I have long needed one of these drinks. Essn energy had just recently come to my attention, and could not have arrived a moment too soon. Filled with organic ingredients, a lift from yerba mate and green tea and guarana, and tastes like a high end delicious organic energy drink should be, Essn has reminded me about the fun of finding a new company with an incredible new product. Of course, it was just a matter of time before I found out about it – as I found their target demographic to be a health conscious consumer, 65% male, 35% female, and lives in a major metropolitan area or within 1 hour driving distance to a major metro area. Hm. I wonder if they could be a little more specific as to their target demographic – like looking for a particular blood type…

Not that Essn is really new, as much as it is new to me. Skylar Hayley has been producing this brand for years now, and it just not managed to make it’s way to a store near me about 20 minutes from a major metropolitan area – and I could not be happier. For my modest two bucks, I would rather put something delicious and nutritious into me than your run of the mill high fructose corn syrup and red food dye mess.

Taste:9
This is definitely an energy drink worlds away from the convenience store masses, with the upper crust of energy drinks like Guru, Steaz and Syzmo. Essn is to Cask Ale (Real beer) what Monster is to canned Keystone Light. Sure, they are both in the same genre and can be bought at roughly the same kind of stores, but people who swill down 3 cans of Full Throttle would never get just how good Essn is.

According to the can, this is supposed to be Pomegranate Lime Flower. Not having ever eaten a lime flower, I can not attest to that. To my delicately trained glow in the dark tastebuds, this seemed to me to be a mix between a light lime-berry-energy drink mix that was both complex and very unique. This had a slight twinge of energy drink flavor (Red Bull standard) but was so much more than that – with the flavors of tea and pomegranate. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed.

Nutrition:10
The package advertises 240 milligrams of organic guarana extract, 360 milligrams of brazilian yerba mate and a plethora of B-Vitamins, EGCG. Kenyan green tea, pomegranate and lime flower. Really, what more could you want? You have your antioxidants, all that green tea goodness, lots of vitaminy goodness, all with 120mg of caffeine overall.
And the best part? It works. Lots of long lasting energy – as a slim 12 ounce can kept me awake during one of the hardest business meetings I could handle right after a long filling lunch. I not only felt more alert, I felt berrer about myself after drinking it – like a little London Tipton on my shoulder yelling “YAY ME!”

Packaging:8
Decent job here as well, as they produced a gark green and black can that appealed to my urban senses, while did not appease to my younger less mature senses with bold fonts or extreme wording. Even their little spiel on the top seemed both wry, and explained how this drink is better for you that other less healthy beverages. It is like they know me or something….

Seriously, even though it is obvious pandering to the Whole Foods crowd, it is still a nice job. Nothing revolutionary about the design or layout, but no problems either. The double facing can was nice, as well as the lid placement showing off the can design. Although they listed the guarana and yerba mate, no listing of the 120mg of caffeine which is a small misstep. And I am tempted to take points off for the smiley after their “energize your spirit” slogan, but their modesty on the organic and certified badges balances it out.