Jolt Cola has been around for a long, long time, starting as one of the first in this genre back in 1985. This was my drink of choice when there was no such thing as energy drinks, back when the only choices for getting caffeinated was coffee, Mountain Dew, Pepsi or Coke. These were the days before there was a Starbucks on every corner, and there was no specialty drink aisles in the supermarkets. “All the sugar and twice the caffeine.” was the moniker, separating them from the masses by using cane sugar like the old Coke used to – before the staple of high fructose corn syrup took hold. They had to drop it when they switched to HFCS too though. The switched their slogan to “twice the caffeine and all the taste” I lost all interest in them. I guess that was my first inkling that I would grow up to be a caffeine snob.

taste:8
I found the light and aftertaste-less a refreshing change from the heavy jolt I grew up with. I liked the fact that they kept the sucralose down to a minimum, preferring the lighter flavor rather than the heaviness of Mountain Dew or Sprite. I found the orange juice in it made it taste flavorful and fruity, without bitter and tangy. A refreshing change from the Jolt Cola taste I grew up with.

Packaging:9
Many energy drinks have this now, from the big old monsters to the big old Rockstars, but Jolt was the first one that I saw that has that ultra cool pop off lid so you could save your drink for later. It also made it seem like you were drinking out of some space age thermos – where your drinks would stay colder if left out than others. No idea if it is true or just damn clever merchandising, but either way this can has revolutionized energy drink packaging.

Buzz/Nutrition:7
15 calories, 0 sugar, and 3 grams of protein are in here, so there is not much in the way of heavyness or syrupiness. The odd thing is where the protein comes from: I cant think of many other energy drinks that have protein in them. The massive can has 280 milligrams of caffeine and 56 milligrams of Guarana in the 24oz can. That breaks down to about 93mg if it were an 8oz can – which is not that bad. it helps that it is in such a big can, so you could slam it down, burp like there was no tomorrow and bounce around the room for hours.

Website:http://www.joltenergy.com: 8
This is a really fun site, illustrating that while they are a small company, they devoted lots of time and energy into their site. They have contests, downloads, and tons of information that is all made to look fun and still very homemade. While the images are slick and professional, the small size of the company shows through in a homey and sweet way, with font choices and images that look like Mason Selkowitz McDermott worked hard with wet planet to make sure their product came out just the way an energy drink site should be.