Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Venom Mojave Rattler Low Carb



Wow, what an odd drink. As I was on my routine grocery run at Albertson's, I ran into the Venom energy drinks. Of course I couldn't resist because it's so eye catching and has a real cool can design. Instead having your usual 8 or 16 ounce can, Venom went with a bottle shaped can, like beer except not as long of a neck. It also has a twist-off cap and is painted more glossy, as if there were a wrapper over the bottle. Perhaps it's a different type of paint used. Venom Low Carb has part of a black snake's face showing a gleaming purple eye with a dagger shaped pupil. Behind that is a plain and simple background with the word "Venom" using the V and part of the M shaped to make fangs. A last minute glance at the bottom of the can reveals that Venom is a whopping 16.9 fluid ounces, about the size of a bottle of water. I'm so eager to open this one up, so excuse this short paragraph...

I twist off the cap excitedly and get a cool, refreshing Lo-Carb Monster aroma. Nice. Out of the bottle, I see a predicted golden amber color with very little fizziness to go along with it. This Venom really surprised me, I had never expected a sweet taste. Instead of am expected Low Carb energy drink taste, Venom decided to punch you with a sweet red apple and mixed berry taste. Unlike Monster, this drink is more sweet than sour and most likely contains more sucralose than it. It fades away with a duller apple and some (possibly) bell pepper, which gets me thinking, "Venom could have added a bell pepper taste because the theme is 'Mojave Rattler' and the Mojave is in the desert." The aftertaste is similar to the regular taste, except I can taste the presence of more pepper lingering and little apple. The carbonation is moderate, leaving a slight tingle on the tongue and just a bit going down. For a low carb drink, I was surprised to find quite a bit of gumminess, just enough to bug you. Overall, I was very pleased that Venom broke apart from the mainstream energy drink companies and put a distinct low carb flavor out on the market.

Ingredients come next. This beast has carbonated water, glucose (Phew! Nice to get away from that HFCS), taurine, natural and artificial flavors, ginseng, guarana, caffeine, caramel color, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, riboflavin, and cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B-12). I had expected sucralose to be high up in the ingredients, but I'm happy to announce that it's not. Per can, you get a bit more calories than average low carb energy drink, containing 50. Well, how low really is the carb count in this bottle? I'll tell you it's only 8g per can and only 6g of sugar. The energy blend is a whopping 6,000mg per can, a true energy drink is this one here. Although 160mg of caffeine doesn't seem a lot in an energy drink, I can tell you right now, I am energized. If you want an energy drink that'll just knock you on the ground, you go anywhere you can and pick up one of these, you won't be sorry. It's a fairly new product and I've been seeing them everywhere, you can't miss it. Even though they say you can't judge a book by its cover, I think you can with Venom, one of the most extreme can designs I have come across.

Taste: 8.7 - Oh, what an amazing taste for a low carb drink
Kick: 8.5 - It's sure to get you jittery
Overall: 8.6 - I can easily say that this one was a pass

Reviewed by: Chan

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