Red Alert

Not too sweet or watery or sour or bitter… just right! It’s a shame it’s another Red Bull clone because the balance of flavour is ideal. I purchased Red Alert from my local shop, and looking at the can it seems to have been produced for Booker’s cash and carry therefore I am assuming this is their own brand product. Looking at the can however you’d be forgiven if you assumed this was a premium brand and the taste lives up to the assumption. Overall, a great product but still not as good value as either the Euro Shopper, Aldi or Lidl drinks.

Red Thunder Diet

This is my favourite Red Bull Cone of all time. It has the perfect mix of  smoothness, sweetness and value for money which makes it stand out from the crowd by miles. If you want to stock up on energy drinks then buy six-packs of these in Aldi. Let’s hope they don’t try to ‘improve’ the taste in future versions.

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.

Hell Sugarfree

As I expected, an improvement on the regular Hell but sadly still not original. It is a Red Bull clone through and through which is a shame considering the great can design and product image. They could have done so much more.

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.

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…

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.

Hell

Nice, but certainly not original. It’s just another clone as I’d expected. Tasted smooth and provided the required energy boost but sadly other than the name and the interesting can design, it just doesn’t stand out. I’ve noticed however that Hell are providing a number of pre-mixed alcoholic beverages including vodka and whisky varieties. I’m still debating in my own mind as to whether these can count as energy drinks to review on this site, perhaps a new category? Let me know what you think anyway…

Blue Bear

Another own-brand Red Bull clone, this time from Spar. It reminded me of old Tesco Kick, with the sour aftertaste. Other than that it’s a bit none-descript to be honest. I reckon Spar could have done better than this, pretty much just changing the word red to blue, and altering the feature ferocious animal a little isn’t the way to make a new energy drink!