I used to see bomba in convenience stores all around Colorado about 4 years ago. The cute grenade bottles appealed to my magpie-like glee for awesome packaging. It did not hurt that the drink was so tasty too. The bright and cheery yellow always reminded me of lemon pledge and the flavor was such a thick artificial syrupy goo that I found myself looking for bottles wherever I went out. But then something odd happened – they did not just disappear, but just became harder to find – until I could only find them in Mexican grocery stores. One day, I just found them gone altogether. Their website sure made it look like it was still here in the US, but I guess it was just too cool for my area – where grenade filled energy drinks were just too weird to be a big hit. Not that way in Northwest Mexico though, as Bomba seemed to be a de-facto energy drink in almost every liquor store and small gas station I visited. This little explosive was everywhere – with all the ingredients and nutritional info written in Spanish.
Still, unlike many other Mexican energy drinks I saw, this one still listed the caffeine content, calories and complete nutritional info,, and my highly trained senses were able to convert the Spanish sayings to English without even asking my interpreter. Like this :”Este productono debe consumirlo la cafeina o menores de 12 anos.” – where even though my 12 year old was propositioned to buy tons of fireworks – he should not purchase this energy drink, or “ingesta maxima 500ml for dia,” which I will leave to you all to interpret. Bomba is an awesome find if it is in your area – even if you find one with an all-English label. Besides the awesome packaging, this is a great solid tasty energy drink in one of the coolest packages around. While not for the everyday, it is a great treat.

Packaging: 10
This has got to be one of the best packages ever made. They really went the extra mile for this drink, coming up with not only a new can, but a whole new lid for it as well. The drink comes in a glass grenade , complete with pineapple ridges and fits very neatly into your hand. The label is very easy to read – even in another language. The lid is the best part though. Rather than use a traditional bottle top, the created this awesome pull ring that goes with the grenade theme. You grab the ring and pull, and the lid pops off the bottle! While this makes it impossible to save for later, it is a small enough drink that that does not matter at all. The writing on the bottle is small but very concise, and fits right into the bomb theme – with the layout very minimalistic and clean. Someone should have won an award for this package, as it is definitely one of the most unique drinks you could get your hands on.

Nutrition: 8
Bomba has 80mg of caffeine in the small 250ml bottle – although the listing is pretty odd. They list the ingredients per 100ml, even though there is only 250ml available in the bottle. So you have to take all the ingredients and multiply them by 2.5 – except for the calories, which they list per bottle at 138mg. They list 1000mg of taurine in here too, as well as the usually B vitamins and inositol too. I love the use of Sugar in here as opposed to high fructose corn syrup – which definitely adds enough sweetness and still manages to taste very thick.In terms of energy drinks, this one really hits the spot. I felt quite a nice rush from slamming this down, although I am sure some of that is psychological – drinking it from such a cool little bottle trying to drive in a place where the lines on the road seem to be merely a suggestion. I have never seen so many people pass me on the right shoulder going 60 on downtown roads before.

Taste:8
This drink comes out a bright yellow. If I saw a can of this by the side of the highway I would stay 10 feet from it, if you get my drift. You know the color is artificial, as nothing in the universe can make a yellow that bright and shiny. The taste is bright and shiny too, sort of a lemon pledge flavored pancake syrup. This is not a drink to have every day – but as the occasional treat, it does a great job standing out from the other energy drinks out there, and it pretty tasty – although was too heavy to be a consistent caffeine source.

Website:2 www.drinkbomba.com 3
First we get a boring and unoriginal flash intro – for absolutely no reason.. This is followed by one of the worst designs for a website ever. I mean – really really bad. I am glad they give me information of ingredients ( some of which are not labeled on the bottle) and how many drinks come in a pallet, but but in terms of making something for consumers this site plain sucks. In terms of code, it is very 1997, with the site designed without css and all in tables. Overall – just skip it.