Power Booster High Speed Energy

Another own-brand energy shot, and I expected it to be sour and nasty… maybe it was due to these low expectations but I was surprised. It was quite sweet, with a very slight sour taste but not enough to ruin the experience. Great value if you can find one at a Kruidvat supermarket, stock up!

Orange Power Booster

Woah, how much orange flavour can one squeeze in to a drink??!? Lots apparantly. This is the most orangy orange flavoured orange drink ever, and very sweet too. Imagine Tango, but concentrated loads and you’re nearly there. Nice though and despite the average caffeine content, it gave me quite a kick.

Power Booster Sugar Free

Much better (yes, I know I’m biased to sugar free drinks) than the full fat version, but not only due to the sweeteners. It appears to have a different taste to the sugary version –  slightly more sour but not too much. It’s still a Red Bull clone, and a cheap tasting one at that so probably not worth hunting down if you’re in to that.

Go Splash: Energy Lightning Red

This is an unusual product. It’s a concentrated product which you add to water. The bottle contains 48ml of ‘energy squash’, and you are supposed to add 0.8ml of product to every 100ml of water, so per 100ml you only get 20mg of caffeine. But, the bottle has enough juice in it to supply 6 litres of water with caffeinated goodness – that’s 24 cans of Red Bull in a liquid comparison, or about 16 cans if comparing caffeine content. In other words, be careful to water it down enough or you could end up with serious jitters.

In reality though, what you end up with is quite a watery tasting drink. I experimented with different concentrations but you’re never really too sure how much to put in. The directions say 1 squirt per 200ml, but how big is a squirt? I ended up with about 3 medium squirts in 200ml of water just to get a drink that didn’t taste like manky water, but even at that concentration it tasted more like watered down flat generic energy drink. A good idea, but needs more work.

Here’s a tip – don’t use water! I made an acceptable drink by squirting a decent amount in to a glass first, then pouring in Sprite afterwards to make a fizzy and sweet mix-up. Much better than mixing it with water.

Vanilla Gold

My initial opinion of this drink, after taking one swig, is that vanilla should never, under any circumstances, be allowed near an energy drink. However, after a few minutes the acidic tang wore down slightly, and the vanilla aftertaste was quite nice. It was like a cheap vanilla icecream at the back of your throat. I probably won’t try this drink again, but it’s worth a go for something very different!

Heavy Water

A black can with white designed writing on gives this drink a premium look. It is, however, just another Red Bull clone although a nice one at that. It has a smooth flavour not too dissimilar to Red Bull, contains the same amount of caffeine, and even comes from Austria. Sadly, it was priced the same as Red Bull – and given the choice, I’d go for the original!

Bullit Orange

I’m guessing, given the clue in the name, that this drink was supposed to be orange flavoured. It definitely had a citrus taste to it, but it was more akin to a tropical drink than orange to be honest. I also didn’t get that much of a kick from it despite the regular 30mg/100ml of caffeine in the huge 568ml can. Nah, I’ll not bother with this one again.

Mega Force

Big name, big can. This is a Red Bull clone. It’s sweet, nice, and there’s lots of it. Other than that, there’s not a lot more I can say. I always feel bad when I can’t think of anything else to write about a drink, especially when I like it, but there we go – it’s not original but functional.

Energy Slammers

A silver can with minimalist labelling usually means a budget Red Bull clone. Nope, not this time. Okay, so it kind of has a bit of a clone twist, but with a slight aniseed taste to it. I liked it, and it only cost a few cents too. I reckon they’d do well to rebrand it as a premium product though – I’d pay more for it especially as I now know it isn’t a clone as its packaging suggests.