Thursday, July 18, 2013

Rockstar Punched Blue Raspberry Energy Drink Review


Is it me or does Rockstar listen? When Rockstar's Bubbleberry Sours came out, I wrote that blue raspberry would have probably been a more obvious choice...and now this? Well, awesome! Except this isn't from the Sours line.

Taste

This must be the first new energy drink I have had in a very long time that still has a strong cough syrup presence. I can't help starting off the Taste section on this note because it is the first thing you notice when you bring the can up to your mouth and it is the first flavour that hits your tongue. Off the bat, huge penalty.

OK, moving on. Once you get past the cough syrup note, there is a strong and well done blueberry note but the raspberry portion is very subtle and takes a bit of time to truly develop. I couldn't taste anything until well into the finish and it was just a hint and nothing more.

The drink is extremely sweet and I am not truly surprised since there are 68 grams of sugar. But it is not just the sugar that makes it sweet. In these types of drinks, the blueberry flavour is also done to be sweet, so there are 2 big contributors (I know that a portion of the sugar probably comes from the blueberry flavour).

Overall, I am not impressed with this drink as it is a sugary mess with an overpowering blueberry note. I have loved almost every new Rockstar product since they first came out on the market and with every new product they got better and better at this game, but this I think is a step back. But perhaps customers loving sweet soda drinks will like this. Who knows? I am sure Rockstar have done their market research.

Energy

OK, this is where this new product shines - 240 mg of caffeine!!! I haven't seen this much caffeine crammed into a new product since...well...years. Good job Rockstar. I just wish the taste was a bit better.

Between the sugar and the caffeine, this drink works fast. It will light a fire under your ass...so to speak. I felt fully awake and focused within 10-15 minutes of consuming about a third of the can. Sure there was a sugar rush that was ramping up, but that was expected from an energy drink packing 68 grams of sugar.

Surprisingly the rush wasn't as intense as I thought it would be and once the caffeine kicked in, I was ready to run around and work my ass off. The kick lasted for about 4 hours and yes, unfortunately there was a mild crash at the end....I mean, come on...68 grams of sugar.

At the end I was left a bit confused by this new product - tons of caffeine, but such a step back in terms of flavour. Is this what the public craves now - a lot of caffeine and a sweet, sweet taste? Perhaps the sugar was necessary to cover the medicinal flavours up...

Scores:
Cost - $2.98 from Meijer
Taste - 6.9/10
Energy - 9/10

Overall - 15.9/20...veeeeery sweet, but veeeery strong

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