Shots

Energy Shots:

6 Hour Power (Sugar Free): They have info. on all their products here
1. Very Berry: Kind of watered down tasting, but that's not really what's important here, is it? It's mostly physical energy, less mental focus. 0 calories

Fuel:
1.Extra Strength 7 Hour Energy Shot: Well it tastes like watered down cherry cough syrup, but you're not really drinking it for the taste, are you? Anyway, it has definite diuretic properties. The energy is long lasting - 7 hours or so. It's pretty good, but it doesn't have quite as much mental focus as I like in my energy shots. 4 calories.

Layfield's Energy Plus:

1. Energy Focus No Pain Berry: Not bad flavor, but it'd better not be sine there're 25 calories in there. More importantly, it's pretty good on the energy and focus too. I suddenly wanted to clean for an hour or so, just like when I first take adderall or ritalin. Nothing spectacular, but one of the better ones.

Monster:
1.Lobo Hitman Energy Shooter: I like the taste, but I think I'm probably alone in that. It works well enough, but it's just not a 5 Hour Energy. I do wonder if, had I not had one of these, I wouldn't have ended up getting into a discussion with a married, devout Mormon about whether or not it's against the Mormon religion for married people to incorporate masturbation into their sexual repertoire. (Navigate through their website to get the nutritional info.)

Rock On Energy Shot: (sold at Walgreens)
1. Berry Blast: Bleh, tastes watered down, go with orange. Works fine.

2. Orange Octane: Tastes fine, works comparably to a 5 hour.

Slim Quick Energy for Women
1. Lemon Berry: Tastes good, head feels fuzzy if taken with too many other supplements

Stacker 2:

-Xtra Energy Shot:

1. Berry: Tastes good, but I hardly noticed any kick at all. Working and later working out still draaaaaagged, and I didn't really detect any mental boost either. This is what you get when you find an energy shot at the dollar store, I guess.

Starbucks Doubleshot:

1. Espresso and Cream: This is one of those exceptions I refer to in the Java Monster section. This was a post alcohol pick me up since the nature of my night required me to be up for a while longer that night. And you know what? I did stay up and fuck all night, so all power to this little sugary, caffeinated indulgence. Oh and they taste good. (Nut. Info.)

Turbo Power Energy:

-Regular: This is the worst tasting energy/diet product I've had in 8 years when the thrift store I worked at at the time got in some expired gimmicky diet juice shit. This would be forgivable if it'd given me any sort of high, but that just wasn't the case. I had admittedly had a large meal beforehand though. Anyway, I got this one at some extremely energy geared gas station between Orlando and Miami, so you probably won't see it anyway. (Nut. Info.)

Vyotech:

-Hoodia Shot:

1. Strawberry Lemonade: If by strawberry lemonade they mean that pine sol shit the janitors in public school use, sure. So it doesn't taste great, but it gives some steady energy and appetite suppression. There's not much in the way of a speed high though. (Nut. Info.)

Road Trip Energy News

I love going into the gas stations in small towns on my way between real cities, as they tend to have all sorts of different energy products you can't find (yet) in normal places and would otherwise only be able to order off the internet. This one store in particular, well, let me paint a picture with pictures:

And these are just a few that they had, the ones I'd not seen before. Spike has a shot version now! Woot! This is also the place I got the Turbo Power Energy Shot reviewed here.

Not only did they have a shit ton of energy shots, check out some of the buttons on their soda fountain.

Um, I'm pretty sure these kick cherry, lemon and vanilla's asses. Also, I'm used to seeing- and being frustrated by- soda fountains with options for sugary energy drinks, but this place didn't disappoint:

There was a sugary version above, but the were kind enough to offer the sugarless variety as well. Unfortunately, I had to try this fountain drink with several squirts of all the additives above...except immunity, pshhh. This was unfortunate because I had already had to finish off a really jacked up energy drink that an hour or two early since it would have otherwise gone bad in the week I would be gone on a trip. I'm pretty sure this effed my digestive system up the whole week, effectively ruining Christmas. Learn from my mistakes, people.

Packs with a Bunch of Pills

You know the type. You're at the counter of a convenience store, and next to you are all the impulse energy buys. I decided to forgo an energy shot and take 12 pills chock full o' vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. It didn't serve me as well as I'd hoped, despite my excitement at all of the shit that was in these things. I mean, check out the list of ingredients in exhibit C up there. Should've stuck to the Redline.

The Main List

Well who doesn't like trying to find substances that affect the brain that you can buy at a convenience store or over the internet? This will include diet products as well (though I happen to care more about them for their potential effects on the brain).

List of free samples available daily on the internet right now:

A.C.T. Energy Drink Sample: Hell yeah
DynaPep: Free sample! They'll also rebate one purchase from CVS or wherever you but it.
NoDoz: A Sample from Wal-mart
Ola Loa: Some sort of energizing multi-vitamin
Revvida: Energy drink and powder
Steaz Energy Shot: A printable coupon


Drinks:


Flavored Bottled Water Drinks:

Fuze:
Slenderize:
1. Tangerine Grapefruit: Really tasty, especially if you like the taste of grapefruit but want it sweeter (and without the calories, of course). No real kick though. (If you click on Fuze above you can follow through to the nutritional info. and information about the additives. It has 20 calories per bottle.)

SoBe:
-Lifewater:
1. Fuji Apple Pear: Lean Machine: Pretty good taste, but not too much going on in the speed department. (Nut. Info.)


Powdered Drink Mixes:

Crystal Light:

-Metabolism:

1.Green Tea Peach Mango: Pretty good, nice little caffeine boost too. I had many of the packets with berry flavored Metamucil, and that was weird but not bad! (Nut. Info.)

Morning Spark Energy Mix:
1. Orange: Good Stuff

Replenish Sport Drink Mix With Electrolytes:
1. Fruit Punch: Not Good

Energy Drinks:

7 Select (The 7 Eleven Brand):
1. Diet Green Tea with Citrus: Mild pick me up, and it tastes and smells like bad weed. (0 calories)

AMP:

1. Sugar Free: Good taste, kind of like Skittles or some kind of bull shit candy taste. High is okay, no jitters, but little euphoria or soaring energy, just not tired. (Info.)

Amplified N.O. Loaded Shot:

1. Fruit Punch: Tastes okay (but whatever). This stuff does its job. More physical energy for sure, but even more importantly, my mind is definitely more energized and focused. (Nut. Info.)

Arizona:
1. Diet Green Teas (w/ Ginseng): Tasty ('cuz of the sucralose). Obviously this isn't going to perk you up much, but it is thirst quenching. (The Arizona website will bring you to the nutritional info.)

Celsius: (Coupon available at website)
-Green Tea:
1. Raspberry Acai: Pretty good tasting. Good amount of extra energy, not jittery or too garrulous. Actually, come to think of it, I got really ... frisky with the girl I was out with.... I'm going to be purchasing this one again... (Nut. Info)

-Sparkling:

1. Sparkling Orange: This one does not "taste[] great!" as the can purports. I didn't think the effects were as good as the Raspberry Acai either.

Energy Drink:
1. Unbound Blue: Not bad

Endorush:

1. Grape Fix (Nut. Info. can be found on this page): Tastes okay, hardly noticed any kick

Deton8: (Kroger Brand)
1. Sugar free: Good

Fuze:
1. Low Carb Blueberry Raspberry: Nice
2. Pomegranate Acai Berry: Not bad

Hydrive Energy:
1. Antioxidant Formula - Triple Berry: It tastes like a Hawaiian Punch with a bunch of vitamins added. I could hardly feel any kick, but I'm basically an addict right now. (Drug Info.)

Kronik:
Low-carb, Protein Energy:
1. Dragon Berry:Interesting taste, not unplesant, has a berry flavor of course, and slightly milky. Fairly good and long lasting energy boost. Unfortunately, the damn things have 70 calories in them, and the store didn't have their really low carb/low-calories version with only 20 calories total. This drink has protein, calcium, the Vit Bs, nicain, pantotehnic acid, omegas 3, 6 and 9, taurine, and caffeine (160 mg total).

Java Monster:

1. Loca Moca: I think I wasn't in the right place for this. The mocha flavor wasn't very good anyway, so I'd go for one of the others. (Nut. Info.)

2. Mean Bean: This is the first non sugar free beverage (with few non alcohol or milk related exceptions) in 8 years, which, sadly, probably makes this the healthiest choice I could have made. Great taste, good boost to energy and mental interest level, probably should've eaten a bit more beforehand. (Nut. Info.)

Rockstar:

-Roasted Coffee & Energy:

1. Light Vanilla: This stuff is tasty and gives a pretty decent kick. They aren't fucking around with all the shit they cram into these puppies. I pooped thrice today. Once beforehand, but just imagine how hard it's working if it's making me shit even after I already had! The copious amounts of beer last night and fried food this morning may also have helped. (Info.)

Update: Make that four times. Jeeezus.

Speed Freak: (one of those sketchy products that doesn't seem to have a website)

1. Blue Raspberry: Man, I haven't had that flavor since I was a kit. Mm I miss being able to enjoy an Icee...but I digress. These puppies are powerful. I liked the name so much (heh), and I ordered a 12 pack of them off of http://www.supplementwarehouse.com/ for $14, but with the low price you get a best buy date of 09/08 (it's 01/10 now). I dunno if these'd be better fresher 'cause they are intense as it is. I've gone

through half a dozen, and I'm not sure I've had a whole one in one day so far. It's no wonder as these things are jammed pack with all the shit you might put into an energy drink. My problem with them is that they can lead to excessive garrulousness at least in me, so you might talk your friends' ears off.

Spike:
-Shotgun:
1.Orange Gold: Hell yeah. It tastes pretty good, which means it tastes great when you consider all the speedy shit they've crammed in these guys. If you still don't know how to tell the real energy drinks from the lame bull shit (i.e. Redbull, Monster, etc.), the easiest way is to find the ones with tyrosine (and lots of it (oh and 5 HTP is good too, though it's not in all of them yet)). I actually order 500 mg tyrosine capsules off the internet. There are a couple of sites for supplement needs with grat products and prices: Swanson's Vitamins and Best Vite
(0 Calories. 124 mg/6% Sodium. 2,000 mcg/33,333% B12. 2,650 mg formula: N-acetyl L-tyrosine; Beta-alanine; Caffeine anhydrous. Total Caffeine: 350 mg)
2. The Original: Same product as above but with a berry flavor I'd call not unpleasant.

Tava:
1. Tahitian Tamure: Good, but a little lip glossy
2. : Good stuff!

Tweak Extreme:
1. Pomegranate: Well, it really tastes like watery craberries, but when yo buy a drink whose name is a drug reference, you probably don't care. It's got all the good stuff in it and works just as well as the other big boys, such as Redline, Kronik, and Spike Shotgun. (Nutritional Info.)

Twinlab:

-Energy Lab:

1. Carbonated Fruit Splash: Tasted fine, but I realized there was a reason that this was on discount at The Vitamin Shoppe. It's the kind of energy drink that makes your head feel like it's full of a staticky channel on tv. Basically that whole day was fucked.

VPX:
-Redline:
1. Peach Mango: Delicious, this drink is awesome, it not only has all the best ingredients an energy drink should have and is very long lasting, but it fills that need for an 8 oz drink when the 16 0z and carbonation of Kronik is too much and then 2 oz of 6 hour energy is too little. I find it's best to drink these after eating. 0 calories - sucralose sweetened
2. Grape: Tasty, like the good tasting grape medicine from childhood
3. Mandarin Orange: Yummy
4. Triple Berry: Pretty yummy, to me, just make sure you drink it really cold.
5. Exotic Fruit: I'm fairly certain they just mixed triple berry with peach mango, but who cares? It's yummy and just as effective as the others.
-Redline Princess:
1. Exotic Fruit: Good, the difference between regular and Princess is that Princess does not have N-Acetyl-L Tyrosine (which can make you more talkative but also jittery and anxious). Also unlike regular, Princess does include Beta-Alanine, B-Phenylethylamine HCL, Hordenine HCL, N-methyl Tyramine, and St. John's Wort Extract (which is always nice-supposed to make you a bit happier). So far, I think I like the Princess line best, but then, I am a girl.
2. Green Apple: Wretched flavor, awful, too bad I ordered a 4-pack. Now I have to drink the other 3. Ugh, learn from my mistake and don't buy this flavor. The only good thing about this flavor is the inexplicable but pleasant honey taste it leaves in your mouth after chugging the bile thing.
3. Peach Mango: Delicious
-Redline Xtreme:
1. Grape: This one tastes a little too watery and chemically. Not really the point though, is it? The difference between regular and Xtreme is that Xtreme adds Beta-Alanine, B-Phenylethylamine HCL, N-methyl Tyramine, Sulbutiamine, and Hypericin. I'm not sure what it is about one or some of those additions, but it does not agree with me, at least not now that I am taking Prozac again. It makes me feel agitated, very agitated.
1. Watermelon: Yummy taste. Well, I'm off the Prozac (ran out, don't care to bother to get more) and probably addicted to energy drinks, so the high tolerance makes the Xtremes fine with me these days. I think I might still prefer the regulars though as these are a bit agitating.

Relaxation Drinks:

Perhaps you've noticed that these so called relaxation drinks have started popping up here and there. Don't get confused if you're looking for an upper. Anyway, I feel compelled to try and review them along with everything else.

VIB (Vacation in a Bottle):
1. Pomegranate Berry: This tasted okay, but it wasn't something you'd drink without expecting chemical benefits. Speaking of which, I'm not sure I noticed any chemical benefits. (Nut. Info.)

Pills:

Energy Pills:

Kickers Supreme (Energy Booster & Mood Elevator): A two pack of these pills was $1.69 at a ghetto convenience store. Maybe I should have taken them together instead of on separate days as I found them to be mild-medium in effectiveness. I just thought I might get too jittery and/or have diarrhea all day if I took them both.