Blue Bolt Diet

At the risk of repeating myself… I’m going to repeat myself because Blue Bolt is Sainsbury’s own-brand energy drink. As soon as I opened the can I recognised the smell, and taking a sip confirmed it. I believe that Sainsbury’s and Asda must buy their energy drink from the same manufacturer because it is identical to Asda’s Blue Charge. You might as well just go and read that review if you want any more information… and just like the Blue Charge / Diet Blue Charge reviews, both Diet Blue Bolt and Fatty McFatFat Blue Bolt tasted identical and nasty! Come on energy drink manufacturers, I need a day drinking some nice energy drinks, where are they!??

Blue Bolt

Blue Bolt is Sainsbury’s own-brand energy drink. As soon as I opened the can I recognised the smell, and taking a sip confirmed it. I believe that Sainsbury’s and Asda must buy their energy drink from the same manufacturer because it is identical to Asda’s Blue Charge. You might as well just go and read that review if you want any more information…

LSV Sugar Free

Compared to normal LSV, this drink was far smoother and much easier to drink. If you are faced with the choice between the two and prefer taste over the sugar-high then go for this one. Other than that, the drink is pretty much identical in aroma and aftertaste.

Asda Blue Charge

Asda’s own brand of energy drink is an obvious Red Bull clone, but where it differs from most is its lacking of the sour taste usually associated with these imitation products. Blue Charge tastes quite fruity by comparison and even manages a similar smoothness as Red Bull. The ingredients list specific vegetable concentrates of Apple, Carrot and Hibiscus. I’m assuming it is this concentrated mixture that gives Blue Charge its key flavour, which sadly isn’t that nice! The smoothness of the flavour and not necessarily the flavour itself is what contributes significantly to the Red Bull experience and I’m confident that Asda are aware that they are capable of producing a direct clone of Red Bull and have adjusted their final product slightly to avoid lawsuits because this drink tastes like a deliberate attempt to change the flavour subtly. Sadly though, it’s a very smooth drink with nasty taste.

Emerge Light

Like its calorific cousin, Emerge Light is another Red Bull clone. Maybe it was the mood I was in at the time, but I preferred this low calorie version to the full fat. Of course, this now means I need to do a side-by-side taste comparison to be totally sure. Sadly though, there still isn’t much to discuss about this drink as it doesn’t stand out at all from amongst the crowd.

Emerge

A nice Red Bull clone with below average caffeine content. This drink has nothing particularly special about it to discuss, hence me padding out this review with this lump of words. It tastes okay and isn’t too expensive – would pass as a good mixer with vodka.

(Update 2012-02-18): Emerge was recently rebranded and the can now looks more like this. (click on the thumbnail for a larger image)

Euro Shopper

This is clearly another Red Bull clone created as a budget brand to fill up the chiller cabinets in corner shops. It has a very slightly aniseed taste compared to Red Bull which gives it a bit of an unwanted aftertaste. For 35p you can’t really complain though – it is an energy drink, it gives you energy, job done I suppose! If you’re after something that tastes good though, buy something else.

Mixxed Up Light

Lidl have rebranded their Mixxed Up Sugar Free drink as Mixxed Up Light. At first I thought it was just a can design change, but when I tasted the drink I’m sure they’ve altered the flavour too. I can’t be 100% certain because I’ve not done a side-by-side comparison yet, but I’m sure it tastes slightly fruitier than the old one. Looking at the ingredients reveals nothing, they are identical, but proof that the drink has changed slightly is in the nutritional information panel: Salt Equivalent of the sodium is up from 0.23g in Sugar Free to 0.25g in the Light variation. So… something is up. Taste-wise it’s not a change for the worse, and it is moving away from being a Red Bull clone.

Red Rooster

Without a doubt this is a Red Bull clone. A very nice one at that, and the taste is not far off its rival, but it isn’t quite as smooth or potent. This is a mid-range energy drink as far as price is concerned and unfortunately it tastes no better than either Lidl or Aldi’s considerably cheaper own brands. Whilst it is a nice energy drink in its own right, sadly it’ll never me by first choice if stacked alongside the usual suspects.