I found this one at a music festival and subsequently paid a whopping £3.50 for it! If you take a look at the Wicked N Bad web site though (www.wickednbad.com) you’ll see that they aren’t an energy drink company at all – they are actually a “sports and entertainment management” company mainly concentrating on boxing promotion. A bit more digging discovered an old Instagram page @wickednbadenergy with no activity for a couple of years, so quite how this music festival ended up with thousands of cans of this product is intriguing! Looking at the best before date underneath the can, these were past their best two months before I purchased it so I’m guessing they have a lot of stock left over from previous years! It’s a clone, clearly, but it’s a smooth and very sweet one packed full of sugar so clearly pre-dates any attempts to meet the sugar tax requirements.
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, UK |
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Calories: | 47kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 250ml | ||
Sold By: | In It Together Festival | ||
Web Site: | Click here |
If you have a SodaStream machine or similar carbonated water maker then you’ll know that the syrups you buy can make this a fantastic factory of fizzy wonder. I’ve reviewed SodaStream’s own-brand energy syrups before but this is a third-party offering from FruttaMax. When made up in a ratio of 1:23 with fizzy water you end up with an energy drink packing 32mg/100ml of caffeine according to the bottle. By my calculations for a smaller 450ml SodaStream bottle that requires about 20ml of syrup, or about 4 teaspoons. That isn’t very much at all, less than you’d typically use with genuine SodaStream syrups so I was concerned it might be a bit watery. Well, no, I was wrong! It’s spot on! What you end up with is a very passable ‘clone’ energy drink. It’s crisp and caramely, just as good if not better than most cheap clone cans. What’s even better is that this is the original full sugar version but only has 8 calories/100ml. The sugar-free version has got to be amazing if it wants to beat this. The concentrate will provide about 12 litres of diluted energy drink at a 1:23 ratio with water. You can of course mix this with still water if you don’t have a SodaStream machine but that might taste a bit weird.
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, Concentrate, SodaStream, UK |
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Calories: | 8kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 500ml | ||
Sold By: | Amazon UK | ||
Web Site: |
This is probably my favourite of all the own-brand clone drinks. Asda’s own-brand ‘Diet CHRG’ is smooth and tasty, exactly what you want from a bog standard ‘mixed fruit’ sugar free energy drink. No fancy herbal infusions, just a great taste at a great price. There’s no bitterness, no nasty aftertaste… it does the job well. Asda has been through a number of branding exercises with their energy drink ranges, originally calling it ‘Blue Charge’ and offering dozens of varieties over the years. This appears to now have matured into three flavours that I can find: original; diet; and summer fruits.
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 30mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, Low Calorie, UK |
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Calories: | 3kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 250ml | ||
Sold By: | Asda | ||
Web Site: |
This is Asda’s own brand energy drink and is very different to the old Blue Charge from a decade ago. Gone are the fancy ingredients of carrot and hibiscus and we’re just back to a regular list of artificial things of dubious origin. Similar to the Sainsbury’s own brand energy drink this is also like a bitter and less pleasant version of Red Bull, but it’s smooth and drinkable – go for the sugar free version though is my advice, it’s smoother.
This was brought back for me from Canada and the can proudly declares its Canadianness in many places! Taste-wise it’s basically what you’d expect from a generic-brand energy drink – sweet, tart and sickly. What I do find very interesting though is the use of grape juice listed in the ingredients. It’s not often you see actual fruit listed in the ingredients of what is usually a “mixed fruit” flavoured drinks so it has got me thinking, is the main fruit used in other generic energy drinks actually grape?? This might be a mystery solved here…
In a surprise twist the sugar free version of this drink tastes totally different to the full fat version! It’s still quite watery, but instead of the tangy caramel, it’s a more subtle fruity flavour. Sweet, but no dodgy aftertaste and very drinkable.
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, Large Can, Low Calorie, UK |
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Calories: | 3kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 500ml | ||
Sold By: | Iceland | ||
Web Site: |
Yup, the same as the non-sugar-free version really. Sweet, slightly tangy, and quite close to Monster in its flavour really.
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, Large Can, Low Calorie, UK |
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Calories: | 2kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 500ml | ||
Sold By: | Lidl | ||
Web Site: |
It’s been so long since I tried Lidl’s Kong Strong so I honestly can’t tell if this large can ‘Colossus’ drink is actually the same as the the smaller can, I think I’ll have to go and get one of those to compare. Anyway, this drink reminds me of the early days of energy drink clones… it’s sweet, slightly tangy, and quite different to Red Bull. I’d say it’s quite close to Monster Energy actually, very, very close in flavour!
Discovered in a supermarket in Norway, I picked this one because I initially thought you perhaps pronounced the name TRST in the same way an Irish person might pronounce ‘thirst’. But, it looks like it’s just a stylised anomaly because the actual drink’s name is TØRST (you can see the Ø hidden behind the TRST on the logo). I’m not sure if this is a special edition flavour called Festival Energi Utopia, or if it’s just affiliated with a festival named ‘Utopia’ for promotional reasons, but it’s not really a special flavour. I’m putting this down as a clone as it tastes like a regular own-brand drink. If I had to describe the taste I would say that there are notes of aniseed with a slight tang of burnt caramel. It’s very nice, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t have a stand-out unique flavour.