M-150

Energy shots haven't been much of a priority on Canned Reviews, but I just decided to run over to 7-11 and go grab the energy drinks I needed to review, including the M-150. I've seen a lot of energy shots out nowadays, but this one is pretty different than most of them. It's in a 6.2 ounce glass bottle and has a cool twist-off cap, as well as a race car themed background. The red background color is probably supposed to symbolize leather seating because it has a pattern seen on many seats and gas gauge pointing to a lightning bolt symbol. So far, I'm expecting a pretty good kick, although I don't know how much caffeine is in here and how long it's even going to last. M-150 is printed in a fiery red-orange color with some interesting facts about the drink like "Non-Carbonated Energy Drink" and "Single Shot." Other than that, this drink has a pretty basic glass bottle design, which I like. By the way, M-150 is a unique single shot size of non-carbonated energy drink. Just the right amount to effectively boost your strength and energy levels, free from fizz. Less is More, to quote M-150. I don't know what to expect from M-150, maybe a cranberry flavor, assuming from the red color it gives. I don't know, but I think I'm ready to find out now...

I open up the bottle careful for it not to slip out of my hands, and am met with a strong Monster clone aroma. My hopes are down because I've had enough Monster clones and right now, one doesn't sound good at all, good thing it's only 6 ounces. The color is a pale amber hue, much lighter than a Monster, and no fizziness. The taste is definitely unlike any Monster clone I've tried thus far on our website. It starts off as a Monster clone, with an apple-grape flavor, but then switches to a sharp, bitter ammonia taste. I'm tasting a crisp flavor, which means no HFCS, and probably sucrose and glucose. Shots are meant to taste weird, so I'll let this slide, besides, why should shots taste good, they're puny? The strong aftertaste makes me want to down the rest of this drink and wait for the kick shortly following, having that same nasty ammonia flavor, very unappetizing. Besides that, the M-150 is really sweet, so sweet it even pinches going down the throat. It's not gummy at all, which makes me want to take a glance at the ingredients. I do, and sure enough, I find sucrose, fructose, and glucose, all good sweeteners. Being a 6 ounce shot, M-150 goes pretty fast, and I wouldn't recommend you drink two of these until you find your tolerance for M-150. All you big drinkers out there, wait it out if you're into drinking a few shots in one day. Overall, M-150 wasn't about the taste, but the kick revving into first place throughout the next few hours or so, can't wait to find out.

The ingredients are decent having water, sucrose, fructose, glucose, taurine, inositol, natural caffeine, niacin, pantothenol, pyridoxine, riboflavin phosphate sodium, L-carnitine, ginseng, citric acid, artificial flavors, caramel color, and sodium benzoate. The sugars combine to create a crisp Monster flavor, but doesn't even out the bitterness in the aftertaste. Natural caffeine is found in most energy shots around town, and improves focus, rather than giving you just a few hours worth of jitteriness. The flavor really showed me that it had no natural flavors, just artificial flavors. A glance at the ingredients list reads artificial flavors, what a surprise. I wish I knew the amount of caffeine I'm receiving, just know, and just to be safe, but M-150 decided to leave it undisclosed. Per bottle, you get a crazy 130 calories, and 31g of sugar, wow. I guess they really did manage to squeeze a lot of sugar in this minute 6 ounce glass bottle, that's okay though, it helps the kick even more. The prescense of guarana isn't in the bottle, which gets me thinking "Why wouldn't they improve the kick by putting guarana in with the mix of caffeine and a lot of sugar?" Oh well, I'll just see how it plays out later on... All in all a great kick came out of the M-150, and I guess it's true, less really is more, when it comes to energy shots.

Taste: 3.5 - Not really meant for taste, although I didn't enjoy the nasty ammonia aftertaste
Kick: 9.7 - Energy Shots are pretty cool, if you need to be doing something requiring a lot of energy
Overall: 8 - I had to think for awhile what to give it overall, adding in part of the taste rating...

Reviewed by: Chan