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Where To Buy
Buzz Bites: Chocolate Energy Chews
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The folks at Vroom Foods were kind enough to send a sample of two of their products, Buzz Bites, for review (just a side note, that I don’t bias reviews even if the supplier provides the product). Buzz Bites are caffeinated, chocolaty, candy chews that pack a whopping 100mg of caffeine, some taurine, and some ginseng per piece. Each tin contains 6 chews (only 25 calories a chew for anyone out there watching their figure), and costs around 4.00, or less, depending on how many you buy. This makes each chew average to a little over 50¢ a chew, which is a steal considering the chews contain more caffeine than some energy drinks and as much as a cup of coffee. So while 50¢ may be a lot for a plain old piece of candy, it’s worth paying for 100mg of caffeine instead of paying 2.29 for a less caffeinated Red Bull, or 2.00 for a cup of coffee. Buzz Bites come in two flavors: Chocolate, and Mint Chocolate. The chocolate ones taste like chocolate and have an ever so slight hint of bitterness after you chew it, which is to be expected considering the amount of caffeine in each mint. The mint chocolate ones, in my opinion, are better than the plain chocolate ones. They pack the same kick as the chocolate ones and are the same in every way, except for the flavor. They taste a lot like those Andes Mints, and they don’t have any bitterness, as the mint masks it. While I do prefer the mint ones, I really enjoyed both of these products a lot! The chews melt in your mouth and you feel the kick right away, faster than the kick from a cup of coffee. The chews are individually wrapped and easy to open, making Buzz Bites a great product to keep handy for when you need a quick boost. Finally, Buzz Bites didn’t give me a crash, making this product one of the best I’ve come across. You can get these Buzz Mints here, and they are becoming more available as they increase distribution.
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Wired X3000: Mango Passion Fruit
Well, I got this drink on the West Coast and have never seen this in my area; the can is bright yellow and has red stripes stretching vertically along the can. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this drink, because I wasn’t sure if it was a generic drink or not as I’ve never come across it (it isn’t by the way, it’s a brand name drink) but I was pleasantly surprised by it. When I first cracked the can open, a familiar aroma over came me, this drink smells just like NOS, and so far, this drink is already doing quite well in my opinion. Wired X3000: Mango Passion Fruit also tastes a bit like NOS, a very fruity and smooth taste. The taste is a little weaker than NOS, but still very good. The color is a light yellow-orange, and the drink isn’t overly carbonated, but isn’t flat either. Another aspect of this drink that certainly isn’t flat is the kick; this drink contains a whopping 3000mg of Taurine, 188mg of Caffeine, 100mg of Inositol and lots of Vitamin B, putting this drink ahead of most of it’s competitors in caffeine content. The kick stayed with me throughout the day and I didn’t crash from it. It is only available in a 16oz can, and the price was a little less than $2.00, making this drink one of the best deals I’ve come across to date.
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Snickers Charged
I like Snickers and I love caffeine, so as you can imagine, I nearly wet myself with excitement when I learned I could get Snickers and caffeine together. Snickers Charged only cost me .79 and comes in a light gray wrapper with a rhinoceros on the front. The wrapper says limited edition, but I’m not sure if that means the product as a whole is limited, or just the wrapper is, but I’m leaning toward the thought that the product is limited. Snickers Charged is slightly smaller than a normal Snickers bar, and has 250 calories (normal sized bars have 280). It also contains 60mg of caffeine and 250mg of taurine per bar, and I was also glad that this limited edition Snickers tastes just like the normal bar and consists of the caramel, peanut, chocolate, and nougat that snickers has always had. The kick isn’t bad either, even though 60mg of caffeine isn’t that high compared to what other products have, it’s decent for a small candy bar, and very decent for less than 80 cents. The kick hit me after I finished most of the bar, and while it’s not a huge rush of energy, it’s enough to be noticeable and beneficial. Unfortunately, there’s bound to be a bit of a crash as Snickers is packed with sugar, but for the short term, Snickers Charged will deliver a kick. I found Snickers Charged at my local CVS, back in the drink section; so if you don’t find it at first, keep looking. I’d definitely recommend trying out Snickers Charged, it’s cheap, tasty, and gets the job done.
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Rip It Energy Fuel: Power
I have to admit, as a 99¢ drink, I didn’t expect much from Rip It. However, the drink pleasantly surprised me all together. Rip It Energy Fuel is an energy drink by National Beverage Co, and can apparently be found at Wal-Mart, but I got it at Xoxide (it cost 1.09, but the 10¢ extra was worth it to not have to go out and look for it) and has a light greenish yellow color. Rip It has a strawberry taste to it, but the taste can best be described as ‘artificial’. You can tell Rip It uses HFCS because the strawberry flavoring is a little too sweet, and leaves a fairly nasty after taste. Other than that, this drink exceeded my original expectations! A 16 oz can of Rip It Energy delivers 180mg of caffeine, 2000mg of taurine and 20mg of guarana. While the energy blend as a whole is a little lacking in variety, 180mg of caffeine puts this drink ahead of your average energy drink caffeine wise. Rip It’s carbonation is also pretty nice, it’s not too carbonated, and it’s not flat, it’s the sweet spot right in between the two. The energy was surprising, while the ingredients show it’s not much more than a caffeine injected generic soda, the energy boost was actually pretty good, long lasting and more gradual than sudden. While Rip It energy is a little lacking in taste and ingredients, if you need a quick boost and only have a dollar, Rip It Energy is worth the 99¢.
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Sumseeds: Energized Sunflower Seeds
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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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.
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NOS
It’s time to take a look at NOS High Performance Energy Drink. You can sum this drink up with one word. Awesome. This fantastic beverage is one of my favorite caffeinated beverages (next to coffee) and definitely deserves a spot. Before we get to the actual drink, take a look at the packaging. You know that any drink with a bright packaging with a warning label is going to give you a kick, especially when it says to keep it away from pregnant women and children. NOS is no exception. With 343mg (about 2-3 cups of coffee) of caffeine per 22oz (entire bottle), this stuff is going to get you going. Remember, 343mg of caffeine is a lot of caffeine, so it would be wise to limit yourself to no more than 22oz bottle of NOS a day (I’ll admit that I didn’t finish the entire drink today) unless your body is used to getting more caffeine than that. NOS smells and tastes great as well. Its flavor and aroma is citrusy, and after checking the ingredients I realized the taste is Passionfruit. NOS is not too strong or bitter in taste like some drinks and doesn’t have a bad after taste. In other words, NOS is an energy drink that gives a kick, without sacrificing the flavor of the drink. NOS also comes in smaller bottles and in cans, but I prefer the bottles because a) They look a lot cooler and b) They come with a screw off cap, so you can save the rest of the NOS (as half the bottle is enough caffeine for most people) for later. This drink also contains 2750mg of Taurine, 550mg of L-Carnitine, 274mg of Inositol and 136mg of Panax Ginseng per bottle. So, unless you either really need the caffeine, or can handle it, the smaller bottle (11oz - 173mg caffeine as pictured here) might be better for you. Either way, NOS High Performance Energy Drink is one of the best tasting, and best delivering energy drinks on the market!
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Jolt Power Cola
For this update on Caffeine Guru, I’ve decided to try out Jolt Power Cola. It comes in a bright, shiny red can with big letters in an obnoxious font. How could anyone resist this?- their packaging screams caffeine. Jolt proudly boasts that its line of sodas (theirs some other flavors, I’ll review those later) contains “twice the caffeine of regular soda”. In reality, it packs a little more than twice. A 23.5 oz can of Jolt (pictured) contains 220mg of caffeine. Not bad! My first impression of Jolt Power Cola was that Jolt is just your average generic cola. It tastes a lot like a generic cola, a little flatter/bland than Coca-Cola or Pepsi, and a little better than the wholesale food market cola brands. So unless you’re a snobby, self-proclaimed Cola connoisseur, you’ll be fine (I do agree with Jolts saying “The Energy Drink that Actually Tastes Good.” it is tasty like I said). Jolt is also jam packed with caffeine, taurine, guarana and all the other good stuff energy drinks come with nowadays. Again, Jolt also comes in a variety of flavors, and you can check them out at the Official Site or buy them over at the caffeine friendly ThinkGeek Caffeine Department . Jolt is distinctive for its tall can with a screw on top, which is certainly a plus because it doesn’t make you have to drink it all at once and allows you to take it on the go without worrying about spilling. Most importantly Jolt certainly does it’s job caffeine wise. Its energy mix supplied me with plenty of energy (the equivalent of a little over 4 cans of Coke) without any jittering or twitching. So, if you want the taste of a soda, and the kick of a cup of coffee or two, head on over to the local store (or ThinkGeek Caffeine) and try a Jolt Power Cola.
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Rockstar PUNCHED
One of Rockstar’s newest products, Rockstar PUNCHED, well, it packs a punch. At 120mg of caffeine per 8oz, this can packs 240mg of caffeine. For $1.99 at the local Shell Gas station, this is a great buy.
Rockstar PUNCHED gives off the aroma and taste of your basic fruit punch (think Hawaiian Punch or Tahitian Treat) and its bright red color is just asking to stain your favorite dress shirt or oriental carpet. Rockstar’s basic energy mix is what gives this drink such a kick: Taurine, Ginkgo, Caffeine, Guarana and Ginseng combine to get your body and mind up and running. In addition, Rockstar PUNCHED is fairly fizzy so the carbonation factor keeps you from downing this drink quickly, you would be better off sipping this energy mix.
After downing my can of PUNCHED, I was very pleased. The energy mix got me awake and focused, without making me jittery like some drinks will. I was ready for the day ahead thanks to this new product. Because of its great taste, price and energy Rockstar PUNCHED is definitely one of the better drinks out on the market.
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