I miss wired energy drinks. I used to find them all around town, filling the convenience stores with all their different wares.not that they tasted differently, really, but their marketing and original blends were a nice change of pace from the monsters and rockstars that were the only choices 4 or 5 years ago.Fortunately, I found a whole posse of them in a little gas station 20 miles from the Mexican border. While it is a long way to go for a nostalgic energy drink – it was nice to remember that these drink were actually better than I remembered them being all those years ago.
The first I tried out again was the extra caffeinated version of an original Red Bull flavor. The difference between this and Red Bull is just for the fact that this has more caffeine than almost any other energy drink on the planet. I used to only see this in the 294mg size, but now I found this with a whopping 344mg! That is a crazy amount found in only a small handfuls of energy drinks. I love that that is the selling point – not a great flavor or exotic energy ingredients – this is just a super-caffeinated energy drink.
Taste:7
This tastes just like a wired 294 – but maybe a little more medicinal. Other than that this is a very Red Bullish flavor. Not that this is bad, actually, I it is pretty nice. They also pack in here 3000mg of taurine, so it has more sour gummy flavor than your average Red Bull clone as well. The flavor is supposed to be citrus – which I guess it is, but it is not like a grapefruit or orange.
Nutrition/Kick:9
First the good news -the kick is absolutely astounding! I mean, with 344mg running through you, there is no way you are not going to be perked up. This is a very serious amount of caffeine to be running through you, and you can definitely feel it. I also liked the heavy doses of B vitamins and Taurine. Basically, they took the usual energy drink mix and overloaded it – giving you at least 3 times the energy drink in the can. The problem I have it that is all you get. There is still a whopping amount of calories in here from the high fructose corn syrup, I found over xxxxx calories in here, which also explains the big crash you get from this too. The best way to drink this is to stretch it out over the course of a half hour or so, so the crash and the buzz will not be nearly so great.
Packaging:7
The can works pretty well for me – not emphasizing the high caffeine kick, other than in a couple places. Spike is full of warnings, and the other drinks with that much caffeine have badges all over informing the drinker that they are not to consume more than 3 cans, or if they ever considered being a parent, or all of that nonsense. After all, this drink is nothing compared to a large grande coffee from Starbucks, which could easily top 400mg of caffeine in the cup. The orange flames look really hot – and is one of the better designs of the line. I like the listing of the website and full info of ingredients. While not a work of art this can certainly does the trick.
Website:8
This is a great site – and like the drink provide a no-frills nearly perfect design. Fast layout, great pictures, and get you everything you need from the site in a hurry. I really like the use of huge fonts, and putting the main point of the website ( its about the drinks, dummy) front and center. The pictures of the cans and listings are big and beautiful – but the other categories are pretty superfluous. I don’t know why anyone at all would ever download Wired screensavers. I also found lots of macromedia code inside the page, as well as a TON of javascript built right into the page to slow it down. While I appreciate the design, the choice of categories and the html code leave something to be desired.