Derek Neuland (477 reviews)
NOS High Performance Energy Drink Zero
The Fast and the Furious 6 comes out next week. It would seem appropriate to save this can and review it alongside of the movie, but I don't think they would be so keen on that idea. I could probably wait until an engine revs in the opening credits and time my can opening to that moment so no one would notice. It would probably enhance my experience of watching it.
But let's not kid ourselves, the series is a guilty pleasure of mine and I’m already really excited to see it. Those who know me might be really shocked for my love of a tricked out car racing movie franchise because I have never had my driver’s license. I like taking the bus/ riding my bike and have never had to urge/need to drive. As for my love of the Fast and Furious movies, I look at them the same way I do the Die Hard series: they are really fun to watch.
Now for the drink at hand, it's good but not worthy to be featured next to a fancy car that costs more than I will make in 5 years (Mike is the car guy, I don't know the names/makes/models of cars). It's on the better end of diet energy drinks, but it doesn't have much character to it. It's like the racer that crashes first in each movie; they have a prominent role in the movie but are very forgettable.
- Website
- http://www.drinknos.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sucralose
- Categories
- Diet, Energy Drink
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 1 day, 15 hours ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Liquid Lightning Energy Drink Sugar Free
Hell hath no fury like my scorn for gross energy drinks. If this were someone's first energy drink, I wouldn't blame them for never wanting to try another one again. This is hard to stomach. I don't know if it's the un-original "energy drink" taste that is as bland/gross as the packaging of this can, or the sucralose that is burning an ulcer into my stomach. I have a deadline on Monday and am trying to get ahead so I don't have much to do this weekend. Despite my stomach telling me to stop, I keep drinking this. And you know what? It's not getting any better.
I just took another sip; yup it's still nearly undrinkable.
- Website
- http://llenergy.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sucralose
- Categories
- Diet, Energy Drink
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 1 week, 3 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Monster Energy Ultra Blue
Quote direct from the can: "Ultra Blue is a little less sweet and lighter tasting with zero calories..."
They had me at less sweet. I love Monster energy drinks, but some are ridiculously sugary to the point that I feel like I’m developing a new cavity with every sip. Every word in their quote rings true. Well I can't scientifically prove that there are no calories in this, it tastes like a non-gross diet drink. My guess is due to them using erythritol to sweeten it. Not only does it taste good for a zero calorie sweetener, it's actually good for your teeth!
"Erythritol has been certified as tooth-friendly. The sugar alcohol cannot be metabolized by oral bacteria, so does not contribute to tooth decay. Interestingly, erythritol exhibits some, but not all, of xylitol's tendency to "starve" harmful bacteria."
So next time your mom or dad tells you energy drinks are rotting your teeth, as long as it's sweetened with erythritol you have a great argument.
Overall this is a great energy drink, it is delicious and light and the perfect amount of sweetness. The flavor is hard to pin point, it has a grapefruit taste to it but also has that classic "Monster" taste to it as well. The can is textured like they have been doing with their recent releases and I like it.
post script: Due to the name of this drink, "Ultra Blue", I thought it was beer at first and got really confused when it was next to the other Monster drinks.
- Website
- http://www.monsterenergy.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Erythritol
- Categories
- Diet, Energy Drink
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 1 week, 5 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Kohana Cold Brew Coffee
Concentrated cold brew coffee like this is perfect for people who like REALLY strong coffee. I'm sure there are some people that go against the suggestions on the bottle and don't dilute it with any water and milk. I think those people are called men, or dads. Well except for Mike. One might go as far as saying that he's not a real dad because he doesn't like coffee.
For science, I first tried this without diluting it at all. Now I have never drank motor oil, but I'm guessing it's not far from this as far as potency goes. It would make a great coffee energy shot, rough to drink but would immediately energize you. There you go Kohana, I just gave you some free marketing advice.
Once I decided to not be an idiot and drink this like a normal person would, it was fantastic! Great flavor, great taste, I couldn't ask for more of a cold brew coffee. I often forget to cold-brew coffee the night before (I don't drink a lot so I do it in 1 mason jar batches) so it was nice having this bottle for a few days and not having to worry about it. Also not having to deal with stray coffee grounds was also a plus. No matter how hard I try and how many times I filter my cold-brew, I still find little granules every once in a while.
- Website
- http://www.kohanacoffee.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Categories
- Coffee
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 1 week, 6 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Bai 5 Calories Antioxidant Infusions Limu Lemonade
I love coffee, there's no hiding it. I don't know why it's taken me this long to have a drink made from the fruit of a coffee bean. Verdict? I love it! This lemonade is really delicious, especially for a diet lemonade. I opted to drink this instead of coffee this morning after only a couple hours of sleep and it definitely did the trick. Granted it doesn't have as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, but it has enough to wake me up this morning so I didn't pass out on the bus to work.
- Website
- http://www.drinkbai.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Erythritol
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 2 weeks, 2 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Rubicon Sparkling Lychee
I recently started a new job designing/developing websites. I have been freelancing for a while so getting this job was a nice change. Seeing as I do a lot of reviews in the office, my co-workers have taken an interest in the drinks I bring in. Our project manager Carly mentioned that she liked lychee in the past so I knew she was going to be excited about this drink. Given the track record Rubicon has been having with us lately, I had a good feeling this wouldn't be disappointing.
First thoughts were it had a nice lychee smell to it, but there was something else in there that I couldn't put my finger on. It has a sour after taste, in a good way. Carly said it tasted like grapefruit and I totally agree. It really works well with the lychee, though mysteriously is not present in the ingredients. Keep up the awesome work Rubicon.
- Website
- http://www.rubiconexotic.com/
- Country
- India
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 3 weeks, 2 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
989 OnDemand Orange
Now that I have finally had my ingredients-in-cap virginity taken, I am really enjoying these drinks. I think I just enjoy interacting with a drink and watching it change colors. I guess that's the inner child in me who just likes to watching things magically change before my eyes. If I could rate the drink on how much fun I had in those couple seconds, I would give it a 5.
Unfortunately, the taste is the majority of this arbitrary review system that we made up. Mentally I feel great drinking this due to the obscene amount of vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes. As far as the taste goes, it's just "okay". It's not mine blowing, but it's not horrible. This is a classic middle of the road vitamin water. I will echo Jason's suggestion that selling the caps of these to put in your own water bottle would be a great idea.
- Website
- http://drink989.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Reb A
- Categories
- Diet, Sports/Dietary Supplement, Water
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 3 weeks, 2 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Bulletproof Energy
I was all prepared to ramble about the movie Bulletproof starring Damon Wayans and Adam Sandler in this review, but then I tasted the drink. Let me preface by saying that I like sugar. I eat candy from time to time, prefer my iced tea sweetened, and put sugar (or sugar substitute) in my coffee. That being said, this is WAY too sweet. The phrase "terribly sweet" comes to mind, because nothing should be this sweet. I had 6 cavities filled 7 months ago and two sips of this makes it feel like I'm already developing another 6.
I would like to say that this would be better if it was sugar free, but Jay's review of that didn't fare well either.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sugar
- Categories
- Energy Drink
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 3 weeks, 2 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Pokka Aloe V Blueberry Juice
We at Thirsty Dudes love aloe drinks. You don't believe me? Look at the 73 (and counting) different aloe drinks we've had: http://www.thirstydudes.com/category/aloe-vera. Sure there has been a few bad apples in there, but overall I'm sure the aloe vera category has a better good to bad ratio than most on our site.
Back to the can at hand, I found this in an Asian market while I was visiting Boston last month. I'm really enjoying blueberry + aloe chunks combo. It's making me wish there were blueberry chunks in here as well, but you can't have it all I suppose. Part of me is regretting not saving this for the morning because this would be a great drink to enjoy while I waited for the bus tomorrow morning. Perhaps I'll do that another day with the other flavors I have. Though I think it's the blueberry that is making me think morning. I blame blueberry muffins.
- Website
- http://www.pokka.com.sg/
- Country
- Malaysia
- Sweetener
- Sucrose
- Categories
- Aloe Vera, Chunky Drinks, Juice
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 3 weeks, 3 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
VBlast Vitamins & Spring Water Peach Tea Blast
I have a confession to make: this is the first "ingredients in the cap" drink I have had. I know this isn't a big deal to most people, but I feel ashamed admitting this as a 'Thirsty Dude'. It's almost the equivalent of me saying I never had an aloe drink before. Actually, if that was the case Mike and Jay would probably suspend me from the website. Give me a week off to think about what I did, like I was a delinquent kid who stole his parents golf clubs.
The liquid comes out brown when you unscrew the cap, which was kind of unsettling at first. I'll be honest it looked like diarrhea. Sorry to get that image in your head. Once it mixes with the water, it looks just like peach tea so that initial thought gets flushed away. The peach flavor is quite strong and luckily the sucralose doesn't obscure the taste too much. In fact, for a sugar free drink this is quite sweet. If I had to guess I would have thought it was sweetened with sugar.
The only thing that's disappointing is the lack of much of a tea flavor. There is "tea essence" in this, which sounds like someone sprinkled some tea flakes on top. It tastes closer to vitamin water than peach tea. Since there are lots of vitamins in this, and the base is spring water, this isn't that far fetched.
- Website
- http://www.vblast.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Sucralose
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland 3 weeks, 4 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
