Power Play Energy Gum Sour Orange Review

I know this doesn't look like an exciting package, but the only thing that matters is what is inside of it. Sure, I can design that myself, but perhaps the company has taken the 5150 Energy approach of saving money on the design and focusing on the product itself.

Taste

Energy gum in packages like this one is usually peppermint, spearmint of cinnamon flavored so when I saw that this was sour orange flavored, I was excited and looked forward to trying them.

Like the many other energy gums, these are about the size of a Mento and orange in color. They are tough and crumbly at first, but after they mix with some saliva a nice chewing piece of gum is formed.

For a sour orange the gum is only mildly sour and comparable to chewable vitamin C (orange flavored of course). The orange flavor comes out right away and is soon followed by a sweeter tangerine one. The combination is refreshing and a welcome change from all the minty/cinnamon energy gums.

As expected, there is a bitter tone from the energy ingredients which comes in moments after the saliva is absorbed and the initial orange taste becomes apparent. The bitterness is comparable to all other energy gums of similar sizes and lasts all the way until you spit out the gum. Except that with this one, the bitterness starts to overpower the orange flavour about 5 minutes into chewing the gum. Good thing the package recommends you chew the gum for only 5 minutes as the bitterness does become very strong.

Energy

Unlike similar energy gums, this one contains only 65 mg of energy ingredients per piece. For comparison others contain 100 mg of just caffeine. The energy ingredients here are taurine and caffeine so I assume a good chunk of that 65 mg is just caffeine.

One piece will wake you up in about 10 minutes while 2 pieces will give you a decent boost similar to that of a small can of Red Bull. I would recommend at least 3 pieces for a good kick with almost no jitters or other side effects.

The energy lasts for anywhere from about 40 minutes (for 1 piece) to over 2 hours (3 pieces). I am sure if you consume all 5 at once you will get a huge energy boost that will last for several hours. The 1 and 3 piece kicks don't result in a crash, but it would have been nicer if there was more of the caffeine.

Scores:
Cost - $2.95 from ChemicalEvolution.com
Taste - 5/10
Energy - 4/10 to 9/10

Overall - 9/20 to 14/20...depending on the number of pieces you consume