Battery Energy Drink’s sugar free, low calorie flavor. Battery has found a very unique way to handle the semantic problem of finding a lever but not over-the-top way to handle the Sugar Free moniker that has plagued so many other energy drinks. So any others have either called themselves “Diet” or ” sugar free” or even “zero carb,” even though none of those have even close to the cache of “stripped”.

This is one of the few drinks from Finland – and getting it in the US is pretty difficult. If you are one of the lucky few in California who can find this, I suggest buying by the caseload and selling on Ebay. As soon as someone tries this drink, there is no way they would choose a Monster Blue over this great can.

Taste:8
This is a very interesting take on the classic Red Bull flavor, only making it much better by adding a real fruitiness to it, and eliminating the chalky slightly sour. While it is really impossible to narrow the flavor down (I taste pears, honey, citrus and a little bite) it does not taste overly complex and fake. This is one of the better Red Bull flavors I have had, without doubt beating the Red Bull Diet flavor. This is more full bodied, leaving a richness and a fantastic aftertaste that dies quickly.

Buzz/Nutrition:7
Like all other Battery drinks, this has 106mg of caffeine and 1320mg of taurine. This provides a great boost that will keep you moving without any jitters for a solid couple hours. While not over the top, it is far more potent than the most popular energy drinks in America.

There is also the usual B vitamin complex, although unless I find someone from Finland, I won;t be able to decipher the other ingredients as it is in its native tongue. I was able to read that it has Malodextrin in it, a common food additive but also a great sweetener – certainly more healthy than Aspartame and sucralose. Maltodextrin can alter the texture somewhat, since it is often used as a thickener. However, maltodextrin usually has a very fine texture. Malodextrin is used here in the US in a number of coffees and energy drinks because it is digested easily and creates an ‘insulin spike’ which shuttles nutrients to the muscle cells faster than if those nutrients were simply taken on their own. Malodextrin can be found in Monsters and Full Throttles too, the difference being that they still pump their drinks full of High Fructose Corn Syrup and sucralose.

Packaging:8
While this can is still riffing off the original Battery, it does not have near the same amazing punch that the original one did. The fonts are fine, but the overall feeling of drinking from a battery is gone. This was a mixture of losing the gold color in favor of a mustard yellow, and being less creative with the overall design. It is still a great can, but not as nice as the last 2 I have tried from them.