Showing posts with label Cranberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cranberry. Show all posts

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Who's Your Daddy Cranberry Pineapple


Oh, man! I've been craving a Who's Your Daddy for so long, especially after Jeff posted that great Citrus Who's Your Daddy. I'm pretty sure Who's Your Daddy is a pretty quality energy drink, after trying a Citrus quite awhile ago. I'm not too familiar with this unique energy drink company, and seeing another flavor at another Big! Lots surprised me, and I obviously grab a few cans to review and to enjoy. After scouring the can, I find the primary flavors are going to be Cranberry and Pineapple; this really excites me, finding two great fruits in one odd combination. When Who's Your Daddy thought of this flavor, I'm sure they felt like geniuses because, honestly, who doesn't like cranberry and pineapple? In common, both of these fruit flavors have similar tartness to it, equal amounts of sweetness, and a tropical zing that to top it off. Although I have not heard of this ensemble, there may be a reason or two why they may not have been together all along. Perhaps, the flavors don't taste well when mixed together, or maybe the tartness is just too much to handle. Seeing only 29g of sugar per serving, cannot say sweetness will be an issue. Well, let's try it out.

Opening up the can, I find an aromatic scent of flowery and strong cranberry, with some sweetness from a few notes of pineapple in the background of it all. This scent really reminds me of an energy drink I had reviewed back in the early stages of Canned Reviews, although I cannot determine which drink it was, sadly. Oh well, when it comes to me, I'll post it. Pouring it out of the can and into a glass, the color shocked me a bit, being dark red, like a cranberry. I may have been expecting a yellow because maybe the can is yellow, but oh well, energy drink companies like to do that all the time. When I took the sip, a sneer on my face occurred almost instantly, being just totally unexpectant. Unlike the smell, I can find a weak and tart cranberry, in front of a wall of artificial flavoring, which most likely tastes similar to pineapple. Taking a few more sips to try and get the feel of this drink, I find more of a flowery ginger note in the background, but it becomes more prominent as you take larger sips, more often. I know the cause of this dull, artificial flavor, of course, nothing better than, high fructose corn syrup. For some reason, I thought I had sucorse and glucose heading my way, but due to the extreme dullness, I could now suspect HFCS is in here. If I were to relate this to one energy drink, I would say it tastes most like the Mojo, if you were to add cranberry and replace the sweetener with HFCS. Who's Your Daddy Cran-Pine has an aftertaste similar to that if you were to drink cranberry juice, raspy dryness in the back of your throat. Finding very little gumminess isn't too surprising, as I said there isn't too much sugar in a whole can of this. Looking at this drink from a different point of view, I may want to say that this would be your kind of drink if you were just getting into energy drinks and want something sweet, and slightly in depth.

As for ingredients, Who's Your Daddy seems to have the same ingredients as any other basic high fructose corn syrup filled energy drink would have. I'll try to list as many of these ingredients as I can: Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, natural and artificial flavors, citric acid, sodium citrate, taurine, caffeine, potassium sorbate, ascorbic acid, inositol, pantothenic acid, niacin, zinc sulfate, red 40, caramel color, yellow 5, yellow 6, ester gum, and Vitamin B. Of course, to all you energy drink experts, you know HFCs really can kill a drink, as it does with this one. I like seeing caramel color, although I know it plays a very little amount in giving this drink a caramel-like color. Per can, you get 220 calories and about 58g of sugar. This is about the same amount of nutrition as an average energy drink, although most HFCS filled energy drinks contain a higher amount of sugar for some reason. In one can, you get some nice energy ingredients, like 1600mg of taurine and 200mg of caffeine. Wow, although there's not as much taurine as usual, there's a rowdy 200mg of caffeine, which almost alwas results in an insane kick. Coming back sooner, I find myself pretty jitteriness with this caffeine, and I can't find much use for it, but to walk around. All in all, if you're already familiar with many energy drinks, this is just nothing special for you to want, but if you're just starting to get to know energy drinks, why not give it a shot? Jeff has a word for these types of average '7' rated energy drinks, 'Slammers', simply because they're a great one to slam down and enjoy a kick, taste totally aside.

Taste: 7 - Although I, myself, and a few other experts don't feel so great about this one, I may think beginners can enjoy it
Kick: 8.6 - Totally great and long-lasting kick
Overall: 7.6 - I wonder when Who's Your Daddy can impress us pending energy drink fans...

Reviewed by: Chan

Friday, May 16, 2008

Xtazy Cranberry Blast


Well, lookie here. I've got the Xtazy Cranberry Blast. Chandler and I have heard great things about this line of drinks, and we were, for a long time, easily able to find them. I finally couldn't resist and had to get this. It has a simple and very nice can design, with a black can and the top and bottom being the color of the flavor. For some reason, it calls itself a Guarana-based Energy Drink, which I don't fully understand at he moment. I'm not sure just what makes a drink based on Guarana. I took a quick look at the ingredients in order to see whether Guarana is high in the list, and it is. It goes: Filtered Carbonated Water, HFCS, Taurine, and then Guarana. That's a good thing to see, meaning it's going to have a large amount of that potent, energy-giving berry, Guarana. In fact, it has 900 whopping mg per serving, 1200 total. Dang! That is absolutely the largest amount of Guarana I have ever seen in an energy drink. Now I'm convinced this is going to pack a major punch.

The drink comes out of the can a very bright and saturated red. I mean, it's really, really red. The smell goes along with the color, smelling like grape juice and cranberry. I'm liking it so far. I took a sip and I sort of felt disappointed. Instead of the kind of rich, crisp sweetness you'd get from Glucose and Sucrose, you end up tasting dull HFCS. It is by no means terrible, just not as good as it could be, in my opinion. If you're used to regular soda that uses HFCS, you'd probably be fine. Anyway, there definitely is the presence of cranberry in this drink and not so much grape. The aftertaste is more bitter and earthy like cranberry, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It is quite lovely, actually, adding richness and depth. But now that I think about it, it might not be the cranberry so much as the Guarana. After all, it is the number 4 ingredient. Perhaps the Guarana Seed Extract is the cause of the earthiness, and I like that. The carbonation is truly light and pleasant, adding texture. I don't like carbonation that gets in your face and ruins the flavor. This isn't the case here. As for gumminess, I don't detect much, and what is there isn't a big deal. Overall, it's not a bad drink at all, it just could do better on the taste department. Now I'm waiting to find out what kind of boost I'll feel. Time to buckle my seatbelt.

Woah, I hadn't even noticed I was already affected, after I was about halfway through. I was, just earlier, so sleepy I wanted to take a nap, but now, I'm totally hyped. I noticed the kick even as I was walking around after finishing the last paragraph. It's like a total rejuvination, giving you energy so suddenly and so much. My quick workout was fast and didn't leave me breathless. This thing is just energy and more energy. And that figures. The energy ingredients in this drink include Guarana (900mg per serving), Panax Ginseng (25mg), Inositol (50mg), Milk Thistle (25mg), Ginkgo Biloba (15mg), L-Carnitine (50mg), and Taurine (1000mg). Quite a potent and diverse mix of supplements. I really like the use of Ginkgo Biloba because of its focus-giving effect. However, I'm quite sure it won't affect me as much as other drinks with the ingredient, because there are only around 22mg of it. Chan and I are definitely getting more of these.

Taste: 7.5 - Very nice above-par cranberry
Kick: 8.5 - Agressive and above average kick
Overall: 8 - Great one to slam down anytime

Reviewed by: Jeff

Reviewers

Jeffery "Jeff," Chandler "Chan"