REVIEW OF XYIENCE XENERGY ORANGE FUEL

CAFFEINE CONTENT: 200 MILLIGRAMS PER 16 OUNCE CAN.

RATING: 8.3 OUT OF 10.

It has a long time since I've reviewed an actual energy drink-almost a month, in fact. Thankfully, I happened to be in the grocery store and I immediately went to go look for some of the new Rockstars or Monsters. Unfortunately, they didn't have any new drinks so I went with Xyience Xenergy Orange Fuel. Now Xyience Xenergy is the official energy drink of the Ultimate Fighting Club so I expected the taste to be pretty freaking kick butt. Now the flavor is Orange Fuel so I was expecting more of an orange soda flavor. Instead I got this hardcore kick-in-the-face tangerine flavor. Of course, there was some artificial sweetener mixed in as well, but it's sort of like tangerine flavored soda. And I liked it. Sure, the artificial sweeteners may ruin the taste a little bit, but it's not like you have a choice. All Xyience Xenergys are sugar free. The energy blend is also your basic kick butt blend. It has 200 percent daily value of niacin, 500 percent daily value of vitamin b6, 320 percent daily value of vitamin b12, 1,000 percent daily value of vitamin b12, and a 2,700 milligram energy blend which packs taurine, caffeine (200 milligrams), glucuronolactone, guarana extract, panax ginseng extract, inositol, and l-carnitine. It isn't as good as a Rockstar Punched or a Monster Nitrous with it's ridiculous 5 gram energy blend, but it definitely gets the job done. And the 200 milligrams of caffeine isn't bad either. All right, it's time for the kick. Well, after consuming the whole can I got a medium level rush that lasted for about 4 hours and ended with not necessarily a crash, but with my energy levels going back down to zero. So overall, this drink is pretty nice. I like the tangerine flavor along with the sweet energy blend. Not to mention, the kick isn't bad either. 8.3 out of 10.

REVIEW OF HYPER NUTZ HONEY ROASTED

CAFFEINE CONTENT: UNKNOWN.

Sweet Onion Flavor Shown

RATING: 6.4 OUT OF 10.

Having reviewed well over 200 energy drinks over the course of 2 years, I can safely say that you can add caffeine to literally anything. Don't believe me? Try caffeinated almonds. That's right, Hyper Nutz energy almonds are the world's first (and probably only) caffeinated almond. They come in a few different flavors including honey roasted and sweet onion. I will be reviewing the honey roasted flavor. The almonds come in a green, 2 ounce bag that looks great and makes the almonds look exciting and edgy. The almonds were a bit lackluster, to be honest. They lacked a bold honey roasted flavor, and the crunch was sub-par. They are decent at best, but if you want great tasting almonds, head for the non-caffeinated kind. Hyper Nutz aren't necessarily bad, but this time I would much rather have a regular almond. Hyper Nutz do redeem themselves a little by adding not only caffeine, but taurine, lysine, and ginseng as well. I have no idea how much of each ingredient there is, but I don't think the caffeine content is a lot. It also appears that there is an ingredient that I have never seen before: Lysine. What is it? Well, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, Lysine is an essential amino acid. Lysine is important for proper growth, and it plays an essential role in the production of carnitine. Lysine also appears to help the body absorb calcium, and plays an important role in the formation of collagen. I'm not entirely sure why they would spray Lysine all over almonds, but there you have it. After consuming nearly a whole pack of almonds, the buzz I received from this was mild at best. In fact, it's hardly noticeable at all, but that's not the point is it? Hyper Nutz are just like Perky Jerky, or Sum Seeds. They are novelty caffeine items. Hyper Nutz are made so you can show off to your friends about how your almonds are laced with TMX*. So overall, Hyper Nutz is a decent product. The taste may be bland, but the addition of Lysine almost makes up for it. 6.4 out of 10.

* TMX is an acronym I made-up for Trimethylxanthine, the chemical name for caffeine. Just try saying it. "Bro, I just added some TMX to this apple juice." "No way, that crazy."

REVIEW OF NUCLEAR ENERGY POWDER STRONTIUM

CAFFEINE CONTENT: 90 MILLIGRAMS PER TUBE.

Courtesy of 3B Tech

RATING: 8.4 OUT OF 10.

The energy drink industry has soared tremendously over the past few years. Sales of energy drinks are well into the billions, and finding a way to get noticed is darn near impossible when you have over 400 energy drink companies. So what do you do? Do you create some "brand new" energy drink that's simply just a Red Bull spin-off and call it good? No. You make an energy product, and you make it unique. The people behind Harcos Laboratories are doing just that. They are the proud creators of Zombie Blood, Zombie Jerky, Blood, Mana Potion, Love Potion, Health Potion, and Nuclear Energy Powders. Today, I will be trying out their Strontium flavor of Nuclear Energy Powder. Nuclear Energy Powder comes in a small tube with a yellow label on it. The color inside depends on what flavor you have (mine was red). The powder is extremely similar to a pixie stick and it tastes the same as well. The flavor I had was strawberry, and it tasted like a sweet and sour mix of sugar, sugar, and sugar. If you have a sweet tooth, and a sour tooth, you will definitely like this product. The energy is powered by one ingredient: caffeine. It has about 90 milligrams of the stuff, or roughly a cup of coffee. I slammed the whole sweet-and-sour powder in almost one go. It actually sticks to the roof of your mouth until it melts. I had skipped the morning caffeine so in first hour I was practically asleep. In 2nd hour though, things were a bit different. I was pretty jacked up from eating it all in one go, and I actually had a minor stomach ache for a little bit. The buzz kept my energy levels high for a couple of hours before tapering off without a crash. Overall, if your a fan of pixie sticks, radiation, Fallout 3, nuclear bombs, and/or radium, barium, strontium, uranium, or plutonium, you'll be a fan of Nuclear Energy Powder. 8.4 out of 10.

REVIEW OF BUZZ BITES MINT

CAFFEINE CONTENT: 100 MILLIGRAMS PER PIECE.

RATING: 9 OUT OF 10.

It's been a very long time since I've had the opportunity to review something from Vroom Foods. Vroom makes great products like Foosh Mints and Buzz Bites Chocolates. Today, I will be reviewing the mint flavor of Buzz Bites. To start off, the packaging is almost exactly the same as the regular Buzz Bites, except it's green instead of red. Each chocolate contains 100 milligrams of caffeine. I popped two in my mouth and got a wonderful combination mint and rich chocolate. I thought this was going to be chalky and bitter, but it was simply out of this world. The mint complemented the chocolate perfectly. Definitely an A in my book. Buzz Bites are powered by a combination of 10 percent daily value of thiamin, 10 percent daily value of niacin, 10 percent daily value of pantothenic acid, 20 percent daily value of vitamin b6, 75 percent daily value of vitamin b12, 100 milligrams of caffeine, ginseng, and taurine. It's got the basic energy product package: caffeine, ginseng, taurine, and b vitamins. Wonderful. Like I mentioned earlier, I popped in two chocolates which gave me a hit of 200 milligrams of caffeine. My caffeine intake has decreased a lot since I began taking Attention Deficit Disorder medication, so when I had a couple Buzz Bites, it rocked my socks off. Seriously, if you quit caffeine for a few weeks and then drink an energy drink, the effect will be stellar. I was in a good mood and singing (very badly) to my favorite tunes. It's a fantastic buzz and I highly recommend this product. You can buy it from Vroom Foods or from Chemical Evolution. 9 out of 10.

REVIEW OF BE HAPPY

CAFFEINE CONTENT: NONE.

RATING: 4 OUT OF 10.

We've seen the energy drinks, and we've seen the relaxation beverages. But now, there's a new-ish kid the block: The Mood Booster. If I'm not mistaken, Be Happy is the first mood booster to be reviewed on the site. It comes in a healthy looking green shot bottle and looks very professional. There is a silhouette of a woman, so you know what the target demographic is. It all looks very good, but this drink certainly not without flaws. Let's start with the taste. It says chocolate cherry, but when I took a small sip I got a putrid, tart, cherry flavor. I poured it in a glass and it comes out a disgusting brown color. And it's not like the color brown you get when you make hot chocolate, or chocolate milk. It's more of the color you might find......in the toilet. So, I plugged my nose and gulped it down. Despite most of the flavor being gone from plugging my nose, I still had to chase it with a drink of water. The proprietary mood boosting blend is actually pretty nice. We've got a 600 milligram concoction of chocamine, l-theanine, and GABA. Chocamine is a supplement that gives you all the benefits of chocolate, without the unwanted fat and sugar. There is some caffeine in here, but the amount is so small that it is completely negligible. Unfortunately, all of these ingredients don't seem to do anything. I was having quite a rough day, so I wanted to see if Be Happy could get me out of the doldrums. There was hardly any effect at all, and when I did get better, it's probably because it was my own body, and not some drink. Be Happy is a drink certainly not without it's problems. The taste is terrible, the blend is actually decent, and the effect is nowhere to be found. 4 out of 10. 

REVIEW OF TAKE 10 RELAX

CAFFEINE CONTENT: NONE.

 RATING: 8.3 OUT OF 10.

There has been a steady increase of anti-energy drinks, more formally known as Relaxation Beverages, in the past few months or so. Relaxation beverages use ingredients such as l-theanine and valerian root to keep you feeling at ease. Its objective is to relax you, not to put you to sleep. Although the drink I am reviewing now has a sleep formula which will be reviewed a couple days from now. I first came across Take 10 in a newspaper article that discussed the rise of relaxation beverages. It only touched on a few other products, but the main company they talked about was Take 10 Beverages. I e-mailed them and they were kind enough to send a rather well developed press kit to my doorstep. It contained 2 of each kind (relax and sleep), 2 thick sheets of paper describing the product, a nice looking t-shirt, and a compact disc containing biographies of the main people behind Take 10 and the ingredients used in the product and what those ingredients claim to do. These drinks come in 2 ounce shot bottles and the one I drank had a white grape flavor advertised. It's really a rather sweet drink and it doesn't taste too relaxing. It's almost like a white grape candy if I'm honest. But I'm not nit-picky, and Take 10 Relax tasted great anyway. Take 10 is powered by a wonderful 875 milligram blend of GABA, valerian root extract, rose hips extract, eleutherococcus extract, rhodiola rosea extract, l-theanine, and choline. So for the most part it has your basic relaxation inducing ingredients like GABA, valerian, and l-theanine. The rose hips have also been used before. Choline is a new one I've seen among relaxation beverages. Rhodiola is also new, but I have seen eleutherococcus in a few other products, none of them being relaxation beverages. So did all of these ingredients make me one happy camper? Well, whether it's a placebo or not, I could feel the effects. It's almost as if everything just sort of melts away a little bit. I wasn't tense anymore, and yet I still had energy to go outside and play basketball. Maybe that's a bad thing since this is more of a product to demotivate you. These retail for 3 bucks a crack and if you happen to pass by one, I say go for it. You've really got nothing to lose. 8.3 out of 10.

REVIEW OF BLAST

CAFFEINE CONTENT: 80 MILLIGRAMS PER 8.3 OUNCE CAN. 

16 ounce can shown

RATING: 8.3 OUT OF 10.


Today is a very special day, marking the 2nd birthday of Addicted 2 Energy. Thanks everybody! Now, let's get to today's review. Or should I say Saturday's review? I always love it when companies e-mail me to review there product, but I especially love it when it's a company I've never heard of. This one is called Blast Energy Drink and it comes in a 2 ounce shot, 8.3 ounce can, and 16 ounce can. I decided to go with the 8.3 ounce can for the review. The packaging is definitely a pop out on any shelf and the red, white, and blue rays should catch people's attention. However, the build quality, at least on the 8 ounce version, is iffy at best. Normally, the shrink wrap labels on cans are pretty much impossible to remove since they are fused to the can. With Blast, I got my finger underneath the small plastic flap and ripped the label off, revealing a silver aluminum can. It's the first time I've seen a can without a label, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen. Luckily, the taste is fantastic. You'll feel 12 years old again with a sweet berry flavor. Blueberry seems to dominate in this drink and I am a fan of blueberry. They definitely beat Red Bull in the taste category, and I give them kudos for making there own flavor instead of making a Red Bull clone. The energy blend is also pretty nice, let's check it out together. We have 100 percent daily value of vitamin b3, 50 percent daily value of vitamin b5, 2,000 percent daily value of vitamin b6, 5,000 percent daily value of vitamin b12, and a 1,250 milligram proprietary energy blend consisting of malic acid, tuarine, glucuronolactone, phenylalanine, tyrosine, Quick-Sorb (ginger rhizome, amla fruit, capsicum fruit), and guarana seed extract. And of course there is 80 milligrams of caffeine and 2 milligrams of inositol. Wow, not your typical energy drink ingredients, for sure. I mean there is the caffeine, tuarine, inositol, guarana, and glucuronolactone. But stuff like ginger rhizome and capsicum fruit? I've never heard of such things. So kudos again for reaching out and finding new ingredients to add to the energy blend. Regardless of whether the new found ingredients worked or not, I did get a satisfactory boost from Blast. Nothing over the top, but on-par with your energy drink leaders. With over 400 energy drink companies, it's hard to make a name for yourself. But I see a nice future with Blast. 8.3 out of 10.