Health Potion

It's a widely known fact that the market is saturated with energy drinks today. They're supposed to give us a boost when we needed but often we get the dreaded crash afterward, with our energy levels dipping to coma-like levels. They can also be dangerous, as high levels of caffeine in each drink can wreak havoc on our system if consumed in quantities greater than one. Given my affection for gaming, the two drinks I've chosen this week are “Health Potion” and “Mana Potion”. Health Potion will be today, with Mana coming Thursday.

The Health Potion was acquired from my “local” Hot Topic store, but is also available from certain geek and gaming supply websites. When I procured my bottle there was a nice eye catching “Must be 18 to buy” sticker right on top of the cap and I can confirm I was required to validate my age with a license before the transaction could continue.

Appearance: The color of this drink reminds me of my childhood nemesis, cough syrup. It's a very bright red color and it appears a bit thicker than soda or water, although that could be my eyes playing tricks on me.

Scent: The odor puzzles me. It has a very pungent, overpowering smell of SOMETHING. It's almost like a combination of citrus and formaldehyde with a hint of cherry, maybe. All I know is it made me gag a little.

Taste: I must admit that I nearly ended the review at scent because it was very very difficult to convince my brain to drink this vile smelling thing. Let me just say that the taste was equally as vile as the scent, while remaining equally as mysterious. I'll be damned if I have another sip to try and distinguish flavors.

Energy: Having just taken the drink I can confirm no energy boost as of yet, will add that section in later.

Overall: I would rather eat used coffee grounds for the rest of my life than ever, EVER let this concoction anywhere near my mouth again. It was easily the single most horrible thing I have ever consumed.

Root Beer Extravaganza part banana

This post is going to be short and sweet. The things I do for the benefit of you, the reader. I'm not terribly fond of this soda to begin with, especially when not using it for making floats (lack of ice cream be damned), so I can say with the utmost certainty with the knowledge that nothing is certain, that I will never again attempt to partake of this beverage. Anyway, I was unable to procure myself a bottle of Frostop, so unfortunately I only have 2 root beers to try today, Dad's Root Beer, and the local grocery store generic Super Chill. Since there are only 2 flavors in this section, I will only declare a winner.

Headiness: Dad's. The Dad's brand instantly foamed, leaving a nice head which lasted for a fair amount of time. Super Chill on the other hand had almost no head at all and it was gone in almost no time.

Scent: Super Chill. The Dad's brand had a very strong aroma, however I found the Super Chill's aroma to be more pleasant, as the Dad's tended to smell of rotting licorice.

Fizziness: Dad's. Similar to the headiness category, the Dad's brand was much fizzier, while the Super Chill was very flat.

Taste: Dad's. While the Super Chill was more pleasant smelling, the flavor was incredibly lacking and the stronger scented Dad's brand was much more pleasant tasting, with the right amount of flavor and smoothness.

Winner: Dad's. This one is no contest. The Super Chill is in almost all ways inferior to the Dad's Root Beer, and I would recommend it 100 out of 100 times in comparison.

Overall Winner: I'm going to go with the generic Wal*Mart brand, simply because I think it's equally as good as any of the brands I tasted, and economically it's nearly 50% the cost. Dad's would be second, but it's a very close call between #1 and #2.

Next blog will be up sometime Tuesday, will try to keep the Tuesday/Thursday format until I run out of ideas, so please keep suggestions coming!

Root Beer Extravaganza! Part 1

It was suggested of me to try several root beer brands and do a side by side comparison. If anyone hasn't noticed there are a LOT of brands of root beer on the market so this is going to be a two part review and comparison. For this first part I'll be comparing Mug, Barqs, A&W, and the generic root beer sold by Wal*Mart. Each of these will be judged based on four criteria. The first being headiness, or the ability to form a frothy head when poured into a cup. The second is scent, strength and pleasantness of aroma. Third is fizziness, the amount of fizz per sip. Finally and most importantly is taste, because obviously if it has a good head, smells good, and is fizzy but tastes like a mud puddle, then I'd recommend a differing brand. I've also some criteria in selecting these brands to keep it fair. I have chosen only brands which I can purchase in a plastic bottle, which I have poured into identical plastic cups, in the event packaging can affect any of the above criteria. I'm not going to do any type of arbitrary points system, I'll just declare a winner and second place in each category, then name the root beer I felt supreme. Now, lets get started.

Headiness:

Definitive Winner: Mug. The Mug root beer immediately formed a head in the cup and maintained the full amount for several minutes before no major froth was visible on top.

Second Place: Generic Wal*Mart brand. I was actually caught off guard by this, the generic root beer held up quite well and had the head not dissolved much faster than the Mug, this would have been a much closer category.

Scent:

Definitive Winner: A&W. A&W's scent was strong, but pleasant, almost warm and welcoming.

Second Place: Mug. Mug was by far the strongest smelling of the brands. Unfortunately I found the aroma to be pungent, and not too pleasant on my poor nostrils.

Fizziness:

Definitive Winner: Barqs. Barqs was by far the fizziest of the root beers as the bubbles were immediately noticeable in the cup as well as on my tongue when I took a sip.

Second Place: This was a much more difficult choice than the previous category but I must again go with the generic. While Mug had the most bubbles by viewing it in the cup but seemed almost flat when sipped. A&W had the opposite problem as no bubbles were noticeable in the cup but had a fizzier feel on my tongue. The generic brand was much fizzier on the tongue with a fair amount of noticeable bubbles on the cup.

Taste:

Definitive Winner: A&W. A&W was very flavorful while still being wonderfully smooth for a root beer.

Second Place: Barqs. Barqs definitely has bite, it's the strongest by far and isn't the easiest to drink down, but if that's your thing, then go for it.

Overall:

Definitive Winner: Generic brand. Shockingly, this root beer very nearly scored in the top two in each category, and when it wasn't number one or number two, it gave them both a good run for the money. In taste it's a milder brew, with a very smooth finish. It has a solid amount of head and overall fizz without overwhelming you, and while the scent is pleasant it is not a very strong aroma and you really have to try to find it.

Second Place: A&W. The grand-daddy has definitely had a sweet ride and easily the best overall flavor, but aesthetically you don't get the expected head or fizz in the cup, with a decent amount of fizz when you drink it.

Part 2 will come out Thursday with a few more brands, plus a review of long term storage!