Energy drink companies LOVE to come up with their own proprietary energy formula, give it a catchy name, and push it as the newest and healthiest thing around – although most of the time it really isn’t healthy or very new – just another form of caffeine, guarana and inositol, maybe with some vitamin B tossed in. It seemed on first glance that XS did that – pushing this new thing called Essentra. Turns out, Essentra is not their own thing, but a clinical version of Ashwaganda, and adaptogenic herb.
XS gold then adds a full set of antioxidant fruits in a strong friuty mix. Acai, blackberiees, blueberries, mangosteen, pomegranates, and red grapes. This “function” is what separates this particular Xs energy drink from the 16 or so other flavors put out by Quixtar driven XS energy.
That, and the taste like you have just been beaten senseless by the fruit of the loom mascots.

Taste:8
I don’t want to give the impression that this flavor is bad – because it isn’t. Not by a long shot. I don’t think XS could release a poorly flavored energy drink if they tried. But this one is strong. So strongly flavored it works just fine as a fruit syrup to be used as toppings on ice cream.

I found this out the hard way, after I put half a dozen cans of XS Gold in Bertha, my energy drink fridge. Overnight, just those XS Gold cans froze, and the cans puffed out and 1 exploded open. After cleaning up the mess, I took a can and pried back the flimsy metal to uncover a semi-frozen chunk of frozen energy drink – not the best thing in the world. However, after sitting out for 10 minutes or so, the thing turned into one of the best Slurpees I have ever had! While I thawed the rest out, I did leave more frozen to suck the supersweet energy syrup from the ice chunks. yum!

Nutrition/Buzz:8
This is a bit more functional that the normal XS drinks, but not so much that it veers from a basic energy drink. Essentra is Ashwagandha, an herb used for centuries as for all sorts of ailments. It is also considered an adaptogenic herb, providing a ton of antioxidants. On top of that, this drink has 8000% vitamin B12, 300% of Vitamin B3, 50% Vitamin C, along with a touch of basic minerals, such as Calcium, Zinc, Selenium and Chromium.

The buzz was about the same as the other XS drinks, about 80mg of energy good for about an hour or so. while this might be more functional, it is no more powerful. While I appreciate this drink going for the more health conscious crowd, adding a bit more caffeine to help separate it from the pack would have been nice too.

Packaging:6
Except for the can being the only ones in the fridge to explode ( does this mean that XS has a lower freezing point or the can is flimsier than most?), I like the can design pretty well. It fits into the overall XS design wile still differentiating it from the ultra bright colorful regular cans.
Like the other XS designs, I still think this one would benefit from listing the caffeine content, and working on double facing the designs so they could be sold in convenience coolers if desired.