Being wiped out after a long day usually doesn't feel too good, but that's why energy drinks are around right? Sometimes you want the energy, minus the carbonation, and minus the jitteriness it most likely produces. This is why, after a long and tiring day, I'm going after something light on flavor, and with just enough energy to get me alert and somewhat focused. I didn't think I'd find anything good over at Target the other day until I took a glance at the Archer Farms water-based beverages and I found one that's actually energy fortified. I though, "Eh, why not? I mean, it's technically an energy drink, right?" Most of the time, I enjoy finding beverages I consider energy drinks because in reality, they are on the better-tasting, most refreshing, and fresher flavor side. But then again, I sometimes do crave and enjoy searching for those mean carbonated energy drink because they are tough and they do pack a punch. The bottle design is cool being connected diamonds that produces a design matching with the nice bright pink color in the background. There's also the tiny little suspicious Archer Farms chicken sitting right in the middle of the bottle. Well, let's see how this compares to energy fortified water beverages around.
I have no trouble twisting off the simple twist-off cap and find an aroma that's a bit light and has that natural-tasting bitterness from the grapefruit mixed in that tells me it's not all artificial. I mentioned before, the color is a nice bright pink grapefruit hue with quite some cloudiness towards the center of the drink. Hm, the flavor threw me off pretty well, as I was expecting a flavor guided more towards the aroma. Instead, I'm finding a taste that's mostly earthy and then a very small amount of grapefruit seems to be lurking around going down the throat. Gulping this drink down, the pink grapefruit flavor is being brought out a bit more and diminishes most of the earthiness within, but it's not that great if you're looking for even just an average amount of flavor. Being extremely diluted, there really isn't much of an aftertaste, perhaps some bitterness from the natural extracts of pink grapefruit. I wouldn't say a bottle of this is too gummy, but that's because it's sweetened well, whether it be acesulfame potassium, or what they call "sucromalt."Overall, I'm getting a bit fed up with all these extremely light/diluted drinks coming onto the market. I mean, sure, they are refreshing, but it gets annoying after a few consistent bottles of it.
I like change, and I'm glad Archer Farms changed up their ingredients list, differing from other top companies. They read as following: Water, sucromalt, resistant maltodextrin, citric acid, gum arabic, natural flavor, ascorbic acid, caffeine, Sucralose, acesulfame potassium, Vitamin E, sucrose, Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin, and niacin. I see the problem with this drink was all the various amounts of sweeteners tied in with each other and created a mess which blocked all the flavors. But, I was impressed by the fact that they masked the acesulfame potassium and the Sucralose very well. I hardly even tasted it. Per 16 ounce bottle, you only get about 50 calories, which after everything, isn't bad considering the light taste. There's also only about 6g of sugar in the whole thing, wow that's really good. For caffeine, I was surprised to see as much as I did, 75 whopping milligrams in one bottle. 75mg gave me some great alertness, no jitteriness, and gave me the power to actually walk around without dropping to the ground. All in all, I nice pick-me-up energy drink, but just not enough flavor I was expecting came to me.
Taste: 5.5 - Man, I was really let down with that little amount of flavor in the bottle
Kick: 7 - A nice kick lasted for about an hour with no crash later on
Overall: 6.4 - Actually, it's not bad for a water based beverage, but I prefer it cold for refreshment purposes.
Reviewed by: Chan
