The blurb on the can has a nice little story: “Hey, I’m Marisa! I have ADHD and anxiety. I wanted to feel energised without the jitters or crashes, so I created a brain-boosting energy drink…” and so it continues. I am by no means an expert in ADHD or anxiety but a little bit of reading suggests that caffeine and other stimulants can help with ADHD symptoms. Every day is a school day it turns out! This drink it a tea-based drink, and I’m not a fan of tea at all – I find it too bitter, but as it’s one of the most popular drinks worldwide I am clearly in the minority. This drink as I say is mostly tea-flavoured, it’s very lightly carbonated, and has a fruity apple/raspberry flavour. Mostly it tastes of tea to me though and I’m sorry, Marisa, I couldn’t finish it because of that 🙁
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 |
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.
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 60mg/100ml |
Tags: Low Calorie, Passion Fruit, UK |
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Calories: | 7kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 330ml | ||
Sold By: | B&M | ||
Web Site: |
New for 2025 it’s the now regular special edition for Winter – this year Red Bull have gone with Fuji Apple and Ginger. Now I was very apprehensive about this one because I dislike both apple and ginger drinks usually, but I was pleasantly surprised here. You can certainly taste both the apple and the ginger, but neither are overpowering. It’s quite a smooth tasting drink, very sweet and the ginger does not attack the back of your throat at all but it does give the drink a slight warmth. Totally original and not what I was expecting, even the apple is subtle.
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!
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 30mg/100ml |
Tags: Low Calorie, Summer Fruits, UK |
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Calories: | 2kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 250ml | ||
Sold By: | Asda | ||
Web Site: |
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.
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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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: |
Orangey! I like this one, it was quite strong in terms of flavour, and the orange taste itself was very slightly tart and sweet rather than synthetic. It’s not revolutionary in terms of flavour but Carabao have managed to do a decent job of an orange flavoured energy drink.
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: |
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.
Taste: | Originality: | ||
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Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
Caffeine: | 56mg/100ml |
Tags: Low Calorie, Mixed Fruit, UK |
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Calories: | 3kCal/100ml | ||
Size: | 355ml | ||
Sold By: | Asda | ||
Web Site: |