that coats your mouth, which was disappointing. Overall, the flavour to amp Traction is decent, not good, not bad, just decent.

KICK: Each can contains: 160mg of caffeine, 200% of your daily intake of Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, 296mg of Taurine, thirty four mg of Ginseng, 144 mg of d-Ribose, and 292 mg of Maltodextrin. This decent at best blend of ingredients gave me a kick lasting around two and a half to three hours. During this period I felt mildly awake, and had some mild jitters, but nothing exceptional. After the two+ hours I got no real crash, which seems to be the only good thing about the buzz.

FINAL WORD: All in all, I have to say that amp Traction is a below average energy drink. While the taste had its moments, nothing about Traction that is new, unique, or even good. Everything thing down to the kick has been done before, and usually done better. It's a shame that Pepsi doesn't put time into making their energy drinks instead of releasing them half completed. Maybe if they took their time I'd be able to pass their drinks, but since they don't, I can't. Overall, if your looking for a great tasting, powerful energy drink all housed in a good looking can, then skip amp Traction...2.6/5

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