This is the last of the Power Trips I had in stock. I loved their Blue flavored drink, and really enjoyed their sugar free can as well as their shots. I was anxious to try this one, as it promised to be one of the more unique energy drink flavors I have seen. Sure, there are lots of tropical flavored drinks out in the market, but not to many that are straight up mango. Mango is one of those great fruits – as long as someone else is doing all the work for you… all the cutting of the peel, dealing with the big pit in the middle – feh. and other than the Guavex juice which tastes like drinking pancake syrup, there is not much that is just mago out there.
Taste:9
Initially, I was braced to dislike this flavor. Not because I dislike mango – quite the opposite. I LOVE mango – and this drink was artificially flavored with no juice. Does not bode well. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by what I encountered on my first gulp. This as some good mango!
Sure it was not real – but it did not matter all that much. This reminded me of a Jelly Belly version of mango – which is all candified, but still yummy and close enough to the real thing that you could let it pass. The flavor did get a bit sticky and syrupy, and even though they used high fructose corn syrup in here, some of the stickiness I detected might have been a taste memory recall of all those Juvex mango nectars I have consumed over the years. For my first straight-on mango energy drink I have tried, this one is pretty fantastic.
Nutrition:8
Like the other Power Trips, their kick is very nice. This is full of good old fashioned lab made caffeine and natural caffeine ( from guarana) to a bit less than 200mg . I t also has the Power Trip blend of minerals and vitamins, including Vitamins C and B, and taurine. There is energy to spare in here – leaving me quite buzzed for about 4 hours. Like most drinks flavored with simple sugars, this one does tend to leave you a bit crashy after the caffeine wears off.
Packaging:5
The package just does not work for me. While I get what they might have been going for, the little line winding around the can, giving of pixelated blue over a pink background does not work. The can definitely looks the cheeziest of the bunch – giving off waves of Big Lots Super Sale quality. Shame too – as this drink is way better inside, and worth so much more than the can implies. At least the line could have been made to look like lightning, which would have been silly, but at least a little more fitting to the image than a big-ol fat dumb line wriggling around the logo. Other than the concept, the drink does all the other things well. It is double facing, so there is no problem on the convenience store shelves, the lid of the can is pointing the right way, and they list the caffeine content right on the label, so there is no guesswork.