SCI-MX Xplode: Original

October 4th, 2025

There’s a new category of energy drinks popping up in shops recently: the pre-workout drinks. These are usually 330ml cans with extra high caffeine content of around 200mg. You’ve got to be careful drinking these – please consume carefully or if you’re particularly sensitive to caffeine then avoid and go for one of the regular energy drinks. This particular drink is from SCI-MX, the sports nutrition brand who mostly make protein supplements and similar products so I guess a pre-workout drink is on-brand. The original flavour I’m trying here is unusual – I was expecting some sort of Red Bull clone but what I actually got was a tangy sour fruit drink, possibly passion fruit? There’s no clue on the can as to the flavour but it’s certainly an interesting choice for the ‘original’ variety. Also in this can is 3g of citrulline malate… and yes, I’m Googling that right now… one second reader. Oh, ok… it’s some sort of pre-workout supplement that delays the on-set of muscle fatigue. So I guess if you’re about to run a marathon then it could be useful – I’m sure if you’re already serious about supplements in your training plan then you’ll already be taking this, so if you are then make sure you’ve considered that this drink already contains one of your doses.

Overall Rating:
(3.7/5)
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Caffeine: 60mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 7kCal/100ml
Size: 330ml
Sold By: B&M
Web Site:

Asda Diet CHRG Summer Fruits Energy Drink (2025)

September 6th, 2025

Summer fruits is great for the summer it turns out. I can taste raspberry and cherry in this, but there are definitely other less identifiable fruits mixed in there. I enjoyed this, it was just the right strength of flavour with no strange aftertaste or sickliness. Top marks for taste!

Overall Rating:
(2.8/5)
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Caffeine: 30mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 2kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Asda
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Asda Diet CHRG Energy Drink (2025)

August 16th, 2025

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.

Overall Rating:
(2.8/5)
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Caffeine: 30mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 3kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Asda
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Celsius Live Fit Cosmic Vibe Fruit Burst

August 9th, 2025

Interesting. I’m not sure what the official legal definition of ‘Cosmic Vibe’ flavouring is, but the can declares it as ‘mixed fruit’, which is basically what every Red Bull clone drink says it is. But this is not a clone. I’d say it’s sort of berry flavoured, more on the cherry side of things with a hint of citrus or pomegranate. There’s an odd bitter aftertaste but it’s not too strong. Mixed fruit is a good definition of what it is, but I wish they actually stated the specific fruits involved! Expensive and not as good as many alternatives, but mostly confusing with each sip.

Overall Rating:
(3.8/5)
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Caffeine: 56mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 3kCal/100ml
Size: 355ml
Sold By: Asda
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Red Bull – The Pink Edition (2025) Forest Fruits Sugar Free

August 2nd, 2025

Forest Fruits is an interesting flavour – there’s no specific list of included fruits on the can so we’re left guessing. Usually forest fruits would include berries (like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc) and also stone fruits like plums and cherries. I guess it depends on which country they are taking their forest fruits from but in this case I am getting a flavour of general mixed berries, with a hint of cherry, and something else giving it a bitter under-note… maybe cranberry or something similar? It’s a really nice drink anyway, very fruity, and nicely sugar-free too. I’ve heard rumours that there’s a full-fat version of the pink edition out there too so I’ll keep my eyes open for that.

Overall Rating:
(3.6/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 2kCal/100ml
Size: 355ml
Sold By: Asda
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Red Bull – The Lilac Edition Sugar Free (2025) Grapefruit & Blossom

July 14th, 2025

It’s not often I’m disappointed with a Red Bull drink, but this time I was 🙁 I’m not saying it was a bad drink at all, it was quite nice and refreshing, but with this being billed as a ‘lilac edition’ I was hoping for something special, especially with the ‘blossom’ flavouring mentioned. Sadly this drink pretty much just tastes like a tropical energy drink – from the grapefruit I assume. Perhaps the blossom needed to be paired with something gentler in flavour, maybe a very light lemon flavouring, in order for it to shine through. Also, why lilac? It’s not purple in colour inside the can. My brain was expecting something more like grape flavouring rather than grapefruit. Anyway – also available in full fat (if I can find that version to compare), this is very low in calories due to it being the sugar-free version.

Overall Rating:
(2.3/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 3kCal/100ml
Size: 355ml
Sold By: Co-op
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Monster Ultra Strawberry Dreams

July 5th, 2025

It’s quite sickly, but very nice and extremely sweet. It’s undeniably a sugar-free drink, it has the usual mouthfeel from the sweeteners in it and that does detract somewhat from the strawberry flavouring. I am normally a fan of sugar-free drinks over the full fat versions but I reckon that this particular drink would have benefited from being full of sugar instead – I just think it would have been much nicer flavour-wise. As it is, it’s an easy going drink, very pleasant, would buy again, but could be improved.

Overall Rating:
(3.5/5)
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Caffeine: 30mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 2kCal/100ml
Size: 500ml
Sold By: Morrisons
Web Site:

Rockstar Zero Sugar Peach

June 28th, 2025

It’s another peach drink for 2025! This one does actually taste like peach to be fair and isn’t specifying that’s it’s White Peach or anything. So just normal peach. The can has been branded for the music festival season and this one is “Reading & Leeds”. It’s reasonably sweet and refreshing, but there are better rockstar flavours out there. At least this one is sugar-free though unlike most of the other festival-branded Rockstar drinks I’ve found so far.

Overall Rating:
(3.5/5)
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Caffeine: 31mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 1kCal/100ml
Size: 500ml
Sold By: Morrisons
Web Site:

Celsius Live Fit Peach Vibe

June 14th, 2025

White peach energy drinks seems to be a trend for summer 2025 because this is the third one I’ve found so far this year. This particular one is quite tropical tasting overall and not that refreshing really, but it packs a huge amount of caffeine so when you’re that tweaked does being refreshing even matter?!

Overall Rating:
(3.1/5)
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Caffeine: 56mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 3kCal/100ml
Size: 355ml
Sold By: Morrisons
Web Site: