Xyience Xenergy Mango Guava

Chan's the only one so far who's dealt with Xyience and the Xenergy drinks, but luckily, Chan snagged me one while he was on holiday in Vegas. So now I have possession of the Xyience Xenergy Mango Guava. Mango and guava seem like two wonderful tropical fruits that would go together nicely. It wouldn't be too difficult a flavor to pull off with real fruit juice, but knowing Xyience does not use any fruit juices whatsoever, the taste might be an issue. What I'm also concerned about is the sweetener. For some reason, Xyience sweetens all of their drinks with Sucralose, which we all know is my least favorite sweetener. In Chan's review of the Xyience Big Apple, I remember how he disliked the artificial sweetener's taste and the massive gumminess. I doubt I'm in for as much gumminess, but I can't imagine this not having an unappealing sucralose aftertaste. Hopefully, Xyience's reputation for making great sugar-free drinks proves to be true.

I popped the can open without haste and was very delighted with a lucsious, flavorful, and clean peachy mango that's moderately artificial. In fact, it's just a bit more natural than those gummy peach rings you find in little bags with a little bit of that characteristic guava from the Rockstar Juiced Guava. Once you smell that, there's really nothing more. To my surprise, the color came out completely clear, instead of the yellowy red I had predicted. Tasting this for the first time, it's actually very good and that same amazingly overpowering mango-peach-guava flavor comes through, but not as strongly, as it's muted by the fine carbonation. At first, I'm thinking this ranks way up there with some really great drinks like the Rockstar Zero Carb and Monster Lo-Carb, but then I can taste the sucralose losing its sweetness and this drink getting a whole lot blander with that sweetness-mimicking effect of sucralose. Just like so many other drinks solely sweetened with sucralose, like the Pure Fuel, this drink loses all sense of sweetness and takes on a sort of sour and artificial taste instead. Just like Diet Coke. If you've had Diet Coke, you know that feeling of fake sweetness that doesn't satisfy one bit. Although the flavor itself is incredible, the sweetener kills it. I would love to see this done with good 'ol sucrose and glucose.

I'm not familiar with the Xyience kick, but it did serve me well. The energy ingredients include 2.68g of taurine, glucuronolactone, caffeine, guarana extract, panax ginseng extract, inositol, and l-carnitine. Taking a good look at that, the energy ingredients look very strong. This is the first time I've seen a 16oz drink exceeding the standard amount of 2000g of Taurine per can, with 2.68g. All of these strong energy ingredients add up to a screaming kick that should get you flying for a good two hours and then give you good alertness for about three more. Though I don't recommend this for its flavor, the kick is favorable.

Taste: 7.5 - Kudos for amazing flavor, but marked down for crappy fake sweetness
Kick: 9.2 - Does very good, even compared to Monster
Overall: 7.9 - Good on kick, lame on taste for the most part

Reviewed by: Jeff

Rockstar Juiced Guava

I know this review is a bit late, being that I've been putting it off for a long time now. After this one, I think Jeff and I will have all the basic energy drinks reviewed. Rockstars really haven't pleased me so far, with the exception of the Roasted line, but maybe this one will be good. The Rockstar Juiced and the Rockstar Juiced Pomegranate were just okay, and perhaps this one will be just okay as well, but who doesn't like guava, right? Guava, as far as I know, is a fruit that is originated from Mexico, South America, the Caribbeans, and other tropical places around the world. It has a flavor that is similar to apples, passionfruit, and strawberries, blended together. Having said that, I glance over at the can to see 50% juice at the bottom, which probably means that it will have a natural blend of the fruits I just mentioned.The only thing different about the can design from all the other Rockstars is the purple diamond plating background. Like the original Rockstar, I noticed it has a black tab, rather than a purple tab. Okay, I've said enough here, let's open up the can!

Rockstar Juiced Guava has a strong aroma of exactly apple, passionfruit and strawberry. It reminds me of being Hawaii, most likely because the only other time I've tried guava was in Hawaii. Out of the can, this Juiced has an odd dark pink, almost purple color. I had no clue what color to expect because I thought guava was yellow, or orange... Shows what I know. My first reaction to trying this drink is, "Woah, that's strong!" Not really what I expected, an almost unbearable taste. It has a unique flavor, like weak passionfruit, with a strong mango flavor, and some strawberries, but just strong. Besides that, it has a sour taste, after going down your throat that instinctively throws your head back. It really has no long-term aftertaste, only a mellow echo of passionfruit and some mango. This taste is actually pretty interesting; to me, I think of it as sort of a juice, rather than an energy drink only because it has very little energy drink qualities. After a few sips, this drink actually isn't half bad; it gets easier to drink and has more of a taste to it. Because it is 50% juice, this Juiced has very little carbonation, which allows for pleasurable drinking. It does have some gumminess, which is pretty common in most juice-like beverages out there, but it's not too bad. Overall, this drink takes awhile to get into, but after you do, it's not half bad. I do think Rockstar could make some taste adjustments though.

Now for the ingredients. After carbonated water, this drink has fruit juice concentrates, which are a blend of apple, pear, and guava juices. Hm, yeah, I did notice trace amounts of pear. After that I see sucrose, which is its primary sweetener, and taurine, which happens to be number five. The Rockstar Juiced also has natural flavors, pectin (thickener), caffeine, acesulfame, sucralose, milk thistle, and ginkgo biloba leaf extract. I really wonder why only Rockstar, out of all the major brands of energy drinks, would put ginkgo biloba in their products; I'm yet to see Monster or Amp do this. Per can, you get only 180 calories, due to the juice content and only 40g of sugar. I'm real happy to see Rockstar make a low sugar/calorie drink without it being totally gross. You also get 2,000mg of taurine (average) and 300mg of ginkgo biloba. It's also nice to see this Rockstar having a decent caffeine content, 160mg. Overall, it was just another Rockstar Juiced, like I predicted. Nothing too special about it, but then again, nothing too terrible about it. I'd have to say Monster wins in their lineup of Juiced products (Khaos, M-80, Mixxd).

Taste: 7 - It'll take awhile to finish, just too much
Kick: 8 - Ginkgo is helping the kick here
Overall: 7.5 - I want to see Rockstar exceed Monster and Amp, for once...

Reviewed by: Chan