Monday, February 27, 2012

Red Strike Energy Review

It really never ceases to amaze me that I've found and continue to find so many of these drinks. Red Rain, Red Thunder, Aftershock, and several other drinks that I've had are all pretty much the same. Something that differentiates Red Strike from a few other drinks of it's kind is the fact that it's the kind of clone drink that tries to market itself as one that's not. They have a Facebook page which I've seen and they're actually going to change their name to "Quick Strike". Red Strike is made by Cott Beverages, a company that makes a few other drinks I've reviewed and also a generic pop that they sell at Wal-Mart that's called Cola. It legitimately is just a blue can that says "Cola" on the front and it tastes "swell". I did get this at Wal-Mart but I didn't pay for it in the store. I didn't steal it either, I actually bought it at the gas station in front of the Wal-Mart near my house. The kind where the one employee freezes to death in the booth they stand in and outside of the booth are a bunch of coolers, and when you pay you get to talk to the employee from behind a wall of glass. There was a whole cooler full of Red Strike drinks and when I saw that they were a reasonable price I decided to pick one up.

The Can:
Despite how the picture above looks, the can is mostly silver and not white as it appears in the photo. I don't know what to think about how the design just kind of veers off and meets in the middle, leaving a bunch of empty silver space. The front of the can also says "Contains Taurine & B Vitamins". Wow, what a treat. The can says "Regular" near the top too to let you know that you didn't accidentally buy the irregular version or something I guess. The can isn't completely bad nor is it something I think most will notice, but I definitely think it would look a lot better with a design that covers the whole can though.

The Drink:
The guy working at the gas station outside of Wal-Mart actually kind of told me what this tastes like when I bought it and it shouldn't be that hard to guess. Red Strike is just a Red Bull clone, not surprisingly whatsoever. It's not a bad taste in my opinion but it's also not original at all. You get exactly what you would expect to get, and at least you get a nice 16 oz. of it for a reasonable price compared to paying more for only 8 oz. of Red Bull.

The Buzz:
As the front of the can says, this drink does contain Taurine and some B Vitamins. It contains 960mg of Taurine per 8 oz, and the can doesn't list the exact amount of caffeine. The buzz that this drink provided was on par with my expectations, I felt more awake for a substantial amount of time and the drink did what it was supposed to.

I find that reviewing these sorts of drinks get's boring because they barely change from one to another. If you spot this at Wal-Mart you might as well try it for a cheap Red Bull alternative. Like I said, Red Strike is the kind of generic energy drink that markets itself like it isn't. Their Facebook page is full of models, T-shirts and a few claims about how amazing the drink is. Well, to me it's just another Red Bull clone and I feel that that's all that it needs to be.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Rockstar Xdurance Energy Review

I really enjoy finding new energy drinks to review, but I especially enjoy finding new energy drinks that are actually pretty new to the market also. Rockstar obviously isn't a new brand, but Xdurance is a pretty new variety of Rockstar that I've been meaning to try for awhile. So, while enduring yet another shopping trip at the Marc's grocery store near my house (Of course, I had to have a cup of the free coffee they always have there) I picked up a can from the cooler to review. I really hope that this drink doesn't taste as bad as the Coconut Water variety of Rockstar which as far as I know was released at the same time as this.



The Can:
As somebody that's been drinking energy drinks for quite some time now, I've had mixed feelings about several of the energy drinks that have been released lately. As I've said before, the whole "hydrating energy drink" thing kind of took off not long after I started this website and I've tried my best to review a lot of new "hydrating" products. This is different from a Rockstar Recovery drink, but still contains Electrolytes and advertises Branched Chain Amino Acids. Now, the can designs on these new drinks are kind of what I've been thinking about. It's almost inevitable that I'll see energy drinks somewhere at least once a day, I don't drink one everyday but I always see them. At just about any given store, you have your energy drink staples such as Monster, Red Bull, NOS etc. I don't know why, but it's almost hard to see this drink or the few similar drinks like it being around for long. The can design seems like something for "right now", if that makes any sense. Sure, I reviewed the Rockstar Recovery drinks when they came out but now I really never even notice them at the store, nor do I think about buying them. As for the can design, it's a nice looking white, black, and blue design. It's a bit busy in my opinion, but it contains all of the expected information and you can easily recognize it as a Rockstar product. Although, the drink is a Blueberry Pomegranate Acai flavor and aside from the minimal blue on the can I really don't see how you would think that unless you see the pretty small text near the bottom of the can.

The Drink:
I was kind of looking forward to seeing what this drink tasted like because I've always liked blueberry flavors in general. When I opened the can, I definitely smelled blueberry and when I took a drink I tasted it also. As with a lot of energy drinks that contain electrolytes, the flavor is kind of rich. It has a Gatorade-like taste in a way which makes perfect sense because of the electrolytes. It was drinkable and was better than I thought it would be, it's a nice blueberry with a nice pomegranate background flavor as well. I've had better, but if you're looking to give this a try you should have no trouble drinking it.

The Buzz:
The whole idea with this drink is that it's "performance energy". The can even says that it will provide an "incredible energy boost to maximize mental and physical performance". Still, I can't tell if this is supposed to be stronger than a regular Rockstar, or is it supposedly just a different kind of energy? The original Rockstar's energy blend contains 1.35g, as opposed to this drink which contain 1.245g. In this particular drink you get 1000mg of Taurine, 120mg of Caffeine (150mg in original Rockstar), 25mg of L-Valine, 25mg of L-Leucine, 25mg of L-Isoleucine, 25mg of Green Tea Polyphenois, and 25mg of Guarana Seed Extract. To make a long story short, this stuff works. I felt way more awake after drinking this, and I can safely say that it did what it was supposed to. As usual, I didn't experience jitters or a crash and I was fine. You get what you expect from this drink, and it's pretty good.

Well, I can definitely conclude that this is a much better drink than Rockstar's Coconut Water, at least to me. It tastes pretty good and provides good energy which is of course what it was meant to do. So, for the sake of it being a new and fairly easy to find product (at least to me, and I'm seeing it at more and more places.) you might as well give it a try.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Samba99 Guarana Energy Bar Review

Robert Flam, the CEO/Founder of the company that makes this product contacted me via email and informed me of this product. I was immediately interested, I often say that Guarana is my favorite energy drink ingredient. Why? Simply because some of my favorite energy drinks contain a lot of it or are based on it. So, at the chance to receive some samples of this bar I had to say yes. This Samba99 bar (believe me, of no relation to the Samba energy drink I reviewed nearly a year ago now) is actually made in Brazil, but was "conceived in New York". Robert Flam has quite the name for himself, and has done a lot of things having to do with Brazilian culture, including producing and directing a three-part HBO series called Brazilian Music Festival. However, in the end I'm just an energy drink consumer so when faced with a product like this I really have to be skeptical on whether or not I will enjoy it as much as my caffeine-laden, sugary, and strong energy drinks. Still, I was very excited to give this product a try and upon receiving the samples in the mail I had to try one right away. So, let's see how this "Antioxidant Super Fruit Bar" can stack up compared to my energy drinks in the packaging, taste, and of course buzz categories.

The Box:
These bars are individually packaged, and in case you think you're a geometry expert I believe that the shape of the box is a "triangular prism". Something that I appreciate about this product is that you can tell that it's sort of grassroots in nature. It sort of sets itself apart from products made by giant, well-known American corporations with it's own unique packaging. The colors of the box seem to remind me of something that would be coffee flavored. I opened my box by opening one of the triangles on the top and pulling the bar out that way. If you pull it down farther there's a perforated line that you can tear across so that the box will no longer be a triangular prism but will just be flat. Inside of each box is a picture and as far as I know you can currently submit your own pictures on the official Samba99 website to be on the inside of future bars that are produced. Inside of both of my boxes was a picture of a woman wearing boxing gloves, and basically looking pretty threatening. The pictures inside are a nice touch and I like how they top off the products' design, but you have to wonder how many people are going to take the time to open the box and look inside. The actual bar inside is also wrapped in a clear wrapper, to keep it nice and fresh I would presume. All in all, the packaging for this product isn't half bad, and I can see it being one of those products that you know about because of it's cool packaging.

The Bar:
It's kind of different for me to be reviewing a healthy energy bar when my favorite energy drinks are usually energy sodas or abnormally large energy drinks. Also, you really, really have to keep in mind that this is an Antioxidant Super Fruit Bar. So, you shouldn't pick this up expecting it to be some kind of cake or chocolate or something. It's fruit, and everything about the taste just says that over and over again. The bar itself is a purple-brown, and looks like a big raisin in a sense, but not wrinkled like a raisin. The bar isn't that much smaller than it's box, and the shape is similar to the box but more rounded. Upon unwrapping it and taking a bite, it's definitely also has a raisin taste. It's very chewy, and I really can't think of what to compare it's consistency to. I found the bars' tastes to be fairly enjoyable, although fruit certainly isn't the main part of my diet. For the sake of enjoying this, please remember that it is a fruit bar and is going to taste like fruit. But, it's good, tasty fruit and I can really see this being big with healthy people.

The Buzz:
These bars are actually vegan and gluten free, and contain 0 % trans fat. As for ingredients, they contain Organic Cacao Pulp, Organic Bacuri Pulp, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Guarana, Pectin, and Citric Acid. For me, the only familiar ingredient there is Guarana. Guarana is natural caffeine, and believe it or not I've actually known that for awhile. I didn't know that to expect from these bars, as I've never eaten any energy products prior to this and I just had no idea what the ingredients would do together. I enjoyed both of my bars on different occasions, once in the evening and the second one in the morning when I was tired. I must say, I really felt the effects the second time around. These bars provide "performance energy" in a sense, not what I would call "useless energy". In other words, you're not going to eat this to push your body to the limit with how much energy it can handle. You're going to eat this feel more alert, stay awake and be energized in a sensible way. Thankfully, these bars really deliver in that department. I felt substantially more awake and for several hours both times. I never "crashed" either, and I felt good all day.

To conclude, I'm definitely glad I tried these bars. They were something different, and all in all I would say that they're worth a try. As far as I know they're coming soon all over the place but are currently available on Amazon. For more information, check out their official website here. A special thanks goes out to Robert Flam for allowing me to try these bars, and good luck!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Venom Killer Taipan Energy Review

Venom is the kind of energy drink that I see at the store all the time yet pretty much never buy. In fact, only once or twice have I bought a Venom drink other than for a review. However, this particular flavor of Venom caught my eye at a GetGo gas station and I decided to pick it up and try it out. I have to say, the name "Killer Taipan" is slightly amusing for an energy drink. The whole snake theme with Venom is unique and for some reason I found the fact that I was drinking something named "Killer Taipan" funny. Anyway, let's see if this Venom drink is worth buying and trying or if it's as nasty as the last energy drink I reviewed. I really, really hope it isn't.


The Bottle:
I really like Venom's choice of packaging, it's not extremely unique but the fact that it's a bit different and more creative than the average design is a plus. I like the way the bottle is put together, and as I said the snake theme is unique. I live in Ohio, it's been snowing a lot lately and I really can't imagine a large, several foot long snake slithering down a snowy street with a hat and earmuffs on. So, this drink has really been the only way I've dealt with snakes and really the only way I care to at the moment. But yeah, the bottle design is cool and it stands out from others at the store. I doubt you'll mistakenly buy another energy drink thinking it's Venom. But who buy's Venom other than people like me anyway?

The Drink:
This drink is supposed to be a mango flavor. I know I've had mango before but upon twisting open the bottle I didn't quite know what to expect. I have to say, this drink tastes exceptionally good. For those not familar, in my opinion mango has a citrus-like taste. It's not spot-on but the taste is somewhat similar. This drink tasted beyond sweet, and packed a nice "bite" also. It was very satisfying, and you're someone like me who feels satisfaction from tasting the familar energy drink taste after not having an energy drink for awhile, this drink tastes perfect. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I found this to taste abnormally good, and I think I would easily pick this up again just for taste.

The Buzz:
It's no surprise that this drink contains exactly what you would expect to find in an energy drink of it's kind. There's Taurine, Caffeine, Guarana, Inositol and some B vitamins. I was busy after consuming this and I can safely say that this drink did what it was supposed to and kept me awake. The buzz wasn't sub-par nor was it amazing, it just kept me nice and alert after I was feeling a bit tired and I was satisfied with the buzz that the drink provided. It's hard to explain but if you've had as many energy drinks as I have you'll probably feel that this drink is exactly what it should be, nothing more and nothing less.

In closing, I was fairly satisfied with this drink. It tastes exceptionally good and packed a nice buzz. If you can find it, I suggest picking it up and at least trying it. I don't know but this may be a bit harder to find than the other Venom varieties, as I've been Black Mamba at a lot of places but have only seen this once which was at the GetGo station where I purchased it.