Hydrive Kiwi Strawberry A

Moving right along with the six new Hydrive flavors released rather recently, I find myself face-to-face with a tall fuchsia bottle, Hydrive Kiwi Strawberry Alertness formula. As I explained in the Blue Raspberry review, Hydrive launched six new products, each with a designated purpose. Being allocated to alertness, Hydrive adds in some neat, though standard ingredients such as Guarana, Panax Ginseng, Vitamin B3, B5, B6, and B12. These are found in your every day Monster, along with caffeine, taurine, L-Carnitine, and L-Arginine. I'm interested to see how the simple ingredients in the drink compare to an average Monster, Rockstar, or Amp. In terms of design, the drink is packaged in a transparent bottle, with a sticker label stretching around the bottle. On the sticker, Hydrive mentions alertness and focus a couple of times, and a brief description of the product. It has a basic yellow-purple design behind a standard black font reading, "Hydrive Energy". Lastly, the bottle isn't a complete 16 ounces, but not far off at about 15.5 ounces per bottle.

Tearing open the bottle, there's not too much of a potent scent. As far as I can tell, it's a rather bright strawberry tang with the kiwi complimenting well. Taking a few sips, the flavor is just that. At first, the drink tastes stronger, like a tropical mix you find at the grocery store, then slightly fades with each sip, most likely due to the lack of much pure sugar. Unlike a few kiwi strawberry drinks I've tried, Hydrive does a nice job balancing the amount of each fruit in the drink. Instead of a prominent berry, there's a good, benign helping of kiwi. Although kiwi isn't common in drinks, it really does pack a punch of good flavor. If you've ever tried a kiwi, you know that it's real tart and sweet, while maintaining a distinct flavor that's unlike any fruit or vegetable out there. While strawberry, on the other hand is a much more common flavor in desserts, drinks, and salads. It's not as tart as a kiwi, but it complements nicely with other fruits and sugars. Together, I like the blend Hydrive uses: tart, sweet, and smooth. Although the drink is low on sugar, the fruits taste well natural, not artificial. Because it's not carbonated, the Hydrive goes down well like a fruit drink, without being as thick as one. Overall, a refreshing sugar free drink, and like the Blue Raspberry, exceptionally formulated.

Per bottle, you get only 30 calories, and 6 total grams of sugar; it's a good on-the-go drink if you want good energy, while wanting to watch your calorie intake. You also get about 20 milligrams of niacin, 2 milligrams of Vitamin B6, 6 milligrams of Vitamin B12, 10 milligrams of Pantothenic acid, 140 milligrams of sodium, and 50 milligrams of Potassium. In the bottle, there's also purified water, sucrose, citric acid, sodium citrate, caffeine, natural flavor, sodium benzoate, taurine, sucralose, gum arabic, magnesium chloride, hexahydrate, glycerol ester of wood rosin, Red #40, Blue #1, and all the listed Alertness Formula in the first paragraph, as well. Within about thirty minutes of finishing the bottle, I find myself more jittery than the last Hydrive I had. The formula for alertness doesn't have many differences between itself and a regular Monster or Rockstar. The kick is decent nevertheless, but definitely not as alert as I had anticipated. Aside from that, a great sugar free drink; I cannot wait to review the final Hydrive on my part, and hear from Jeff about his.

Taste: 7.7 - A refreshing equal blend of tart kiwi and sweet strawberry
Kick: 7 - An average kick full of hyper/jitteriness, and some alertness
Overall: 7.7 - Definitely a recommended drink if you're into sugar free drinks, and don't want a Gatorade

Reviewed by: Chan

Hydrive Triple Berry X

I don't know how old those other Hydrives Chan and I had were, but they sure were different. Since we found those, Hydrive has evolved, their new lineup consisting of six colorful tonics, each with a different function. You have A through X, Alertness to Antioxidants. Today I've chosen the Antioxidant Formula. I thought this would be a tame one, but from reading the back I learned that there's a stiff energy blend in here too. Like all the other Hydrives, this one contains 30 calories per bottle, which is cool to hear. Good energy blends can sometimes be diminished in sugary drinks with that sugar crash. It looks to me like Hydrive is a serious, no-nonsense, health conscious energy drink. I haven't had much caffeine in recent weeks, so 145mg of Caffeine is probably gonna have a pretty big impact. Triple berry sounds good.

I twisted open the cap and found a pretty deep scent of berries, though I want to say it's cherry. I can't much tell whether it's artificial or natural, but it is nice and fruity. The taste is a little interesting; there's a good amount of flavor, and it doesn't taste like cough syrup, thankfully, but there's a little sour bite when I swallow that reminds me of the stuff. I was thinking before that this would somewhat resemble a Gatorade, but there are some differences: It tastes a bit sweeter and more artificial than a G2, but it's equally refreshing. Also, I've decided the flavor is stronger, and the familiarly light saltiness is absent or hidden. Even though it has sucralose, Hydrive doesn't lose it sweetness much as I've found artificial sweeteners to do. Of course, I'm drinking it kinda slowly, but still. I've decided Hydrive X is a smooth, satistfying, rounded berry flavor. Though it's a bit generic, it fortunately doesn't get old and gumminess is hardly a problem at all. Overall, I think Hydrive is a good choice because it's got a good taste for 30 calories, but it's not one I'll reach for when I just want something tasty.

Now, what I instantly liked about Hydrive's ingredients list was seeing Ginkgo Biloba (3mg) and two amino acids. Ginkgo solidly delivers focus and alertness, while L-Carnitine (25mg) and L-Arginine (25mg) make for some great vitality. The rest of the proprietary blend is a hefty dose of Caffeine (145mg), a bit of Taurine (50mg), Apple Polyphenols (3mg), and Acai Extract (3mg). Formerly I would complain about how weak this is, but for a drink aimed less at raw power and more at vitality and longer lasting energy, I think it's near perfect. Down below the ingredients, it mentions a special antioxidant formula consisting of Vitamin E; the same Ginkgo, Polyphenols, and Acai; Selenium, and Zinc. The rest of the ingredients are purified water, sucrose (6 grams of it) citric acid, purple carrot juice concentrate (for color), sodium citrate, natural flavor, a few preservatives, sucralose, and your usual assorted B vitamins, emulsifiers, and Red #40. All in all, I like the stuff that goes into this beverage, and it made me feel pretty great. I'm not all that excited by it, but Hydrive does a decent job of adding in some antioxidants, which fight free radicals. Free radicals, of course, can cause cancer or simply accelerate aging. If you're looking for a drink that'll make you feel good, refresh you, tastes pretty good, and fights aging, you're looking at a Hydrive X.

Taste: 7.4 - Nice, simple, rounded berry that doesn't get old

Kick: 7.8 - I love drinks that are solidly invigorating as well as powerful
Overall: 7.6 - A good one to have for some outdoor activities

Reviewed by: Jeff

Hydrive Blue Raspberry S

If you recall, Jeff and I reviewed a couple of the original Hydrive flavors, a neat find at Big Lots. Although the tastes weren't exactly appealing, it interested us because we really hadn't found a drink that was bittersweet, tasted a bit salty, yet lacked the necessary all-around flavor of an energy drink, so to speak. We most likely weren't the only ones to have the same mindset, so Hydrive went back into the lab and reformulated a new batch of energy drinks. They released six new flavors, Blue Raspberry being one of them. A good difference between the older formula and the newer formula is the designated function of each flavor. For instance, the Blue Raspberry's function is strength, as it claims to formulate strength with Vitamin B12, Maca Root, Ginkgo Biloba, D-Ribose, and L-Leucine. From past experience, most avid energy drink users have been exposed to D-Ribose, Vitamin B12, and Ginkgo Biloba (Most commonly found in Rockstar). A new ingredient I'm not sure I have tried before is the Maca Root, though from a bit of research, Maca Root helps rebuild weak immune systems, restore energy and endurance, and give minerals to a poorly-nourished body.

Giving the bottle a quick shake, I twist off the cap and notice a light mixed berry aroma. Unlike previous Blue Raspberry energy drinks like Jolt Blue Raspberry, this has a very subtle berry scent and flavor. Although its dark blue color suggests a more deeper, pure raspberry flavor, (such found also in various candies) it's light on the pallet. A few sips in, I start to taste a sour bite usually found in berries, though unlike the original, it's delightful, and ridding of bitterness. With only 30 calories, it's formulated just right; therefore very little sucralose is noticeable when tasting the raspberry/blueberry drink. Instead, it's sweetened very lightly with sucrose, the common table sugar. Because it's non-carbonated, Hydrive goes down smoothly, and makes for a great thirst-quencher, especially on a hot afternoon like today. About half-way through the bottle, some initial soft raspberry flavor becomes lost, which is hard to explain, but happens in a lot of low-calorie/sugar-free drinks. In terms of flavor, it reminds me most of the blue Gatorade G2 (A low-cal alternative to Gatorade). The taste fades rather quick, leaving only a sour aftertaste and a reminiscence of berry. Overall a good twist of a light Blue Raspberry drink, especially in a 30 calorie bottle.

Like stated above, the strength energy blend is appealing, as instead of having just caffeine, taurine, etc., you get some of the natural stuff too. Maca Root and Ginkgo Biloba come from an autotrophic source (plants, trees, etc.), while Vitamin B12, L-Leucine, and D-Ribose are all organic compounds that aid in energy, strength, muscle output, you name it. In each bottle, there's purified water, sucrose, citric acid, sodium citrate, caffeine, preservatives, gum arabic, natural flavor, taurine, sucralose, monopotassium, L-Carnitine, L-Arginine, Vitamin B5, Glycerol Ester of wood rosin, and Blue #1. In a bottle, you get 30 calories, only 6g of sugar, and a Proprietary energy blend of 265mg. A regular Monster or Rockstar has about 2500mg of energy blend. In comparison, it may seem like much more, though Hydrive, if you recall, skips out on the caffeine and taurine overload to make sure the consumer gets the smaller amounts of organic ingredients essential to strength and a good kick. Speaking of which, within about 20 minutes or so of finishing the bottle, I notice myself much more focused, awake from the Sunday-morning fatigue, and not over-the-top jittery. Instead of your cup of Joe in the morning, grab one of these portable 15.5 ounce bottles of strength.

Taste: 7.5 - Mild raspberry with a delighting sour bite, though partially bland at times
Kick: 8 - Great improvement of focus and energy; I feel loads more restored
Overall: 7.8 - Solid low-cal Hydrive; much better than the original

Reviewed by: Chan