In the lobby of building I work in, there is a Starbucks Coffee. Earlier this week, I noticed a new item in the refrigerator.

Yes, it looks like a Doubleshot in a Monster sized can. With a bunch of 'energy' ingredients tossed in. Of course, I bought it and brought it home.

The drink is chock full of all kinds of stuff.

2000 mg maltodextrin - Maltodextrin is a type of sugar that digests slowly for a longer release into the bloodstream, meaning providing more energy over time
1800 mg taurine -
450mg of L-Carnitine - L-Carnitine hepls convert food into energy
180mg of Inositol - more commonly know as vitamin B8
325mg of Panax Ginseng - Ginseng is used widely in Asia as an energy booster
90mg of Guarana - the Brazilian seed packed with more caffeine than coffee beans

Also, vitamins B6 and B12 are thrown in as well to round out the B-complex.

The can is the equivalent of roughly 225 mg of caffiene.

I popped the can open and poured it out. The drink had the familiar mocha color. The can I picked up was Vanilla flavored. It was the only flavor they had.

After a big swig, I was happy to find that it didn't have the bitterness I usually find in energy drinks. But it didn't actually taste like coffee at all. It tasted like a melted vanilla shake. The sweetness wasn't overpowering and you got the subtle mouthfeel of some milk, but overall it was fairly watery. It reminded me of the Java Monster I tried a while ago.

I hope the coffee flavor tastes more like coffee.

Realistically, even if I did like the coffee, I probably wouldn't drink a can of this. There's just too much caffeine for me. When I drink coffee, I rarely drink more than half a cup, meaning ~30 mg of caffeine. That's enough to rev me up a bit. If I drank 225 mg of caffeine, I'd probably spend an hour in the bathroom and then not sleep for a couple days. I have friends that could probably drink one of these as a nightcap as they hopped into bed, but my tolerance is nowhere near theirs.

Posted by michael at June 08, 2008 05:45 PM