Vemma - 11 Reviews

The poet Rick Ross once said, "Everyday I'm hustlin'." These past few weeks I have been doing just that. Straight hustlin'. Work all day, come home and work all night. Late into the night. Too late. It's catching up with me. I can feel it in my throat. It's my body's way of saying, "Calm down, bro. Get some sleep. You can work tomorrow." Well, I didn't listen to that guy last night and went deep into the night and now my body is in shambles. What better way to fix it than with a diet energy drink? Now I can not only be energized but svelte as well.

This didn't taste like a trillion Skittles, which is my initial litmus test for energy drinks. It didn't taste bad at all, as a matter of fact. It was citric but I couldn't really place it: Pineapple, some other stuff that may or may not be fruit, and of course their cornerstone mangosteen. It didn't taste like a clichè energy drink, which was a relief and it also did not taste "diet" so that's a double win. If you're keeping track, that's a veritable handful of wins. It's a small handful of wins but a handful nonetheless.

We've given Vemma's Verve line a lot of accolades mostly because none of the drinks taste like typical energy drinks. They are also on the healthier side of the energy drink spectrum, but the flavor is really what caught our eye. Since we tried our fist can the company has put out a handful of new flavors and while all of them have a unique taste, they all taste vaguely the same. Their flavor is all fueled by mangosteen, which gives it a nice fruity flavor that has a little bit of the taste of bubble gum in it. This can of ReMIX is no different. Actually, I don't remember their Bold flavor tasting very different from this. I'm sure if I drank them back to back I would be able to pick out the particulars, but with ten months between tastings I would say they are very similar. It's all very fruity bubblegum.

From what I can gather from the news section of Vemma's page this seems to be their Bold and ParTea flavors mixed together. So it looks like my taste buds have not failed me after all.

Okay, so last time I did one of these I followed directions to a T and mixed it with water. I wasn't too pleased with the consistency that gave me, as it turned out a tad on the slimy side. This time I threw caution to the wind and mixed it with unsweetened almond milk. After spending far too long vigorously mixing this up, because I didn't have the recommended shaker ball, I took a sip. Definitely less slimy, but it's still so, so thick. I'm talking like baby food thick here folks. It does not have the consistency of something one would think of ingesting. It feels foreign in a from another world sort of way. It's like aliens visited us, and said, “Hey dummies, you're doing food wrong. This is much simpler. It's thick and weird, but it gives you what you need in less time with less fuss.” Stupid jerk aliens are always pointing out our shortcomings.

Consistency aside, this has a nice light vanilla flavor. It doesn't taste cheap, like a bunch of vanilla extract was dumped in. It tastes like quality vanilla, as if real beans were used. I can see where they are going with the ice cream tag. I appreciate that they are not trying to make a health shake taste exactly like an unhealthy thing. There's some stevia in the mix, which you can taste a bit, but this is a drink for health and not leisure, so it's understandable and acceptable.

It takes a few sips to get acclimated to, but once you get over the strange viscosity this is downright enjoyable for a meal replacement shake.

Oh the mid-day slumps. On a gorgeous Friday evening after a seemingly endless winter, it's in the sixties outside and my body is craving the vitamin D that only doctor sun can prescribe my pale, pale skin. These Vemma drinks have been pretty good to us but this one is ravaging my poor body. It's fine. It's my fault. I only sparingly drink coffee or energy drinks but this one hit me really fast and really hard. Once again, I'm not counting this against them and you, as an energy drink drinker (working title) might like that instant jolt. Since I've covered half of this drink, the other half, proud residents of Coffeetown, need their fill. As a coffee drink it's oddly smooth and even though cane sugar is the primary sweetener, or at least the one towards the top of the list, that Reb A is shining through. It's not bad, but it's in there and you know it. I had to search for it in the rather long list of ingredients. I think Vemma is trying to make this healthier than "the other guys" but putting mangosteen, aloe vera, and green tea in there but what you get is an oddly smooth, pretty sweet, coffee flavored drink. Is it a lose? No. Is it a bad? No. It's just kind of "fine" because it's so much going on. Satin sheets seem like a good idea until you have to sleep in them and they keep getting kicked off you by your dumb lover, am I right? That's what this is. This drink is your idea of a sexy sheet but the realization that it's too much to handle.

Vemma is back with yet another mangosteen based beverage. This time it's a shot for those who are always on the go, and have limited time for nutrition. First off, reevaluate your life people. I know some of the people who don't have time are sincerely working constantly to put food on the table for their families, and I commend them for their efforts. Let's be honest here though, this drink is not for those people. Those people aren't going to throw down their hard earned money for a supplement shot. It seems to me that this drink is marketed towards business folks who are constantly working and deals and such, not those doing nitty gritty manual labor. It's these people who have the option to eat healthy, but instead decide to continue working. If that's what you love in life, who am I to argue, but I personally like to enjoy the life I live and not spend so much time on work that I don't have time to eat a healthy meal. Now, I'm not faulting Vemma for this; these people would exist whether their product was around or not, so why not help them live healthier with their choices?

This is a 2oz shot that is jam packed with vitamins and minerals to help you get through your day in a healthy manner. It's no secret that shots generally taste completely wretched. This though, this has got something going for it. It tastes like mangosteen juice that has had a multivitamin dissolved into it. It's downright pleasant. It's what I would imagine a teenage version of a Flintstone's vitamin would taste like. You know for people who aren't; ready to take on straight up vitamins, but the regular Flintstone ones just seem too juvenile. This is so good in fact that I have been slowly sipping it, instead of slamming it like you normally would a shot. It's nice to have a beverage that is this healthy and tastes this good.

The base behind all of the Vemma drinks is mangosteen. It's their shtick and they use it in their energy drinks as well as their protein beverages. I like mangosteen, and everyone needs a gimmick. I didn't expect it to be in this meal replacement powder, but there it is. Oh well.

Do Americans eat more than they should? I'm going to say that in 98% of cases, absolutely. I certainly do. I try not to, and most of the time I fail. I love food, even though most of the time I just eat it for sustenance, I just enjoy the process of eating for some weird reason. I find it relaxing. I also really enjoy foods that generally don't have protein (fruits and breads) so I don't feel full as quick. Now that I'm getting older and I realize that I need to take better care of myself, I'm trying to cut down the whole eating too much thing. These shakes are designed just for that. They are protein heavy meal supplements that are meant to help curb your intake of too much food.

The first thing I found weird about this drink is that you are supposed to mix the powder with water. I had a carton of unsweetened almond milk out and ready to go, and when I checked to see how much to use I saw that it said water, which resulted in me going “huh.” In my opinion the water makes this a bit strange. It causes the drink to become slimier than creamy and smooth, which is what I expect from these types of drinks. It seemed that in every sip the water was fighting to separate itself from the powder. Even though I mixed the hell out of it, it did not want to work as a cohesive unit.

Flavor wise it tasted like a watery chocolate drink. The chocolate flavor was pretty decent and it didn't have that gritty protein drink texture, nor the protein taste. It also did a good job mostly covering up the taste of the stevia. I can see where they get the ice cream name. It tastes a bit like a melted ice cream come made for diabetics.

I wasn't completely blown away by this, but I didn't hate it either. I'm not really who this is marketed towards, because I'm not battling my weight, but I think it could be very beneficial to those who are.

Vemma has been slowly building it's empire based on a promise of a healthier energy drink that does more than just get you amped up, as well as giving those beverages flavors that are outside the norm in the world of taurine, B vitamins and a whole lot of sugar. Now I seem to have left my Bunsen burners and my Erlenmeyer flasks back at the office so I was unable to perform the proper scientific research to confirm their health claims (they do seem above water though). What I can do with confidence is confirm the taste of this beverage.

This is no Red Bull, Monster or Amped clone. The Verve! line tastes like to other energy drink that I have encountered. For this can of ParTEA let's start with the fact that it is uncarbonated. This is a good thing since the base of it is green tea and as much as companies work on it, I have yet to taste a carbonated tea that I have preferred over the still variety. They have added mangosteen and aloe to the tea, which give it a nice fruity flavor. Actually the fruity flavor overpowers the tea a bit more than I would prefer it to. By a bit I mean that the tea flavor is hardly there. Such is the sadness in this world. Vemma chose to sweeten the whole deal up with a bit of organic cane sugar as well as a heaping of xylitol, which is a little used zero calorie sweetener. The result is that you end up with a fruity drink with a slight diet flavor to it that has a minimal tea taste, without any trace of the “classic” energy drink flavor to be found.

Did I need to be wearing a lab coat and goggles to type that out to you? Of course not. Did I do it anyways? Of course I did, I'm a scientist!

It's amazing how much mangosteen tastes like orange juice in this case. It's also quite amazing how unhealthy orange juice is for you. It's amazing how orange this drink is while not being orange juice and it's amazing how this just tastes like a diet orange juice.

Now even though I used the phrase "amazing" a lot previously, this drink is not amazing. Actually, I received polar opposite opinions during the survey that I ran in my office yesterday. I got "not bad" and I got "tastes like baby powder." Both sides of the spectrum. What do I think? I think it tastes like a pulpless, lifeless orange juice sweetened with Xylitol or Stevia. I didn't hate it and it was actually pretty good when it was cold. When it warmed up a bit, it got a little gritty like a protein drink might.

I do enjoy that strange little mangosteen cat sneaking in the mix more and more. I'm sure I'll regret saying that as soon as "the big guys" start making it and ruin it like they do everything. You know what, big guys; you're making that green. You're doing what you came here to do. Play on, playah.

Are you tired of energy drinks all tasting the same (ie. like some candy Willy Wonka dreamt up)? Well Vemma has a solution for you with their “insanely healthy energy” drink. Now I have qualms with them saying this is actually healthy as I don't think it's helping your health at all by drinking it, but I will say that after perusing the ingredients list and seeing what is in it I will concede that it is a “healthier” version of an energy drink. It may not cure, nor prevent illness, but hey it's an energy drink and it's not supposed to.

The base of the drink is mangosteen juice, and its caffeine comes from green tea and aloe vera. It also has taurine and a bunch of B vitamins in it, but you take your health where you can get it nowadays. When you open the can it has a weird almost bubble gum smell, that I don't understand. I don't think I can actually taste it. I think I can, but I also believe that the smell may be planting subliminal flavors in my brain. Overall this tastes more like a weird juice than it does an energy drink, and that is a great thing.

This is also the more intense energy version of the beverage. I drank this around 1PM as I had to go to a family party, then another party, and then another. I didn't think I would make it through the day. I also knew if I drank this later in the day when I actually needed it I would never sleep. So I drank it early. Around 6PM I started to crash. I made it through, but then by 9PM I was back with a crazy second wind that was anything but natural. I hadn't had anything else caffeinated or anything like that, so I can only hold this drink accountable. I came back with a fury and I felt like I had drunk three Red Bulls. Luckily by the time I was ready for sleep around 2AM it had worn off and I passed right out. Now that's efficiency.

Companies send us a decent amount of products for review. When we got an email from a gentleman in our fair city that wanted to meet up so he could give us some samples of a beverage we had not tasted we were shocked that there was a product in Buffalo that we didn't know about. When we met up with him, we discovered that he was a part of the elaborate sales team for Vemma. He gave us the samples and then launched into a presentation to get us to become part of his team. It was unexpected, but we weren't upset by it. The man was just trying to secure a more comfortable station in life. We politely declined, as we are clearly not salesmen of any sort, and made our way to our second meeting of the day (a meeting of friends at a delicious Indian restaurant).

Somewhere during the speech we were given a little factoid jumped out at me, “the orange can tastes like Flintstones vitamins.” That is a statement that will always get my attention. As a child I probably nearly overdosed on vitamins a handful of times because I loved how they tasted and I would just keep eating them. Luckily for me my love of drinking fluids had already bloomed by that time, so the vitamins were diluted and quickly flushed out of my system.

Today I was finally in need of a little boost so I decided to take a one-way train to Children's Vitaminburg. That sounds way creepier than I meant it to. Anyways, I think a cow had wandered onto the tracks because I was certainly detoured to a different town, a town where childish things are put aside and people take grown up vitamins. Not for a second in drinking this did the taste of children's vitamins pass my lips. The base of this drink is mangosteen, which is great because it doesn't taste like a typical candied energy drink. It tastes of fruit and unfortunately the bad kind of vitamins. Their flavor is not as strong as I portray them to be, but it's still there. If this had a normal energy drink base with that added, it would be absolutely horrible, but the mangosteen course corrects it a bit. Also, even though I gently shook it, as recommended, the last gulp of the can was very chalky, and nothing that you want in your mouth.

This energy drink has its ups and it's downs. I was on the fence as to give it a two or a three bottle rating, but I decided that since it was an energy drink that didn't taste like it was made by the Wonka corporation I should give it the benefit of the doubt and so three it is.

Weight loss / muscle building drinks are all the rage these days. There are new products flooding the market all the time. The newest one to grab my attention is “bod-e” by Vemma. There are a lot of mixed feelings about the way the Vemma company is ran, but I'm not going to get into it. I'm not a businessman, I'm just some “dumb dummy” who like to try all sorts of beverages and then write poorly about them.

Bod-e doesn't really taste like any other “weight solution” beverage I have ever had before. It's fruity, lightly carbonated and it doesn't taste all that diet, even though it has sucralose in it accompanying the cane sugar. The first thing I noticed when I opened that can was that it has a milky orange color. I wasn't expecting that at all since it's carbonated and the coloring makes it look thicker than it actually is.

There is a whole mess of ingredients in here to help with weight loss (and to keep it off), There are a lot of the familiar vitamin faces that you know from energy drinks as well as protein, aloe vera and green tea. I'm not that kind of scientist, so I can't claim to know which ones works and which does not. I can tell you about tastes though, and this has a decent citrus taste thanks to the mangosteen. By the time you get towards the last quarter of the can you are able to taste the sucralose a bit more, but it wasn't enough to turn me off.

After a single can I have no idea how well this product actually works, but I can tell you that it tastes decent enough, and flavorwise it is much better than most of it's competitors.