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 Stimulation Shot

Nice. Quite sweet considering this is an energy shot, which are usually very bitter. It perked me up and didn’t make me feel like I’d just downed a dose of medicine. Sadly I can only find this shot as part of a pack of 4, but it’s not that expensive by comparison with other shots.

Rockstar Energy

Rockstar Energy has a distinct and quite synthetic taste. It’s a pleasant tasting drink with a hefty kick of caffeine and sugars… totalling 60 calories per 100ml that puts it at the potent end of sugar rushes. The can’s design does make it look like you are drinking a can of lager, which could cause raised eyebrows in your office should you choose to consume it there – be prepared to explain it away. I think that has something to do with the black can with a gold star on it. It doesn’t have a great aftertaste, but the drinking experience overall is quite good. Keep it cold because the taste starts to go downhill once it warms up.

Relentless Inferno (Orange)

Does anyone remember being given Calpol as a child? I’m not talking about the original purple liquid, I mean the Calpol for older children. It was orange flavoured and drinking Relentless Inferno immediately reminded me of orange Calpol. That’s no t a bad thing, but it’s the most accurate way I can describe the flavour. It doesn’t have the usual background taste of Relentless at all, it just has a very sweet syrupy orange flavour. It gets quite sickly towards the end of the huge can, and is not ideal as a refreshing drink for a hot day. I’d suggest it is suitable for sipping slowly over a few hours while working away at your coursework or latest project deadline… slow is the key here.

Lucozade Energy Orange

Much better! It’s still a very watered down flavour, but the subtle orange masks the underlying fizzy sugared water taste of the original Lucozade nicely. Quite refreshing and pleasant to drink, but lacking the caffeinated kick of a conventional energy drink. I’d suggest this is suitable for drinking later in the day if you need a short-lived pick-me-up which won’t stop you getting to sleep later that evening.

Monster Ripper

I may stand corrected on this one, but I believe that this drink was Monster’s first attempt at making something a bit different. They’ve combined their energy drink formula with apple, passion fruit, pineapple and guava juice to give it a tropical flavour. Regular readers may already be aware that I’m not a big fan of tropical drinks, but this one is much more pleasant. Maybe it’s because they’ve managed to mask any sharpness to the flavour, it really is a very sweet and fizzy tasting drink.

As energy drinks go, this is quite refreshing and unique. There’s no doubt that it is a Monster drink – it still has that distinct Monsterness about it that sets this brand apart from the rest.

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)

Lucozade Energy Original

It tastes like sweetened fizzy water. In fact, it is so tasteless that you can actually taste the metallic tang of the carbonated water itself. The caffeine content of this product is pretty low too – it doesn’t even need the High Caffeine Content warning that adorns most energy drinks.

In fact, I can’t really see the point of this product… the low caffeine puts it at the bottom end of the energy pile meaning it relies on the sugar more than anything to give you a kick. The carbonated water means it is not really ideal for sports either – personally I can’t cope with bubbles when I’m running. There are however a wide range of flavours which may improve the taste situation and I’ll try to review as many as I can.

Relentless Devotion (Berry Juiced)

Ribena with a kick. That’s how this drink is best summed up. It’s described as being Apple and Berry flavour and the blackcurrant really stands out. It’s a very potent drink with all the fruit juice giving a powerful sugar rush, and the usual 32mg/100ml caffeine content helps of course.

It’s the first ‘berry’ flavoured drink I’ve tried so far which actually tastes like real fruit and not a synthetic approximation. On that basis it is getting reasonably high marks on originality because it doesn’t taste at all like an energy drink.