Chillax

October 6th, 2012

I’ve had to start a new category: anti-energy drinks. Chillax is NOT an energy drink, but is in fact designed to chill you out, relax you, generally wind you down. It predomenantly contains rosehip juice as well as chamomile and passionflower to bolster its laid back credentials. It does taste really good too. Of course, with this being an energy drink site, it won’t score that highly due to the lack of caffiene. Give it a go, makes a change completely to the usual

Overall Rating:
(3.4/5)
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Caffeine: 0.001mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 7kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Home Bargains
Web Site: Click here

Red Bull Cola

September 29th, 2012

Technically, I don’t normally allow colas a space on this web site because I don’t count them as energy drinks. I’ve made the occasional exception for colas which try to be energy drinks by containing guarana or taurine, but it’s always by exception. Red Bull Cola is another exception, but only because of its name. In every other respect it doesn’t count as an energy drink even though it packs in the same amount of caffeine as Lucozade. It tastes like a cola. That’s it really, nothing exceptional at all really and it’s not even one of the better colas. I was hoping for a slightly cola flavoured mix with Red Bull which would have been interesting but nope, it’s just a cola.

Overall Rating:
(2.3/5)
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Caffeine: 13mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 38kCal/100ml
Size: 355ml
Sold By: Tesco
Web Site: Click here

Aspire – Cranberry

September 15th, 2012

We 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…

Overall Rating:
(2.4/5)
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Caffeine: 30mg/100ml Tags:
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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.

Overall Rating:
(2.1/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 46kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Tesco
Web Site: Click here

Lucozade Revive – Cranberry with Acai

August 25th, 2012

Possibly 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.

Overall Rating:
(2.1/5)
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Caffeine: 1mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 13kCal/100ml
Size: 380ml
Sold By: Tesco
Web Site: Click here

Spar Budget Energy Drink

August 18th, 2012

Standing 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.

Overall Rating:
(2.5/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 45kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Spar
Web Site:

Mountain Dew Sugar Free

August 11th, 2012

Finally, 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.

Overall Rating:
(3.5/5)
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Caffeine: 19mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 0.6kCal/100ml
Size: 440ml
Sold By: Hillend, Llangennith
Web Site: Click here

Pink Bolt Zero

July 27th, 2012

Do 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.

Overall Rating:
(2.8/5)
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Caffeine: 30mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 3.6kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Sainsbury's
Web Site:

Red Alert

July 21st, 2012

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.

Overall Rating:
(2.5/5)
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Caffeine: 32mg/100ml Tags:
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Calories: 46kCal/100ml
Size: 250ml
Sold By: Premier Stores, UK
Web Site: