Wednesday, July 16, 2008

...Lost Five-O


...Lost is an energy drink I haven't gotten to know. I didn't think much of the original ...Lost; it was just a Monster clone, like Ace and Joker. This variety of ...Lost looks pretty tasty, though, and I can't wait to bust open. I need the energy today especially, because I'm going to rearranging and moving stuff around all day. The end result and how long it takes to get there is going to determine this drink's kick. I know that this is going to be very similar to a Monster, ingredient-wise. Per serving, you get 2500mg of the same energy blend and 1000mg of Taurine. But the difference between this and a Monster is going to be the taste. This thing comprises of 50% apple, orange, pear, peach, tangerine, pineapple, and white grape juices. I'm thinking this is going to be an unbelievable roller coaster of taste.

I cracked this thing open and some wispy vapor rose from the opening. The liquid comes out a cloudy, thicker-than-normal peachy tangerine color. Its smell makes me think of sour white grape and pineapple. This isn't your run-of-the-mill juice drink, this has an awesome sweet, sour, earthy pear/peach taste that is pretty addicting. It reminds me quite a lot of the Jugo, probably because of the white grape and orange. I'm not so sure I can taste every juice distinctly, but there definitely is some apple, orange, and peach in the background. The carbonation complements the juice, in my mind. Compared to the BooKoo Jugo, this drink is way smoother and tastes very sweet, which helps carry along all the rich fruit flavors. Honestly, this is such an amazing drink, I strongly wish to just step away and chug this baby. As this goes into your mouth, first you taste sweet orange/tangerine and peach. It then evolves into a puckeringly sour pineapple and orange. Swallowing it, I can taste the earthy and smooth white grape. This is one drink that's gonna go fast, even in a 24oz size.

The ingredients of the ...Lost look mighty strong. ...Lost's energy ingredients include 1000mg per serving of taurine, and 2500mg per serving of the energy blend, which includes caffeine, glucose, ginseng, inositol, guarana, L-carnitine, and maltodextrin. Because this is a juice drink, you would think that this would be sweetened by pure sucrose and the sugars in the fruit juices, but that isn't the case here. For some odd reason, ...Lost decided to sweeten this with glucose, but also sucralose and acesulfame potassium. That could explain why this tastes sweet with only 16g of true sugars per serving listed in the Nutrition Facts. While drinking this, I didn't think it tasted artificial, so I guess the artificial aftertaste of the artificial sweeteners was masked somehow. It wouldn't be easy to pull off a fruity drink partially sweetened with sucralose and "ace-k" without an aftertaste, which tells you that this drink was made with care. That figures. This drink may say "...Lost", but it's really a drink made by Monster. Monster is the only company I can count on to pull this kind of thing off and they did. Overall, I'd advise you to pick this up whenever you get the chance.

Taste: 9.5 - Irresistible sour and sweet tangerine/white grape/peach
Kick: 8 - An incredible Monster kick
Overall: 9.4 - Awesome juice drink

Reviewed by: Jeff

Well Big! Lots pays off again, 24 ounces of ...Lost Five-0 for only a buck! Some Big! Lots have a lot of energy drinks we need, and some have different kinds we need and don't need. Obviously, the Big! Lots 30 miles away was the one we needed to go to. I'll try to make this quite brief on my part on the double review because I know Jeff really wanted to review it; On second thought, I think I'll just do a standard review. This drink has a cool background being random spray paintings and fences with brick walls. It's got a cool ...Lost logo with an orange and black planet and Five-0 Energy + Juice printed under it. I'm seeing 50% juice which will probably give it a nice naturally sweet flavor, aside from the sucralose. I think that this Five-0 will wow me, it looks so good with 50% juice and all those natural tropical fruits; I can't wait to crack this bad boy open.

I opened up the can without a problem and immediately swooped in to find a nice peachy Monster aroma, a lot like the Kronik, but not as dull. It comes out of the can a nice orangy peach tangerine color, with a lot of apple giving it a creamy darker hue. The taste of the Five-0 is really smooth having a primary flavor of apple, peach, pineapple, and a secondary flavor of orange, pear, tangerine, and white grape. The flavor really is exceptional, all because the sweetener is really natural, coming mostly from the fruits. However, I glance at the ingredients and find sucralose, that really is too bad, though it's not that noticeable. Jeff and I have been noticing, sadly, sucralose (Splenda) is getting into every energy drink, including Monster. The aftertaste is really nothing, just a tie up of all the great tropical flavors in one great sip or so. ...Lost really makes their great by putting little carbonation, which is set just right to make this Juice Energy Drink really substantial. I notice just a bit of gumminess, which I think is from all the fruits and part from the sucralose. Overall, the great flavors will boost you miles away and into the tropical beaches of Hawaii and the Bahamas.

As for ingredients, ...Lost Five-0 has carbonated water, fruit juice concentrates which are: apple, orange, pear, peach, tangerine,
pineapple, and white grape; now that's a lot of fruit. It's also got some glucose to help sweeten it, taurine, natural and artificial flavor, glucoronolactone, sodium citrate, potassium sorbate, ginseng, caffeine, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, beta carotene, and guarana. I'm a bit disappointed in ...Lost's idea to put sucralose and acesulfame potassium, I'm sure it would taste a lot better without it. If you're wondering why there's beta carotene in here, I'll tell you that it helps give it that smooth bright tropical color. Per can, you only get 210 calories and 48g of sugar. Remember, this is a 24 ounce drink, so 210 is pretty darn good, being just 10 calories more than a Monster, and only 6g of sugar less than a Monster. To me, this is a low calorie drink, if it were made in an 8 ounce can, and if I were drinking a 16 ounce can. Besides taurine, the single ingredient count is undisclosed, but all together, there's 7500mg per 24 ounces, average, but I'm cool with that. All in all, I was really surprised ...Lost could make such a good juice-like energy drink, ranking up there with the Monster M-80; we know it's that good because Monster helped make ...Lost.



Taste: 8.5 - A nice smooth blend of tropical flavors; quite earthy as well
Kick: 8.6 - The kick was good, I used the energy by doing some renovating
Overall: 8.5 - I would definitely look for this drink more often and probably get it again

Reviewed by: Chan

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Reviewers

Jeffery "Jeff," Chandler "Chan"