I am an avid coffee drinker. My routine consists of one cup of coffee in the morning and sometimes another cup or two in the afternoon. This week, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and try energy drinks. I tried a new drink every day for a week and recorded the taste, smell and effects. 

Rockstar XDurance: 5/10

My least favorite drink: Rockstar XDurance Energy in the non-carbonated flavor, peach iced tea. The taste was awful. It burned my throat and left a weird aftertaste. Another thing that factored into the rating is the effectiveness of the drink. In the whole can, there are 300 milligrams of caffeine, and that shows. After drinking it, I was jittery and my heart was racing. It took a few hours for the side effects to wear off, but my energy stayed pretty high throughout the day.

Hiball energy: 7/10

I tried an all-organic drink called Hiball energy in the flavor pomegranate acai. What I really liked about this drink was it was fair trade certified, which means all the ingredients are harvested by paid workers. It also did not have all of the unpronounceable ingredients some of the others do, which made me feel better about drinking it. The taste was satisfactory, but the pomegranate flavor left a weird, sour aftertaste. The drink had 160 milligrams of caffeine along with 100 milligrams of organic guarana and ginseng. Even though it did not have as much caffeine as the other drinks, I felt energized throughout the day.

Celsius: 8/10

I tried Celsius in the flavor sparkling grapefruit. I would rate this drink an 8 out of 10 because it had a pleasing taste and gave me an adequate amount of energy without making me shaky, since it was made with natural caffeine from green tea extract. After drinking it, I noticed the boost of energy did not kick in immediately, so I did a little research as to why I didn’t feel it as quickly. Since Celsius is made with natural caffeine, you have to wait for it to partially digest before it kicks in. The flavor was good, refreshing and less sweet than some of the others. I couldn’t give it a 10 out of 10, though, because it didn’t give me enough energy. I got some, but I definitely think it could have given me a better boost especially since it was an energy drink.

Reign: 9/10

My second favorite drink was Reign in the Razzle Berry flavor. I would rate this a 9 out of 10 because it had a superb flavor and gave me more energy than the Celsius without making me jittery. At first, I was a little worried to try it since the flavor name included the word “razzle,” but the taste was actually pretty exceptional. It tasted like a sweeter, carbonated Gatorade. Like the Celsius, Reign is made with natural caffeine so it takes a minute to kick in.  I enjoyed that though because it did not make me shaky, and I did not crash as hard.

Bang: 10/10

My absolute favorite was Bang in the flavor Cherry Blade Lemonade. I gave this one a solid 10 out of 10 because of the flavor and energy it gave me. The flavor of the drink tasted just like a Sonic cherry lemonade and it was carbonated, which made the flavor even better. Unlike the other drinks, this one did not have a weird aftertaste, which was another reason it was so good. The drink also gave me a lot of energy. Like Rockstar, the Bang had 300 milligrams of caffeine, and it made me a little shaky; however, not as shaky as I was with the Rockstar.

 After this experience, I would recommend doing research before buying these drinks. Though some of the drinks had pretty healthy ingredients, most of them include ingredients that can have harmful effects when consumed in great quantities. In most of the articles I read about these energy drinks, they mentioned one of many different harmful health effects of these drinks lie high blood pressure and heart problems. Overall, I hope you can decide for yourself which energy drink to try based off of the taste, energy and health effects.