Mio Energy Strawberry and Pineapple Smash

Another concentrated drink which I added a couple of squirts to some carbonated Sodastream water. You do get a slight whiff of Strawberry, but honestly this drink is more like a normal, if slightly fruity, clone energy drink. It’s really nice! I found this in Target while on holiday in New York, and I’ve not found it in the UK yet but if I do, I’ll be buying several of them.

Mio Energy Wicked Blue Citrus

This is an odd one to review as it’s a concentrate. I added a couple of small squirts to some carbonated water that I’d made using a Sodastream. It was okay, more like a watery raspberry than citrus in my opinion.

Sodastream Xtreme Energy 0 cal

I’m a bit late to the whole Sodastream revelation having only just received one as a gift. I know they’ve been around for decades, but it’s just one of those things I kept putting off until another time. So, when I did eventually get one, I realised that most of the syrups are not available in the UK anymore. I imported a whole box of these Xtreme Energy 0 calorie syrup concentrates from a supplier in the US and fortunately it tastes pretty nice! I’ve guessed at the caffeine content for two reasons. Firstly, it doesn’t state on the bottle how much caffeine is in the syrup. Secondly, the amount of caffeine in your drink depends very much on how strong you make your drinks! This is a very strong tasting syrup and I’m still trying to figure out the best syrup/water ratio, but it’s sweet (you can’t tell it’s sugar free in my opinion) and refreshing. Now that I have a Sodastream, provided I can keep obtaining a supply of these syrups then this is likely to become my staple daily energy drink of choice. If only I could source it in the UK, that would save a whole load of transport costs (and carbon footprint!).

Go Splash: Energy Lightning Red

This is an unusual product. It’s a concentrated product which you add to water. The bottle contains 48ml of ‘energy squash’, and you are supposed to add 0.8ml of product to every 100ml of water, so per 100ml you only get 20mg of caffeine. But, the bottle has enough juice in it to supply 6 litres of water with caffeinated goodness – that’s 24 cans of Red Bull in a liquid comparison, or about 16 cans if comparing caffeine content. In other words, be careful to water it down enough or you could end up with serious jitters.

In reality though, what you end up with is quite a watery tasting drink. I experimented with different concentrations but you’re never really too sure how much to put in. The directions say 1 squirt per 200ml, but how big is a squirt? I ended up with about 3 medium squirts in 200ml of water just to get a drink that didn’t taste like manky water, but even at that concentration it tasted more like watered down flat generic energy drink. A good idea, but needs more work.

Here’s a tip – don’t use water! I made an acceptable drink by squirting a decent amount in to a glass first, then pouring in Sprite afterwards to make a fizzy and sweet mix-up. Much better than mixing it with water.