Redline Triple Berry

To kick-off the new year I've decided to review one of the most energy-giving drinks around, the Redline. My buddy Bubba actually found me one out of town as "A Christmas present," thanks man. I, myself, have never encountered a Redline, so I really don't know what to expect, in terms of taste and kick as well. Taking a quick glance at the ingredients list, I find yerba mate, green tea, and caffeine anhydrous, for notable energy ingredients. If you never knew, caffeine anhydrous is basically the same exact thing is regular caffeine, but just a longer and more formal name. There's 125mg of that caffeine per serving, which there are two of in one 8 ounce bottle. Most energy drinks that come in 8 ounce bottles or cans are usually one serving, but since they recommend you only drink a half-bottle due to high caffeine amount, it's two servings. Instead of only drinking one serving at a time, I'll recognize my caffeine tolerance and just 'nurse' the drink for awhile. Redline Triple Berry comes in a bottle of blue with a twist-off white cap and the word "Redline" spread vertically across the small bottle. Well, I know I'll expect a Triple Berry flavor, basing on the name, but the question is: which three berries will I find? I'm going to guess the three most common: cherry, strawberry, and blueberry. We'll see if I'm right.

After giving the bottle a good shake I open the large, white cap, I find a scent of mainly potent strawberry, and a bit of cherry with a note of blueberry and cranberry. So far, the scent reminds me almost exactly of the Rockstar Tropical Punch Shot. Pouring a bit into a cup, Redline Berry reveals a color of almost 'dirty berry', so to say. It' s like a darker mix of strawberry and cherry, with some paleness of a Monster or Rockstar. If I think logically, most of these shot-like energy drinks will have a bitter flavor, if any flavor at all; it's going to same way as the Rockstar shot so far. Well, swigging a few ounces at first, I'll determine Redline Triple Berry has a flavor of artificially sweet and bitter strawberry and blueberry. The main strawberry is impressively potent, as if it was pure strawberry juice or strawberry syrup. Just like other berry shots, the Redline is pretty sweet, but not with real sugar, obviously. Taking a quick glance at the bottle, there's no sugar, nor is there any calories, which leads me concluding the presence of Sucralose, or Splenda. One thing that's absolutely terrible right now is the extremely noticeable aftertaste of pure bitterness. I'm not sure if you've ever eaten a raw plant, straight from the ground, but if you have you know it's real bitter. That's almost the case here, an extreme heavy earthy bitterness, that's just about unbearable to drink. One tip I would recommend while drinking this is: Shake it in between each sip, drink large sips numerous times, and most importantly ignore the aftertaste with having some water handy to wash it out. It's obviously not carbonated, and even though you're taking large and numerous sips, there's no gumminess from the artificial sugars. Overall, Redline's initial triple berry flavor was just okay, as it tasted fake, and the aftertaste, surely, was bitter and unlikeable.

As for ingredients, Redline is pretty mean when it comes down to energy, as well as needed ingredients like yerba mate, and green tea. Here's the full list: Highly purified water, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, natural red color, sodium benzoate, Potassium Phosphate diabasic, potassium sorbate, and disodium EDTA. Like a few other energy drink companies, Redline organizes their ingredients by standard and by energy ingredients. Here's the list of energy ingredients: Vitamin C, Caffeine anhyrdous, Evoburn, N-acetyl-L-tyrosine, Potassium citrate, Yerba Mate, green tea, 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan, Vinpocetine, and Yohimbine HCL. A lot of these ingredients are a bit unknown to me, but I can get an idea of what they are supposed to be because of the lack of the main names in other energy drinks. Evoburn seems to be a trademarked Redline product, so, with a bit or research, I find out that Evoburn is a liquid ingredient that helps in burning fat and help fat loss. I find products like these helpful, but they tend to have some side effects like appetite loss, stomach ache, and nausea, just like I've found in most fat burning products such as Go Girl and Damzl Fuel. Per bottle, you get 250 good milligrams of caffeine, which will soon give me an insane jittery kick for a good 5 hours. Unlike the caffeine amount, there's not one bit of calories, nor is there a trace of real sugars, though there seems to be an overload of Sucralose. All in all, it is highly recommended that you first, find out you're caffeine tolerance before consuming any and all of Redline's drink, and two, remember how much of this you consume will affect how great your kick is.

Taste: 7 - Not too big a fan of artificial berry and burnt aftertaste, but the flavor is somewhat addicting
Kick: 9.5 - This will vary, depending on how much you follow the rules listed on the bottle. Drinking the whole 8 ounces will result in an insane kick, as you read the rating
Overall: 8.3 - I would be interested in trying a few more of these, just to adjust to the odd flavors

Reviewed by: Chan