Firefly Natural Energy Britannia - Raspberry, Blackberry & Bramley Apple

The cinnamon challenge is a thing of modern folklore. Oh you're not familiar? It's a little game where you dare or bet someone that they can't swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon without the aid of a beverage. The person is also not allowed to puke. It can be endlessly funny at parties. Generally if you can convince one of your friends to do it, it's pretty much guaranteed that others will join in saying that the people who can't do it are wusses. If you've never witnessed the hilarity please head over to You Tube and watch some videos of it. Watching the puff of spice come out of peoples mouths like smoke from an angry dragon never gets old.

I found this drink in a grocery store up in Canada on a little trip today. They had a handful of flavors, but since it was a little on the expensive side ($3.50) I had to chose only one. All of the flavors looked great, but once I saw blackberry and ginger combined I knew my answer.

It tastes like a lightly gingered apple juice. It has some slight berry flavor to it, but the apple it what really hits your taste buds. The ginger is there in flavor, but there isn't a burn with it. I brought up the cinnamon challenge earlier because even though it isn't listed as an ingredient there is the definite dryness of cinnamon in the aftertaste. Just like in the challenge, but to a smaller extent, it feels like the drink dries out your mouth. No one is going to be screaming for water because of it, but it's there and it makes the drink more interesting.

This is a natural energy drink. They make sure to point on that there is no refined sugars or taurine contained to give you "fake energy," as I will call it. In a separate ingredients list they let you know all of the "Botanical Extracts" that are contained to give you energy. Included are yerba mate and guarana.

I don't know what I expected this to taste like, but it was not how it actually tastes. I'm okay with that though, because it's pretty great. It's sweet, with just the right herbs and spices. I wish more companies would take note.