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About this drink: This is probably the most palatable of the Red Eye energy drinks. Appearance, aroma, argh? To the eye: It looks like cheap champagne. It's tinged slightly yellow, which is actually surprising as in traditional energy drink style it comes housed in a green glass bottle to mask its true appearance. To the nose: It smells like...those powdery candy bananas everyone used to eat as a child. The ones that are made from the same substance as musk sticks, but taste of banana instead. It also has a mild aroma of some undefined chemical, although it's an energy drink, so this is to be expected. Removing the cap from the bottle produces a fairly large rush of carbonation to the surface of the drink, probably during which the majority of the carbon dioxide escapes, thus beginning the end of the bubbles as mentioned above. To the mouth: It actually tastes like candy bananas. It's quite pleasant, and not overpowering with any of the usual energy drink flavours (i.e. vegetables, medicine, wee). It loses its flavour quite speedily as the product loses its chill, however, so it's best to either drink it in its entirety while it's still as cold as possible, or refrigerate it and ration it into speedily consumed glasses. A lot of effort, perhaps, but a pleasant tasting energy drink is a rarity at best. And a little while after: The aftertaste is quite mild. It's basically just a residue of whatever produced the slight chemical odour that was present in the sniffing stage, and it fades quite quickly. The only unpleasance is a slight sugary coating it leaves on the lips and teeth. When it gets warm: It retains most of its intended flavour, but does exhibit an unpleasant amount of vitamin B flavour, which clearly is affected by the temperature of the beverage, and lurches out to grab you as soon as the climate allows it. Overall: Without a doubt the most pleasant energy drink available. Tastes basically like an odd-flavoured soft drink. As for its energy inducing powers, I've not felt anything out of the ordinary. Although having sampled it, I don't feel I need to retch. Perhaps that is out of the ordinary after all.  Billions of small bubbles clinging to the glass.  |
 It does indeed feature a large red eye. Tagline: "Energy Drink with Attitude" Manufacturer: RedEye International. This stuff is made in Australia, apparently. Website: http://www.red-eye.com.au/ - Currently under construction, it seems. The drink's been available for several years now (so it doesn't really classify as extinct. Or even endangered, really), and the website has been printed on the bottles forever. I've never actually bothered to visit the site. I theorise the site is being redesigned, the labels on the bottles were redesigned at one point, as they used to feature a huge voodoo eye that I surmise was frightening the elderly, or something. Daily dosage: "Not recommended for children; and pregnant or lactating women; and individuals sensitive to caffeine. (Odd usage of semicolons preserved for posterity.) Volume: Bottle; 330ml. Ingredients: Amazonian guarana, ginseng, gingko and amino acids listed on the product blurb, plus caffeine, taurine, vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, inositol and vitamin B12 listed in the "composition information" panel. Not the ingredients panel, mind you. This stuff reads like an actual chemical compound. Energy: 45 calories. Caffeine: 32mg. Taurine: 18mg. |