Rockstar Energy Water Review

I assume this is called Rockstar Energy Water as I don't really see any big letters near the "Rockstar Energy" label indicating that this is water. In fact, if you were to look a bit closer near the bottom of the label, this is where you will see the words "flavoured water beverage"....immediately followed by "caffeinated energy drink". Man, Canadian labels are confusing, eh?

Besides the tiny letters, the first indication of it being a caffeinated water was the fact that it was located in the water isle in the local grocery store and not in the energy drinks section in the next isle. Good thing I was walking through and even looked. This was announced without much fanfare in our province so it is easy to miss.

Taste

Orange-Tangerine

Oh, this one is great! I wasn't expecting this, but the aroma is strong with a lot of tangerine notes. The flavour is actually also strong with the tangerine up front and a bit of the orange at the back end and in the aftertaste. Normally I find flavoured waters to be a bit dull, but this is really good. There is some sweetness to it, but it comes from the artificial sweeteners and the sour notes do help keep it down for a while, but halfway through the bottle, I did find the sweetness to be a bit more than I would like it to be.

Taste - 9/10

Citrus

The flavours of this one fall somewhere between the intensity of the orange-tangerine flavour and the dullness of most vitamin waters. On the plus side, I found it less sweet than the orange-tangerine, but also the flavour was much less defined and tasted like an almost identifiable mix of random citrus fruits. I say almost, because you do get a bit of lime in the aftertaste...along with some artificial sweetener.

Not my favorite flavour, but I do admit that it is somewhat refreshing.

Taste - 7.8/10

Blueberry, Pomegranate, Acai

As tired as I am of this combination, I will have to admit that I kinda liked this one. I found the flavour to be intense enough so it is above the competition, but also dull enough so that the sweetness doesn't build up. You get a taste of all ingredients at different stages starting and ending with the blueberries. The pomegranate and the acai are stuck between the blueberry ends but to emerge in the aftertaste as very subtle reminders of what you just consumed. Yeah, as boring and exhausted this combination is, it is quite nice.

All of these Rockstar Energy Waters reminded me more of Gatorade and Powerade in terms of flavour and balance rather than vitamin waters or other flavoured waters...and I love Gatorade so it was easy to like these new Rockstar products.

Blueberry, Pomegranate, Acai - 9/10

Energy

OK, this is the most crucial part and why people buy these things - the kick. I like how Rockstar prioritized the label real estate and decided to allocate more room for the "180 mg caffeine" label than the "flavoured water beverage" label. So yeah, each bottle contains 180 mg of caffeine, which may sound like a lot (and it is), but do remember that you are consuming 591 mL of liquid and not the typical 473 mL found in a regular can of Rockstar Energy drink.

What does this mean? Well, for those not good with numbers (and me), it means that the water has a ratio of 0.305 mg of caffeine per mL of liquid, while the energy drink has a ratio of 0.338 mg of caffeine per mL. So you do get more caffeine out of the regular energy drink (160 mg of caffeine per can) per unit volume, but since you are consuming more liquid with the water, you end up consuming more caffeine.

But does it work? Hell yeah, it works. After 20 minutes I was ready to fly...and didn't get very jittery either. However, I do strongly suggest sipping on this water and consuming it over a longer period of time to completely eliminate the jitters.

The energy lasted for about 3-4 hours and I didn't feel a crash at the end because I had the waters first thing in the morning and did have plenty of energy left in me. If I were to consume these in the afternoon, or early evening, I probably would have been pooped at the end.

Energy - 8.5/10