Sumseeds: Energized Sunflower Seeds
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If you’re sick of crashing from all of the sugar in energy drinks, this product may interest you. Introducing Sumseeds, sunflower seeds energized with caffeine, taurine, lysine and ginseng. This is one of the items I just got from Xoxide and I, like Baseball Hall of Fame Legend Tony Gwynn, love these seeds! Sumseeds come in 1.75 oz packages and each package packs 140mg of caffeine, 96mg of taurine, 53mg of lysine and 40mg of ginseng. Not bad at all for less than 2 oz of seeds! In comparison to energy drinks, a 16 oz can of Monster Energy has 160mg of caffeine and 54g of sugar. Sumseeds have less than 3g of sugar and 140mg of caffeine in a package, resulting in an energy boost without a crash. Unlike the energy boost of many drinks, which is a fast, jittery type of energy, Sumseeds give you a constant, steady, powerful feeling energy boost. These energized seeds don’t taste any different than other sunflower seeds, so you don’t have to worry about not liking them. While it does take much longer to consume a pack of Sumseeds than it does an energy drink, the trade off is worth it, because you can do things with Sumseeds that you can’t do with energy drinks like: You can’t pour a can of energy soda into your hand and look cool, You can’t play a guitar and drink energy soda at the same time, and you can’t yell at the other team with a mouthful of energy soda. You can however, do all of the above things with Sumseeds! (No, I didn’t make that up, I took it from the back of the package). This product is really innovative and clever, and I’ll be buying more of these in the near future. I highly recommend them and if you want to buy some for yourself, head over to Xoxideto buy individual packages, or the SumSeeds Official Store to buy in bulk.
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Caffeine Shipment In, Ten New Reviews to Follow
Alright, on Monday afternoon I put in a shipment for 10 different caffeinated products from Xoxide Caffeine. I’m happy to say that they arrived this afternoon! Not bad for standard shipping, they even indivually wrapped bubble wrap around each item. They have a great selection and I picked out products that aren’t too common. If you’re craving some new caffeinated products (notice I say products, not drinks, as they have some cool caffeinated stuff!), I’d suggest Xoxide
because they sell individual items, so you don’t have to buy energy drinks in bulk, meaning you can get more of a variety for the same price! I’ll start reviewing these tomorrow and continue to look for other good online retailers, hope you’re excited as I am!
PS: They’re having a sale on a lot of the items so stock up while you can 
AMP Energy: Elevate
Mountain Dew has a brand of energy drinks called AMP Energy, and one of their varieties, Elevate, gets the spotlight today. AMP Energy Elevate promises to help you keep focused, connected and alert, in addition to make your reflexes more sharp. When I first opened Elevate, a familiar aroma over came me. AMP Energy Elevate smells just like Mountain Dew Revolution! So for those of you upset by the fact that Revolution is only going to last a short time, you can just get AMP Elevate. While AMP Elevate does taste a lot like Mountain Dew Revolution, it seems to taste a little more artificial, there seems to be a hint of a chemical taste (possibly the L-Theanine?), not bad, but noticeable. There’s not much of an after taste either, so you can only get the flavor while drinking AMP. This drink is a dark purple in color, the color being very similar to SuperNova. AMP Elevate has a nice kick though, 160mg of caffeine per bottle (10 mg caffeine per fl oz.) so it’s the average amount found in most energy drinks. AMP Elevate also contains Guarana, Taurine, Ginseng and, in addition, L-Theanine (has been shown to help boost T-Cells in immune system) in it. Overall, AMP Elevate delivers the benefits it promises, but the taste is mediocre, so it doesn’t stand out. As only one flavor in the entire AMP lineup, I can’t make any assumptions about the other AMP varieties yet, but I do look forward to the rest of them.
Joker Mad Energy
Wow. Déjà Vu. Today we have Joker Mad Energy, an energy drink that only cost me 99 cents. I’m having a Déjà Vu moment because it seems like I’ve had this before. Oh, I know why – it tastes EXACTLY like Monster Energy, only sweeter. This stuff isn’t bad, although it seems really carbonated, although I can handle discomfort if I only have to pay 99 cents. It’s hard to describe the taste, it almost seems to have a hint of a vitamin (like the Finstones chewable ones) taste, but it’s not strong and it doesn’t taste bad. The kick is great too; it has an Energy Blend of Glucose, Caffeine, Guarana, Inositol, Glucuronlactone and Maltodextin. That’s the same energy blend as Monster! This is too weird. It tastes like Monster, has the same energy blend, has the same warning label in the back, both drinks say ‘Ball’ on the back (the canning/packaging company I think) and they look the same too. A quick Google search revealed my suspicions: if you go to Beverage World you’ll read “Joker Mad Energy, a beverage born out of its [Circle K] partnership with Hansen Beverage Co”. Hansen Beverage Co is the company that owns Monster Beverage, meaning that Monster and Joker Energy are both owned by the same company. Okay then, Joker Energy is a lot cheaper and tastes the same, so why would any one buy Monster anymore? I’m also a little confused and disappointed that Hansen can’t come up with more than one flavor for it’s energy drinks, but that’s beside the point. Joker Energy is pretty good and delivers that kick that energy drinks should, its also cheap too! I’d recommend trying this, especially if you’re a Monster fan that doesn’t feel like paying as much, because it’s basically the same.
The Plain Dealer: Caffeine, Kids and Health
I just added a new page to Caffeine Guru. A while back (March 11, 2008 to be exact), The Plain Dealer ran a story, “This is not kid stuff”, focusing on the availability of caffeine to younger children and the effects it has on them. If you didn’t save the story, or you don’t live in Cleveland, you can check it (The Plain Dealer Article) out for yourself at their website. I took the time to review the article and summarize it for anyone that’s interested on the effects of caffeine on children. You can check the my review of the article here.
Red Panax Ginseng Extract
I’ve had this case of Red Panax Ginseng for a while (back to when I got the Chinese RedBull and the Korean Ginseng Drink), and it’s about time I get around to writing a review of it. Ginseng is a common ingredient in many energy drinks due to belief that ginseng may help increase alertness, longevity, and overall health (some studies have shown it to help reduce risk of cancer and act as an anti-biotic). Regardless to whether or not this is completely true, ginseng is found in almost every energy drink on the market. While ginseng is a fruit bearing plant (little berries, not fruit like pineapples) the extract comes from the roots, and can be bought in liquid form, or the root as a whole. This ginseng isn’t nearly as bad as the last stuff I tried, and can be taken several ways.
1) Pure Extract: The case comes with a bunch of little straws, so you can just drink the ginseng straight from the bottles. If you use the straw, it only takes a second to finish a bottle. If you don’t use the straw, and pour it into your mouth, you’ll get the taste while you’re drinking it and it’s pretty strong and bitter. In my opinion, it’s better to get the aftertaste after you drink it, not while you’re drinking it.
2) Ginseng Tea: The sales person told me that the most popular way to drink ginseng was in tea form. You just heat a cup of water and pour the ginseng in the cup; it’s as simple of that. The tea has somewhat of a bitter, root-like, taste to it, but it actually was pretty good. The dilution gets rid of the strong taste and makes it milder, and at the same time more enjoyable.
3) In Coffee: If you don’t want to drink it plain, and don’t feel like boiling a pot of water, why not just add it to your coffee. The taste of coffee is able to mask most of the ginseng’s taste, so the coffee only tastes a little different. This works well as you get the caffeine and the ginseng (like in energy drinks) without having to shell out money for an energy drink.
Overall, this stuff isn’t half bad, and makes a pretty good tea. Also, the case (total of 300 mL of ginseng) only cost a few dollars, so it’s not pricey at all. I know it’s not caffeine, but it’s so common in energy drinks, and shares some properties of caffeine that it would seem almost wrong not to review Red Panax Ginseng!
