Zipfizz started producing their drink line back in 2003, and have now branched to half a dozen different items. The energy drink mix is still the flagship – and is a great way to get introduced to the brand. It comes in 4 flavors, pink lemonade, orange soda, berry and citrus. They do have the one thing which all these drink mixes can not avoid, the use of the dreaded baking soda. Coffee drinks have them as preservatives, and if you add citric acid you got bubbles. As most of these energy drink mixes want to get carbonated, baking soda is a cheap and effective way to go. Of course the flavor is not helped by this, but can be masked if you find the right sweeteners. Fortunately, Zipfizz found the right combo – getting this powder so good you can eat it right out of the tube!
OK , I know you are supposed to mix these with water – and I totally meant to – but one taste of their delicious orange candy and my coworker and I ate it up like a big ‘ol pixie stick. The xylitol and fizzing on your tongue is a fantastic candy treat – to heck with mixing it with water! This stuff can outpop pop rocks, get you more buzzed than a crushed sweet tart and gets you more buzzed than a can of Red Bull – what more do you want?
Taste: 8
This powder rocks. Seriously, the flavor wakes you up and goes right to your head! We tried the citrus and orange tubes and the orange soda is definitely one to be eating in powder form. The sweetener comes of strong and not at all oversweet, and the caffeine bitterness was completely masked by the fantastic citrus-y flavor. for some real fun, use this as a topping for raspberries (you can fill them in the little pocket in a raspberry perfectly) or sprinkle it on ice cream (made vanilla taste like a lemon/orange creamsicle). I enjoyed eating this as much as I enjoyed the substantional buzz I got from it. The baking soda is there, but not too overpowering.
Buzz/Nutrition:9
This candy not only has 100mg caffeine in each small tube, but is very high in a number of vitamins and nutrients. The caffeine is extracted from Guarana seed and Green Tea – not lab grown.There is all the energy drink suspects in here with Taurine and OVER 41,667 times the amount listed in the RDA! I loved that this is sweetened with xylitol, instead of opting for the less healthy sucralose. There is also vitamins: C, E and folate. There are tons of electrolytes and nutrients in here too – but you forget that so easily when you are eating in like a Fun-Dip.
Packaging:5
love the design, hate the label. These come in great little vials with cute little caps for easy storage. Problem is with the bland label they stick on, which has lots of little tiny text, but still don’t list caffeine content, website or contact info. With a tasty treat like this – I would completely punch up the color and layout for these packages.