Unleashed upon the shores,
The latent power unveiled.
Amp Energy with Black Tea
Rebuild
Ok so I am not a huge fan of Amp drinks I will admit. Still I am excited when they release something new. Will this be the Amp drink that wins me over? Will this Amp provide a good kick and taste? There are a lot of Tea drinks out there so lets see if Amp can do it right.
Packaging: Wow right off I am impressed that Amp finally broke away from their typical design. It starts out with a 16 oz can. The can gold around the top and the rest is a cool gold and brown dragon pattern. Very nice I think as far as the dragon image goes and much better then the usual Amp pattern. In the top section it reads “Energy+Tea” as well as lists some key ingredients. Dominating the middle of the can is the Amp energy logo with a gold flame and “Amp” in a white font. Below the logo it reads “With Black Tea” in a black font. Further down it reads “Rebuild, B-Vitamins, Amino Acids” in white font and then “With intense hits of Black tea and lemon”. Back of the can has supplement facts. I am giving them a grade of A- for packaging. This is a really nice design. If they scaled down the large Amp logo it would be better though. The background pattern is great and the logo distracts from it.
Slogan: They stick with the “More power to you” slogan. I really wish they would branch out with the slogans. Using the same generic slogan for so many different drinks is kind of weak I think. Grade C- for slogan
Taste: I like tea and black tea is my favorite (I usually get mine unsweetened from Sonic). I popped the top and I got just a slight scent of tea and mostly lemon. Pouring some in a glass it comes out a light brown color with a mild carbonation. Taking a sip I get an intense sweet lemon flavor with only a slight hint of tea. There is a slightly oily feel and not much aftertaste to speak of. I was hoping since it was black tea it would have more tea flavor. The very sweet lemon dominates and almost leaves no tea taste at all though. I give it a grade of C- for taste. Why even call it tea.
Kick/Ingredients: Just because it was not awesome tasting does not mean I did not drink it down. In fact I drank it rather quickly since the taste was not that appealing. I got a pretty good buzz going in the next 15 minutes. I was chilling at the house but once I finished this drink I quit watching tv and fired up the PS3 for online quad racing. I was able to do pretty well since my reflexes were sharpened and I managed to be in the top 3 for most of my races. I was buzzing pretty good and wished I had a headset so I could talk some smak to the other racers lol. (note to self buy headset). I’d say my buzz lasted 3 hours with a fair crash at the end. So what’s in this stuff? It starts out with 180 mg Caffeine, 296 mg Taurine, 248 mg Guarana, 34 mg Ginseng, 126 mg Maltodextrin, 700 mg Beta Alanine, some B6 and B5, and no B12 or other vitamins. You get 200 calories with 50 grams of sugars and carbs. It is sweetened with HFC and it also contains a lot of other chemicals that don’t sound good including brominated vegetable oil which seems to be in all Amp drink. Grade C- for kick/ingredients. Nothing special and suspect additives.
Web Presence: They do have a site up at ampenergy.com/tealemonade/ for these new drinks. It is a pretty nice flash site but really has no info. Sure it is pretty to look at but that is it. You have to go to ampenergy.com to get anything else. There you have Tons of sports info on Racing, BMX, NHL, Music videos and downloads, Amp Ads, a store locator, and product info. I think they have toned down the Dale Jr bit some and really overall it is a pretty good site to kill some time on watching videos and listening to some music. Much improved I think. Grade B for web presence. They also have a facebook.
Recap:
I’d say this drink in some ways is an improvement over other Amp drinks I have reviewed. The packaging is way cooler and the website is improved. The taste and kick though are still lacking. I guess if you really like lemon you will like the flavor. If you like tea then I would pick one of the other energy tea drinks out there. The kick is ok but short and you’re getting a lot of junk and calories thrown in and again there are better choices out there. I say give the can designer a raise and fire the formulator.
