Rockstar Pure Zero Blue Ice Review

The US has officially become my source of new caffeinated drinks and shots to try. In the last couple of years only Red Bull has introduced new energy drinks to the Ontario market. And by new energy drinks I mean new flavors with the same government approved base ingredients. On the plus side I go to the US once every 2-3 months and normally come back with 4-5 new products to try and review.

This time I got a whack of new-to-me energy drinks from a Meijer gas station. This new-ish Rockstar was on a promotion and cost me $2. All hail promotions!

Taste

Blue Ice is the 3rd product I am trying that is part of the Pure Zero Rockstar line. The previous two I got from the US were the Silver Ice and Punched.

Blue Ice is..well..what you would almost expect from the word "blue" in its name - a mix of slightly sour berries with a lot of blue coloring. Well, almost. When I first opened the tab, I was very confused by the apple-ish aroma that wafted my way as well as the odd apple-scented aftertaste. This must be just a side effect of the ingredients but I thought it gives the drink a unique twist.

The actual flavor is fairly generic mix of sour raspberries and blueberries but it does have a pretty decent sweetness balance so...it has that going for it. The aftertaste is obviously heavy on the artificial sweeteners but that's expected from a drink with the word "Zero" in its name.

Energy

This can has 240 mg of caffeine and this is what has been missing from the Canadian market - caffeine packed drinks. Are we that much more different than our neighbors down south that we can only handle some measly 140-160 mg of caffeine?

I consumed the can over the course of 40 or so minutes so the effects were gradual and just how I liked them - moderately steady build up without jitters to a point where I was energized but fed the caffeine into my system slow enough so that I didn't bounce around the room. The initial effects, however, were almost immediate and I felt fully awake within minutes of the first few sips.

The effects lasted for 3-4 hours and ended without a crash.

Scores:
Cost - $2 from a Meijer gas station
Taste - 8.5/10
Energy - 8.2/10

Overall - 16.7/20...tons of caffeine and a pretty decent taste