Vegas Fuel

Happy Holidays, everyone! What could be better during the holiday season than to crack open a nice energy drink? Well, I got found myself a can of Vegas Fuel, courtesy of Vegas Fuel themselves, and I'm ready to crack this one open and taste it. Sure, most people have been to Vegas or will go to Vegas at least once in their life, and I'm sure that if you were to go there, you'd find a whole lot of these laying around in stores and such. I, myself, am not a big fan of Las Vegas as it's crowded nearly everywhere you go, but I usually take advantage of the times I'm there by scouring the area for some good energy drinks to review. So far, I've found all Xyience drinks out there, Deton 8 and Deton 8 Sugar Free, Red Bull Cola, Talon Drinks, DNA drinks, Bionic Tonic, Go Fast, and many others I may not be able to remember right now. I can recall seeing Vegas Fuel the most, out of all the times I've been searching, as the label speaks for itself. A very simple yet sleek can design shows nothing to me, in terms of possibly even a hint at the flavor, but I'll have to go with a Monster Clone, as it may be just another "Cloned" brand. "Vegas Fuel" is printed vertically across the front of can, which is also in front of a black background and a random red circle. Okay, well, let's give this one a shot.

Opening up the small, 8 ounce can, I find an aromatic blend of strong, blossomy strawberry, cherry, and assorted other berries and reminds me most of Hawaiian Punch soft drink. Pouring it into a clear glass cup, I note a color resembling almost blood, or dark red for you "squeamish" people, except with a whole lot of carbonation. After the first few sips, I know I wasn't expecting what I tasted, being a refreshing blast of pure cherry, pineapple, cranberry, strawberry, raspberry, lemon, orange, and a bit of lime. As those flavors are listed, I made sure they are in order from most presence to least presence. So, as you can see, cherry is the prominent flavor here in this Vegas Fuel, but it also reminds me of a nice can of Hawaiian Punch, except carbonated and a bit less sweet. Hitting almost half way, there's more of a motion to the drink as it goes into the mouth. At first sip, all the flavors hit your tongue at once, and all fade quickly into a diluted mixture of corn syrup and just overall blandness that makes you want to sip a bit more to get that flavor away. It ends with a nice, sour-sweet bite to it, just like if you were to eat a raspberry or strawberry; just the same tasty bite that pinches the sides of your cheek. I can assure you that there's high fructose corn syrup in this without even looking at the ingredients because of the dullness that brings down the great punch flavors. It's not gummy however, which isn't too common now with high fructose corn syrup. It's nicely carbonated, less carbonated than most other energy drinks I've seen, which really brings out the nice punch flavor. Overall, Vegas Fuel's flavor will really deliver a powerful punch flavor you may need to be partying in Vegas and to quote Vegas Fuel, "Put a little Vegas in you."

In one small can of Vegas Fuel, the ingredients are standard, but the kick is top-notch. All of Vegas Fuels ingredients are listed as followed: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, taurine, sodium citrate, natural flavors, glucuronolactone, caffeine, D-calcium pantothenate, potassium sorbate, sodium beonzoate, panax ginseng, guarana extract, niacin, inositol, L-Carnitine, gum acacia, ester gum, pyridoxine hydrochloride, FD & C blue #1, and cyanocobalamin. Nice ingredients. I'm glad to not see Sucralose, which tells me that Vegas Fuel hasn't fallen into that "Trend" of adding Sucralose into every drink, at least not yet. Per 8 ounce can, you get a decent 110 calories and only 26g of sugar. Wow, I'm extremely impressed on Vegas Fuel's sweetener plan, with only 26g of sugar per can, it's sweeter than a Monster, but without the sugar! As for energy ingredients, taurine is standard, having 1,000mg of it, and caffeine is on the average side coming in at 75mg per can. For a small can like this, I received an uplifting kick with a decent amount of alertness, but not enough to get me jittery, as I would enjoy to have another 8 ounces. All in all, Vegas Fuel made a great first impression and I strongly believe you should pick yourself up one of these next time you're hanging around in Las Vegas in the near future.

Taste: 8.2 - Great, strong cherry-pineapple-strawberry punch flavor, reminding me, personally of cherry Jell-O!
Kick: 8 - Decent kick for an 8 ounce can; it's recommended you look for a 16 ouncer for some great energy
Overall: 8.1 - A considerable drink to have if you're into punch

Reviewed by: Chan

Damzl Fuel

Demographics play a large part in the human life, and it seems as though they are playing the same part in the marketing of products nowadays. It's not uncommon if you encounter, say, an energy drink with bright, pink colors and phrases like "A Women's Energy Drink" or "Not for Dudes." There's also drink with gang-relating illustrations, like Independent, or 18 Dummy Cherry Lime; they just will do anything and everything to attract a customer to a sale. I do not care what a drink has labeled on it, for I just take it and review, even if it is only for a certain demographic. From experience, I have found flavors in these types of drink to not appeal to me so much, but I would understand it appealing to the demographic aimed to, like the Go Girl. Just like the Go Girl, Damzl Fuel comes in a slender 12 ounce can, with the usual pink color and the repellent phrases. One thing I first noticed on the face of this can was the phrase "Not for Dudes" which explains to me a flavor perhaps not so exciting for men. The font appears to be tough, looking like it was spray painted on randomly. A calligraphy-like font is used to make out the name "Damzl Fuel" with a large "D" wearing a crown over it. This drink totally looks like it's not for me, I'm interested to find out.

The Damzl Fuel has a scent that reminds me most of the Rip It Chic line of drinks, and sort of like the Go Fast. Along with the aroma, Damzl Fuel's color is common, looking like a basic light red/dark orange. It seems to be a bit pink as well, but just not so much as it is red. Oh wow. I'm shocked by this flavor of lemon-lime and mixed berries such as strawberry, cherry, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, and anything else you find in mixed berry. Taking large sips, I find it hard to belive this is a sugar-free drink for there's little artificial flavor and more natural berry and lemon-lime. It reminds me of Sprite infused with mixed berry, or perhaps that Sprite Remix that was discontinued a good 3 or 4 years ago. What I think contributes to me thinking this is most like Sprite is the carbonation, for it seems to have phosphoric acid, but as a matter of a fact, does not. About more than half way through that can, there's even less artificialness, and tastes like a regular energy drink, or soda, for that matter, and I could swear I taste HFCS or something along those lines. To top it off, the whole flavor is light, but much stronger than any sugar free energy drink I've tried, giving it a great score in my book. On gumminess, I have to say, it's pretty clean, which totally throws my idea of hidden HFCS out. Overall, I can't get enough of Damzl Fuel, and it has to be one of the best sugar free energy drinks I've reviewed thus far. It would be pretty embarrassing walking to the checkout line with a few of these in hand though...

On ingredients, Damzl Fuel contains standard sugar free ingredients including: water, citric acid, taurine, natural flavors, Super Citrimax, sodium hexametaphosphate, inositol, caffeine, Sucralose, Magnesium Oxide, niacin, and riboflavin. I haven't noticed too many drinks saying just 'water', than 'carbonated water', because I can assure you it was carbonated. Uh, what else, oh, Super Citrimax. You may not know what that is, but I know exactly what it is: an appetite suppressor. It's the same stuff I found in the Go Girl, and I'll tell you, it was really hard to find an appetite for a good 3 or 4 days; man, get ready to lose a few good pounds after drinking a can of this stuff, which is why I do not advise drinking even more than one of these. After explaining that, I am brought back to the demographics talk. Energy drink companies that target women make the drink low calories and sugar free, but they put in that Super Citrimax for the same reason: "Women need to look their best," quoting Damzl Fuel, Go Girl, and Rip It Chic. Per can, you get a small 5 calories and no sugar at all. After drinking that, I'm fascinated they can still keep it sugar free and low calorie, and I mean extremely low calorie. All in all, if I can locate some more Damzl Fuel, I can name it my go-to sugar free energy drink, and I know you will enjoy it the same. On kick, I have to say, my octane is high and I feel completely energized, although I have no clue how much caffeine in this, I can easily say it's equally well.

Taste: 8.6 - An insanely natural tasting lemon-lime wild berry, reminding me of lemon-lime soda infused with strawberry
Kick: 8.3 - Great kick lasting me, oh, about 3 or 4 hours with a basic crash at the end
Overall: 8.5 - Honestly, I'll find it hard to top a sugar free energy drink like this one

Reviewed by: Chan

Pure Fuel

Also while cruising Lassen's, I met the Pure Fuel, which this time, isn't advertised as organic. It is, however "performance support" with zero calories, zero fat, zero carbs, and zero sugar. Uh oh, you know when a drink says sugar-free or zero sugar that it's going to have some funky artificial sweetener. I checked the ingredients list to see what it was and I find dreaded sucralose, also known as Splenda. I've always disliked Splenda for its bitterness and metallic flavor. I don't know if there's some way to mask the flavor of sucralose like there is for acesulfame k, but I hope there is. Anyway, the can looks pretty good with red bubbly stripes at the top and bottom above a black background. The bold lettering and simple design seems to signify that it's meant solely for kick.

The first time I smelled it wasn't bad. It smells like slightly artificial, yet very luscious lemon-orange without the bite. The color is very nice as well, being highly saturated gold and very clear and shiny like glass. In contrast to the smell, the taste is much less distinct. I can't really distinguish the lemon and orange anymore, and it just tastes weird with the sucralose. I can tell because the sucralose gives the drink more of a sour, bitter taste, which mimics sugary sweetness, but really isn't. It works with the ascorbic acid and carbonation to drive the taste even further from sweet. I'm deeply saddened because I know this would be a really, really great drink if it were not for the sucralose, making it taste not sweet at all. And the gumminess doesn't help. I had no idea sucralose contributed to a gummy mouth, but it totally does, and it's insanely hard to remove it. The carbonation is just right, being fine and bubbly, but not painful. I can easily finish the can, but I'm just really sad that there's no sugar in here.

I can say that was a nice, solid, kick. It does pretty well against all the common energy drinks, like Monster and Amp. I wonder what ingredients were the cause, and so I read the Supplement Facts. There are your usual vitamins such as C, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, and B12, and they're all in 100% DV amounts, which is a very good thing. I know that just by drinking this can, I get my full supply of those five or six nutrients. Actually, it lists 60mg of C, which, to me, is very little. I usually go for about 1000mg, so I'm not sure what's going on with the daily values... As for the energy ingredients, There's actually less than I was expecting: only 365mg of a proprietary energy blend, consisting of Guarana, Caffeine, Taurine, Ginseng, Eleutherococcus Senticoscus, Green tea, and Ginkgo Biloba. Now, hold on a second. I have to figure out what that Eleutherococcus Senticoscus is. A quick check online lets me know that it's a plant that is similar to ginseng which used to be called Siberian Ginseng. It's no longer legal to call it Siberian Ginseng in the US because it is actually not part of the Panax species. It is mildly anti-inflammatory, is an antioxidant, and has similar effects to Chinese Ginseng, but is cheaper. Good to know. Overall, on kick, the Pure Fuel performs quite well, but mostly due to the Ginkgo, which provided some great focus.

Taste: 6 - The Splenda, once again, ruins the taste
Kick: 7.6 - Good with the Ginkgo
Overall: 7 - Not a bad one to try

Reviewed by: Jeff