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

FRS Low Calorie Peach Mango

Okay, so I caved. But I couldn't resist. I just had to pop this baby open, the FRS Low Calorie Antioxidant Health Drink Peach Mango. Whew! With such a long name, this drink must have some special properties. I'm thinking it may re-vitalize rather than energize my body. The thought of peach-mango makes my mouth water, yet, I'm a bit concerned over what the sweetener may be. I looked at the back and saw surcalose, better known as Splenda. It seems to be the sole sweetener, but I'm not completely sure, considering there is a multitude of other ingredients I'm not familiar with. I'll see what they are along the way.

Oh, the smell is delightful. I smell the peach and mango emerging as one, and there's a definite sourness to it. It's not quite as sweet and artificial as I thought it would be. It's not carbonated, and brings very little gumminess, which is good. There's a very mild sweetness that's noticably artificial, as Splenda is, and it blends into the flavor of the mango a bit, being close to earthy tasting. The peach doesn't have much presence, but leads on to the also subtle mango. Energy Guru was right about this drink; it doesn't taste very natural, and has a strong vitamin taste. I was dumb to pour it out into a cup... Dang. This thing is getting thicker and more vitaminy by the second. Oh, man. Not great on taste, but it's necessary to ingest the stuff in order to feel the effects, obviously.

Now, this is a Low Calorie drink, and it's to be expected that there are less calories, less sugar, and some kind of artificial sweetener. Well, we already know that the sweetner is Splenda, and there are 5g of sugar per can. I'm quite sure that's the least per can I've ever seen in an energy drink. As for those weird ingredients I was referring to earlier, they are Quercetin, Locust Bean Gum, and Catechins. It is stated that Catechins come from the Green Tea extract, and I've found out that they help prevent the "big four:" stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes. They also may act as antibiotics. Quercetin, I also learned, is anti-inflammatory. And as for Locust Bean Gum, that one's been put in to simply thicken the drink; it is a thickening agent. The ingredients sure are non-standard; there's no Taurine, Caffeine, Guarana, Inositol, Glucuronolactone, or Ginseng anywhere to be found. There are lots of vitamins, like other drinks, but I doubt this will do any more than make me feel more aware and just plain healthy.

Taste: 4.5 - Not the tastiest drink
Kick: 4.5 - So I'm feeling vitalized...
Overall: 5 - I guess it wasn't marketed as an energy drink

Reviewed by: Jeff