Joker Cherry Lime Energy Drink Review

Joker Cherry Lime is a flavor created specifically for its exclusivity to Circle-K, however, its can is nothing more than a palette change different from the rest of the line. That is a good thing, as the can remains remarkably clean and easy to read despite its swirly backdrop and the large chunk of writing at the bottom left.

An airy effervescence ambushes the palate with a languorous lime conglomerated with an exiguous cherry taste. The deuce of sapors are absent of any chemistry, both egregiously without the anticipated sourness. Sweetness is a triune of modified sugars, HFCS, sucralose and ace-k, an unfortunate triptych with the artificial honeys lacking the grandiose of the true carbohydrate, and what there is of honest calories approaches its job with too much trepidation to ever be convincing. Every sip lacks the substance of sincere sugar the flavors beg for: you should feel the heft from the sugar, but somehow diet wins out. With the carefree carbonation playing ignorant to their lusts, the whole thing just sorta collapses under its own weightless weight.

Each can contains: B vitamins, taurine, caffeine (160 milligrams), and inositol. The buzz is mediocre, lasting about two hours and ends without any crash. In the end, the Joker line has never been the greatest line, but even with that in mind, this Cherry Lime variety still leaves you crestfallen.

Unwell Frost Cranberry Sparkling Energy Drink Review

Why would you name your energy drink "Unwell?!" Should one drink when they are under the weather? I have no idea and the less said about it, the better, though there are a lot of elements here that had me grabbing a can off of the local Target shelf with unbridled glee. Chiefly its purported cranberry flavor, and the fact that real juice is involved here. Coupled with The Caffeine King's famous holiday spirit, I can forgive the absolutely massive amount of text, for now.

Unwell demands not that you love cranberries, but that you live, breathe and sleep them. The four percent of actual nectar involved here means sips have all the standoffish honesty that one experiences when they pop one of the tiny bouncy orbs of crimson into their mouth, their only exposure being that can-shaped gel they eat once a year with turkey. Wrong-o. The cranberry acts alone without backup, allowing you to taste the alienating pungency of the antisocial produce. Whether that is the intention from this winter based beverage or not I cannot discern. Two grams of added cane sugar, in addition to stevia leaf extract, simply is not enough to combat the harsh astringent reality native to the creeping shrub denizen. Not that things are necessarily sour, more earthy and bitter, the kind that curls your tongue more out of disgust than with childlike wonder. And that is the problem, this appropriately colored cocktail is not nearly sweet or properly puckering enough to become something your average energy drink drinker would want to drink.

Now to the good stuff: 150 milligrams of caffeine. The amount is just enough to keep me sipping onward, the two and a half hour long buzz a fine one. Electrolytes and B vitamins round out the energy cocktail, for those who are counting. I for one was counting down the ounces so I could be done with this.

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Monster Reserve Orange Dreamsicle Energy Drink Review

Orange is one of those flavors that seldom offers nuance: it either resembles juice or soda, with very little wiggle room. So Monster Reserve's "Orange Dreamsicle" is an exciting possibility, what could this taste like? But its can is just plain ol' business as usual, slight texture, minimal text and brand recognition in place of visual fidelity.

With thousands of reviews under my belt, I love to be surprised, and this does. There is a wonderful creaminess beneath an otherwise static orange profile, and if I close my eyes hard enough I can just picture that creamsicle melting to the subtle heat of my mouth, its bright colored exterior dripping sticky syrup to expose a milky white core. It has a most basic fruit flavor, offering nothing in way of complexity, and yeah, sixteen ounces is a lot to stomach. I mean, I am not a kid anymore, but the idea here is supremely executed and for a second, just a split-second, I was, in fact, a child standing outside the ice cream truck hoping my mom does not ask for her change back.

160 milligrams of caffeine is just an OK amount of my namesake chemical. The buzz is thusly just as adequate, lasting two hours, though my body did get a touch of a sugar rush thanks to twenty eight grams of the carbohydrate. Other ingredients include B vitamins, taurine, l-carnitine, inositol and others. In the end, Monster Reserve Orange Dreamsicle looks and kicks worse than its taste deserves.

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Rip It Yolo Pineapple Energy Drink Review

Let us get this out of the way, right away: I am a pushover for pineapple energy drinks. I really, really love them. So Rip It has some subliminal prejudice working in its favor, and I am sorry for the perceived unfair bias, but that is the way the energy drink can cracks open.

As for the can here, it is pretty much what you expect from the brand; the design has remained unchanged for so long that if it were not for these new varieties, I would have assumed National Beverage Corp., the maker behind Rip It, had totally forgotten about their little potent potable once that La Croix popularity got to their heads.

Pineapple is so front and center here that it scratched me right where I itched. The fruit works solo the moment it hits your palate all the way down to your stomach, with this beautiful acidity that is not only respectful to the large spiky produce but, and perhaps more critically, it is so puckering that even if this were entirely sugar free, you would be hard-pressed to tell. Fortunately, Rip It went with a reduced calorie approach, with sixteen grams of high fructose corn syrup bulked up by sugar-free sweetener sucralose, which helps give body while also preventing mouthfuls from gunking up completely. This is an admittedly simple experience, one-note even, but while imbibing, I did not care. Nope, not even a little bit.

Like the preceding Melon' Hi G.O.A.T Watermelon, there is no mention of the caffeine content. What gives?! The buzz is OK I guess, lasting about two hours, but again, if you are going to list out how much vitamin C your product has got, then please, please do the same for my namesake chemical! In the end, Rip It Yolo Pineapple may only live once, but it deserves to live twice.

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Juice Monster Rio Punch Energy Drink Review

As The Caffeine King was on the hunt this year's annual "The Summer Edition" from Red Bull, instead a new Monster appeared, the curiously named "Rio Punch." Oh, I am sorry, this is actually a Juice Monster. Whatever. 

The can is fun to look at fortunately, the usual Monster visual language brought to life with bright colors. The back of it claims the flavor to be a "blend of exotic fruit flavors with a hint of spice," where as the website claims more specifically it to be "papaya, vanilla ice cream and black currant." Which is it!?

Upon first sip, I am surprised at how accurately the latter's mention of vanilla ice cream is. Mouthfuls have this smooth, nearly creamy texture, as if the thousands, if not millions, of little bubbles were wearing padding. It does not necessarily sip like dairy, but there is enough milky taste that it puts this Juice Monster in the upper echelon of unique energy drinks from a super-mega-canned-caffeine-cocktail-conglomerate. Sadly there is zero spice to be tasted, be it vanilla or any other, so while this does taste like vanilla ice cream, it is sadly generic vanilla ice cream. Or worse, gasp, vanilla frozen dairy dessert. As for papaya and black currant, the jury is still out, as the remainder of the experience is murky and ill-defined, citrusy without distinction. The thirty three grams of sugar, all of which is labeled "added," gives gulps a good bit of heft, but it is diluted by the inclusion of the diet sugar sucralose. I am usually a fan of these reduced calorie beverages, but the liquid passes past my tongue without leaving much of an impression.

With 160 milligrams of caffeine, the buzz is basic and unimpressive, lasting two hours. We also get B vitamins, ginseng, taurine, you know the drill. On the whole, Juice Monster Rio Punch fails to punch above its weight class. 

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Mtn Dew Kickstart Watermelon Review

This slender, bright green can has text screaming in from many different angles, almost all different fonts, sizes, and with varying levels of importance. Some text is bold, some italicized, but hardly any is necessary, words tossed about the can like a kid learning how to use Microsoft Paint.

First sip is grotesquely sour, a mossy acidity rather unpleasant with the potation's high fructose corn syrup, ace-k and sucralose saccharinity. Its flavor is less the soft, carefree nature of the melon, and inspired most by the Jolly Rancher rendition of the fleshy fruit, twelve ounces with any gentle depth removed. Instead, the candied interpretation lacks the weight of the sugar needed, the fifteen grams used proving too little, particularly with the burn of synthetic honey; this gaucherie potable is liquid candy without the candy sweetness. The petite beverage seems to drag, and no matter how many gulps I choked down, there always seemed to be many more left in the can. Years ago, Pepsi proved that they did not know how to make a tasty watermelon drink, and this year, they showed that they still do not know how.

Sixty eight milligrams of caffeine, and several varying amounts of B vitamins and vitamin C. The buzz is banausic, lasting less than an hour, and acting more like your typical Mtn Dew and an "energizing" beverage. On the whole, this Watermelon Kickstart did not have much promise yet somehow, turned out to be worse.

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Rip It Melon' Hi G.O.A.T Watermelon Energy Drink Review

Energy drink maker Rip It has five new energy drinks, according to their website, and of course the one I first locate is melon flavored. I do not mean to diss the fruit here, but so many other potent potable producers struggle so grandly that what makes me think that a third-rate company can somehow "figure it out?" And that is not a diss at them either, it is just that, I dunno, being a regular at dollar stores across America does not give you the most luxurious presence on the shelf.

As for the actual can, they have stuck with the same basic design language since I first started reviewing, so at least as far back as 2007, and it is, fine, I suppose. There is a bit too much text, especially towards the bottom-half, meaning that I truly do not know the "real" name of the product on offer. Is it "Melon' Hi?" Or is it "G.O.A.T Watermelon?" Or is it "Melon' Hi G.O.A.T Watermelon?" Why is this so complicated!?

The flavor is better than it has any right being, and part of that was the extremely wise decision to take the "reduced calorie" approach: we have both high fructose corn syrup, sixteen grams of the sticky sweet stuff, kept in check by (and keeping in-check the) sugar-free sweetener sucralose, so sips are have a certain weight to them without becoming too heavy. It really is the perfect saccharinity; I just wish what it was sweetening was more interesting. It is less watermelon in the sense of confection, more in-line with the produce aisle than anything else, with some kiwi present just for nuance, but it barely registers on the tongue, and what does mirrors flesh of a fruit not quite ripe. And the more ounces my body depleted from the sixteen ounce transport, the more an earthy funk crept in that eventually pushes the whole experience a bit too close to resembling cucumber more so than anything else. And, if I might add, I have had a cucumber energy drink before, so it would not even be that new. But it is the carbonation that kept me imbibing, well that and it is my job: a plucky effervescence that gentle yet bold, drinking like a premium seltzer instead of some dollar-plus discount store denizen.

For some reason, there is no mention of the caffeine content anywhere on the can, so at least there is their website. It claims we have 160 milligrams of my namesake chemical, but then again, their internet presence also says a can has 200 calories instead of seventy, so who the hell knows. Dear Rip It, get your act together. You are so close to being great and it is frustrating to see you squander your potential, again.

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Java Monster Vanilla Light Energy Coffee Review

What am I doing here? Java Monster Vanilla Light was a disappointing entry in the line, so why revisit it? It have a few more grams of caffeine? According to my original review it does. But is that all? Well, who knows, but we do see its can has not gotten better with age. It is no different, save for some new text here and old text moved there. The dreary white hurts eyes who look for too long, clean but of bleached melancholy.

Your mouth is impressed at first contact with the Caucasian concoction, albeit briefly. Each diet sip does not grip the tongue as it leisurely paints palates of a creamy nuance. Instead each sip skims the tongue, its attenuate viscosity guaranteeing against any ounce of lard from locking on to the muscle and staining it of its pined unctuousness. Any vanilla is lost in the wateriness, deceiving documentation behind the barely sweet sweetness and fatless fattiness. Sure, there is some fat here, a surprising three grams, two even being saturated, but saturated in what? Water?! A depthless drink, a dull diluted drink without climax, a disgustingly deficient experience of how never to make an energy coffee. You want a low calorie coffee? You drink it black.

Each can contains vitamins, caffeine (185 milligrams), taurine, ginseng, inositol, guarana and others. Any energy should last just south of three and a half hours, a pretty solid kick for any brand. On the whole, Java Monster Vanilla Light is the kind of awful you would not feel bad about pawning it off onto unsuspecting friends to vomit up. Its almost a "so bad it is good" sort of experience, except for drinks, if it is bad, it is just bad.

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Carabao Mandarin Orange Energy Drink Review

Mandarin Orange is the flavor, so orange is the color. It all makes sense on this unremarkable looking drink, but it cuts out any unnecessary fluff and goes straight into telling you what it is and is not.

Your first sip tricks you; your tongue lulled into a false sense of familiarity of orange. It is overly sweet with just a hint of sourness, carbonated like any such soft drink would. Then only moments later into your imbibe, a secondary blast of citrus rocks your mouth, far more potent piece of produce with an earthy nuance that pierces your unprepared palate: it is the mandarin. Props to Carabao for actually showcasing the subtly between the two, at least in the realm of power potables. There is not one second here where the "flavoring" resembled anything found in the real world, but we get two very distinct tastes, and that is much appreciated. All this happens within the first handful of gulps, so by the time only a drip or two remains inside the aluminum walls, you have familiarized yourself with its tricks, so you reflect at a surprising but otherwise standard experience.

The interwebs inform me that each can contains 105 milligrams of caffeine, an amount OK considering its sub-sixteen ounce size and responsible for the few hours long buzz. Other ingredients include B vitamins, taurine and inositol. All in all, Carabao Mandarin Orange sipped with moderate finesse, and considering I bought a can on-sale for only a buck, I am not disappointed. 

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Mtn Dew Pitch Black Energy Drink Review

Mtn Dew's Pitch Black has has come and gone several times throughout the brand's history, even getting reviewed by the world famous Caffeine King way back in 2011, but so what? Artificial scarcity hardly excites me, even if it clearly works, but what I do care about is the energy drink adaptation. Its intimidating use of black, green and purple make for a very Halloween look, even though its the month of love.

This flavor washes off of your tongue almost the moment it hits it, a rather forgettable grape impersonation lacking weight, personality and acidity, leaving us with just sweetness and simplicity instead of sweet simplicity. Though actual grape juice is involved, the potable is five percent of the white variety, its presence is minimal on the tongue, an involvement more plausibly due to sounding good to the marketing team. We have four grams of sugar working alongside aspartame, ace-k and sucralose, a saccharinity without nuance or patience, just plopping on the palate like "hey look at me" but forgetting a reason why. Carbonation is another weak point, tasting like it is soon expiring, as if it is to go flat in mere minutes. There are bubbles, so it does do the job, but only the bare minimum.

Proudly proclaimed on the front of the can, we have 180 milligrams of caffeine, and the resulting buzz is a satisfying if unspectacular two and a half hours long. Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, the usual stuff, also appear, but I came here for my stimulant and dog-gone-it that is what I want! Overall, Mtn Dew Energy Pitch Black is about as memorable as a dark room with nothing to see.

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Mtn Dew Baja Blast Energy Drink Review

Mtn Dew Baja Blast Energy puts me in an awkward spot as a potent potable critic- can I forgive the former scarcity of its Taco Bell exclusivity or can I be excited to see the favorite flavor in energy drink form? From a visual standpoint, it makes a strong first-impression, the lion imagery and iconic color palate benefiting from a surprising shortage of unnecessary text. Though lines like "immune support" get a chortle out of me; I mean come on, who with honest intentions would consume this for anything but refreshment and caffeine?

Lime and melon hit the palate with subdued vigor, carried by a plucky effervescence and an abrupt acidity that increases in intensity as sips are sipped but never lingers any longer than it does with that initial impression. The flavor profile is that of a soda, I mean yeah duh, but at sixteen ounces, there is minimal mutations between imbibes and that results in little incentive to continue gulping, outside of being thirsty that is. White grape juice, for a nectar content clocking in at a mere five percent, brings four total grams of actual sugar to the familiar faces of ace-k and sucralose. There is some textural nuance thusly, but more would have been appreciated. The dual flavors end up just sitting there, left out to die as other elements ignore them and instead choose to carry the experience to completion. What we get is, well, a mass-marketed energy drink.

180 milligrams of caffeine, vitamins A and C, B vitamins, zinc, etc., make up the ingredient cocktail, a resulting buzz lasting about two and a half hours. In the end, Mtn Dew Baja Blast Energy is exactly what its name suggests- nothing more and debatably nothing less.

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Monster Lewis Hamilton Energy Drink Review

A surprising find at my local Dollar Tree, Monster Lewis Hamilton is obviously not made in the states. For one thing, its can is slightly taller than your usual sixteen ounces, but my favorite is the expiration date, which is listed as "30-09-22." Now unless I am as dumb as the comments from anonymous readers think, there is not a thirtieth month.

Oh, and the "made in the Netherlands" blurb on the rear of the packaging helps.

This flavor is a Red Bull clone, and not a thoughtful one. The clear golden elixir pours onto your tongue with flashbacks to a simpler time, one where apple, bubble gum and vanilla was a creative experience. In 2022, it is unpleasant reminder of a company taking the easy way out. The trilogy of tastes collapse without verve, static elements that sit on the palate without a purpose for being there. Sips rot your poor tastebuds down to the point of exhaustion, tired of having to deal with the same flavor yet again. There is some sourness too, but its involvement here is an obligation for tradition and not for pleasure. Arguably the best aspect is the sweetener system of sugar, glucose, erythritol, and sucralose. This keeps the calories down to a manageable ninety, the low-cost of monotony I guess.

We have 150 milligrams of caffeine to work with, making for a rather standard buzz. Lasting two and a half hours, the kick is nothing to write home about. Other ingredients include B vitamins, taurine and inositol. I have never heard of Lewis Hamilton before this, and I gotta say, he makes a terrible first impression.

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Monster Reserve White Pineapple Review

The back of Monster's latest spinoff, Reserve, reads "no juice" in its paragraph of marketing fluff. What?! Why would you be proud to not contain healthy fruit nectar? I mean I get it, this is the company's return to basics, but I cannot help but chortle at its misgivings. The rest of the design is the usual, partially textured with minimal text.

Monster has already recently pushed out a pineapple potable with their Ultra Gold, but here we have the benefit of actual carbohydrates, twenty eight grams of sugar and glucose. Working alongside sucralose and ace-k, this saccharine quadrilogy gives gulps a hearty texture that is rather wonderful on the tongue, while also safekeeping the synthetic sweeteners from staining tastebuds with their usual artificial grasp. None of that would matter if the actual flavor was unsatisfactory, and to the brand's benefit, I am a pushover for pineapple. The tropical treat's combination of syrupy goodness and piercing tartness is always refreshing on the palate, and whether or not its surprising, Reserve adaptation is rewarding. There is seldom a moment that has not been done by other similar elixirs, probably done better too, but hey, it is easy to sip, and sometimes that is all one needs.

The buzz is ordinary, lasting two hours thanks to the familiar flexing of 160 milligrams of caffeine. Other ingredients include B vitamins, taurine, inositol, and others. To end, Monster Reserve White Pineapple is a solid if unspectacular product.

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Rowdy Cherry Limeade Energy Drink Review

Rowdy, what a great name for an energy drink. Unfortunately the can inhabiting the branding is very average. Text just sits on the solid white background, reading without any sense of movement. On a completely other level, how could you name a power potable "Rowdy" without getting the Rowdy Roddy Piper license? Blasphemy!

I am a pushover for experiences like this, one that throws balance out the window and is tart, tart and more tart. But what really sets the potation apart is the how the acidity is handled; cherry initiates things with a subtle seeping of sourness, with a touch of sweetness keeping it from really rocking your palate. Lime then crashes the party, disregarding the soft saccharinity in favor a hard acme of additional astringency, the kind that puckers both your lips and tongue. The sip then leaves your mouth without any real trace, a surprisingly clean finish to the evolving elixir. There is only eighteen grams of carbohydrates, working with allulose, erythritol, monk fruit extract and stevia, a quadrilogy of diet sugars who's usual aftertaste is lost in the cacophonic climax. In truth, the fruits barely register as anything found in nature, but Rowdy wisely keeps your tastebuds on their toes so much that you either never really notice, or even care.

The two and a half hour long buzz is standard stuff, thanks to an entirely standard 160 milligrams of caffeine. Other ingredients include B and C vitamins, electrolytes, and l-theanine. Overall, Rowdy Cherry Limeade makes its Caffeine King debut with a bang.

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Mtn Dew AMP Game Fuel Charged Orange Strike Review

Mtn Dew AMP Game Fuel Charged Orange Strike is such a long, stupid, tedious name, further cluttering its can into a disorganized mess of different fonts and colors; this design is an absolute disaster! Is it an energy drink? Is it a hyper sweet soda? Is it a promotion of the latest Call of Duty video game? Who cares?!

Before we even start here, let us take a guess- this newest in the line of crossovers between Pepsi brands will be a riff of Mtn Dew Live Wire. And after my first sip well, let us just say I wished I had bet money. We have a pathetic five percentage of juice, concentrates firstly from white grape juice but also from some actual orange juice, but their influence in the experience goes practically unnoticed. Twenty three grams of total sugars, from high fructose corn syrup, juice, ace-k and sucralose, preform awkwardly on the palate. Things are syrupy, grainy, and slightly synthetic, all at once, never sitting satisfyingly on your tongue. But the biggest problem here is the flavor, which is hardly what you would imagine an "orange" tasting like ripe from the tree. It tastes overly false, like a melted orange popsicle pumped full of carbonation. Overall, this is not a bad drink per se, but golly does it have its problems.

We get ninety one milligrams caffeine, several vitamins, ginseng, and yerba mate. That ingredient list is pathetic, resulting in a kick lasting just an hour or so, though there fortunately is not much in the form of a crash. To end, Mtn Dew AMP Game Fuel Charged Orange Strike is a mediocre misfire.

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Outlaw Fruit Punch Energy Drink Review

Outlaw returns, with a shrink wrapped can sporting a new design and formulation. Fewer calories and reduced caffeine, it is a compromise as the brand takes a complete u-turn from its heydays as a cowboy themed potable.

The fruit punch flavor, with just ninety calories, does a pretty decent job in the grand scheme of things. Your usual suspects are out on patrol today with guava, pineapple, lime, and mango; it is unsurprising company. Saccharinity is where the experience shines, twenty grams of pure cane sugar, along with sucralose, try their best within the restricted creativity of the flavors they sweeten. But the biggest knock against the potation as a whole is a two-part problem: the climax. Or rather, the lack of one. Your sips crash down without celebration, sip after sip the liquid fizzles out of memory by an overarching watery characteristic that cleans your palate of any good time your taste-buds just had. The second disappointment with the ending is the missing acidity, something your tongue pines for with each imbibe; the drink screams so loudly for a tartness that you can practically hear their cries for some sourness.

Each can contains a solid 200 milligrams of caffeine, down fifty milligrams from the product's original incarnation. Other ingredients include B vitamins, yerba mate, ginseng, and guarana. Overall, not a bad effort, but I have had better.

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Mtn Dew Kickstart Original Dew Review

Whether or not Original Dew, the latest Kickstart variety, is much different from their earlier Limeade version has yet to be seen, but the can hits all the right notes for Mtn Dew fans. Its classic color scheme, citrus flavor and familiar logo surely will have more traditional customers giving this drink a whirl, but it is a disappointingly safe flavor.

Many little bubbles greet your tongue, an explosion of effervescence that dies into a more palatable carbonation, an aerated excuse to bring that recognizable blend of lemon, lime and orange to our taste buds. It is a cleaner cocktail of that usual Mtn Dew taste, significantly less syrupy than your usual can of the neon colored cooler, but not as deadenedly sweet as your typical bottle of its diet brother. It hangs somewhere in the middle of the two extremes, showcasing the sweet citruses, but there is the problem- they are just not very interesting. Sure, if you have a Mtn Dew itch to scratch, pick up a can, but do not go expecting anything even remotely different; you have had this flavor before, from the same company!

Each can contains ninety milligrams of caffeine, in addition to some B vitamins. The kick is what you always get from these energy sodas, lasting an hour and being of middling strength. What is the point here?! That is the question I kept asking myself here, from the time I purchased the drink to when I tossed the can.

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Mtn Dew Kickstart Mango Lime Review

Mtn Dew Kickstart Mango Lime sounds like a refreshing flavor, at first glance. But any avid caffeinated cocktail connoisseur would recognize a similar flavor on last year's Game Fuel, aptly titled "Mango Heat." But its can at least has nuance of both of its titular fruits, though I cannot help but wonder if the design's favor towards one color will extend into the flavor.

The taste is potent, a curt blast of ersatz mango deluges the palate in thinly viscid high fructose corn syrup. The mango is entirely synthetic to the tongue, lacking the subtly and depth of the real stone fruit; each sip is a bland reminder that "natural and artificial flavors" does not translate to the joy that is biting into the actual fleshy interior of the South Asia native. There is five percent juice here, something the can makes mention of multiple times, but it is only of white grape and orange, and that is not the flavor here! Their role here is only in adding an ounce of realism, but honestly the honesty in every imbibe is insalubriously saccharine. There is no lime taste, no citrus flavor actually despite the presence of orange nectar, sealing the fate of this energy soda as one-note.

Each can contains: B vitamins, vitamin C, and ninety milligrams of caffeine. The buzz of this Mtn Dew extension have always been its weakest attribute (no wait that would still be their flavor), lasting an hour and a half after a good night of sleep. On the whole, Kickstart Mango Lime is the epitome of false advertising: it does not taste like lime and does very little energizing.

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AMP Boosted Mandarin Orange Energy Drink Review

Dear the newest Venom drinks; THIS is what your cans should look like! Well, maybe not "look" like; its all-black can with white and orange text is ripped straight from the "energy drink cans 101" community college class, a chunk of text surprisingly difficult to read even with its large font. It is resealable, which gives this variety the coveted "cool can" label.

Ignore the "mandarin" blazing the front of the can, here we have arguably the most orange soda-like energy drink; it is elementary, sugary, and only slightly tart. That is a good thing, for this sixteen ounce experience is a fun one, elementary as in it is basic, and how youthful every sip is. But in the words of a certain Friend's character, could this be any more sweet? A petite twenty five grams is all that this cool can contains, of the HFCS creed, with its buddies sucralose and ace-k as backup; things rest on the cusp of being cloying, but also on what an orange soda should be. The fruit savor is hardly more complex than your Sunkist or Fanta, however, with its acidity slightly earthy, a reduced roughness that gives any intricacy to be found some extremely thin breathing room. Overall, this AMP is a pretty good one, 100% generic and about as safe as any energy drink could taste, but I guess I am a pushover for this kind of flavor.

Each can contains: 100 calories, let us face it, empty calories, taurine, ginseng, guarana, B vitamins, vitamin C, and 160 milligrams of caffeine. The buzz is less inspired than its flavor; oh do not get me wrong, both of them are wholly prosaic, but a two-hour kick is never as enjoyable as orange soda. To end, AMP Boosted Mandarin Orange does not give much of a boost, nor does it taste a whole lot like mandarin. It is part of the AMP line though, and it does taste like orange. It is a mild success.

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Shock Wave Orange Mango Energy Drink Review

Slightly textured, dully orange and packed with uninspired black swirls and dots, this Shock Wave design is wearing thin and fast. On the back, above the nutrition facts, it is discovered that this is fifty percent juice- yet why the front of the aluminum transport does not mention this is an error in basic design. What some health conscious drinkers look for, what could be the beverage's biggest bout of individuality is lost in the pennies saved by hiring that low-rent graphic designer.

A powdery mouthfeel, a tickling tartness, and a sweetness about as perfect as only twenty grams can get; this fifty percent juice potable is the best tasting Shock Wave yet. The can calls for white grape and pear as leading vegetation in the equation, but your tongue will taste only the mango and the orange; the duo orchestrated into a single flavor with the depth of two. The nectar cocktail has the weight anticipated from the sizable quantity of fruit extract, but its effervescence lightens every imbibe into a sudsy elixir of innocent innocuousness, a potation perfect for a warm summer day. Sugar from the fruits, dextrose, and sucralose cause a sweetener system of only twenty grams and ninety calories, a sugar strategy never syrupy or particularly heavy, but one serendipitously with enough heft.

Each can contains: B vitamins, taurine, and a paltry 100 milligrams of caffeine. The buzz is a disappointment considering its fun flavor, almost as if the company was forced to choose between delivering power or taste. In the end, Shock Wave Orange Mango is cheap enough that a purchase, solely for the tongue, is not a bad buy. But as an energy drink, what the front of the can hails this as, it is a disappointment.