This morning I had the chance to try MonaVie’s I have had the pleasure and the pain of getting to sample some of the world’s top multi-level marketing energy drinks. These companies run the gamut, from sellers being just folk who like a good drink, so a social network that borders on the zealous. Regardless of the vociferousness of their followers, the drinks should stand on it’s own. The power and the flavor of the liquid inside should move a person past all the motivational and spiritual crap to a point that they would just buy the drink on their own – from a real store shelf. I guess the big question is this. Can a Multi-level-marketing company, in a business of selling health, wealth and a lifetime of happiness in very expensive bottles of juice, able to produce a decent energy drink? The answer is a definite sort-of.
A very nice young man named Gerrid was kind enough to send a can of this along, as I was having the hardest time getting hold of this can on my own. Without selling in stores, it was up to a nice distributor to send me a sample. Since then, I have found that it IS possible to get hold of them in smaller packs, by calling MonaVie directly at (866) 217 – 8455.
Taste:7
While XS drinks concentrate on a delicious and easy to drink flavor,Verve was plain Out Of This World, and many others were Red Bull, this one definitely had a taste of it’s own. While I know it is chock full of acai berry and a bunch o other fruits, I kept tasting a mix o lemon, prune and grapefruit (not a bad mix, all things considered). I did find this flavor to be very harsh and strong – where the berry is very sharp and under-ripe flavored, it was balanced out by the very strong and very sweet acai. That is why people go all gaga over Monavie – because of the Acai berry and all the benefits it can supposedly give you. I have had acai in dozens of energy drinks before, enough that I could even say finding it in here is common. What is uncommon, however, is that this tastes very heavy and not at all refreshing. While I did begin to enjoy the flavor after I let it sit in Bertha, my energy drink fridge, overnight, and tasted it freezing cold. So while it is tasty, it is not nearly as tasty as other MLM drinks out there.
Nutrition:8 Buzz:3
This one is harder, because usually it is possible to dump buzz and nutrition in the same category – but not so with this one. First, this drink is rich in just about every anti-oxidant you could think of. Lance Armstrong would even choose this over his FRS stuff.
Unfortunately, the energy boost was very very mild. I was expecting at least a standard 80mg of caffeine, but in this one that only added 60mg. Of course, they add all sorts of other energy satisfying ingredients like green tea extract, yerba mate, ginseng and maca root , but sadly the nice happy feeling left after about 1 1/2 hours or so. For a company providing forty dollar bottles of wine, I would expect their energy drinks to really wake you up with a lions roar, not this gentle ” good morning, my darling” whispered into my ear. In other words, if you are one of those who buy lots of Naked Juices smoothies and wheat grass from the farmers market, this might be up your alley.
Packaging:8
Nice, sleek and very pretty, this can is designed beautifully with light shiny white and blue on black. I really enjoy the simplicity and elegance – something that many energy drinks don’t have. My only issues are that they don’t list the caffeine on the label, and was surprised that a brand which stakes it’s profits in convincing people how their fruit blend is so healthy don’t place stronger verbiage on the can. I am not worried about double facing, as you never are going to find these in stores.