Sucralose - 291 Reviews

Years ago while strolling down Mission Street in San Francisco my traveling companions and I were trying to decide where we should get burritos. The number of “Mexican” restaurants on that street alone is staggering. Since we knew we only had enough room in our stomachs for one burrito we needed to make it count. I heard the sound of kids skating, and when I looked over at them I saw one of the most glorious sites of my life. On a building someone had drawn a mural of a sombrero wearing chili pepper with a gun chasing a hard-shell taco wearing glasses. I instantly busted out laughing. I pointed it out to my friends, and we went inside. Coming from the northeast I will always appreciate when I can get some authentic Mexican food. This taqueria served the best burritos I've ever tasted. On top of that they were huge and only $3. After we left my friend Gak informed me that hard-shell tacos did not exist in Mexico and they were a “gringo” thing. I previously had no idea, but that made me love the mural even more.

As soon as I read this label I instantly thought of those burritos. The label says, “Hecho en California por gringos!” It also says, “Pierda peso carbon!” which roughly translates to “lose weight bastard!” Basically it's saying that gringos can't handle the real deal Mexican Cola, so here's a light version of it to help them lose weight because they are all fat. It sounds about right to me. I'm normally not a fan of diet sodas, but it looked interesting so I gave it a try. I wish the flavor had been as interesting as the taunts. This tastes like your everyday diet cola. There is no kick to it at all. If I did a blind taste test between this and any store brand diet cola I doubt I would be able to decide which was which.

Now I'm just thinking about burritos. I wish I was a flight attendant so I could just hop on a plane to the west coast right now to get some quality burritos. Man, that would be the life.

Water is great. It's super refreshing and I drink it all the time unlike some people I know. A lot of people hate that water tastes like nothing, so that's where companies like MiO come in. The tag line on this little bottle says it all, it's a "liquid water enhancer". Unlike other varieties of MiO, this also has caffeine in it so it turns your water into delicious energy water.

Let's be honest, most energy drinks are gross. Sure we have found a few that are good, but for the most part they are vile things in a can. Most are also carbonated, and I'm not always in the mood for a carbonated drink. As far as energy drinks go, this is one of the best I've ever had. The black cherry taste is delicious and sweet. I know they recommend only using one squirt per 8 oz glass but I put a little extra in because I really like the strong cherry taste.

Now I don't recommend this to other people, but in the name of science I squeezed some of this straight into my mouth. It was INTENSE! It is concentrated for a reason, because drinking it straight is like taking a shot of liquid caffeine. It instantly woke me up. I'm really glad Kraft sent these to us to sample because I never knew a delicious energy drink could come in such a small bottle.

File this under the list of drinks that kids love to buy just because of the name. See also Fukola, Cocaine and Not See Kola. I'm sure this drink is "banned" from high schools all over the country. I don't think it should be banned because of the name, but the taste. I really liked the original version of this, but this sugar free variety is gross. I have been drinking a lot of diet drinks lately, and this is one of the worst I've had in a while.

When I was working at Fun Fun Fun Fest, someone came up to me and asked if I wanted a B12 shot. I said sure and followed them to the production trailer. When we got inside, I saw a doctor pulling needles out of a bag. When they said B12 shot, I thought they meant a drink like this. I hate needles so I opted out and went back to work.

Going in, I wasn't crazy about this flavor. I love pomegranate but HATE acai with a passion. I think it's one of the grossest tastes ever. That being said, this isn't as bad as I feared. It still has that gross flavor, but the pomegranate helps. It's not the most intense energy shot I've ever had, but that's probably because it's meant to be a vitamin shot, and the energy is just a secondary feature.

Jimmy was a huge Rage Against The Machine fan. He got into them when he was in high school. Right around the time Evil Empire came out. He thought every other band paled in comparison. He loved them so much; he got "Bombtrack" tattooed in old English on his stomach. All of his friends tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen.

When RATM reunited last year, he booked the first ticket to LA he could. There was no way he was going to miss this show. He also brought along a case of these Rage energy shots. He thought the band secretly endorsed it. The company even sent them a copy of their masthead to prove Zach De La Rocha didn't have a hand in their product, but he still thought it was true. He thought this all the way until he met Zach before the concert.

Being the crafty person he is, Jimmy found out where the band was eating before the show and introduced himself to them mid burrito. He told them how big of a fan he was, showed them his tattoo, and then asked if they would sign his box of energy shots. Zach laughed and told him, just like everyone else, that they had nothing to do with the company and refused to sign it. He then went on some diatribe about the indigenous people of Canada (where the drink is made), but Jimmy was in tears and ran out. His dreams had been shattered.

What better way to drown those tears than to drink the entire case of Rage energy shots. One after another, he drank them. Each one tasting just like the last did, fruit punch Kool Aid energy drink. The taste never changed, and never left his mouth for months after that night. He also had a heart attack from all that caffeine.

So let that be a lesson for everyone. Rage Against The Machine would never own an energy drink company, and don't ever interrupt Zach De La Rocha when he's eating a burrito.

For the four months or so that this has been sitting in my cupboard I thought that it was a "Weight Watchers" product. They have their own diet product line, don't they? Even if they don't, I always thought they did, and this was a gift from a friend who I believe ganked it from their mom's house. Now that I'm drinking this and I see that it's not Weight Watchers, I'm a bit disappointed. I don't need diet pop in my life, especially something that looks like it could be a store brand. If I had to review every low rent diet soda in the world, I would probably quit Thirsty Dudes. I don't have the taste buds for it. If I decided to stick it out and reviewed all of the diet orange soda in the world, I bet 99% of them would taste exactly the same. This can does not fall in that magical 1%. Sure it's nicely carbonated and it smells very orangey, but the fake orange flavor plays second fiddle to the gross death taste of Splenda. I don't know how people drink this stuff. I seriously believe that in 50 years they will find out that Splenda and other artificial sweeteners are way worse for you than actual sugar.

Dear Drain, Meet Diet Soda. I hope the two of you have a happy life together.

Hangover Joe's sent us a package of these Hangover Recovery Shots. Since none of us here at Thirsty Dudes drink alcohol, we outsourced our review to our friend and cohort Pat Shanahan. Last night was Mohawk Place's (our favorite bar/place for shows in Buffalo) annual Xmas party. Originally Pat was going to wait to get drunk enough to need to drink this, but about halfway through the night he had a change of heart and the PBR flowed like water down his gullet. As you can see from his review he got drunk, fast, and his alter ego "Brocktoon" made an appearance. Here's what he had to say.

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"Sometimes you spend a long evening drinking keg beer at your favorite dive bar. Later, You take a nap on floor. A couple of hours later the bartender gives you a ride home. Nice guy. Fast forward to the morning after. You take a hangover recovery shot. Tastes kinda like generic Smarties. Not too bad. I kind of wish it was bigger. Maybe it helps to relieve the headache, just a little bit, but not too much. Now you have to walk to your friend's house to feed their cat while they are out of town. At least you didn't get arrested, or get anyone pregnant. Merry Xmas." - Pat

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As for a Thirsty Dude's perspective on the taste of this, it tastes like someone mixed an entire package of Kool Aid powder into a shot glass of water. It's sweet, fruity and very strong. I understand where Pat got his Smarties taste. It really tastes like a Kool Aid flavored energy shot. They share a lot of the same ingredients. Actually now that I look at the ingredients of this and a 5 Hour Energy back to back this is pretty much an energy shot with some extra vitamins in it. Makes sense. We wish Pat/Brocktoon a speedy recovery.

I took one sip of this whist driving and instantly closed it up and threw it in the back seat. This is not good by a long shot. It's like the company took every little thing that anybody didn't like about Vitamin Water, then mixed in Splenda for a sweetener and finally dumped some taurine and caffeine in there to give it a slight chemical energy drink taste.

Splenda has to be my least favorite sweetener. I can get by with other artificial "diet" sweeteners, but Splenda is just chalky and terrible beyond belief. This is supposed to be tropical citrus flavored, and I guess that is hidden underneath all of that fake sugar, but it's hard to make it out through the haze.

New Review:
Since we have given such good marks to all of their other products, Cintron sent us another bottle of this and asked us if we'd try again. I had no problem with it, especially since Derek said he actually liked this one. The company sent it and it's been sitting on my shelf for a month or two.

I finally got around to trying it today, and I don't know what my problem was before. Sure it's not the greatest tasting thing in the world, but neither are any energy shots. Maybe I got a bad one before, who knows. All I can say now is that it tastes like diet cranberry juice concentrate with energy drink junk in it. I wouldn't drink huge glasses of it, but you're not meant to. It tastes more like diet cranberries than it does energy garbage, and that is all you can really ask for. I'm bumping you from a 1 to a 3 Cranberry Splash. I hope you're happy with your new home.


Old Review:
Cintron knows how to make a tasty energy drink. They have even managed to make some quality energy shots, which are by definition disgusting. Unfortunately with this offering they have fallen short. The bitterness of the cranberry flavor does not help the already gross energy shot flavor. Instead of masking the grossness, it possibly makes it worse. The sucralose used to sweeten it makes it taste like diet toxic waste. I'm sorry Cintron. I really wish we could have given you all top marks, but this is probably the worst energy shot I've ever tasted. So dear readers you should just pick up their other flavors. They are a company that deserves to be able to shine.

Oooh man. Oooh no. Oooh jeez. I need it. I need it so bad. Oooh man. Ooooh God. Ooooh kill me. I need it. Ahhh. Dude, dude, dude, dude...do you have the stuff? You do? Oh, how much do I owe you? A dollar fifty? Oh, man. Hold on. Hey, other dude, do you have a quarter? No, it doesn't need to be a case quarter. Thanks. Here you go, dealer. A dollar fifty. Thanks, dude.

Finally, I've got it. I've needed this. What time is it? Two thirty? I should have had this a half hour ago. I'm feening so hard. Alright, I've got to go in the bathroom to take care of business. Alright, down the hatch. Oh, it smells good. It doesn't smell poisonous. It smells like Flintstone vitamins. Alright, once again, down the hatch. Wooooo! I feel like Ric Flair up in here. I hope no one heard me. That was very loud. It tastes like Flintstone vitamins. I was anticipating this to taste vile but I was wrong. Alright, I'm going to be juiced up for the last...one hour of work. What time is it?! Three thirty? I've been in here doing old wrestler impressions and getting myself juiced up on this energy shot for an hour? Man, I hope that I'm going to have enough energy to run out the door when they fire me.

Sometimes you go in expecting low quality jeans and you leave expecting diet pop to taste good. It's a crazy world where truth good denim is everywhere and diet drinks that don't taste as such are a diamond in the rough. A needle in a haystack. A boob in a PG movie. I think you can see where this is going and the direction is not towards things like bird's nests, birds, and bird houses.

Pomegranate is a distinct flavor and Jones captured it pretty well. They also got my hopes up by simply printing the word "hibiscus" on the bottle. You don't get hibiscus, but you do get diet and that is enough to make a grown man cry mostly because pomegranate and hibiscus together would be a match made in heaven. Instead, you get a decent pomegranate flavor, which is promptly ruined by a poor selection of artificial, diet sweeteners.

Dr. Jones, I like you. This is not your best work. I'm not going as far to say that it's a dead patient, but it could be something like leaving cotton swabs inside a surgery patient and then sewing that dude up like a bear you made in your seventh grade home and careers class.

I'm weird because I actually like Big Red. A lot of people give me crap about it, but I don't care. I think it's a decent cream soda. This diet version on the other hand is pretty gross. At first it tasted just like normal Big Red but then has the usual gross diet fake sugar aftertaste. I started to get used to it the more I drank, but it's still not as good as the original.

The Fest in Gainesville, FL is one of the best times of year. I would take that weekend over Xmas any time. Even on years such as this where there wasn't very many bands I was interested, I still had an incredible time. It's the "punk rock family reunion." People from all over the country (and world) that I have met from playing in bands are all congregated in a tiny college town. It's really a special thing to be surrounded by so many great people. Fest ended last night, and I was sad to have to leave everyone behind to head out to the next town. I know I'll see everyone again next year, if not sooner, but it's always a bummer.

We had an 11-hour drive to Richmond, VA (we wanted to avoid the south which is over-saturated with touring bands). I was first to bat for driving. I downed this energy shot to help get me where I needed to be. It certainly did its job. We made it well into South Carolina before I felt the need to give up the driver seat.

As far as I know 5-Hour Energy was the first company to get into the energy shot game. I somehow had never tried one until now. It was much better than I expected. It wasn't as harsh and as chemical tasting as other ones I tried. It did have a very distinct grape flavor. That's a rarity in this world. Usually the shots just have a general sweetness to them. I'm still not a big fan of energy shots, but if I have to get one in the future i would pick this over any other ones I've had thus far.

Blackberry is sacred between Jay and myself. We used to go to Chili's all the time. Alright, maybe once a week, tops, but that's not the point. The point is that every time we would go, and this is probably still true, we get the unsweetened blackberry tea. It's quite marvelous and I believe bottomless. When the person who runs L3 Home sent us this flavor, I was pretty psyched.

I've had these samples at my house for a while but they're so small, they often hide behind even the smallest cans. I put my hand in what I thought was an empty space and found them and decided that I would review them, finally. So here goes.

You've got MiO, and that's cornered the market. It's a great product. It's small, able to be carried in a purse or something, and comes in an array of flavors. The only unfortunate thing about Crazy Drops is that you may have never heard of it. You can buy all their stuff on their site, which is nice and they've got like twenty flavors, including CinnaCherry, which intrigues me to no end. Onto the flavor...

It's not bad. It's a titch diet, but between a diet Pepsi and this, I'd rather have this. It doesn't have a sting and actually tastes like a lightly diet, watered down juice. Also, there is no color to it which is nice considering it's a concentrate and all that colors got to come from somewhere and therefore also has to go somewhere.

If you've had all the flavors of MiO and you crave more options and you like to help out a small business, try them out. They've got to have a flavor you are curious about.

This morning I had to go to the DMV. As I type this, I can already hear your groans. It has been several years since I've been to the DMV and stand up comedians and movies have ingrained in my head that the DMV is never a pleasant experience. Let me be the first (at least on this website) to say that I had a quick and easy series of transactions there today. I waited a total of 5 minutes, plus all my documents and paperwork were in order and acceptable. 20 minutes in and out and I now am the proud owner of an enhanced ID (which allows me to enter Canada).

Now I'm not going to give this energy shot all the credit for making my trip a success. I stayed up until 2am making sure my application was filled out correctly and I had all the necessary forms of identification needed to prove that I do indeed exist and that I reside in New York State. But when I woke up at 7:15am, which is about 5 hours before I normally get out of bed, I definitely needed something to keep my eyes open. Since there was no coffee shop between my house and the bus stop, I grabbed this before I walked out into the chilly morning air.

It obviously didn't warm me up the way a nice cup of coffee would have, but at least it tasted good. You know those little cans of mandarin oranges that are swimming in syrup? That's what this tasted like, but without the heavy syrup. It definitely kept me awake as well until I got downtown and could procure a cup of coffee. Not the strongest energy shot, but at least it tastes good.

I was going to write a witty post involving Ghostbusters and tie it into the drink because Azul is very close to Zuul. But then two things happened: 1. I got really tired and 2. This drink wasn't that good. This is a shame because the other Tropical Azul drinks we've had so far by Cintron have been delicious, as have their energy shots. Unfortunately not this one. It's pretty bad when a drink looks like mouthwash and after you drink it, you wish it would have tasted more like mouthwash because then it would have tasted better. It did give me energy so I'll give it that much. Sorry Cintron, I guess you can't win them all!

As of today I have officially crossed the line into abusing energy drinks territory. I'm not at a point (and don't think I ever will be) where I need them to get my day moving, like a coffee addict. No, today I was out of "quick" food in my house before work so I drank this energy drink as an appetite suppressant. That's the whole concept of diet pills, right? They are chock full of caffeine so you don't feel hungry. I learned that from Saved By the Bell, and if you are between the ages of 25 and 35 you probably did too.

I have to say it worked. I didn't feel hungry the entire time I was working. Job well done Sentinel. I must also point out that this was the lightest energy drink I've ever had. To the extent that it felt like I wasn't really drinking anything. The flavor is really, really mild citrus, and the sucralose is down so far in the list of ingredients that it tastes like you have a glass of soda water with both an orange and lime slice in it that someone put just a tad bit of artificial sweetener in it. Very strange indeed.


I was going to write some dumb story about the Sentinels from X-Men, but then I got ashamed of my abuse. Just pretend I wrote something about how crushing mutants is a hard job, and even robots need a little pick me up from time to time.

Jason Draper is a wimp. Yes, that's right, I'm calling him out right here and now. Last week, he reviewed the Tweak Extreme Berry and said it was one of the most intense energy drinks ever. This surprised me because I had previously tried the Grape flavor and I didn't think it was that crazy.

So I had to see for myself. I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me this morning so I cracked this bottle open. It tastes good. It's not amazing, but it's a decent non-carbonated energy drink with not much energy gross taste to it. After I was done drinking it, I noticed the bottle said you're not supposed to drink more than 8 of the 12 oz in one day. Well I did, and on an empty stomach nonetheless (not on purpose, I was just so busy that I forgot to eat). Not drinking it on an empty stomach is another warning it gives you. Oops!


You know what? It didn't bother me. Compared to how insane the Redline Energy Drink was, this is nothing at all. It did not make me jittery, and it didn't make me any more energized than a couple cups of coffee would. So I challenge you Mr. Draper to try Redline (I have purchased a bottle for you) and then tell me if the Tweak Extreme you had is truly as strong as you thought it was.

You'd think at 3:30am I should be reviewing one of the many relaxation drinks in my queue. Nope, not tonight. I have a lot of work to do in the next 36 hours so I'm going to power through the night at work. In order to do this, I need energy obviously. That's where this wonderful little bottle comes in. I went with a Cintron energy shot tonight because they have a good track record of making delicious drinks. This isn't ground breaking, but it's definitely good as far as energy shots go. The mango flavor is nice, but the citrus mixed with the energy flavor leaves a bad aftertaste. Luckily the bottle is all gone now and I'm already feeling more energized. Back to work I go!

Toronto is a big city, which means it can be very exhausting when you walk everywhere because you think the exercise would be better than public transportation. I have nothing against the bus, or subway, but I know that starting in a week I'm going to be sitting in a van all day on tour, so I should get my exercise while I can. After a day and a half of nothing but walking and eating I decided to try this energy shot out. It tastes like a harsh lemon lime Gatorade. The harshness is due to all the concentrated energy junk that's in it. It's not as harsh as most though, and it kept me trekking for the next couple of hours.