Amp Focus Mixed Berry Energy Review

There's a convenience store that I've frequented for many years that isn't far from my house, and to the right of the door is a cooler full of Amp drinks. It's been quite some time since I've bought an Amp drink but I couldn't help but notice the change that happened with the Amp cooler at the convenience store. Amp has re-done their entire line, with all new can designs and re-done flavors. I always recall the early days of this site, from December of 2010 to about May of 2011. A lot of things happened in my life, not all energy drink related. Anyway, I distinctly recall reviewing Amp drinks getting very tedious. It isn't like there are a ton of them, but I never really cared for them and just having to review each one got boring. So, here I am in 2012 with even more Amp drinks to review. I've been on the Amp Facebook page lately and a lot of people have been complaining about the new drinks. The page says "Rethink Energy" and as a frequent consumer of energy drinks I do applaud Amp for trying to stay kind of fresh as opposed to keeping their drinks sort of stagnant. Anyway, let's see how the first drink I bought, the Mixed Berry flavor of the Focus variety fares in the can design, taste, and buzz categories.

The Can:
As you can see, the new cans look very different than the old ones. I like them a lot, and personally think that Amp did a good job with them. They're much more "clean" looking, and they have a ton of information on them about what drinks in the line do what and a few other things. One thing that is missing from the can is the little Mountain Dew logo that used to be in corner of the can. Also, by reading the can I feel like Amp is trying to market this drink similarly to how Full Throttle is marketed. The can includes things such as "Be smart about managing your energy" and if you look on Amp's website you can see a few more examples of this new marketing. All in all, I like the nice blue for this particular drink's can. I can't really find anything to complain about with these, I think they look nice and cater to who they're trying to sell these drinks to.

The Taste:
It's safe to assume that this drink is meant to replace the old Elevate variety of Amp. In my original review of Elevate, I said:

"In case any Mountain Dew fans out there are wondering, Elevate really doesn't anything like Voltage, my personal favorite and Mountain Dew's blue drink. Instead, this drink does have a slight mixed berry flavor that's extremely hard for me to pinpoint, I can't really pick out any noticeable berry flavor in it at all. Instead, you get this odd tasting Mountain Dew flavor that leaves a weird aftertaste in your mouth. Don't get me wrong, it's not horrible but it's not the best by any means either"

Yes, that was still true the next and probably last time I had Elevate. With this drink, I found the flavor to be much more pleasant. A lot of people say that Amp doesn't really taste like an energy drink, and that remains true with these new varieties. I would say that this is almost a "light" version of what Elevate was. It doesn't taste diet by any means, but tastes a little more light and refreshing than I recall Elevate being. I never was the biggest fan of Amp as I've said before, and I would have to say that I would choose this over Elevate.

The Buzz:
The can and Amp's website both say that this drink contains Caffeine, Choline, and Theanine. Still, if you look at the nutrition facts on the back, you can see that this drink still contains all of your familiar ingredients such as Taurine and Guarana. According to the Amp website, this drink is supposed to help "Keep your head on track". I think it would be kind of hard to judge whether or not that works, and for some people I think that's impossible no matter what they do. Anyway, after consuming this drink in the afternoon, I began to feel a decent energy buzz. The buzz was very mellow to me, I honestly didn't feel it to the point where I was in a really good mood and actually felt like doing stuff, as some energy drinks do. But, I did feel quite a bit more alert and awake and I would never say that this drink is ineffective. The buzz was alright, and pretty much what I expected.

If you're a long-time Amp fan, it's understandable why you would be angry with this new change with the drinks. But, for somebody like me who rarely ever drinks Amp, I can say that I'm satisfied and am not really disappointed at all. I would say that this is worth trying if you want to, it's not bad.