I knew it was something big when I found the last Freek at yet another Big! Lots a few miles down. The blue color got me excited as I yanked it out from the back of the shelf, and I knew exactly what kind of Freek it was, the Maniac. My only problem is the fact that it's sugar free, but that's all right I guess. I'm pretty excited to review it because Freek seems to be the new trendy energy drink, yet the Freek Rage really brought my liking for Freek down a lot. I think it may be better because it won't be as sweet as the Freek Pyscho and the Freek Rage. Freek may just do good on this drink; I'm really excited to pop it open and see how well they did. The can is pretty cool having the 'Freekman' on the can with dark and freaky blue eyes staring you down like an eagle wanting some food. Freek is sloppily carved into the can in the same blue font, which is really cool looking but doesn't get e too excited because of 'Sugar Free' note right below it. Maniac is printed in a slightly larger white font, also sloppily, but pretty neat. Okay, let's open it up.
It opens up in a loud manner and immediately donates a familiar blueberry and passionfruit aroma. It comes out of the can a bright lime green color, which I couldn't have expected because the theme is blue. Well, whatever, bottom's up. The taste is just okay having a noticeable blueberry taste with a slight hint of passionfruit and lime. It reminds me a lot of the Jones Energy , but not as strong and more of a refreshing blueberry flavor. It's surprisingly thick in the mouth and going down the throat, although it's sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium. The aftertaste is a bit crude tasting like sucralose or artificial sweetener, not appetizing, nor tasty. The carbonation compliments the blueberry flavors pretty nicely, though it tingles a lot. It's not gummy but the artificial sweetener takes over about half way through the drink and leaves a terrible aftertaste, too bad. Overall, this drink had a quite refreshing blueberry and lime blend, but the artificial sweetener really did kill the drink, bumping the overall rating to just okay. So far, Freek has been all talk, nothing great.
The ingredients show carbonated water, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate, sucralose, natural flavor, acesulfame potassium, maltodextrin, yellow 5, salt, calcium disodium, phosphoric acid, and potassium citrate. The sucralose really disappointed me in this drink, although I know some other drinks can mask it really well. Another odd act was the idea to put phosphoric acid, found in sodas, but I didn't find it hard to drink it due to the carbonation. Per can, don't get any calories, nor sugar, pretty sweet! The taurine count is a usual 2000mg, caffeine is a whopping 204mg, inositol is 200mg, guarana is only 16mg, and ginseng is only 8mg. The problem with these energy ingredients is that although the caffeine content is high, the guarana and ginseng content is low, preventing an awesome kick. All in all, I wouldn't buy one of these again, it was too artificial and frankly had a pretty lame taste; I could say easily that you wouldn't miss anything if you didn't pick up a Maniac Sugar Free.
Taste: 6.4 - This is going to be way too artificial for most energy drink fans
Kick: 7.8 - A decent buzz, mostly from all that caffeine
Overall: 6.9 - Freek has definitely let me down thus far...
Reviewed by: Chan
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