Hydrive Grape Fusion R

When I'm jonesin' for something tasty I don't hesitate to reach for grape drank. And I'm lucky today to have Hydrive Grape Fusion R to review. Grape is delicious enough, but this one takes it a step further with grape fusion. After a jam sesh, a nice, cool, refreshing Hydrive sounds great to rejuvinate me. Besides, the purpose of this one, R, is recovery. I'm extremely eager to gulp this one down, so I'm not wasting much time on this introductory paragraph.

My first whiff is of a very good, sweet, deep grape flavor. It smells natural, but still easily recognizable. I'm very happy with a swig of the stuff; it's cool, sweet, refreshing, a little bit sour going down, and overall very satisfying to a thirsty dude like me. The color is lovely as well, being that crystal clear royal purple. Early on, there's little evidence this has Splenda; it goes down smooth, much like Gatorade. Maybe halfway in, I feel some sweetness lingering in the back of my throat, a sign of artificial sweeteners. To my surprise, after chilling the drink, it tastes a lot more artificial than before. I remember learning a while ago that things taste sweeter to our tastebuds when they are warm. Maybe that's what's going on here; because the drink is colder, the natural sugar doesn't taste as sweet, while the sucralose cuts through sharply. So my recommendation for this and any other drink half natural-artificial is to drink it slightly below room temperature. Overall, this is a tasty one I'd enjoy at the end of a long day. Now I have a feeling this kick is gonna creep up on me.

Hydrive's proprietary blend is a little different in this flavor, and it makes me sad, because there's no Ginkgo Biloba. There's Caffeine (145mg), Taurine (50mg), Aloe Vera extract (50mg), L-Carnitine (25mg), L-Arginine (25mg), Acai extract (3mg), 298mg total. Below, it mentions the recovery forumla, consisting of Aloe Vera, Acai, Folic Acid, Niacin, and Vitamin E. Overall, compared to earlier, I'm feeling much more alert, vital, and concentrated. I know I have the amino acids and B Vitamins to thank for that, and probably the rest of the recovery formula. This isn't one of those balls-to-the-wall drinks, like Monsters, but nonetheless, the effects are great -- a burst of easy-going energy with awareness for only 30 calories. Hydrives are an attractive choice to me, someone who likes a moderate boost for little calories. I'm totally looking forward to reviewing the next, and final Hydrive in our series of six.

Taste - 8.4 - Enjoyable and balanced grape, better warm

Kick - 7.7 - Not an explosion of energy, but a smooth, solid, alert boost

Overall - 8.1 - I really enjoy this kind of drink, but it's not exactly the kind for energy junkies

Reviewed by: Jeff

All In Grape

I want to give Jeff a chance to review All In Grape, since I knew he was looking forward to this. I wanted put in just a short review on my behalf for the taste, as I wanted to review it as well. One last thing: props to David for finding me a few cans to review; thanks, man.

Chan's take: All In Grape has a real natural grape scent, with a just hints of artificialness, once cracked open. There really aren't too many grape energy drinks out there, so there really isn't much to expect. The only grape energy drink I can recall having is the Amp Traction, and one was pretty darn good. Pouring it into a cup, I notice the color is not an expecting purple, but a dirty, clear carbonated water color. For the most part, it's clear, but with a slightly dark, brown tinge to it. Hoping for the best, I swig a few ounces I poured into my glass cup...This All In Flavor has a nice, pure grape flavor to it, with some subtle blandness in the background. Tasting more, the bland, artificial flavor seems to envelope the quick-vanishing grape flavor. As I may recall, All In Grape is completely sugar free, and has 10 calories, hence the monstrous wave of artificial bland flavor. About 4 months ago, I remember reviewing the Bawls Guaranexx Sugar Free, which was just nasty, bland, artificial. The All In Grape has that same exact flavor alongside the smooth grape, which nearly ruins the drink. About halfway through the drink, it's tough to find much grape flavor, as it's mostly that unappealing artificialness. It's aftertaste seems to be nothing extreme, just a light tinge of Sucralose on the tongue, simple and unnoticeable. All in all, I feel I was a bit let down by the flavor of All In Grape, look at Jeff's final paragraph for ingredients/kick.

Jeff's take: Poppin' open the All In, I'm curious about the flavor. As I touch my nose to the top, I smell a fairly satifying cool grape that reminds me of cough syrup. It's always a joy to drink out of these compact little 8oz cans. As I take a sip, I taste some of that same grape that isn't bad and then the delicious sweetness that comes along with it from the Acesulfame Potassium and a tiny bit of Sucralose. Now, knowing this to be grape-flavored, I'm curious about the color. I've seen many shades of purple in my time reviewing and I'm eager to see what color All In has devised. I'm surprised to see instead of a lustrous shade of deep purple or violet, a simple crystal-clear color. That's quite odd, but I like it, because I'm not distracted by the color of the drink. Instead, I have a delicate and elegant clear, bubbly drink that makes me think about taking another sip. Although I have come to dread many sugar-free drinks, All In excels with a delicious combination of Ace-K and Sucralose, hardly at all tasting nasty or like a "fake sweetness," as I have come to call it. Indeed, All In's decision to use Ace-K was a wise one and it makes me happy. As I've heard, All In is designed with poker players in mind and because of this, the flavors are mild and enjoyable without too much complexity in order to not distract from the game. Exploring the flavor of the drink, I find that this is true. The smell of All In is that of sharp concord grape on a light grape backdrop. The beginning of a sip is smooth and All In is very thin to protect from gumminess. From there, the flavor develops somewhat but tries not to be overwhelming at all. After the peak, when the carbonation only barely tingles the tongue, the flavor subsides and starts to taste a bit fruitier. Finally, you are left with some very slightly bitter grape and the aftertaste of the Acesulfame Potassium. Overall, All In Grape is a drink with a mild and barely addictive artificial grape flavor meant to keep you focused on your game when you want something to drink. I'm just irked by one aspect of this drink. Although I applaud All In's choice to use Ace-K, I dislike the accumulating artificial sweetener aftertaste that it leaves behind. I doubt this would become a problem, except to the more refined consumers, with finely-tuned taste buds.

The energy ingredients in All In include: Carbonated Water, Taurine, Natural Grape Flavor with Other Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Acesulfame Postassium, Inositol, Caffeine, Herbal Blend (Astragalus, Panax Ginseng, Panax Quinquefolium, Schisandra), Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Sucralose, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Pyrodoxine HCL, Red 40, Folic Acid, and Cyanocobalamin. All In contains all your usual energy ingredients, inluding Caffeine, Inositol, Ginseng, and Taurine. But what I also like about the drink is the interesting herbs added. Astragalus is a plant native to China that has a yellow root and is a big part of Chinese medicine. Astralagus's function is essentially to strengthen the body's immune system and it's also used in Chinese energy tonics taken daily at certain times of the year. Quinquefolium, I've learned, is very much like Ginseng, although it grows in America, thus the name American Ginseng. Schisandra, as it turns out, is also Chinese and posseses many beneficial qualities. It is good for the immunte system, while it also relieves the body from anxiety and stress and perks energy levels. Overall, I'd say All In Grape is, in fact, a drink that will provide some energy along with concentration and all-around vitality.

Taste: 6 - Smooth grape flavor, lame artificial secondary flavor though...
Kick: 8 - Not a bad kick, actually, for an 8 ounce can
Overall: 7 - There are a few more flavors of All In, I want to see how they can improve after this barely-average energy drink

Reviewed by - Chan and Jeff

Jolt Wild Grape

Jolt is a unique energy drink company. They were one of the first to dream up the idea of highly-caffeinated soda and make it mainstream with their slogan, "All the sugar, twice the caffeine." Well, some odd years later, we have Jolt, now in a handful of flavors in addition to cola, with the unique 24oz "battery" cans, featuring the special resealable caps. Well, here's another pristine example of Jolt's innovation with the revolutionary resealable 16oz cans nobody's done before. What exactly does a resealable can mean for energy junkies? Well, it means the choice of saving your 16oz-er for later, for those who can't restraint themselves or those who don't care for a whole can. What it also means is a special treat for the ears while opening the can; you achieve that wonderful POP Jolts are notorious for. It's a win-win situation until you think about the price; I think I payed a bit too much for this (in excess of 3 dollars), but I knew I had to have it. I trust, however, that as this grows in popularity, the price will begin to drop.

I resurrected Spawn of Uamenti just for this very special occasion and I opened the lid hoping for the pop, but unfortunately there was no pop and more of a hiss and rush of air. I took a long whiff and the smell was your characteristic deep purple grape flavor, kind of like cough syrup, but more natural and with some great zing. The smell is delicious, but a little bit flat compared to the Nos Grape, in my mind. However, I find that it is quite a bit more robust. When I take a sip, I'm hoping for the same thing, but I find there's less robustness to it and it tastes a bit flat still. To describe it in greater detail, the beginning of the sip is just sweet enough and then some mild but coarse carbonation comes in and gives the drink some nice texture, which I like. What's good is that the carbonation isn't foamy and doesn't linger for long. Then, as with many drinks, the grape flavor comes in halfway through and gets stronger until oddly, it just disappears. Chan has remarked upon this, the situation where a drink suddenly loses nearly all its flavor at the end of each sip. This is a bad thing if you're trying to drink slowly, since you lose the flavor and crave more soon after every sip. I think what Jolt was trying to encourage was a rapid intake, and now that I think about it, it's quite a genius idea, to make the flavor disappear after every sip. As I've explained, you'll crave the drink more after every sip, which does two things. For one, it makes you take more frequent sips so that you're likely to run out sooner and buy more, but what may be less obvious is that this means a greater percieved kick. Because you'll be drinking faster, this means the energy ingredients are taken in faster and you have a greater boost. I'm confident Jolt knew what they were doing when they designed this and all of their drinks and I find it brilliant. Already, by the end of this paragraph, I'm completely finished with the can. What I've observed is that this is a more mild, subtle grape flavor in comparison to grape soda and the Nos Grape, a drink I quite enjoyed for it strength. This Jolt seems to be lacking strength but is still good in general. Average soda drinkers shouldn't be disappointed while, someone like me, who is used to a quality drink like Monster might find this lacking. I'm optimistic about the kick, however.

Well, after about 8 hours, I have a mixed opinon about the drink. For a short period of about two or three hours, Jolt does provide a sizeable jolt, as you would expect. But what troubled me was, about 8 hours later, long after the slow, steady kick following the caffeine boost, my energy levels plummeted, leaving me tired and apathetic. I wasn't at all expecting a crash so severe from a Jolt, but I suppose the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Anyway, for ingredients, Jolt has: Carbonated Water, HFCS, Taurine, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Caffeine, Sodium Benzoate, Red #40, Guarana Seed Extract, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Blue #1, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin.

The drink also has 210 Calories total and 26g of sugar per serving, 52g per can.

Taste: 8.4 - A quality grape you can expect from Jolt, however, a bit flat
Kick: 6 - A respectable caffeine kick, but with a ghastly crash
Overall: 7.8 - Rather drink one casually

Reviewed by: Jeff

Nos Grape

I'm interested in Nos' idea to create a flavor such as grape, sure it's odd but it may just be good. Nos does a great job at making an energy drink, such as the regular, but I'm curious to know if this grape flavored energy drink will be just as good, if not better. Grape in a liquid form tends to be quite bitter, more than sweet, but with only 27g of sugar per serving, I'm not too sure how sweet It'll be. I'm going to assume it's not going to be sweet, but the grape flavoring may give it some more sweetness and the HFCS will tone the flavor down a bit. The bottle design is pretty simple, it's shaped like a nitrous bottle used for speeding up your race car and the cap has a removable novelty twist over it. The bottle is blue with a purple sticker over it containing racing themed fonts and designs. It has hazard/fire signs, standard factory fonts making it look 'professional', if you will. You can't look at bottle and not see 'Nos' printed in a large white font with part of the 'N' hanging of the 'O' and the 'S'. Being that the original Nos was exquisite, I'm expecting quite a lot from Nos now and I hope I can find a good taste and kick with this gassed up bottle. Let's roll.

I twist off the cool novelty nitrous oxide gas cap as well as the regular plastic bottle cap and receive sharp bitter grape aroma, not what I expected and threw me off just a bit. The color is similar to cough syrup being a cloudy purple color, with a bit of crystal color in some areas and a decent amount of fizziness. Now the taste is where it really gets odd. It seems to be if someone mixed in a whole lot of cough syrup, mixed in a small amount of sugar, as well as some carbonated water. The flavor in general is pretty bitter, hard to drink, and just not sweet enough for someone like me to enjoy. I'm disappointed, Nos had such a great flavor and now they come out with a lame Grape flavor that frankly tastes almost exactly like cough syrup. I guess it's the amount of sugar, which should be more, I think. The aftertaste isn't much, but it's more of a bitter grape taste from the primary flavor when you first take a sip. I mentioned earlier that it doesn't have too much fizziness, and it's not really that carbonated, all the shorter it'll take for me to drink it down. It has HFCS, but that doesn't automatically mean it's gummy. Nos Grape has the smallest amount of gumminess, hardly even noticeable if you're just taking sips. Overall, Nos really disappointed me with this drink, and I do recommend you stick the regular Nos if you had to choose between Nos drinks.

The ingredients are carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, taurine, natural and artificial flavors, sodium citrate, L-Carnitine, caffeine, sodium hexametaphosphate, pectin, inositol, monopotassium phosphate, ginseng, and Sucralose. Well, the HFCS had a part in this drink by making it duller than it already is. There's sodium hexametaphosphate, which is found in cosmeticss, there's pectin which thickens the drink, and there's good ol' Sucralose. So, I can conclude that the taste was pretty dull due to the HFCS, and on top of that, it was pretty artificial from the Sucralose. Per 22 ounce bottle, you get 2750mg of taurine, 550mg of L-Carnitine, 343mg of caffeine, 274mg of inositol, and 136mg of panax ginseng. Woah, that's a whole lot of energy ingredients. The caffeine amount ranks up there with the Jolts, which brought a pretty amazing kick. Right now the kick is sufficient, but I don't have that same feeling I get when I drink a Jolt. As for nutrition facts, you get about 300 calories, and about 75g of sugar, not bad for such a big drink, but still not good generally speaking. All in all, it got a bit sweeter towards the end of the bottle, but it still really is a strong drink, perhaps too strong for me.

Taste: 6.9 - A dull drink was taken over by a bitter grape flavor
Kick: 8.7 - I have to admit, the kick was pretty dang good
Overall: 7.4 - I'd stay away, even though the kick is good, I know you can find a better drink

Reviewed by: Chan