Those of you who don’t know who Homies are need to spend more time looking at gumball machines. For the last ten years these little figurines have been sold to millions of people, amused by their exaggerated but accurate representations of chicano culture. There are dozens of them now, with everything from Luchadores to no-nonsense nuns. Artist David Gonzales has been capturing hispanic life with these wonderful characters, being made into poseable dolls, bobble heads and all sorts of merchandising.

All this is the perfect reason they have been chosen to bring to light the first energy shot geard directly to the Latino market. Right now, they are trying to get these in with supermarkets and pharmacies in predominantly in Hispanic areas – and have already found a home in vending machines (true to the Homies line) in Avanza markets. My problem with this shot is that instead of coming out with something inspired by latino culture and playing with mexican-american life, they used the brand name to sell a mediocre product. Next time, play a little – get creative and the you’ll have something worth keeping around. How about a collectable package to compliment the homies figures? How about a flavor reminiscent of ice cream push carts or mexican cuisine? How about mixing up the ingredients list with some chile peppers for that added boost to the system?
Instead, these drinks are cute – but by no means something you will want to have again and again.

Packaging:7
As marketing goes, this drink should be a hit. There is a couple of their figurines in cartoon style on the shot, and the entire bottle is bi-lingual. While they used the standard 5 hour energy shot bottle, the wrap is really a first class product – even with a little bio of Macho – the mexican wrestler. The bottle itself is wrapped in green and red, symbolizing the mexican flag – and the art is fantastic. If only they listed the caffeine content or came up with an original bottle, this shot would really be unique. Unfortunately, they go the route of 5 hour instead – listing the caffeine in an energy blend and utilizing their bottle as well. While not a bad design, this certainly could have been more collectable – and added to the line of merch that people go crazy for. No one is going to keep this bottle around as a collectable thing. Imagine instead if they made their bottles square, and used the wrap to make different buildings for their homies – then people would buy them in droves to make a set for their characters…

Buzz/Nutrition:7
I was pretty bummed that the Homies we just Wannabes when it came to the ingredients in here. Not that they were horrible, but they were not special either. They had a regular “energy blend ” that hides the caffeine amount, also containing tuarine, glucorolactone, and amino acids. They also put the Enzyme blend in here that so many energy shots do. I was just hoping for something more fun and unique to the homies line.
The energy boost in here is pretty normal too. I got about 3 hours of energy in here – not bad, but nothng special For all the inventiveness of the firgurines, I would have expected some creativity with the energy boost or at least the ingredients list.

Taste:6
Again, this was OK, but nothng particularly standout or impressive. I would think something that tasted like mangos and chile – or all the other cool flavors they could have chosen from: coconut, banana, lime, rompope… Instead this tastes like energy shot. Not bad, but certainly nothng you would drink for the flavor. I think the real problem with this entire shot is that the people involved forgot to have fun with this product.