Rip It Gin-Zing-R

I finally got my hands on the other Rip It energy drinks that aren't found commonly around grocery stores and supermarkets. I obtained this drink via a buddy that I traded with, so if you leave comments asking me where to find one of these, I will not know the answer. It seems like the other 'Unknown' Rip Its have a better can design, in terms of color, and color variation. This one is a somewhat dull golden color, with black and silver strands going down, up, and on the sides of a medium sized "Rip It" and a small "Energy Fuel" phrase targeted towards the top of the can. Now the flavor is really what got me confused because what really is a "Gin-Zing-R, anyways? I think it may be the amount o ginseng in the energy drink, resulting in an insane kick, I really hope it is. But now, the flavor may be something unusual, like apple or, perhaps even orange...I have no clue at all, that may be the reason why I'm pretty excited to crack this one open. Rip It tends to amaze me with their ultimate flavors, like citrus and pomegranate, but there's a few more drink to review and I hope those final will seal the deal in a good line of drinks. Rip It is probably out of business, I think, only because their expiration dates are quite soon and I haven't seen a flavor come out of them for a good few years. Well, here we go.

As I open it up, I find an aroma that's a bit bland reminding me of the Jetset Tonic, bitter and little sweetness. The color is unexpected being a simple Monster golden brown color, but a bit lighter and more of a green tint to it, and much more carbonation. Wow, that flavor is intense! Rip It Gin-Zing-R packs a spicy ginger ale flavor but also comes in and punches you a large amount of sweetness and an equal amount of bitterness. The flavor is hard to describe, but it's more like a caramel flavor with ginger that makes up most of the sweetness in the whole drink. The other part of the sweetness is from a noticeable placement of high fructose corn syrup. The general flavor is irresistible and extremely tasty, but it's just too sweet after about 8 ounces into it. The aftertaste is a tinge of spicy ginger that gives you that foreign feel, similar to most ginger ale sodas and energy drinks. It's got a usual energy drink carbonation, light, but not so light as to chugging a whole can in under 5 minutes like you would with a juice or something. For HFCS, it's gummy, but not intensely gummy just like you'd find in other sweet HFCS energy drinks. Overall, Rip It continues to make flavors that amaze energy drink lovers, but I think I'd stay with the Jetset Ginger Ale when it comes down to sweetness.

The ingredients are simple, for a company that puts in some weird ingredients in most of their drinks. They go as following: Carbonted water, HFCS, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate, potasssium sorbate, maltodextrin, salt (Sodium Chloride), and natural flavor. I don't really like the combination of high fructose corn syrup and an extremely sweet drink, only because it helps out in creating a more dull flavor than it already is. I've seen salt in an energy drink before, don't freak out because I can't even taste it, so I wouldn't think you would either. I can tell this is an older drink because of the lack of Sucralose and artificial flavors in the beverage, which I'll tell you makes the whole drink better. Per can you get 260 calories and 66g of sugar. I'll tell you that this is another drink that I don't drink in one sitting because too much sweetness is just terrible. I recommend you have about 8 ounces in one sitting and come back in a few hours or so and have the rest, it's only that much better for your body that way. Woah, this is the second energy drink I've seen that has more than 2000mg of taurine in the whole can (The first one being the BooKoo Punch). It has 170mg of caffeine in the whole can, which is going to give me a pretty good kick for a good 3 hours. All in all, it's had a good zing of ginger ale with a great amount of spiciness and sweetness mixed in. And now I do know why it's called Gin-Zing-R, it's pretty simple if you think about it

Taste: 8 - An irresistible blend of nice ginger ale, but too sweet to drink in one sitting
Kick: 8 - The kick lasted a great 3 hours which was used doing physical activities
Overall: 8 - I would try this drink again, just for the intriguing flavor it gave

Reviewed by: Chan