Aspire – Cranberry
September 15th, 2012We have a new contender for the worst tasting energy drink! To be fair though, it isn’t branding itself as tasting nice, but it does claim to burn 200 calories for every can you drink… really, it reckons it will help you lose weight. The can contains 12.5 calories, so I guess overall you’d be 187.5 calories down after drinking this. That’s if you can stomach it through to the end. The drink is bitter, and I’m talking about pint-of-bitter bitter, there’s something very earthy and real-ale tasting about the drink. Maybe that’s what unsweetened cranberries taste like? Anyway, it’s sold in health stores and premium supermarkets in the weight loss sections so keep your eyes out for it in case of a doughnut craving. That way you can cancel the doughnut out by drinking one of these, I’m sure that’s how it works…
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
| Caffeine: | 30mg/100ml |
Tags: Cranberry, Guarana, Low Calorie, Natural, UK |
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| Calories: | 5kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | Holland and Barrett | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Black Energy
September 8th, 2012
This appears to be a re-branding of a drink I tried a while back called Black Tiger. I have to say, on revisiting it, I’m enjoying it more than I did last time. But forget about the taste on this drink – it’s clearly about the branding. It’s a Polish drink endorsed by none other than Mike Tyson and has the slogan “Black Power!” emblazoned all over it too. It looks like we’ve discovered the secret of Mike’s success.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
| Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Clone, UK |
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| Calories: | 46kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | Tesco | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Lucozade Revive – Cranberry with Acai
August 25th, 2012Possibly one of the strongest flavoured Lucozade drinks I’ve ever tasted. The cranberry was quite powerful, although that is to be judged by Lucozade standards. Once again there is no mention of the caffeine strength on the bottle so I’ve had to make it up. I think it’s quite low as there wasn’t much of a hit. The cranberry made the drink a bit too sickly to be refreshing and therefore this is definitely not my favourite of the new Revive range.
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| Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
| Caffeine: | 1mg/100ml |
Tags: Bottle, Cranberry, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 13kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 380ml | ||
| Sold By: | Tesco | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Spar Budget Energy Drink
August 18th, 2012Standing out in the shop cooler with its bright green label covered in Spar’s trademark arrow logo, this energy drink had to be purchased – any product brave enough to use the word ‘budget’ in its name must be interesting! It’s a Red Bull clone, so no real surprises there. The taste is watery but sweet like many of the French and German own-brands I’ve tried over the years. It was very nice and left no nasty aftertaste, and it wasn’t bitter at all and at less than 50p per can it won’t feel like you’re being ripped off either. They do say it’s the small details that stand out, and like Red Bull and their ring-pull with a cut-out of a Bull, Spar have also customised their ring-pull with a cut-out of the Spar logo – although I have to say I thought it was a Christmas tree at first.
Mountain Dew Sugar Free
August 11th, 2012Finally, the great flavour of Mountain Dew, without the calories that go with it. Sadly, this is a low calorie version of the UK version of Mountain Dew (dubbed Mountain Dew Energy), but nevertheless it’s nice and refreshing on a hot day. The flavour is identical to Mountain Dew Energy – I couldn’t even tell that they’d used sweeteners instead of sugar, so the flavours they added must be pretty potent.
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| Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
| Caffeine: | 19mg/100ml |
Tags: Citrus, Large Can, Low Calorie, UK |
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| Calories: | 0.6kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 440ml | ||
| Sold By: | Hillend, Llangennith | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
Pink Bolt Zero
July 27th, 2012Do you see what they did there? They took ‘Blue’ and replaced it with ‘Pink’ cuz it’s a pink drink, so funny, the marketing department at Sainsbury’s must’ve been in stitches over that for hours… <end of sarcasm>. As a drink though, it’s rather bland. There’s a nice taste of strawberry and kiwi in there somewhere, but it’s so watered down that you don’t get enough of the flavour coming through. That said, it’s refreshing and light.
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| Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
| Caffeine: | 30mg/100ml |
Tags: Kiwi, Low Calorie, Strawberry, UK |
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| Calories: | 3.6kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | Sainsbury's | ||
| Web Site: | |||
Red Alert
July 21st, 2012Not 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.
Blue Bolt Mango and Passion Fruit
July 14th, 2012Tart, sharp and sweet – it’s like a can of fruit juice more than energy drink. The tropical flavour is very strong and makes you draw back the corners of your mouth like you’ve sucked on a slice of lemon. It’s very sugary and I can’t say it’s one of my favourites – I do prefer a more traditional energy drink flavour if I’m honest!
KX Red Berry
July 7th, 2012It doesn’t taste like a normal energy drink, so for those people who don’t usually like energy drinks, this could be for you. It wasn’t for me though. The berry flavour was extremely strong and not to my liking at all. It was like it had been made using a fruit squash mix to be honest, with a large squash to water ratio. If you like your energy drinks, then choose a normal energy drink instead.
| Taste: | Originality: | ||
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| Strength: | Visitor Ratings: | ||
| Caffeine: | 32mg/100ml |
Tags: Berry, Guarana, UK |
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| Calories: | 42kCal/100ml | ||
| Size: | 250ml | ||
| Sold By: | Tesco | ||
| Web Site: | Click here | ||
