Vitamin Water Focus

You may be a bit confused that I'm reviewing all these Glaceau Vitamin Waters, but I'll assure that they are, in fact, considered an energy drink. I got the Focus the other day and I knew it was an energy drink because, after a quick glance at the ingredients, I spy B Vitamins, niacin, lutein, and electrolytes, good enough, right? So, I then find out that quite a few out on the market are actually considered energy drinks, so I guess I'll check those out a little later on. Perhaps I'll get a flavor more like diluted strawberry-kiwi only because they are water based, and those tend to be like that. I also believe there will be some vitaminy taste to it as well, you know, they do have vitamins, right? Knowing Vitamin Water, they do a pretty good job sweetening there water beverages, so I do think it'll actually have a flavor. Looking at the 20 ounce bottle, I see a basic wrapper reddish-pinkish-ah, I don't really know how to explain it, but you'll note the color from the picture (See left). The same color applies to background, which is the color of the drink, you know, that hard to explain color. Anyways, I'll keep this paragraph brief and go on with the taste.

As I twist off the cap, I find a scent that's quite unique being a sweeter-than-normal strawberry-kiwi aroma and possibly even some honey, but I can't be too sure. I mentioned the color before and maybe it's just me, but I seriously cannot determine a color. I'll go with pink, light red, and maybe some orange mixed together, as well as equal parts of cloudiness. Oh wow, what a nice flavor. It's a smooth mixture of strawberry and kiwi with an added bonus of natural sweetness and a whole lot of honey to top it off. Being uncarbonated, this drink seems to be even better with a nice consistency to it. What differs in this Vitamin Water than any other water based energy drink has to be amount of actual flavor. I mean, it has an up-front taste, with minimal watery flavor taken over, which, as you know, is a whole lot different than most I've tried. Aside from the main flavor, there's a sort of aftertaste that makes you want to drink more, and by the time you know it, it's gone. That flavor seems to be more like a sweeter version of the main flavor, but with more added honey to it and less strawberry-kiwi. It has a simple basic water energy drink gumminess to it, but nothing too malicious in the mouth. Overall, I still am yet to find a Vitamin Water that has not impressed me. These guys sure do know how to make beverages.

As for ingredients, each bottle of Vitamin Water Focus has vapor distilled, deionized, and/or reverse osmosis water, crystalline fructose, citric acid, ascorbic acid, natural flavor, vegetable juice, gum acacia, electrolytes, ester gum, Vitamin A, and B vitamins. I really have no clue how or what they use to filter their water, but I guess it's good, by the looks of the name. Okay, it's sweetened with crystalline fructose, which now, isn't the best if you didn't know. It's basically corn syrup, but based on corn starch, not fruit. Crystalline Fructose is made by isolating the fructose from high fructose corn syrup through hydrolysis. Some say crystalline fructose is just as bad as high fructose corn syrup, although that is only somewhat true, as you see. Per 20 ounce bottle, you ingest only 125 calories and a moderate 32g of sugar. For once, I must say, the calorie and sugar content actually match the amount of flavor provided in the drink, unlike most others I've tried. If you're wondering how much energy ingredients are found in a bottle of Vitamin Water Focus, I'll inform you that there's 125 mcg of lutein. I don't know much about lutein and how much is an even dosage in a drink, but I do know that it provides focus. All in all, I continue to be impressed with Vitamin Water's line of drinks, and I really do hope the last few I plan to review are going to be just as good.

Taste: 7.5 - Nice strawberry-kiwi-honey mixture with perfect amounts of sweetness
Kick: 5 - I can't be too sure I got an amazing kick, but I sure felt something
Overall: 7 - I would start sticking with these drinks for now on, if I wanted something not carbonated and water-based

Reviewed by: Chan

Vital Lifestyle Water Energize Dragonfruit

It seems like I have more water-based energy drinks than I had originally thought of. So, for the next few days I really wanted to review them and get them done and over with so I can stick with the main energy drinks, and trust me, I have some quality drinks coming in to be reviewed. Anyway, you never know which company will create their own version of an energy drink. Look, we have Snapple, Dasani, Aquafina, you know, just companies you really wouldn't expect. Now, I have one from a company named Vital, and I'm not sure I'm familiar with them, so please, if you are feel free to leave a comment and clue me in. In a 20 ounce bottle there's standard energy ingredients key for making the cut on being an energy drink. I see taurine, caffeine, inositol, Vitamin B, niacin, and all those great energizing ingredients. To me, this bottle looks a bit like it were from an older era, like the 80's because it has just has that old fashioned font and feel to it. It's main colors are white and a red-orange used on the wrapper and on the cap, which leaves me wondering why the color of the drink isn't red-orange, like the color dragonfruit is. I'm let down on the fact that they claim only a "Hint of dragon fruit." Well, perhaps it's not just a hint...

I twist off the cap and go in for a whiff to locate an aroma that's light, not up front, and somewhat irregular smelling. I mentioned earlier the color was crystal clear, a bit odd but I'll go with it. Oh wow, once I take my first few sips I start to find a thick watery flavor of almost nothing, and a light dragon fruit flavor shortly following down the throat. I find this dragonfruit flavor to be somewhat different than normal due to its unusually bitter, vitaminy, and surprisingly artificial. I love dragon fruit, I mean, who doesn't? It's got an addicting flavor to it, but when it's messed up, it's ruined and just disappointing. I can tell you, however, you may not taste the dragonfruit that well only because your taste buds aren't tuned as finely as mine and Jeff's, but if you were to taste, just know it's not great. I feel like I'm getting a great dose of needed vitamins drinking this, so I'd think that it's a plus for drinking one of these. Hm, it's surprisingly gummy for a drink not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, although it is sweetened with fruit sugar, which is good. Overall, I know these water-based energy drinks aren't the greatest when it comes down to flavor, but I mean, you definitely feel energized and vitalized, if you get what I'm saying here.

On ingredients, Vital Lifestyle Water is pretty darn simple. It is a great alternative ingredient supplier having water, fruit sugar, natural flavor, malic acid, calcium pantothenate, inositol, caffeine, niacin, and taurine. Well, the fruit sugar made it taste even better as opposed to being sweetened with just sucrose. If you understand, fruit sugar tends to have a bit more flavor to it and a bit more bite, while sucrose is your every day, average table sugar. It's uncommon to see taurine in energy waters, though it's not proven to have an effect, I think it helps deliver the pounding kick. Per 20 ounce bottle, you get only a minute 40 (About) calories, and around only 13g of sugar. It's not that sweet at all, which I can easily guess at because it took a lot, even for me, to find a flavor buried in all that diluted watery mess. As for energy ingredients, there's quite a nice blend of 65mg of caffeine, 13mg of taurine, 18mg of niacin, and about 65mg of inositol. There's also a whole lot of other vitamins listed individually but I won't list them. After everything, I felt a nice boost that lasted under about an hour and I felt better after getting my daily amount of vitamins in one drink.

Taste: 4.5 - There really wasn't too much flavor in this, but you know, I'll let it go because I believe they weren't focusing too much on the flavor
Kick: 6.7 - Nice boost for an energy water it kept me moving around for a little while longer
Overall: 5.5 - Just an average drink, I'll stick with the Antioxidant Water line of drinks if I wanted something most similar

Reviewed by: Chan

Snapple Antioxidant Water Strawberry Acai

I couldn't review just one Snapple without reviewing it's sibling with similar energy drink ingredients in it as well, the Snapple Antioxidant Water Strawberry Acai. I was so impressed with the Dragonfruit that I delayed a few reviews just to get in this review to find out how it compared to the Dragonfruit. Now, I found this at my every day grocery store, and so can you, so I doubt you'll have trouble locating a bottle or two of these. Besides last review, I haven't had a Snapple in years, and I must say, they have really improved their line of refreshing drinks, including their newest line of "healthy" water. I believe that strawberry is commonly messed up in energy drinks because they're either sweetened wrong, or there's not enough actual strawberry flavor in that. I'm curious to find out how Snapple takes on their own version of strawberry, especially with acai mixed in. The bottle design is similar to that of the Dragonfruit, only with pinkish-red rain drops, and some with clear areas inside of them. The background is a simple white color with a complimenting cloudy light pink color, which is from the drink color by the way. Well, let's twist this one open to find out how good or bad Snapple made it, compared to the Dragonfruit

It simply twists off in one sweeping motion with plastic crackling noises and reveals an aroma much similar to the Vitamin Water energy drinks and the Dragonfruit, you know, very light and floral. The color is a cloudy and translucent pink hue, but with some lighter color mixed in, perhaps water, thus the reason it's 'watered-down', or diluted. Snapple Antioxidant Strawberry Acai definitely provided a flavor I wasn't expecting. The first thing I notice in this drink is the diluted strawberry taste, with a lot of earthiness. The next part of the flavor seems to be more acai-flavored and more earthy when you first taste it. Even though the flavor isn't the best, it really is refreshing, especially after an evening full of exercise. After drinking almost all of it, I found traces of melon and traces of mixed berry as well as more earthiness perhaps from the acai berry. I'd say that if you wanted the buzz from one of these waters, you might want to stick with the Dragonfruit. However, if Dragonfruit isn't your thing, like if it's too sweet or too intense, Strawberry Acai is pretty refreshing to drink. With slightly more sugar, there's slightly more gumminess, this one being a bit more noticeable and thicker in the mouth. Overall, this drink is meant to be chugged, not enjoyed, because if it were meant to be enjoyed, the earthiness in the acai will overpower your taste buds.

The ingredients are mostly the same as the Dragonfruit antioxidant water but a few differences linger. There is: purified water, sucrose, citric acid, natural flavors, potassium citrate, calcium lactate, modified corn starch, ginseng, caffeine, guarana, vegetable juices, acacia gum, ribose, niacin, ECGC, and B vitamins. Like I mentioned before, Snapple does a great job by putting in not just a few energy ingredients, but putting in more complex ingredients like ribose and electrolytes, which are just two of the many types of good ingredients for the body. This time, they only used vegetable juices for the color, which is reasonable because it gave more of a cloudy color and was less concentrated. Per 20 ounce bottle, you get slightly more than the dragonfruit, 140 calories and 32g of sugar. That is another one of those odd drink where there's more sugar than its sibling though it was much less sweeter. This is a perfect example for one of those types. Well, in terms of energy, you get 60mg of caffeine and in terms of antioxidants, you get 165mg of EGCG (Vitamins A and E). All in all, as much as I was excited to review this drink, I was slightly disappointed as it was much less sweeter and a bit more bitter.

Taste: 7 - The taste was somewhat sweet, but the strawberry was diluted and the acai overpowered the drink with bitter earthiness
Kick: 6.5 - The nice blend of electrolytes, caffeine, guarana, ginseng, ribose, and B Vitamins gave me a solid hour and a half boost
Overall: 6.8 - Hm, although it was refreshing, I recommend you try the Dragonfruit instead

Reviewed by: Chan

Snapple Antioxidant Water Dragonfruit

At this hour tonight, I'm up for an energy drink that's pretty mellow, nothing too caffeinated, yet something to keep me up for a good hour without a crash. I took a glance at each and every energy drink in my fridge and found the Snapple Antioxidant Water Dragonfruit. Now, Snapple recently came out with four of their antioxidant-enhanced water based beverages. Two of them actually have energy ingredients in them, like guarana, ginseng, ribose, B Vitamins, electrolytes, and caffeine. I forget the flavor of the other Antioxidant Water, but I do have it and I will review it soon enough, but in the meantime I pulled out a dragonfruit flavor. I've had this drink since forever, it seems like, and I can't believe that I'm just starting to review it now. Well whatever, enough with me, let's talk about the bottle design. It's pretty cool being dragonfruit colored rain drops, some being clear inside and some being a full, big drop. The background is just a plain white with a nice water-blue font used to stencil the words "Snapple" and "Antioxidant Water." The warm, dark pink colored water compliments the bottle design well, although it's a bit darker than a usual pink.

As I twist off the water cap and hear the sound of plastic snapping, I go in to smell an almost pure and crisp dragonfruit aroma, unlike any dragonfruit I've tried before. The color is more of a darker pink, or perhaps even a purple color, but I'd say it's most likely violet. Oh wow, I wasn't expecting that much flavor from such an underrated beverage. The first thing that comes to mind when I'm tasting this drink is an insanely pure dragonfruit flavor, with a whole lot of melon and pear, and just a bit of citrus to top it off. Another flavor that comes to mind is definitely some passionfruit and apple, all this makes a beverage that's intense and flavorful. I would say the general flavor is pretty darn tasty, I don't think I can find any faults in the drink, although I wish it were carbonated. It's sweetened with sucrose, so there's no gumminess at all, and it's sweetened perfectly. I literally downed this drink before I even finished this paragraph, as you can tell, it's one of the best water-based energy drinks I've had here on Canned Reviews. Overall, well, that last paragraph said it all, perhaps the best the water energy drink I've had. Period.

I can't possibly name all the ingredients in this antioxidant water, as it's really complex, but I'll name they key ingredients. Here they are: Purified water, sugar, natural flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, fruit and vegetable juices, electrolytes, modified corn starch, ginseng, caffeine, guarana, ribose, niacin, and ECGC. Hm, pretty good ingredients. The fruit and vegetable juices gave it that nice violet color, as well as some light pink mixed in. I'm surprised this has caffeine, especially with all those other complex ingredients already there to create a great kick. Per 20 ounce bottle, you get 130 calories, and only 30g of sugar. It had enough sweetness although it only 30g of sugar, I really wish more energy drinks would start to get on the same wagon and copy Snapple. There's also tons of vitamins in this drink and I already feel vitalized, only after 45 minutes of drinking this. The kick is another factor. With only 60mg of caffeine in the bottle many people are mistaken when they say there's no kick involved. All in all, A pretty darn good energy drink bottled in semi-low sugar option. I'd say to get this drink if you want an amazing taste but don't want any artificial flavors added into it.

Taste: 8.6 - Wow, that's a whole lot of great flavors packed in one great bottle
Kick: 6.5 - The kick is decent, not bad for a bunch of energy drinks, but toned down a lot
Overall: 8 - Hm, I think I'd want some more of this for like mornings if I want to wake up just a bit without getting jittery

Reviewed by: Chan

Activ Water Power

Well, a trip to Big! Lots pays off again, with the discovery of the Activ Water. I don't remember seeing any other varieties of the Activ Water over there, so I suppose I was lucky to find the Power. Power can always be assumed to mean that an drink is supposed to provide energy, I think. I just about had my fill with drinks that were too sweet, which is why I reached for this. Most canned drinks I had contained around 27-29g of sugar, which is a whole lot when paired with sucralose and the fact that the drinks warmed up. This energy water, thankfully, is going to be like a breath of fresh air with 6g of sugar per 8oz. There are 20oz total, meaning 15g only. This is going to be very refreshing with a small amount of sweetness and probably a light and sour kiwi strawberry flavor. Oh, wait a minute. The sweetener is something I've never heard of before. It's called Erythritol, and it turns out that it's a sugar alcohol that comes naturally from fruits and that is 60-70% as sweet as sugar. It has no side effects and is virtually calorie-free. Sounds like a miracle artificial sweetener, but I'll have to taste it first. The aftertaste may possibly make me wish for plain old sugar.

Well, to be expected, there's little flavor. It's vague with hardly any strawberry and kiwi. Rolling it around on my tongue, I like the sour and unusual sweetness that isn't strong at all. During the same time I tasted that, I tasted just a small saltiness coming from the electrolytes. Good thing they're in here, because opposite of most energy drinks, this one is going to have a hydrating effect, instead of dehydrating. This would be way more refreshing cold, like Gatorade is, so I'm going to chill it.

...chilled, this thing is not much better. Still, it's like plain water with electrolytes and mild kiwi/strawberry with hardly any sourness. It's not even as sweet as a Vitamin Water. If you think a Vitamin Water isn't sweet enough, you won't enjoy the sweetness of the Activ Water. Still, it is very refreshing.

The Activ Water's kick can barely be called a kick. I realized soon after drinking it that there are no energy ingredients, actually. The only thing inside that could yield any energy would be Vitamin B12. Other vitamins inside may be healthy, but they won't necessarily give you energy. Those vitamins are C, D3, K1, Calcium and Magnesium. I can't say much about the kick except that this stuff really does hydrate you. I didn't feel thirsty for the rest of the day after I drank it. Please excuse the short review, but I don't find much to say about this drink. There's really nothing powerful about this drink and a Gatorade would probably hyrdrate you just as well if not better.

Taste: 5 - Lame almost flavorless kiwi-water
Kick: 3 - No kick, mostly hydration
Overall: 3 - Just a drink...

Reviewed by: Jeff

Vitamin Water Power-C

I finally was able to get my hands on one of these Vitamin Waters. Everywhere I go, I see these and just never bother to pick one up and review. Perhaps they were too expensive. Finally, I went over to this new store called Fresh and Easy and decided to get one, and for one dollar, why not? Vitamin Water came out with two of their drinks that have energy drink ingredients in them, the Power-C (Taurine) and the Energy (Guarana). Jeff reviewed the Energy so I decided it was fair I reviewed the last and final Glaceau drink, here on Canned Reviews, unless they come out with another one. This drink has no apparent bottle design, just half red and half white, along with some paragraphs and the word Vitamin Water stenciled vertically across the bottle. Some last minute details show me a clear twist off cap and the word dragonfruit, revealing the flavor. Okay, here it goes...

I twist off the cap to hear crackling sounds and smell a rather light berry aroma. This see-through bottle shows a rosy red-purple color, with no fizziness, because it's not carbonated. The taste surprised me with a diluted dragonfruit taste, that frankly tastes like a sports drink, you know, just bland. I guess the flavor is due to all the vitamins and the amount of sugar, which is only about 30g. This Vitamin Water is trying to say in a paragraph on the bottle "Hey, this drink has a light flavor because the people who use this, use it while exercising." In that case I'll let Vitamin Water go, free of charge only because its got a light, addicting flavor for a reason. It's aftertaste seems to be that of a sports drink, you know, that nasty burnt fruit taste. Luckily, it's not as overpowering as a sports drink. There's no carbonation because it's meant for exercising, so you don't have that burning sensation on your tongue while exercising, that would be pretty unpleasant. For a 20 ounce drink I was surprised to have no gumminess at all, even after drinking all of it. Overall, I thought this drink had a nice, smooth dragonfruit+berry taste that anybody would enjoy, but perhaps it didn't have enough flavor and was too diluted for avid energy drink drinkers, like Jeff and I.

As for ingredients, Vitamin Water Power-C has vapor distilled, deionized, and/or reverse osmosis water and is sweetened with cane sugar and crystalline fructose. I've been researching crystalline fructose and you know what it really is? High fructose corn syrup. It's trying to hide but energy drink companies only know so little about it. It's also got some dragonfruit extract, vegetable juice, natural flavor, electrolytes (magnesium lactate), taurine, B vitamins, monopotassium phosphate, calcium lactate, and ascorbic acid. Per bottle, you get 125 calories, which isn't bad at all for a 20 ounce bottle, as well as only about 30-32g of sugar. I know I'm not feeling a kick right now, so I check out how much taurine there really is and only see 25mg. That's nothing! Caffeine also helps to jolt you up, but yet there's none in this drink, so it may be awhile, if anything, to get a kick. All in all, you won't find this drink cheap everywhere, so if you see it for like 2-3 dollars, just drop it, there's nothing really special in this drink enough to wow you, but in my case, one dollar is just fine.

Taste: 6.8 - It had a slightly above average taste... nothing too tasty about it
Kick: 5 - Vitamin Water exaggerated a bit when they said 'Power'
Overall: 6.5 - I really wouldn't buy it again, too many other good beverages out there

Reviewed by: Chan

Vitamin Water Energy

I haven't had very many Vitamin Waters in my days, so I guess it's time I had one. And what do you know, Vitamin Water has a drink that claims to provide energy. Not surprisingly, they called it the Vitamin Water Energy. Since I'm just recovering from a bit of a cold, I went for this instead of a more sugary energy drink. Hopefully this can deliver the energy without the large amount of sugar. The energy components in this drink are simple: Natural Caffeine (50mg), Guarana (25mg), and B vitamins. It's weak compared to other energy drinks, so it's definitely not going to have as much of an effect. However, I'm still up to try it, in the name of Canned Reviews. The flavor is written on the side, which is something I think other drinks should adopt... maybe. It's helpful in telling you just what flavor your drink is gonna be. This Vitamin Water says "tropical citrus," and it's the same yellow as the yellow Vitamin Energy. I bet it's the same flavor.

The smell is hardly sweet, and it isn't easy to distinct the flavors within. I'm trying my very hardest, and the best guess I can get is melon, I think. Aww, the flavor disappointed me a bit. It surely doesn't taste like your average energy drink. It's the same flavor as the Vitamin Energy Tropical Citrus, but is toned down and watered down. That is to be expected, since there's only 13g of sugar. Fans of light drinks will find this more appealing than others. I'm the type of person who enjoys more overpowering, flavorful drinks than light ones, so this isn't my favorite drink. After a long, long time of tasting and analyzing the flavor, the best I can come up with is a subdued and rounded-out lemon with orange. There really isn't much more. It doesn't do well on taste for an energy drink, but I suppose it's just fine as a Vitamin Water. And the good thing about Vitamin Waters is that they come without carbonation and impart no gumminess to the mouth. In the end, the drink is very refreshing, something rarely seen in an energy drink, and something I like and need right now.

This 20oz bottle took a while to finish, as I was taking sips not very frequently, but only when I got rather thirsty. And since I drank it after I'd eaten, it didn't have as much of an effect as it would have. Still, this was a great pick me up, I have to admit. It did deliver some great energy, but I think that was because I hadn't had a drink in a while with these energy ingredients. It has 100% of your daily allowance of Vitamin C and half as much of an assortment of B Vitamins. The only ingredients present here are Caffeine and Guarana, which you find in very small amounts. Caffeine, you would usually find in amount of 100mg or so and Guarana would usually be aroun 50mg, I believe, though it varies per drink. If you're looking for a refreshing, light, tasty pick me up, this is a great choice. But if you've been drinking some energy drinks in the past week or so, this isn't going to do a thing.

Taste: 7.8 - Though it was light, I enjoyed it
Kick: 5 - Fine for a Vitamin Water; doesn't compete with other energy drinks
Overall: 6 - Great drink overall, not the best energy drink

Reviewed by: Jeff