It seems everyone is trying to be healthier now – even strong sugary energy drink companies. Boo Koo Holdings Inc., the ones responsible for Boo Koo energy drinks, power shots, and Gazzu energy stuff, are changing its name to Performing Brands Inc., going for the image of a consumer beverage company focused on health, wellness and functional benefit beverages, rather than just making energy drinks.
Steve Solomon, chairman of Boo Koo, stated that “BooKoo Burner+ is a revolutionary development for the energy drink category. In the past, some people drank an energy drink as well as a not so good tasting protein drink. BooKoo has mastered the formula to provide both energy and protein in a great tasting beverage.” This is Boo Koo’s answer to whey up – and you can tell they did their reserch when putting this drink out.

Nutrition:8
This drink is the first to add protein with the typical energy drink ingredients such as taurine, ginseng and other energy drink nutrients. And not just a little protein, but a whopping 20 grams of whey protein. That is some pretty serious stuff, especially when mixed with 160 mg of caffeine and B Vitamins. In terms of energy, there are 90 calories and no sugar in the entire can, sweetened with sucralose and ace K. Current recommendations for total protein intake for athletes is between 1.6 – 1.8 grams per kilogram body weight, depending on who you read, however, it is not uncommon for bodybuilders to consume in excess of 2 grams per kg of body weight with no ill effects. Since your body can only use it a the time and not save it for later though, 20 mg is more than most people would need for a workout. This is PERFECT for people who are needing a fix before workouts. If only there was a bit of creatine, d-ribose and other power ingredients in it as well.

I loved the addition of protein, and that it’s whey and not Soy, which is not as strong a source. They could have picked a better sweetener than sucralose, but the Ace-K is nice. I definitely think this is in the right direction, but could be improved by adding more athletic and less synthetic ingredients, as well as add more caffeine.

Taste: 7
I know… Even though this was a protein drink I was fully expecting these to have carbonation. It ieven says ont he top of the can – non-carbonated. My past experiences still took over and it was a couple sips before I got used to the bubble free liquid. Unlike muscle milk and all the other protein shakes, I still thought when I popped the top to hear the familiar pssh-thock of a fizzy pop. The thick milky flavor of the protein and the sourness of the lime took over. It was very lime rind flavored, and was barely sweet. Not fantastic, but certainly drinkable.
To put it bluntly, I would never pick this up as my daily energy drink of choice. It was just too… functional for me to have on a regular basis. Like Hydrive’s E brand, there would be times to take a drink like this, and times to stay far away. But, when I go and workout for power at the gym, I would definitely have this as a pre and post workout drink, enjoying the qualities of the caffeine and protein to help me work out, and recover and gain from lifting. Not sure if I would enjoy Lime Wrecker if I were not taking it for it’s qualities though. This is a drink that you would have for the things it does, not the milky sour it tastes. It’s not bad by any means, but neither is it very tasty.

Packaging:8
16 oz aluminum and solid white. Glorious. The logo and name are a fantastic departure from the regular Boo Koo brand. The color that was used is great, as well as the printing job. The font choices really separate this from other energy drinks – looking more functional and healthy than Monsters or Rockstars. The fonts used ae perfect, appealing to a much larger market that they had with their usual energy drinks. Gone is the ultra flame in cool colors, replaced by a lime green firekid outline. In terms of layout, this is an award winning design.

Rather than place the name twice to help sell the can, they use a silly and amusing paragraph, explaining that “It’s full of Ludicrus amounts of power, chocked full of protein for pumpification and it taste great. It’s twice your recommended daily dose of awesome, fortified with 100% jack-you-up. So drink up and go hard”. They push all the healthy stuff, from the 0 sugar to the protein and caffeine.
So why not list the caffeine? Other sites tag these as having 160mg in a can, so pretty standard for energy drinks. Why would you list all the other stuff but not list something people who buy supplements All The Time would be looking for? While the rest of the world who don’t work out might not care to know all the ingredients, Bodybuilders and athletes work VERY hard to be sure what they are putting in their bodies is the correct formula – not listing the caffeine is a pretty significant mistake. The package would have gotten higher marks if they did not leave this off.

Website:7
Clean and unique, with well written code. The flash works, and displays some ingenuity for being a very simple flash site. You have a choice of the 3 products, and really all don’t give you any information a just link to their shopping cart – which look completely different than the burner site. I wanted so much more than the little dippy paragraph on “what protein does for you” and a link tot he shopping cart.
This site looks great – and you could tell lots of thought and design went into the site. But without having ANY new information or reason to go there this is just an empty shell of a site. The overall theme is beautiful – but I would definitely go through this again and give the people who really want the lowdown on these drinks what they want.