Energy Drink - 555 Reviews

This is something that we don't normally do over here at Thirsty Dudes; explain the origin of a drink. Not history as much as the story of how we got it.

About a month ago I was contacted by Krish from India. He introduced this drink to us. I was honestly about to write it off because I though the guy was trying to give us coconuts, but it turns out that I can't read and he was telling me about a drink that is pure coconut.

I apologized for being a stupid idiot, gave him the address and he shipped it out. About a week later, a package came, and what a package:




I have never seen a package like this. It was woven in some sort of cloth. Hand stitched closed and it was done well. This guy was a pro. As I opened it, I thought to myself, "There could very easily be a finger in here. I hope there's not a finger in here." Once I got the woven layer off, there was a paper cover. I removed that to find that there was a box a Christmas lights. I found that odd, but promptly opened it up. There were paper shavings and inside was a small bottle of coconut water. "Pfew", I thought to myself. Now that this isn't a finger or any other sort of appendage, I decided to put it in the fridge and wait for the right time.

A few days later and with no real rhyme or reason, I thought that now would be a good time. I pried off the cap to reveal a little divot where a straw would be perfect but since I didn't think of that, I put a knife in it, opened it up, and started drinking.

There is nothing in this but coconut and "bio-preservatives" which I can only assume are natural preservatives that will allow the coconut water to keep longer than two days. It's good, too. It's exactly like what I would think cracking a coconut open and pouring it into an adorable container would taste like. The super light, inherent, natural sweetness of coconut mixed with its dry flavor is actually pretty good.

Now obviously if you find this stuff, it's not going to come inside an adventure of a container and I was lucky enough to have Kirsh take the time to send it to me, but you will get the same great drink inside. Want to take a trip to an island but don't have the money? Find this stuff, go to a home improvement store and buy some sand, and don't forget the umbrella toothpicks. I hope that you can get it at some sort of Indian market. Perhaps I can get Kirsh to comment and let you know where in the States and abroad you can get it.

Hydrive is slowly becoming my favorite non-carbonated energy drink. For being in a market full of carbonated drinks, they really needed to step up the game to stand out. First, the tall slender bottles are not used often. Plus, they are really good to hold while drinking. Secondly, it's only 30 calories a bottle and this is almost 16 oz! Even though this is a low calorie drink, it doesn't have a diet taste to it at all, which is great.

Speaking of taste, for an energy drink, this is awesome! It has no chemical taste to it at all. It's basically like Vitamin Water with a blend of energy giving ingredients. I'm only half the way through the bottle and I can already tell it works. I was yawning before I opened it up but now I'm wide awake and ready to be productive. Since it's not full of sugar and calories, I actually feel good after drinking this.

This is my 2nd time around with this energy shot. The first time I was testing it out to see if it was actually an "All Day" energy. Verdict: nope. About three hours after I drank it I was feeling a little tired. It worked well for a short period, but definitely not 'all day'.

Now the taste; kind of reminds me of sour berry cough syrup. It's not the worst energy shot I've had, but certainly not the best. Good thing it's small and the taste doesn't linger for too long.

Welcome to the annual American Academy of Taste championship race. We have five strong energy drink competitors but only one can take home the gold. And we're off! Red Bull takes an early lead with Monster trailing behind and Rockstar in third. Red Bull's legs are already getting weak and Monster sneaks into first. Oooooh! Rockstar trips around the 2nd bend and is down and out which gives Amp the 3rd place spot. Monster has a big lead coming into the third turn, but what's this? Go Fast Sports is quickly catching up to the pack. He was in 4th place the whole race so far we almost forgot he was racing. He over takes Amp and Red Bull on the 3rd turn and is on the heels of Monster. This is going to be close. They are neck and neck! The crowd is going wild, who's it going to be!? Wow! That was too close to call. We have to go to the instant replay. And the judges say.....Go Fast Sports is the winner!!!! What a surprising turn of events seeing as no one had heard of Go Fast Sports at the beginning of this race.

I have never heard of the American Academy of Taste, but apparently they awarded this drink a Gold Metal in Superior Taste. I don't really understand what their criterion is or why they would do such a thing. Don't get me wrong this is much better than a lot of energy drinks. It has that melted sugary candy taste (this time it's sweet tarts) that I've come to love in energy drinks. Other than that, it's nothing special. It still has that usual energy drink aftertaste. As far as the energy portion goes, it definitely works. I was feeling a little sleepy before I opened the can and now I'm awake and ready to celebrate Thirsty Tuesday.

Last night was a celebration of nerds. I started off the evening by going to see comedian Todd Barry do his thing. It was a lesson in the hysterical and a good time was had by all present. After that is when my nerd-ish tendencies really kicked it up as I went to the opening night 12:30 showing of the last Harry Potter movie. I don't feel the need to ever talk about Harry Potter, but I definitely enjoyed the books and the movies. I was exhausted before I even went to the comedy show, so I knew I was going to need a little liquid help to get me through the night. Good thing for me we've recently acquired an obscene amount of energy drinks that will probably take me the rest of my life to get through.

I chose the Go Fast Berry drink for tonight. Mainly because it was a decent size and I was also thirsty (I mean I AM a Thirsty Dude). Don't worry, it's a larger size can, but it has approximately the same "energy mix" content as your regular sized Red Bull. It's just more fluid so they can work on taste. One thing I can say about Go Fast is that they do work on their flavors. They also take pride in the fact that there are no artificial flavors or preservatives in their drinks. This has blueberry, blackberry and raspberry extract in it. You have to appreciate an energy drink that has some real juice in it. Especially when you can actually taste it like this one. They use Stevia as a sweetener and it's also unfortunately obvious in the taste. It is way better than other "lo-cal" sweeteners, but it still has a distinctive taste that I believe takes away from the flavor. If you are looking to drink healthier, you probably shouldn't be drinking energy drinks, but if you need to this would be the way to go.

PS. Voldemort dies.

Let's kick this thing in to high gear! I wish we had a commemorative drink to...commemorate this occasion. What do you have there? HyDrive? What's that, an energy drink? I don't like energy drinks. They taste like someone put fake sugar and a case of Smarties in a can and called it "energy". Fine, I'll try it. Because this is such a momentous occasion, I will try it. Because you are the best man in my wedding, I will try it.

It's not bad. Is that strawberry? Kiwi strawberry, huh? Cool. Got to say, I don't get any kiwi but the strawberry is pretty good. It's got the smallest bit of a diet sting to it, but it's so light that it's not hard to convince myself it's the strawberry.

I don't feel energized but it's only been three minutes. It's pretty good and at only thirty calories per bottle, I'm sure to still fit in this cummerbund. Now where were we? Right. The momentous occasion that is buying a killer 1988 Ford Taurus sedan. Let's kick this thing in to high gear!

When a man is broken down the only thing to do is to load his vital stats into a computer and have it create an 80's like line diagram of his body. That way you can use science to fix him, to make him better. After everything is loaded in the best way to proceed is to pour a bottle of this beverage into your disc drive. It will take care of the rest. Sticky circuit boards are what it takes to cure a man.

This is rather odd. I don't know whether to call it a soda or a tea. I guess it is both, but I feel like one should have dominance. It is green tea extract added to carbonated water and the only sweeteners in it are the ones that come from fruit juice. That's something I can appreciate. They could have stopped there and had a decent drink, but that's not going to rebuild a man. In their wisdom they added kola nut, guarana, taurine, damiana, ginseng, ginko biloba, suma, gotu kola, echinacea, capsicum, dandelion root, kombucha and others. As a result I think this technically becomes an energy drink instead of a recovery beverage. Who knows, maybe they were able to complete the hybrid of the two with their sticky circuit boards.

Flavor-wise this is fairly similar to any carbonated green tea I've had. It has an accurate cranberry taste to it. There was a slight strange aftertaste and it wasn't until after I read the ingredients that I realized it was sarsaparilla. Why that is in there I will never know.

A reader of Thirsty Dudes recently sent us a link to Death By Caffeine. It's a site where you can input your weight and choose a drink from a drop down list and it will tell you how many cans/bottles you would have to consume to die from caffeine consumption. This drink wasn't on it, but it has the same amount as many other energy drinks of this size (80mg). Apparently it would take 185 cans of this to kill me.

Do I want to drink 185 cans of this in a row? Not really. Don't get me wrong this is not bad. It's actually pretty decent for an energy drink. It's made with sugar, and not fake sweetener or HFCS like a lot of energy drinks. It vaguely tastes like a less acidic Red Bull.

My only complaint about this drink is it's not blue in color. Very misleading with a name like Blu.

Today ended up being pretty glorious. My ladyfriend and I went on a bit of a bike ride. When I got home my roommate informed me that he was going to the 42nd Puerto Rican Greased Pole Festival. I said "Wait....whaaaaaaat?" and jumped back on my bike and rode to downtown-ish. This festival was fairly small, but if I was a meat eater I believe I would have been in heaven. I have to admit all the food looked amazing. Then it began. The Greased Pole Climb. Four teams of five members had to build a human totem pole by climbing up each other on a pole that looked like it had used motor oil slathered all over it. It was downright hysterical. Only one team made it all the way to the top of the telephone pole to grab the prize at the top. Everyone involved was completely covered in grease and I laughed a lot and didn't understand a word the announcer said because it was all in Spanish.

By the time I got back home after all of that I was pretty beat, but we were meeting some friends for dinner, so Natalie and I split this bottle of Hydrive. We both needed a little pick-me-up, but didn't want to get all crazy. What we drank is essentially a Vitamin Water-esque drink with some energy drink style additives. As Neuland pointed out it's strange to have non-carbonated energy drinks. It's even weirder when those words are printed on the bottle. This tasted exactly like grape Popsicles. It's not something I normally look for in a drink, but since it was very hot and humid today, it seemed sort of fitting. This also has aloe vera and acai in it and it's supposed to help speed up recovery time from a night on the town or some such thing. I don't know if that's true, but I bet a bunch of people at that festival could use some of this tomorrow morning.

This drink is an anomaly. First off, it's a non-carbonated energy drink. This used to be a rarity, but they are becoming more and more popular lately. Secondly, it's made up of 100% juice. Could it be an energy drink that's actually good for you? Who would have ever thought that would be real? Third, the color on the logo is purple, so you assume this would be a grape drink, or at least purple in color right? Nope, it's bright green.

You know in the movie Role Models where they are peeing in the school bathroom after drinking all those Minotaur Energy Drinks? To quote Paul Rudd, “It looks like Shrek's piss”. That is EXACTLY what color this drink is. Not necessarily a bad thing, just weird.

Just like the original flavor of Rumba, this is a really good tasting drink. It mostly tastes like juice (a mix of apple in grape in my opinion), with a hint of energy drink taste. I think most people would think this is just juice if they were given a blind taste test. Good stuff!

I really should hate these drinks. They are loaded with sucralose and have a diety/chemical taste to them. Basically they are diet energy drinks that are supposed to help you burn more calories. I don't know if it's just the normal energy drink ingredients that help you burn calories because you are all hyped up, or if there is something else involved. With all of that being said, I somehow don't hate them. There is something alluring about these drinks. This one in particular is kind of decent. It taste like iced tea and energy drink mixed together with a whole bunch of fake sugar. If someone was used to diet drinks I think this would actually be pretty good to them. I can vouch for the fact that they do give you energy and a bit of the jitters as an added bonus.

Tommy, want to see something cool? My dad was in the army and I was snooping around his garage yesterday and found a grenade! It's a little smaller than I expected it to be, but they always make things look bigger in movies. What do you mean it's not a real grenade? So what if there are words on it? I just figured there are different models of grenades, just like guns. It's all about advertising and brand recognition.

Oh, I didn't see the ingredient list on the back. Wait, so this is an energy drink? And this is just a plastic wrapper that looks like a grenade? Man I feel like an idiot. It looks so lifelike though. Want to open it? No, I don't think it's going to blow up because the flavor is “fruit blast”. Why would they make an explosive energy drink? That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Have you ever had an energy shot before Tommy? No? Well, they usually taste gross. Imagine the taste of an energy drink condensed into a couple tablespoons. You're supposed to just chug them, hence why they are called “energy shots”. This one isn't too bad actually. It has a fruit punch taste to it. Yes Tommy, I know you love Hawaiian Punch. Come on Tommy, you don't need to show me your…€¦. okay, that Hawaiian Punch tattoo is actually pretty cool. Too bad this doesn't taste like Hawaiian Punch.

The whole time I was drinking this, I kept being tempted to throw it. It's just the perfect size to grip. Given that the packaging looks like a grenade, who wouldn't want to throw it?

The world of non-carbonated energy drinks is still new to me. I'm not against them, they're just relatively new to the world and I'm still getting used to them. There have been some amazing ones, like the Monster Rehab, which make me optimistic for Hydrive.

There are a lot of things unique to this drink. For one, it's in a tall plastic bottle, which is uncommon with energy drinks. Plus, it's basically a vitamin...I'm sorry, 'enhanced' water with energy ingredients in it. As for the taste, not bad, but not amazing. The black cherry flavor is strong, and almost has a medicinal quality to it. It doesn't taste like an energy drink, which is always a good thing, but it's a lot heavier than other vitamin waters. This is definitely a good alternative to traditional carbonated energy drinks.

I never understood why people think camo is "cool". In high school, so many people wore camo pants but I never understood it. They just looked like more generic Zubaz pants. Camo was invented to stay hidden. Urban camo pants aren't going to help you sneak out of your 3rd period science class. I also always associate camo with hunting and military, both of which I don't like.

The camo on this can is a modern "digital" camo. I'm sure there's a real name for it, but I'm calling it "digital camo" because it looks like an 8 bit video game. If I worked for Monster's art department, I would have hidden a couple classic NES characters in the design. If Nintendo tried to sue them, they could just point out that there's one pixel different.

Oh yeah, the drink. It's red, and it tastes like cherries. Pretty original huh? Like most Monster drinks, it's really tart which I like. It still has that energy drink after taste. On top of that, I'm drinking this on an empty stomach so it doesn't feel awesome. I didn't intend to drink it before I ate, my vegan potpie is just taking way too long to bake and I was thirsty. Lesson learned: thaw vegan pot pies beforehand so they cook faster.

What is it with energy drinks tasting like melted sugary candy? Red Bull tastes exactly like liquid Smarties. I challenge you to debate that. And this one? This tastes like liquid Sweet Tarts. I can just picture the energy drink scientists at Monster with their white lab coats developing the next delicious energy drink. Runts? Nah, not many people like the bananas. Nerds? Way too many flavors, it would be a cornucopia of flavors and confuse people's taste buds. How about Sweet Tarts? Hmmm, tangy, sweet, and delicious! It's a winner!

Well, maybe not a winner overall. It's good, but not great. There are much worse diet energy drinks out there. This tastes more sweet than acidic for a diet drink, which is very nice. But at the end of the day, I'd rather have a non-diet energy drink.

Man, I'm tired. All I've been doing all day is sitting around in my boxers, refreshing the same 3 web pages. I have no direction in my life am bored all the time.

*ominous voice of a 3rd rate pro-wrestler* HEY MAN! I KNOW WHAT YOU NEED, ENERGY 2000!!!!

Energy 2000? My mom told me to avoid energy drinks because she says they are a gateway to harder drinks like coffee.

DON'T BE A WIMP! THIS LITTLE DRINK WILL GIVE YOU THE ENERGY YOU NEED TO SUCCEED IN LIFE!

Ok! It says it's orange flavor, but it tastes like a diet version of the worst cough medicine ever.

STOP SIPPING IT AND CHUG IT! IT'S CALLED AN ENERGY SHOT FOR A REASON!

Ugh! That was vile! At least it's over now. I already feel energized, thanks ominous voice of 3rd rate wrestler.

YOU'RE WELCOME! NO ONE GIVES YOU ENERGY BETTER THAN ENERGY 2000!

Ok, I got the point. Can you stop yelling at me now?

NO I CAN'T! THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I CAN TALK!!

Ugh, then just leave and bring your gross energy shots with you.

ENERGY 2000! MORE ENERGY THAN YOU CAN HANDLE!

It's a Wednesday night and you just got home from a long day of work. Not only was it a 10-hour day in the office, but you also had 3 meetings that went way too long. Plus, you had your bosses breathing down your neck all day because you didn't file your TPS reports yesterday. After you take off your shoes and drop your bag on the chair you make your way to the kitchen. Just as you open the refrigerator, you remember that you were planning on going grocery shopping today after work but you totally forgot due to your stressful day. As you look at your fridge, all you see is Frank's hot sauce, 4 different kinds of Dijon mustard, and a carton of lemonade.

Just as you are about to give up on the prospect of eating for the night, you notice a leftover box peeking out from behind the lemonade. It's the Pad Thai you had 4 days ago but couldn't finish. Normally, your limit for leftovers is two days. Three max. Memories of the 5-day-old spaghetti you ate in the spring of 2007 still haunt you. You're really hungry though, so you decide to take the risk and eat the Pad Thai. Luckily, it's better than you expected it to be. Obviously it isn't as good as when you first had it three days ago, but you were expecting the worst and it by far exceeded you expectations.

This energy drink is much like that Pad Thai. I bought it at Big Lots, the land where drinks that no one wants anymore go. I've had some really vile energy drinks from there before. I consciously didn't look at the can of this before taking my first sip. To my surprise, it was actually decent. Then I noticed that the second ingredient (after carbonated water) was a medley of juices. In fact, this is 50% juice, which is where the name "Five-O" comes from. They had the people from Monster develop this drink, and it really shows. Monster really knows how to make a delicious energy drink.

Given all that, this is still a mediocre energy drink. It doesn't have a lot of battery acid taste, but there's a little there. I was honestly thinking this was going to be a bottom of the barrel drink, but it exceeded my expectations.

Skeleteens were way ahead of their time in the soda timeline. They made weird and unusual sodas while the rest of the world was content with the classics. On top of that they were also way ahead of the game in terms of energy drinks. They played a large role in my beverage consumption as a teenager and they will always have a place in my heart. I'm so glad that Real Soda has taken over the drink line and it has seen the light of day again.

I love this drink, but my question is why does it taste nothing like it's purple counterpart? The purple Love Potion is grape flavored with a burn to it. This is more of a berry flavor with the slightest memory of a burn. It actually has a candied flavor with a kick to it. I don't really know how to explain it. It tastes like it should burn your throat, but it doesn't. It's definitely a unique flavor.

As with most of the Skeleteens' sodas I could do without all of the wacky sayings on the label, but I know that was part of the charm of these drinks when I was 15.

Jay has been hyping this drink up to me for a while. I don't think it was this flavor, but he swears by it and bought a case for himself. For a guy who tries several new drinks a day to buy a whole case of one flavor means a lot.

Most people wouldn't dream of drinking something that is supposed to give you energy at 1:45 am. Luckily, I'm not most people. I am very much a night owl and usually get my best work done between the hours of 10pm and 4am. I've only had a few sips so far and I'm already feeling much more awake then I was 20 minutes ago as I was lugging my laundry up from the basement. So for functionality, this is awesome!

As far as taste goes, much like Jay's experience with the raspberry acai flavor, this leaves a lot to be desired. It has a strong green tea flavor, which is great for someone who loves green tea (I am not one of those people). The peach mango flavors are much more subtle, and are almost afterthoughts in each sip. And then of course you have the fake sugar (sucralose) which makes it all the more undesirable. It's cool to have a non-carbonated, non-soda like energy drink for a change. Unfortunately, I won't be running to the store and buying a case of this flavor.

Energy drink with organic ingredients? Check.
Energy drink that doesn't taste like battery acid? Check.
Berry flavor that tastes like a melted freezie pop? Check.

On second thought, it also reminds me a lot of sweet tarts (easily one of my top 10 favorite candies). Steaz did it again and made a great natural energy drink. It doesn't have an acidic or heavy taste like a lot of energy drinks do. Also if you need vitamin B12, this drink has you covered. In one serving, it contains 833% of your daily-recommended amount of B12. Oh, and this can has 1.5 servings so that's 1,249.5% of your daily B12!! Hopefully too much B12 isn't bad for you.