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.

Cannabis

Technically this is not an energy drink. It doesn’t contain any caffeine despite me listing it with 0.01mg/100ml – this is just to stop it from breaking my ratings system. What it does contain in its place however is 0.02% hemp extract. Other than the sugar, you don’t get any other ‘revitalising’ effects, so the drink is pretty much just existing for the name and branding! Flavour-wise, it’s nice and fruity though, so I’d suggest you try it on that basis alone.

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.

Strike Energy

I was expecting something different from Barr, the group famous for distributing Irn Bru. It sadly wasn’t that different, but I’m reluctant to put it in the same clone category as so many others. It definitely has the familiar Energy Drink (c) taste, but it’s more fruity, more refreshing, and less chemical than the clones generally are. Maybe I was in the right mood, but I enjoyed it. And it was only 49p for a 330ml can. With a regular can size like that, it doesn’t immediately jump out as being an energy drink – the big word ‘Energy’ on the side of the can does help give the fact away though.