Picture this. A very important CEO gets out of his Lexus, grabs his Handmade Alligator Leather Briefcase and tosses the keys to the valet as he heads to is board meeting with the investors. Feeling sluggish, he reaches down into his case and pulls out a big Monster BFC.
Not going to happen. So what is the stressed high powered exec going to do for that energy boost? Now all those Executives have a drink tailor made for the Private Jet Set – Rubyy. This drink was produced by the same people behind Skyy Vodka ( hence the name). No longer are the well dressed masses forced to suck on the teat of Xtreme marketed energy beverages pandering to 12 year old dudes. and for 3.50 a can, this drink gets you buzzed with style – even if the buzz and taste itself are not up to high standards. They bill themselves as “the first ultra-premium luxury energy drink”, although Marquis Platinum holds that honor, as far as I know. It takes like a nice tangerine soda and is full of ingredients that are absolutely not premium, but like so many empty execs, it’s the outside, not inside, that counts.
Packaging:10
Designer Sarah Nelson Forss elaborates at popsop.com “Our client really wanted Rubyy to appeal to the pop idol club-goers in particular, with the strategy that ‘where they lead, others will follow.’ Not only is the bottle dark and mysterious, it feels rather sensuous and soft in the hand as well. The entire identity is based on contrasts: light and dark, angel vs. dragon, glowing art on a black can.”

They did right. The black matte finish with Sackers Gothic font face, the filigree of the angel worked onto the background – all point to high-end luxury. this is an energy drink made to gaze at under blacklights in cool bars. It actually glows under blacklight – which looks wicked cool.

My only real problem with this is firstly, there is no caffeine listing, which is not cool. but that is minor compared to the brilliance of can and design. This is leagues above other aluminum canisters, like Fever and Venom.

Taste:8
The taste is decent by itself, tasting like a complex blend of orange citrus flavors. It is even made better with the addition of Vodka or gin and a touch of lemon rind. I do have some issues with the fakey pink color, and I don’t think leaving little bits of pulp helped out the texture in any way. I understand they left those in on purpose, trying to emphasize the whole 8% juice, but if a 100% juice energy juice like Rumba doesn’t need to, then this one doesn’t either. It makes for an odd gritty texture I could have done without. I also did not care for the color of the drink very much – as the pink did not fit the idea of an orange drink, and was not even the color of a blood orange. Still, drunk out of that awesome can it does not make a difference. Even those who did not care for orange soda, NOS or Monster Kaos seemed to enjoy the flavor of this one.

Nutrition/Buzz:5
This is the one place where I would change the formula. For a premium drink, I would have expected premium ingredients, not high fructose corn syrup, lots of preservatives and food dye. The caffeine in here is also pretty light – coming in at only about 80mg. There is the usual energy drink ingredients in here, including taurine, maltodextrin, B Vitamins and inositol, but the boost from this one is still pretty light. I would think that for a drink which is trying to promote itself to the upper eshelon of society, from pop idols to style conscious business people, a drink featuring more energy, natural processing or organic ingredients would be even more appealing.

Website:7 http://www.rubyy.com/
As expected, a drink with this much emphasis on design would have a very nice and clean site. While overall it is designed nicely, I was expecting more. More animation, more design love. There are definite places corners were cut – such as the poor overlapping ” where to find” section which is really slipshod. I was expecting a 10, but the wow factor just was not there.

At the time of writing this article, Rubyy.com had web code located at http://truecollective.com/ruby. Rubyy is making a huge mistake not setting up their own server with their own site. There are many reasons to get your own hosting. First, it is easier to set brand recognition. Secondly, if your design firm goes out of business, they could take your website down with them. Take the lesson Rubyy and get your own hosting.

EDITORS NOTE: Rubyy.com has since updated their website and now have their own hosting.