Full Throttle

I decided today to get an original Full Throttle from my local market, seeing as we've done a few other Full Throttles and haven't tried the original. The can design is interesting but a little bland, featuring the words "Full Throttle" in big font, and the words "original" in slightly smaller font. In even smaller font, the words "energy drink" are portrayed above a cult-like symbol in red. This is surrounded by somewhat corny looking flames, and look like some product from about 2 decades ago. On the side, a definition for Full Throttle is given, and some long saying which would be a little aimless to type here considering its length. Here we have an interesting saying of "Go Full Throttle or Go Home." This is also a product of coke, competing with Pepsi's "Amp". It's obviously a racing themed drink, with the name and whatnot. Let's go at Full Throttle into this this energy drink!

I snap open the can at full throttle, and no, I'm not done with the puns. I discover a light green drink, similar to a Mountain Dew. My first impression of the smell was that it reminded me, strangely enough, of green gummy bears, and upon tasting was like carbonated lime juice. It's made from citrus and I found that it started off slightly bitter and then went to a more sweet-themed flavor. In fact, after a while, it gets very sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. I also noticed a sweet aftertaste of Grapefruit, contributing to the bitterness overall, especially if you drink a large amount at once. There was a good amount of carbonation, and not good, like, a lot, but good, like, the right amount. The drink was somewhat cumbersome to chug as the sweet flavor really gets kind of old and you won't want much more. There was gumminess at full throttle (pun) and I deduced that as a product of the high sugars. There is quite a large amount of sugar in this can, but I'll elaborate later. It strongly resembles a very sweet Sprite. The lime isn't strong, but pretty sweet. I think that Coke did an okay job producing the flavors and although not very impressed, I mildly enjoyed the drink flavorwise.

I'm so far, even after only having the drink about 30 minutes ago, experiencing a mediocre kick, but I hope it goes up to (Guess what?) full throttle over the next 30 minutes or so. Scanning the back, there's a box next to the ingredients describing the (This isn't a pun, this is seriously what it says) Full Throttle Energy Blend. There's a whopping 3000mg of the blend, which includes caffeine, guarana, taurine, carnitine, ginseng, and sucrose. I found some info: Here we have 1194 mg of taurine, 177mg of ginseng extract, the carnitines turn out to be 28 mg, and you also get 1.3mg of guarana extract. I was a little surprised in taurine, as there is about 800mg less than in most drinks. Like I said earlier, (if you were paying any attention whatsoever) there's a lot of sugar, 57g infact, which greatly contributed to the amount of gumminess you will experience if you partake in the consumption of this drink. I also notice 220 calories and double the daily recommended values for vitamins B6 and B12, as well as the whole recommended daily value of niacin. An average amount of caffeine, 141 mg. This is all providing, as i write it and scan the ingredients, an average kick. I felt vitalized, but not really hyped up, and I did notice some jitteryness, which is kind of slowing down the time of me typing this review, what with all the mistakes I have to fix.

I wasn't really all that happy with this drink, and I would rather spend the same amount for a Monster, No Fear, or many other drinks that were actually better than average. I'll never get this drink again, not because it was bad, just because it wasn't better than other drinks on the market.

Taste: 6 - Whatever, I'll stick to better stuff
Kick: 5 - A sugar high, and a little bit of jitteryness
Overall: 5.5 - Full Throttle and Coke continue to phail.

Reviewed by: Chris