It is finally here, the sugar free amp lemonade, only a few of months after its US release, trailing a couple of months before the the energy juice release. I was not sure if this was the sugar free lemonade I was waiting for because the word "lemonade" was just missing from the front part of the label. It did not even have the word "lightning", which is what the regular version of this energy drink is called. If turn the label around and read the back side of it, you will see the word "lemonade" in bold yellow letters written across the top of the label. Anyway, I paid $2.99 for it and I was on my way.
The second thing I noticed when I picked up this new energy drink is the can design - it is matte, just like Rockstar's Energy Cola. I am a sucker for these designs. Though the front of the label is missing the word "lemonade" or "lightning", it is well designed and cleaner than the other amp energy drinks. I guess we should use the color as an indicator of what the drink is.
Much like Minute Maid's lemonade, the amp sugar free lemonade is cloudy and pale yellow in color. It smells like lemonade and tastes like carbonated lemonade. You can easily tell that this is a sugar free lemonade by the initial sip. They are not trying to hide this under layers of artificial or natural flavours or a ton of sweeteners. Nope, this is a sugar free drink sir, and this is what it will taste like. It is not bad tasting actually. There is enough lemon flavouring and citric acid to give you that sour lemon bite, yet not enough for your tongue to burn or your mouth to pucker. The sugar free aspect is not bad, I am beginning to enjoy these types of drinks as many manufacturers are able to pull of some great tasting, diet alternatives without sacrificing too much of the overall experience. As I mentioned, you can easily tell that this is a sugar free drink, but shortly after the initial diet taste, the sourness of the lemonade takes over and it is not until after the finish that you taste the sweetener again. That sweetener aftertaste will last for some time, and it will build up as you continue drinking the energy drink. Expect an overly sweet, sweetener aftertaste by the end of the can. Apart from that, this is a pretty solid tasting sugar free energy drink.
This is the first energy drink I have seen that states the total amount of caffeine from both the guarana extract and the added caffeine - 158 mg for this can. The amp Lightning also has 158 mg of caffeine, but it does not explicitly say that it is from both ingredients, just that the guarana contains X amount of caffeine. I started to wake up shortly after opening the drink - 15 minutes later, but this was a gradual process and took me over 30 minutes to feel energized. There were some jitters along the way to this energy high, but they weren't too bad. The energy boost lasted for about 2.5 - 3 hours after which I felt a little bit tired, but I did not experience a horrible crash.
Medicinal Ingredients:
- Guarana extract - 296 mg
- Taurine - 292 mg
- Caffeine (caffeine, guarana) - 158 mg
- Oriental Ginseng Extract - 33 mg
Scores:
Cost - $2.99 from 7-11
Taste - 7.6/10
Energy - 7.5/10
Overall - 15.1/20...solid sugar free energy drink with decent performance. The sweetener aftertaste does build up and lingers for a while
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