First came 5 hour energy – which never seemed to make it a real 5 hours. Next was 6 hour energy and 6 hour power, which was basically the same thing – only getting nowhere near 6 hours of energy. Then I saw an ad for the maximum time you could push this idea – Mr. Energy’s 8 hour energy.
I can honestly say that a great portion of the public will actually get 8 hours of energy from this. It starts of slow, peaks after a couple hours, and keeps the energy coming. However, after getting hold of some of these bright cheery yellow pills, I had a few issues.
First, it is a pill, and there is some psychosomatic differences if you take all these chemicals in pill form as opposed to drink form. I KNOW it could easily be the same thing if they just added water and sugar, but it just feels more medicinal when in pill form. However, I was VERY impressed with Ballistic energy pills – and so my initial concern was somewhat abated. There is just something about swallowing pills for energy that seems much less fun than a big energy drink or a couple cups of coffee.
The other thing that concerned me was that it just did not look all that powerful. The caffeine content was hidden in a proprietary blend. They were just so bright and happy yellow – and having Mr. Energy on the front reminded me of the running gag in Spaceballs (Mr. Coffee, Mr. Radar, Mr. Fusion, etc…). Upon further inspection of the ingredients however, I got both a little scared and excited. While it looked like there was caffeine in here, it was from guarana – so the effect was going to be gradual. So I brought in the bottle to work for people to try and see just how serious this stuff was.
Oh. My. I guess they just got these pills into the Flying J for truckers, who are the ones who could really benefit. The following is a sampling of some of my coworkers experiences with these little powerhouses of energy.
“Do not take these ones if you want to sleep at all!”
“It is really strong stuff – but takes a while to kick in.”
“Make sure you eat something before these yellow ones, they’re really strong”
“Ow! – chills. jitters. sweat. Didn’t react ’til hour after I took pill. Couldn’t fall asleep ’til 4:30am!”
” I usually don’t feel anything from caffeine, but I felt a bit more alert, not really awake though.”
My own reaction to this was very strong as well – I just do not do so hot with supplements with Yohimbe in them ( like Spike shooters). It took about an hour or so to kick in, so don’t let the fact that you are not immediately bouncing off the walls get you. Also, having them on an empty stomach is not such a great idea. The thing is, this works for a good 8 hours. Really. Don’t even think of taking one of these at 4 pm and expect to sleep – especially if you are out doing anything. Long car trips? long coding evening? These are perfect for the marathon sessions we all need to pull.
However, these are not so hot if you want an easy coffee substitute, as they take a while to work. These don;t do great for an afternoon slump either – because just like a strong LSD trip – it just goes on so damn long.
Packaging:9
The fun of this little package belies the serious stuff inside here. Sure, if you stop and read the “energy blend” you could find all the the powerful ingredients, but I am not sure if most people would. I would be afraid to take 2 of them together, and then when not experiencing things for the first half hour, downing more. While designed nicely, I would make the design look a bit more potent and solemn. With something like this, I can totally see why there is no caffeine listing, but I would have loved to see that along with a listing of how much yohimbe, gugolsterones and other energy boosting ingredients in here. While I know it works and their formula is proprietary, it would still be nice to know just how much hoodia I am taking.
As for the overall design, I love the look of the blister pack, and think the design really fits in with the demographic – appealing to both the energy junkie and the older more subdued crowd. The flames and hardcoreness is balanced by the feeling of overdone infomercial. It all just works.
Nutrition/Buzz:8
While I don’t understand why there are some of these ingredients in here, the effect is still overwhelming. While I get the addition of Hoodia (weight loss), Green Tea leaf ( caffeine and antioxidant), Caffeine, Yohimbe and Guggulsterones, this also has a whole bunch of cinnamon bark and naringin(the thing that gives grapefruit it’s bite).
For me, the scariest ingredients in here are the guggolsterones and Yohimbe. Guggolsterones give me the shakes – sometimes referred to as a thermogenic response. Basically, the body burns off enough energy but your skin gets cold, so the contrast in body temp makes you shake – well, makes me shake. Some think this aids in dieting, but I just find it too damn alarming.
So yes – tons of energy, but the scariness of the other ingredients and the jitters seemed to cause in people – with no warnings of eating with a meal to counteract brings this down from a 9 to an 8. Still, if you need to stay alert for a sustained amount of time, these will do the trick.