Energy Drinks

I've always scoffed at people who drink Coffee. Addicts! I say. (I figure they have to be addicted. No normal person would ever drink coffee on purpose.) Caffeine has never had an immediate effect on me, although prolonged caffeine has to have an effect overall on sleep. (I have such a messed up sleep schedule anyway that I don't notice it, but I believe the science. Anyone who tells you caffeine has zero effect on them is just ignorant.)

But I can no longer mock the caffeine-addicted coffee freaks.

Due part to the incredible work schedule I'm trying to maintain (I do it all for you), I have turned to Energy Drinks. In fact, over the last six weeks I have become something of an expert, trying every single one I can find. (It took me only about a week to realize they made bigger sizes. I haven't looked back.) The caffeine isn't the goal (or I'd just drink pop); and the sugar is negligable too (since that starts to leave your body after twenty minutes.)

No, it's the "medicinal" ingredients that make these Energy Drinks to great. Things like Niacin (Vitamin B3), Ginko Baloba, Ginseng, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B5, Taurine, Guarana, maltodextrin, inositol, carnitine and glucuronolactone.

All of these are good. Some may work better on you than others; you'll have to experiment. It seems to me that the drinks with Taurine, Guarna and Ginseng had the most effect, but don't quote me on that because the control conditions were obviously never the same, and my body had many other influences (lack of sleep, amount of work/stress) gumming up the results.

What I am positive about is the taste. So I present to you, free of charge, my findings of the best and worst Energy Drinks.



The Worst Tasting:

#5 Beaver Buzz - Not that horrible, but not great either.

#4 Monster

#3 Rock Star

#2 Joker - Monster, Rock Star and Joker basically have the same flavor, and all are so bad that I have to plug my nose to drink them.

#1 Red Bull - Not really any worse tasting than any of the others, but gets the clear #1 because a small can is usually 3 bucks; you can get a can twice as large of much much better stuff for 2-3 bucks. With all the good stuff out there, there is simply no excuse in the world to pay Red Bull prices when you can get twice as much good-tasting stuff for less.


Dishonorable mention: Fusion - tastes fine, but absolutely no effect on the body any of the times I drank it. You're better off drinking water.


Shockingly, there are som really good drinks out there. After starting with Red Bull, I thought they all had to taste bad, but not so!


Best Tasting:

#5 Red Rain - Like Dr. Pepper and cough syrrup mixed; not the greatest but chugs quickly and relatively smoothely

#4 Piranha - Very mellow, great flavors to choose from

#3 Full Throttle - Like a jacked-up lemonade. Chugs easily, which is important because none of these are sipping beverages. You drink them as quickly as possible to get the effect. [Full Throttle is probably the most effective of any of the drinks I've yet tasted]

#2 Sobe Rush - A very pleasant taste after only a small amount of adjustment. Sort of a fizzy pink grapefruit and peachy taste. I've heard Sobe makes great drinks, and I would concur based on this alone.

and the number one Energy Drink I've ever tasted in my brief foray into this world.....

#1 BooKoo - I just now tried BooKoo as I'm sitting at Dennys writing this, Wild Berry to be exact. Boo Yah! Boo Koo rocks. This tasted as smooth as a Clearly Canadian, and didn't have the least bit of aftertaste. Quite the delicacy. Remains to be seen how much of an effect it will give me, but the can is the size of three small ones instead of two, which can't hurt!