Hydrive Kiwi Strawberry A

Moving right along with the six new Hydrive flavors released rather recently, I find myself face-to-face with a tall fuchsia bottle, Hydrive Kiwi Strawberry Alertness formula. As I explained in the Blue Raspberry review, Hydrive launched six new products, each with a designated purpose. Being allocated to alertness, Hydrive adds in some neat, though standard ingredients such as Guarana, Panax Ginseng, Vitamin B3, B5, B6, and B12. These are found in your every day Monster, along with caffeine, taurine, L-Carnitine, and L-Arginine. I'm interested to see how the simple ingredients in the drink compare to an average Monster, Rockstar, or Amp. In terms of design, the drink is packaged in a transparent bottle, with a sticker label stretching around the bottle. On the sticker, Hydrive mentions alertness and focus a couple of times, and a brief description of the product. It has a basic yellow-purple design behind a standard black font reading, "Hydrive Energy". Lastly, the bottle isn't a complete 16 ounces, but not far off at about 15.5 ounces per bottle.

Tearing open the bottle, there's not too much of a potent scent. As far as I can tell, it's a rather bright strawberry tang with the kiwi complimenting well. Taking a few sips, the flavor is just that. At first, the drink tastes stronger, like a tropical mix you find at the grocery store, then slightly fades with each sip, most likely due to the lack of much pure sugar. Unlike a few kiwi strawberry drinks I've tried, Hydrive does a nice job balancing the amount of each fruit in the drink. Instead of a prominent berry, there's a good, benign helping of kiwi. Although kiwi isn't common in drinks, it really does pack a punch of good flavor. If you've ever tried a kiwi, you know that it's real tart and sweet, while maintaining a distinct flavor that's unlike any fruit or vegetable out there. While strawberry, on the other hand is a much more common flavor in desserts, drinks, and salads. It's not as tart as a kiwi, but it complements nicely with other fruits and sugars. Together, I like the blend Hydrive uses: tart, sweet, and smooth. Although the drink is low on sugar, the fruits taste well natural, not artificial. Because it's not carbonated, the Hydrive goes down well like a fruit drink, without being as thick as one. Overall, a refreshing sugar free drink, and like the Blue Raspberry, exceptionally formulated.

Per bottle, you get only 30 calories, and 6 total grams of sugar; it's a good on-the-go drink if you want good energy, while wanting to watch your calorie intake. You also get about 20 milligrams of niacin, 2 milligrams of Vitamin B6, 6 milligrams of Vitamin B12, 10 milligrams of Pantothenic acid, 140 milligrams of sodium, and 50 milligrams of Potassium. In the bottle, there's also purified water, sucrose, citric acid, sodium citrate, caffeine, natural flavor, sodium benzoate, taurine, sucralose, gum arabic, magnesium chloride, hexahydrate, glycerol ester of wood rosin, Red #40, Blue #1, and all the listed Alertness Formula in the first paragraph, as well. Within about thirty minutes of finishing the bottle, I find myself more jittery than the last Hydrive I had. The formula for alertness doesn't have many differences between itself and a regular Monster or Rockstar. The kick is decent nevertheless, but definitely not as alert as I had anticipated. Aside from that, a great sugar free drink; I cannot wait to review the final Hydrive on my part, and hear from Jeff about his.

Taste: 7.7 - A refreshing equal blend of tart kiwi and sweet strawberry
Kick: 7 - An average kick full of hyper/jitteriness, and some alertness
Overall: 7.7 - Definitely a recommended drink if you're into sugar free drinks, and don't want a Gatorade

Reviewed by: Chan