Chillax

October 6th, 2012

I’ve had to start a new category: anti-energy drinks. Chillax is NOT an energy drink, but is in fact designed to chill you out, relax you, generally wind you down. It predomenantly contains rosehip juice as well as chamomile and passionflower to bolster its laid back credentials. It does taste really good too. Of course, with this being an energy drink site, it won’t score that highly due to the lack of caffiene. Give it a go, makes a change completely to the usual

Overall Rating:
(3.4/5)
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Caffeine: 0.001mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 7kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Home Bargains
Web Site: Click here

Red Bull Cola

September 29th, 2012

Technically, I don’t normally allow colas a space on this web site because I don’t count them as energy drinks. I’ve made the occasional exception for colas which try to be energy drinks by containing guarana or taurine, but it’s always by exception. Red Bull Cola is another exception, but only because of its name. In every other respect it doesn’t count as an energy drink even though it packs in the same amount of caffeine as Lucozade. It tastes like a cola. That’s it really, nothing exceptional at all really and it’s not even one of the better colas. I was hoping for a slightly cola flavoured mix with Red Bull which would have been interesting but nope, it’s just a cola.

Overall Rating:
(2.3/5)
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Caffeine: 13mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 38kCal/100ml
Size: 355ml
Sold By: Tesco
Web Site: Click here

Krating Daeng

September 22nd, 2012

This is the original Red Bull. I won’t dish out a history lesson here, so check out the wiki page for that. I’ll just tell you that it’s a non-carbonated syrupy tasting version of Red Bull. Personally, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoy Red Bull, but the actual kick you get from this drink is amazing and unrivalled. I’m not sure what they put in this exactly, but a small bottle was enough to send me flying for quite a number of hours. It’s been going for a long time, and was inspired itself by Lipovitan. You can get hold of it across Asia, or in Asian supermarkets here in the UK. To all energy drink connoisseurs, make the effort to try this one!

Overall Rating:
(3.6/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
Calories: 46kCal/100ml
Size: 150ml
Sold By: Thai Supermarket
Web Site: Click here

Aspire – Cranberry

September 15th, 2012

We have a new contender for the worst tasting energy drink! To be fair though, it isn’t branding itself as tasting nice, but it does claim to burn 200 calories for every can you drink… really, it reckons it will help you lose weight. The can contains 12.5 calories, so I guess overall you’d be 187.5 calories down after drinking this. That’s if you can stomach it through to the end. The drink is bitter, and I’m talking about pint-of-bitter bitter, there’s something very earthy and real-ale tasting about the drink. Maybe that’s what unsweetened cranberries taste like? Anyway, it’s sold in health stores and premium supermarkets in the weight loss sections so keep your eyes out for it in case of a doughnut craving. That way you can cancel the doughnut out by drinking one of these, I’m sure that’s how it works…

Overall Rating:
(2.4/5)
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Caffeine: 30mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 5kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Holland and Barrett
Web Site: Click here

Lipovitan-D

September 1st, 2012

The grand-daddy of energy drinks! Lipovitan can apparently lay claim to being the inspiration behind a Thai drink known as Krating Daeng, which in turn is the predecessor of a little known drink called Red Bull. Lipovitan is bright yellow in colour and sold in a small 100ml brown medicine bottle. It tastes very synthetic, almost like the grape flavoured energy drinks popular in the US. It’s non-carbonated, and although high in caffeine per 100ml, it’s overall caffeine content per bottle is about half that of a standard can of Red Bull. It’s unique and works. If you can get hold of this, you have to try it!

Overall Rating:
(3.6/5)
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Caffeine: 50.1mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: ? It's in Thai!kCal/100ml
Size: 100ml
Sold By: Thai Supermarket
Web Site:

Lucozade Revive – Cranberry with Acai

August 25th, 2012

Possibly one of the strongest flavoured Lucozade drinks I’ve ever tasted. The cranberry was quite powerful, although that is to be judged by Lucozade standards. Once again there is no mention of the caffeine strength on the bottle so I’ve had to make it up. I think it’s quite low as there wasn’t much of a hit. The cranberry made the drink a bit too sickly to be refreshing and therefore this is definitely not my favourite of the new Revive range.

Overall Rating:
(2.1/5)
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Caffeine: 1mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 13kCal/100ml
Size: 380ml
Sold By: Tesco
Web Site: Click here

Spar Budget Energy Drink

August 18th, 2012

Standing out in the shop cooler with its bright green label covered in Spar’s trademark arrow logo, this energy drink had to be purchased – any product brave enough to use the word ‘budget’ in its name must be interesting! It’s a Red Bull clone, so no real surprises there. The taste is watery but sweet like many of the French and German own-brands I’ve tried over the years. It was very nice and left no nasty aftertaste, and it wasn’t bitter at all and at less than 50p per can it won’t feel like you’re being ripped off either. They do say it’s the small details that stand out, and like Red Bull and their ring-pull with a cut-out of a Bull, Spar have also customised their ring-pull with a cut-out of the Spar logo – although I have to say I thought it was a Christmas tree at first.

Overall Rating:
(2.5/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 45kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Spar
Web Site:

Mountain Dew Sugar Free

August 11th, 2012

Finally, the great flavour of Mountain Dew, without the calories that go with it. Sadly, this is a low calorie version of the UK version of Mountain Dew (dubbed Mountain Dew Energy), but nevertheless it’s nice and refreshing on a hot day. The flavour is identical to Mountain Dew Energy – I couldn’t even tell that they’d used sweeteners instead of sugar, so the flavours they added must be pretty potent.

Overall Rating:
(3.5/5)
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Caffeine: 19mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 0.6kCal/100ml
Size: 440ml
Sold By: Hillend, Llangennith
Web Site: Click here

n-gine

August 3rd, 2012

When I opened the can I initially thought, uh-oh, another Red Bull clone. But, once I’d tasted it I changed my mind. Yes, there’s a definite whiff of the expected energy drink flavour to it, but it’s more sour and metallic than expected. It’s trying to be different, even if it doesn’t taste brilliant – but having said that it’s a lot better than many other drinks I’ve tried. It was only 25p after all…

Overall Rating:
(2.5/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
Calories: 46kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Tesco
Web Site: