This is an odd one to describe. The ingredients lists fruit juices from concentrate: grape, passion fruit, lemon and lime. It also lists ‘flavourings’… but, and critically, there is specifically no mango mentioned anywhere specifically. In a green mango flavoured drink. I’d never heard of a green mango before so I had to Google it, and the first result was a Wikipedia entry about a type of Hummingbird of that name. I’m assuming the drink doesn’t contain hummingbird as that might go against its vegan credentials. Anyway, regardless of what it’s called and what it does or doesn’t contain, it’s a tropical flavoured energy drink, and nothing fancier or more complicated than that.
This drink is branded at the super-premium end of the spectrum. It has a matt-black can design and is pretending it’s some sort of carbon-neutral domestic energy supplier with its “clean energy” tag line. The clean part is actually referring to the natural sources of caffeine and the vegan/non-GMO ingredient list. Taste-wise it’s quite bitter, which was surprising seeing as drinks containing strawberry are usually quite sweet.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 30.3mg/100ml |
Tags: Berry, Raspberry, Strawberry, UK |
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| Calories: | 12kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | Paddington Station | ||
| Web Site: | |||
Well this is another one of those BCAA containing drinks that’s all the rage at the moment, but it is also quite high in caffeine. The flavour was very synthetic and sweet, and given it was a large can it was also quite sickly to drink despite being low calorie. That said, it wasn’t unpleasant… if you find this brand, go for the lemon flavour – much better.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 40mg/100ml |
Tags: Large Can, Low Calorie, Melon, UK |
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| Calories: | 3kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 500ml | ||
| Sold By: | |||
| Web Site: | |||
I don’t like apple flavoured anything. Usually… but this drink surprised me. I had planned to just try and bit and tip the rest away because I was so unlikely to want to finish it. Well, all finished! A nice fresh, sweet favour, and low in calories too! It also has BCAAs for the body builders out there (??? why are you drinking energy drinks!?).
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 40mg/100ml |
Tags: Apple, Large Can, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 2kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 500ml | ||
| Sold By: | Premier Stores UK | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
A nice tropical flavoured drink in a massive can – it was quite refreshing and mild too. It’s just a shame it’s so high in calories! It doesn’t score very high on originality though despite calling it El Mango… it’s a tropical drink in everything but name.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Large Can, Mango, UK |
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| Calories: | 48kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 500ml | ||
| Sold By: | Premier Stores UK | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Quite an unusual drink given that it’s not actually billed as an energy drink. It’s a magnesium and vitamin drink with a low caffeine content provided by guarana. The guarana content according to the nutrition label is 0.01% which likely makes the caffeine content lower than that. Now then, magnesium is obviously an essential part of our diet, but I can’t help but think that whacking it in a high sugar drink like this is somewhat counterintuitive though. One of magnesium’s purported benefits is reducing the risk of diabetes, so maybe it should be an essential ingredient in all high sugar drinks – targetted delivery? Just my thoughts anyway. The lime flavour was sweet and natural, very refreshing, and as a soft drink this was a nice treat. As an energy drink (which to be fair, it’s not branded as such) it didn’t provide a kick.
There were a few flavours of ‘Clean Drink’ available in the small Swedish news agent that I found this in, but this looked the most interesting. Cactus and Lime flavour – it certainly tastes a bit different to your average drink. You can taste the lime easily, it’s not a strong flavour but sweet and refreshing, and then there’s the odd accompanying plant-like taste that goes with it. It’s not unpleasant and it works quite well with lime, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what type of cactus it is! I assume there must be a specific type of cactus somewhere that has been used to make drinks for centuries and there may even have been a fascinating story on the side of the can to tell me this, but I don’t speak Swedish! Anyway, worth a try for something refreshing and different.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 55mg/100ml |
Tags: Cactus, Lime, Low Calorie, Sweden |
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| Calories: | 3.5kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 330ml | ||
| Sold By: | Stockholm | ||
| Web Site: | |||
This is branded as ‘Summer Edition’, but being in a blue can instead of the white summer edition can seen in the UK and US, I thought I’d better try it to make sure that it’s different. The white summer edition is coconut-lime, and I’m sure that this blue summer edition is also coconut-lime, but somehow tasting different. It’s less coconutty (???) and much fruitier, slightly berry-like too perhaps? Maybe it is exactly the same and I was just in a much better mood when I drank it, but as I have no side-by-side comparison to scientifically test that then my opinion will have to do – I like this blue can better than the white one!
Mmmm, really good. Nice, fruity, and refreshing. It’s also dangerously highly caffeinated (at almost double the dose of Red Bull) in combination with being really easy to drink so be careful! Fortunately, it is very low in calories by way of compensation.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | |||
| Caffeine: | 56mg/100ml |
Tags: Citron, Lime, Low Calorie, Sweden |
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| Calories: | 1kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 355ml | ||
| Sold By: | Stockholm | ||
| Web Site: | |||
