I have always seen cans of this drink around – mainly in dollar stores or in sale bins across the state. Never one to pass up a free buzz, I finally picked up a bunch of these, thinking that for a buck each, it would be worth it to try out all the different RipIts I could find. Fortunately, the first one I tried was a very tasty, if not way to Soda-ish citrus X, which was like a heavily caffeinated Orange Crush. Not that that was pad for a 16oz pop – but I also would not ever pay more than that for soda – even a highly caffeinated one. The creators of this beverage come from a very interesting family, having the low budget Faygo and Shasta as siblings. Its not at all surprising that this tastes so much like pop then, seeing as they are born and bred from a very traditional soda company, with more than 1500 employees and prides them selves over using the Highest Quality High Fructose Corn Syrup. Now I am sorry, but that is like finely produced cow manure. Why go out of your way to make something that is bad for you and does not taste good? Oh yeah, very cost effective. The company makes hundreds of millions a year shilling out the HFCS to the masses.

Buzz/Nutrition: 7
Vitamin C, all the Bs, Taurine, Inositol, 2000mg of taurine and 200 mg of caffeine + more from the guarana. Problem lies with glyceryl abietate, BVO and BHT also known as Butylhydroxytoluene. Why put this in an energy drink? It can cause cancer, and is even illegal to put in infant food because of the damage it can do. Also loaded with High Fructose Corn syrup… Again, why?

Packaging:4
This package still looks like it belongs in the Family Dollar. The cheap yellow can and the blurry colors blend into an unhelpful mass of goo, making the new gray background even more unappealing than the pain bare aluminum I have seen on the bulk of their cans. I have seen other iterations of this design, from the bright yellow of citrus to an almost burnt orange, enough that I have questioned if I am even drinking the same thing. I do like that the can has all the info you could want on it, from the amounts of caffeine and taurine, to the website – which made me like the company even more.

Website:8 http://www.ripitenergy.com/
Its a nice clean site – looking very clean and very well developed, from a UI perspective. Its a mix of HTML and flash, as opposed to going very heavy on the techno – which I completely expected from the cheapo can design. If only they hired the same design firm to make the cans that made the site, they could charge a whole lot more for their drink and pull themselves from the bargain basement shelves.