Hell Strong Focus
April 21st, 2018From the outside of the can it’s not possible, so far as I can tell, to work out what flavour it’s going to be. Well, the blurb is mostly in Greek so that doesn’t help me, but it still doesn’t seem obvious. Well, it turns out it’s tropical flavoured! It’s a subtle and sweet flavour, not too sharp. It also declares that it is 20% more caffeinated than normal drinks which is backed up by the 38.4mg/100ml caffeine content. That’s about 20% more than a regular 32mg/100ml drink. In reality, that’s not enough for me to have noticed any difference (not like some of the crazy strong drinks I tried in the US last year). Overall it’s a nice drink though, and it picked me up as expected!
MTV Up! Sugar Free
April 14th, 2018In my opinion, this is preferable to the non-sugar-free version. It has less of an aftertaste and is a lot lighter is flavour. Other than that it’s pretty similar – the design of the can is different too with a confetti styled graphics instead of the diagonal stripes. It’s still a clone, but not a bad one.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 2kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | B&M | ||
| Web Site: | |||
MTV Up!
April 7th, 2018The main selling point of this drink I’d say is its branding. MTV is an iconic brand, especially for those of us who remember the 1980s! It’s definitely a clone, but it’s not a bad one. and it didn’t cost much from a local discount store either. Taking a look at the drink’s web site, it seems it was quite popular in Eastern Europe a couple of years ago, sponsoring various events around the summer. The taste: very sweet with a syrupy after-tang, but not bitter at all. Not too fizzy, but quite smooth.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, UK |
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| Calories: | 45kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | B&M | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Monster Ultra Violet
March 31st, 2018As with pretty much all Monster drinks, your only clues as to the flavour of the drink are the colour of the can and the cryptic blurb on the side. This purple can (violet?? that’s purple…) describes the flavour as “crisp and refreshing, with a sweet and tart pixie dust flavour powered with our Monster Energy Blend”. I can confirm (to the best of my taste-bud ability) that this is grape flavour. Well at least it appears to evoke the flavour of grape soda in my mind anyway. In the UK, grape soda is available but it’s certainly not a common soft drink therefore the flavour is much more of a novelty to me than US readers of this blog may appreciate. BEcause of that, I found it quite different and interesting, even enjoyable!
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 30mg/100ml |
Tags: Grape, Large Can, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 3kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 500ml | ||
| Sold By: | Asda | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Rockstar First Start: Mixed Berries
March 24th, 2018Well, I suppose it’s ok – but nothing special. It’s like they’ve taken the idea from an own-brand (like Asda/Tesco) and then watered it down somewhat. It tastes to me like a weak mixed berry squash. Just like the Orange and Clementine version, it has a natural source of caffeine and contains fruit juice. It’s still my personal opinion that you shouldn’t start the day with an energy drink – your normal healthy diet should come first, therefore I can’t condone the branding choice here. But… if you had to choose a First Start drink, I’d go for the Orange over this Berries one.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Berry, Guarana, Large Can, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 6kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 500ml | ||
| Sold By: | Tesco | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Rockstar First Start: Orange Clementine
February 3rd, 2018I’m trying to figure out what makes First Start different to other Rock Star energy drinks. It says that it derives its caffeine from natural sources (so that’ll be the guarana then, not so unusual), and that it contains 5% fruit juice. I guess it’s that last point that makes it ‘first start’, like it’s supposed to be your morning fruit juice drink possibly? Bad idea if you’re doing that in any case! Anyway, the drink has a nice sweet orange flavour to it, quite sugary tasting yet low in calories. If we ignore the odd/confusing branding choices, it’s a good old stonking sized can of energy drink.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clementime, Guarana, Large Can, Low Calorie, Orange, UK |
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| Calories: | 5kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 500ml | ||
| Sold By: | Tesco | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Colossus Zero
January 20th, 2018Pretty much like its full fat brother, Colossus is Lidl’s attempt to mimic Monster’s branding witha giant ripped-style letter X on the front of the can. I mean, it’s even using the same colours as Monster with green for the original version and blue for this low calorie version.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 30mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, Large Can, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 4kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 500ml | ||
| Sold By: | Lidl | ||
| Web Site: | |||
Kong Strong Sugar Free
January 13th, 2018Surprisingly this didn’t actually taste anything like the full fat version, it’s almost like a totally different formula. I found it a bit sickly and maybe with a hint of aniseed too, it’s not often I prefer the non-diet version of a particular brand but in this case normal Kong is better.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 30mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 4kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | Lidl | ||
| Web Site: | |||
Colossus
January 6th, 2018I purchased this from Lidl at the same time as I purchased Kong Strong, and given that the old Lidl energy drink brand was called Mixxed Up I expected them both to taste more or less the same as that and therefore each other. They were quite different though – compared to Kong Strong, this drink is more tart and sour, and quite difficult to drink in such a large quantity. I struggled through it with my teeth and tongue feeling fuzzy and coated afterwards… if you have the choice, don’t choose this one.
