Rip It Red Zone Energy Review

photo from www.bevnet.com

For a few years I've been drinking Rip It energy drinks and I can safely say that Rip It has always been one of my favorite brands. Last summer, Rip It released three new flavors. I've only seen two of them, 3 Way and of course Red Zone. The third one, Le MOAN'R is yet to be seen by me, anywhere. Red Zone caught my eye mainly because it was new to the Rip It cooler at the store I frequent. To be completely honest, I was probably the least excited to try Red Zone out of all of the new flavors. Despite it being a strawberry flavor, which is actually somewhat of a rarity, I like trying really unusual flavors which strawberry obviously isn't. Let's take a look at how Red Zone fares in the can, drink, and buzz categories.


The Can:
I think Rip It really did a nice job with Red Zone's can. You might know that all Rip It cans follow the same design but differ in color, some wording here and there, and as of late the little picture under "energy fuel" on the front of the can. You could argue that they have too many red cans. Power, A'Tomic Pom, and F Bomb have red color schemes along with Red Zone but it's the shade of red that they use that make them different. I really like the shade of red they chose for Red Zone, it's appropriate for a strawberry drink and I just think it looks good. The strawberrys on the front are a nice touch, and unlike some I'm so used to the silver on Rip It cans that I actually like it. I've always been fond of the design of Rip It cans and really can't imagine them looking any other way.

The Drink:
When I tried this yesterday, or last year, I wasn't necessarily surprised when I took a sip of the drink. Don't get me wrong though, I think this drink tastes phenomemal. If you're familar with the unusually "Midwest" soda known as "Red Pop", imagine that with a nice energy drink bite to it and a great strawberry flavor in the background. "Red Pop" is exactly what it sounds like, red pop. I guess you could refer to it as "Red Soda" or "Artificially flavored carbonated stuff that's red". For those not familar, Red Pop tastes kind of thick in a way, but not in a bad way. It has a mellow flavor that's somehow almost rich, it's really hard to explain but that's how it tastes. But, that's the base flavor of the drink and it also has a nice little "bite" to it. As for the strawberry, I found it to be a prominent background flavor that stayed in your mouth even after finishing the drink. All in all, I really enjoyed the taste of Red Zone. However, I must say that the two new Rip It drinks I've had didn't really taste like Rip It drinks, if that makes sense. The new flavors seem to have more prominent and strong tastes, and that's certainly not a bad thing.

The Buzz:
Red Zone  contains a decent 1010 mg of Taurine, 85 mg of Taurine, 100 mg of Inositol, and 3 mg of Guarana. There are also some B Vitamins, Vitamin C, and 25 grams of sugar per serving. That's honestly not the most impressive energy blend I've seen, but it's definitely not the kind of energy blend that's not going to do anything at all. In fact, not long after finishing the drink I felt wide awake and fairly alert. I don't know if one enters the "red zone" after consuming this drink, if the red zone involves listening to music, eating chex mix, and watching the movie Gran Torino starring Clint Eastwood, I was definitely in the red zone (don't ask).  Rip It drinks never disappoint in the buzz category, they always provide some sort of lift and I've never had one that's been ineffective. The buzz surprisingly lasted for about three hours and once it mellowed out I did not "crash", "fall into a deep depression" or "listen to Dubstep". I felt fine, as a matter of fact.

For only $1, Red Zone provides a great taste and a nice energy buzz. I suggest picking it up, it's pretty tasty and it's actually hard to believe that Rip It drinks are only $1 since they're so good. I know I've probably said that before, but it's true and will remain true as long as Rip It continues to put out good drinks.