Zipfizz had done a wonderful job coming out with their drink mixes, so I was pretty excited to try out their Powershots. They come in 4 different varieties, a fruit punch and 3 different varieties – orange, mango and lemon lime. While their packaging was a little off for being a powershot, I could forgive this if the taste and energy from them was as good as the different mixes I was fortunate enough to try.

And while not amazing, this energy shot does have some promise. Made from some very good ingredients, this large shot bottle provided a decent buzz – albeit a bit weak and a little more intensive than the other power shots that are out there. I would put these bottles at the beginner scale of energy shots, not overloading on caffeine and using only natural and healthy ingredients. In just about every category there is something just a little off from the normal caffeinated shots you would find in the convenience store aisles. I think they made this drink without seeing what other shots are out there, or looking at the unique properties of energy shots. These are suposse to give you what you need quicky, providing energy and other functions quickly and hopefully painlessly, something that could be easily stored and drank that can get you through the day. Their Mixes did exactly that, but not so much with these shots.

Buzz/Nutrition:7
For being such a large shot, I expected much more of a buzz than I got. Some people in the office who tried this with me could easily down 2 of them before feeling anything. While they don’t list the caffeine content on the bottle, I can assume from the buzz and from the fact that the mixes have 100mg that these have about the same. That means one of these is equal to about a cup of coffee – which is stronger than downing a Red Bull, but not as powerful as a Upshot, screaming energy or NOS, while having much more liquid to consume. These are FULL of other nutrients, including aver 40,000 times the amount( no – I am not exaggerating) of vitamin B-12 that you would need. This really seemed excessive, as that leads to nothing but a very nutrient filled pee.

Taste:7
unlike most other energy shots, this one is much better if it was refrigerated, which makes it not only hard to keep around in a backpack or on a long trip, but also makes it difficult to place in stores. Shots are all usually kept together in retailers shelves, and so I imagine finding refrigerated space to fit these long slim bottles might present a challenge. And they really are better when kept cold.
The point of shots is to be drank quickly, where you can feel the effects without having to worry much about the taste. But the large size of this shot makes this very hard to do. These are almost 2 shot shots, as it is not too easy to drink the entire thing at one time. I guess that is why there are 4 different flavors of shots with the same function – something not found in most other shot companies.
Of all the flavors, I liked the mango lemon lime the best, but there is only a subtle difference between them. Especially when drink like a shot – slammed down your throat and only leaving a light and hopefully pleasant aftertaste. These tasted more like extra thick Kool-Aid – like it would taste very good if mixed with an extra 6 ounces of water.

Website: 5
Full of information, but ugly as sin. This site is definitely function over form. The look is pure 1999, with big ol’ images ,non-selectable text and bubbles bubbles everywhere.The site clocks in at half a meg in size, which is HUGE for something so simple. Every button has a big rollover image so it moves or pops. The inner pages are in flash for no apparent reason. Not interactivity, certainly, as nothing on the site moves or is intricate. Its just a really big flash movie. If you need to know any information, it will be on here – but in terms of design and layout this is really an amateur offering. I mean, there is a scrolling calendar, with obsolete information running first – so you have to wait a couple minutes to see if anything is going on lately. If this was designed in house, Ill cut the designer some slack. If they paid actual money for this, I hope they paid in trade for powershots…