CAFFEINE CONTENT
138 mg
EASE IN ACQUISITION—10
Ubiquitous.
APPEARANCE/PRESENTATION—7
I made mention of the appeal that 5 Hour Energy’s packaging held in my review of the extra strength version of this particular shot. I love running (especially during sunset), so naturally seeing a runner on this bottle elicited a positive response from me—I felt that this was exactly the sort of thing I would need to sprint from mountaintop to mountaintop while being chased by what Yog-Sothoth would look like if he were composed of gigantic berries. On the downside, the label is shrink-wrapped on—and I hate shrink-wrap. Nothing screams “CHEAP!” quite like shrink-wrap, and if I’m going to pay $2.75 for a product, I don’t particularly want it to look cheap.
TASTE—3
After my experience with the extra-strength version of this original 5-Hour Energy flavor, I was less than excited to try the not-extra-strength version. Turns out it’s still bad—but on the plus side, it’s not nearly as bad as the supercharged one. It’s still got the acrid sourness and the gross sweetness, but the bitterness that really hammered my gut in the extra strength version was absent, replaced by—berry flavor. Sure, the taste was fake and chemical-y, but it was still one great big step up from what I had previously.
KICK (INTENSITY)—7
My guess is that the absence of bitterness came from the lesser dose of energy ingredients in this one. Kick’s about average—I was reasonably awake and alert, but that’s about all I can say about it.
KICK (DURATION)—10
Notwithstanding the somewhat muted nature of the kick, it still lasted a good five hours—as it says on the bottle. If it had crapped out on me after two, I’d be kind of grumpy. But five hours of fairly consistent awakedness—I can actually respect that.
THE SHOT OVERALL—6.67
Tastes bad, but the kick’s pretty solid. I’m actually quite anxious to get to the other shots of the line and see what they have to offer. If they can actually manage to make it taste good, I think I feel pretty confident saying that they’ll have a winner on their hands.
WEBSITE: 5hourenergy.com
KEYWORDS: 5 Hour Energy shot review, 5 Hour Energy berry review, sugar free, zero calorie, zero carb, diet