In my constant quest for caffeine, I have travelled far and wide, making brash and wild purchases to feed my energy craving. One of my favorite places for off-the-beaten-path energy drinks is our local Asian supermarket chain, Super 88. There is little I love more than spending an afternoon prowling its many aisles of exotic Asian specialties, both the mundane and the bizarre, and it is those hallowed halls from whence I garnered a trio of tantalizing tonics, all from the country of
The first can I cracked open was the obvious Red Bull knock-off, Red Panther. At first glance it looked like a short, squat can of Red Bull, even the panther graphic is striking a very familiar pose. I poured the beverage into a glass and was surprised to see this elixir was bright orange. It smelled very perfumed and tasted very floral as well, something along the line of lychee and guarana.
More notable was the sweetness, cloying doesn’t begin to describe the taste, that compounded with this disturbingly non-carbonated drink’s dusty and medicinal aftertaste and syrupy-thick texture made it a wholly unpleasant experience. Red Panther can be best summed up as “difficult to finish”.
Moving very quickly onto the second can, eager to get the taste of Red Panther out of my mouth, I popped the tab on a can of Vitality Boost. While the name may be far from imaginative, the graphic of a pair of kickboxers wailing on each other earned this drink my respect immediately. Vitality Boost poured a bright yellow, similar to Mountain Dew, and much like said Patron Saint of Caffeine, it was carbonated, as all energy drinks should be.
The smell was of citrus and a little bit of chalk, but although the citrus persisted in the taste, the chalkiness was replaced by the flavor of crushed up Smarties candy. This little can was very drinkable, made more so by the welcome addition of apple juice, which helped meld all the flavors together.
The final can of the evening was Foco Energy Drink. I feared that the bold lightning graphic on this solidly built steel can would be the
Foco Energy Drink smelled weakly of guarana and tasted fairly mild, but undeniably medicinal. The mouthfeel was the thinnest of the trio, although it made my teeth squeak. This energy drink seemed as though it was more intended to be taken as a medicinal tonic than a quick energy boost as the can would suggest. All-in-all, it was just not very good.
The clear winner of the night was Vitality Boost, showing once again that just because a company can’t come up with a good name, doesn’t mean that they haven’t come up with a good product. Until next time, this is Connoisseur Tom, missing another night of sleep so you don’t have to.