Rockstar Sugar Free PerfectBerry

The opinion of people surrounding me whilst I drank this was overwhelmingly about the smell. I didn’t notice that, but taste-wise it was highly perfumed! It was quite a synthetic berry flavour and in keeping with Rockstar tradition, very smooth to drink. The can size was smaller than usual at only 355 ml, and the associated caffeine kick was therefore lessened accordingly.

Power Horse

Ultimately, it is just another Red Bull clone. It gains an extra originality point though for its packaging – still weighing in a 250ml, but in a much stouter can than normal, like a normal soft drink can but shorter instead of tall and thin. For 39p though you can’t really go far wrong, and it tasted very nice with none of the usual bitterness or sour aftertaste associated with cheap energy drinks.

UPDATE: A bit of research on this product has shown that it may actually pre-date Red Bull, and therefore be more original than originally thought (?!) Check out its mention on Wikipedia.

Burn Day

Thanks to a temporary France-based contact (someone went on holiday), you’ll be seeing a few French energy drinks on this site over the next few weeks. Burn Day is the first of them. It contains less caffeine than you’d normally expect, but it brands itself as Energie Rafraichissante. And rafraichissante it is indeed. My first opinion of the taste was lemon and strawberries. Checking the ingredients though reveals carrots and blackcurrants… strange, I still reckon it tastes very strongly of strawberries. It gets top marks for originality and taste because it’s lovely, fruity and different.

Rip It – Stinger Mo

This is very interesting…. it’s basically what you’d expect from a normal energy drink. But… it’s not a Red Bull clone, it’s a Monster Energy clone! I don’t even have a category for Monster Energy clones because as far as I’m aware this is the first, so I’ll just have to mark it down on originality. Or is it more original because it has copied someone other than Red Bull? That aside it’s a great tasting drink and has all the sweetness and flavour of Monster Energy so if you like that you won’t be disappointed. What’s with the name though? Maybe I’m just too old now and don’t get it, but it would be nice to have a clue as to what the flavour of the drink is going to be written somewhere on the can, and the Stinger Mo name doesn’t give me any clues either.

Blue Bear Light

I’m still not sure what it is about sugar-free energy drinks that makes them taste (usually) considerably better than their lard enducing counterparts, but Blue Bear Light follows the same trend. Spar’s own-brand diet energy drink is a nice little Red Bull clone but sadly a tad overpriced in my opinion.

Red Z

A nice Red Bull Clone which doesn’t suffer from any nasty aftertaste, bitterness or sour notes. I’d be interested in trying a sugar-free version of this one which could potentially improve the flavour. Cheaper than Red Bull, but not cheap enough to make it a preferable choice sadly.

Black Tiger

Sadly it’s another Red Bull clone. Sold by Tesco and seemingly imported from Poland, this drink is quite close to Red Bull itself but with a very slightly sour twist. Given that it tastes like a cheap energy drink, the price of a quid seems quite high but given the amount of money they’ve pumped in to the “Eye Of The Tiger” themed advert on their website and the whole Power is Black marketing campaign I’m sure they justify the cost that way. And on the subject of their marketing campaign, I’m wondering if there’s been a Polish mistranslation somewhere because when I first saw Black Tiger, I immediately associated it with the Black Panthers – which is something completely different and unassociated with this energy drink. I’m sure had this drink been around 1960s then it would have made the perfect official drink…

Lucozade Alert Plus Shot

A very sour lemon tasting  shot, but it does wake you up. It’s also sugar free as standard which is unusual given that Lucozade products are normally quite high in sugar and calories. The sugar isn’t missed though because you get the energy hit quickly and it lasts for a few hours making this quite an effective shot.

React

Another big-time contender emerges, sponsoring Reel Big Fish from off-of scateboarding game sound tracks as they tour the US. It is a Red Bull clone, butgets the balance just right and for only 99p for a 500ml can it’s reasonably priced too. The can looks good (even if the logo is trying to be a little ‘Relentless’) and the drink tastes good. Sadly the main web site at time of writing doesn’t appear to house anything other than a logo of brand, so you may want to check out the Facebook page instead: http://www.facebook.com/reactenergy. This brand has potential – I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a sugar free version and I’m hoping they go the way of Crunk and Rip It and start to produce other flavours.