It is about time someone came out with caffeinated pixie sticks. I have been waiting for this one for years. it took someone like Dr. Robert Bohannon to come up with the secret ingredient, a microencapsulated caffeine, that makes caffeine not so bitter, plus makes the caffeine granules more like flour, so it is easier to work with. This was just one of this mad scientists cool inventions – as he he worked to create saliva HIV tests, electric car fuel cells, anthrax tests, DVD technology, and a bunch of other stuff.
But for me, the best invention is Encaff, which is going to first hit the market in energy sticks, but could soon make it’s way into pastries, cooked foods – just about anything. I am imagining a world of caffeinated donuts, energy omlettes, buzz worthy turkey gravy – the possibilities are endless. In this case however, the product is just caffeine and some sweetener, with a little black cherry tossed in.
Taste:8
I really like the idea – leaving out energy ingredients like vitamin B and Taurine – just keeping it to candy. I really like the flavor too – as it was kept simple and tasty. I found that while you are eating it, there was no bitterness at all – which surprised me. I LOVED the fact that the caffeine was completely tasteless – kinda like the caffeinated version of Flubber!
However, there was still a bitter chalky aftertaste, making you want to get a drink of water or something to kill the taste in your mouth. Truthfully, it may also come from the artificial sweetener combination – which is unnecessary. I mean, if you are going to make a candy, have it be a CANDY, full of sugar and polysorbate 80. It is not like we would eat skittles because they are so good for us. So while this was so much better than I expected, there is still a way to go to completely kill the bitter bite.
Packaging:8
these come in a little foil pouch lined with thin plastic – and it really works. While I ripped the top of it right off – a friend and fellow taster encountered a problem that the little tear-off line made WAY too small a hole and the Encaff did not come out that easily. I never even saw the line and just pulled the top right off. The design on the package was cute and fun – like all candy should be too. My only issue is that they should have listed the caffeine amount on the package if nothing else.
Buzz/Nutrition:8
Each stick has 10 calories per serving, no Trans Fat and no sodium. Each Encaff Energy Stix contains 75mg of caffeine,so about 1 shot of Starbucks espresso. I felt not much from taking one, so the next time I took 2 and felt much better. the 150mg of caffeine woke me up nicely, and I felt it for about 2 1/2 hours without any big crazy spike or drop. Really, it was the effect of slamming a Monster.
I understand the reasoning behind why he only put 75mg of caffeine in each stick, but I still would have made the dose higher. After all, if people are coming to your product because of the caffeine , give them the caffeine. They certainly are not debating choosing your product over the non-caffeinated kind, so give people what they want and bring the power up – try 100, or even 150mg per stick – and really bring the people what they want. Don’t promise an Audi and deliver a Hyundai.
Website:8
While not crazy over the top – this site is fine and functional. I was expecting something different than this basic, albeit well built, functional site. I wanted fun and tongue-in – cheek humor. After all, this is a kid product turned grown up. I mean, look at the silliness kids get to have at warheads.com, wonka.com or the dozens of kiddie food sites. encaff.com is nice enough – and there is even a silly flash game , but it certainly is not to the level of colorful and irreverent I would have liked it to be. Encaff has some clean and lovely code, a decent shopping cart, and a good FAQ. All it really lacks is the Fun
http://caffeineking101.blogspot.com/2009/09/encaff-energy-stix.html