Sucralose - 291 Reviews

Redline makes some of the most intense energy drinks I have ever some across. If I drink one it's absolutely guaranteed that I will not come anywhere near sleep for at least 12 hours. It's a blessing and a curse, just like logic. The reason I mention this is that the same creators have concocted this energy drink as well. While it may not have the same intensity it still gives you the shot to the heart that you so desperately want from energy drinks, but that so few deliver.

Bang does not use sugar in their beverages, as the spike in blood sugar that they cause is also one of the things responsible for the energy drink crash that some people experience. Nobody wants to go up, just to fall even further down later. Instead it's sweetened with sucralose; I know, not very game changing. The thing that does make Bang stand out amongst the armies of energy drinks that fill coolers in gas stations all across the planet is their energy blend. They use a mixture of Creatine, CoQ10 and branch chain amino acids as well as the usual caffeine and B vitamins. I'm not totally sure what the difference is chemically, but I can tell you I most definitely got a pick up on my drive home from MI yesterday. Of course it was just in time for traffic to come to a standstill, so I was chock full on energy in an essentially parked car on the highway. How wonderful. It just hit me that since Creatine is included these are probably intended for use when you're working out, you know…€¦not sitting in a car.

This flavor is Star Blast and that may mean that it's supposed to be star fruit flavored, or it may just be a catchy name. Either way it tastes like a slightly diet version of some random Hubba Bubba or Bubblicious gums from the 80s/early 90s. It's very sweet in the fake sugar way, but it's not gross. It really tastes like kind of fruity gum to me, and that's fairly pleasant.

I have no qualms with Bang. In fact I quite enjoyed this. I do have a problem with the way people were driving in Canada yesterday though. There were no accidents. There was no construction. Why were you stopping and starting so much then?

Seeing as neither of us at Thirsty Dudes drink at all, let alone enough to give us a hangover, we had our friend Paul Morin (from the band Orations and famed impersonator) drink this and give us his thoughts. Here are the jumbled notes that he sent us:

Smells like grass.
Greenish color.
Tastes like smarties/ lemon-lime Gatorade.
Pasty chalky texture.
Tastes like artificially sweetened "Limeade."
My friend who is a chemist said after looking at the ingredients it was basically like taking a Tylenol before drinking.
Vaguely smells like dirty socks. "Limey sock water."

I did not wake up with a hangover however I did have to make several to the bathroom. Not sure whether to blame the alcohol, something I ate, or the product for that.

This is from a man who went to college to be a librarian. I guess you can't blame him since he started sober and kept writing as he got progressively drunker.

I can't really argue with most of his thoughts though. This tastes like a diet lime Gatorade if it had the concentration of an unfrozen Freeze-E-Pop.

Over the years we have been sent a small handful of hangover cures. It seems like a great idea, but the problem is that neither Mike nor I drink at all. Our solution is to find a friend who is planning on getting drunk and having them drink it and relay their results to us, while we drink one and remark on the taste. Well, I've been somewhat of a hermit lately and I haven't been around people drinking in a while. I've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks and the proper opportunity hasn't arisen. I didn't want to make the company feel like we are neglecting their product and after the events of yesterday I have what I assume a hangover feels like.

Yesterday I had to print shirts for about 12 hours in a room that was easily over 110 degrees. I only stopped when a friend stopped by to get me to go push around the city on skateboards. Like the idiot I am I did not drink nearly enough water and as a result I was dehydrated, which I believe is a large part of hangovers. When I woke up this morning I was achy with a throbbing head and felt a little queasy. These are all complaints I hear from people who have hangovers. I decided this was as close as I was ever going to come so I drank this bottle of Boost, which can be drank before, during or the day after drinking. It seems to be jam packed with every B vitamin ever, Potassium, Electrolytes, Milk Thistle, Green Tea Extract, Aloe Vera, and Gotu Kola.

It's been about 45 minutes since I drank this and I do feel a bit better. I'm not sure if it's just time or the beverage, but I'll assume it was the drink. I also just learned that a big cause of hangovers is a toxin called acetaldehyde. Now I don't know if I had that but I'll just assume that this combats that quite nicely.

It has a berry taste, with a sucralose sweetness. It's a bit intense, but it's a shot, so that was expected. I don't know if this was a very accurate test, but I do feel better so I'll just say that this helps with hangovers because my word is law, right? RIGHT?

There have been so many of these that I'm not even trying anymore. If you are a rational human being and think sucralose is disgusting, then steer clear of this. If you are a mutant and it doesn't bother you, well then sit back and get ready to enjoy some berry flavoring. I've said it before but if they got rid of the sweetener altogether, this would be a good seltzer.

It always seems that the drinks that we are lukewarm about, especially the diet ones, are what companies send us the most flavors of. There has been so much Claire Baie in our lives over the past few months and I'm afraid the sheer quantity is effecting our reviews. As I've said before these drinks were not created with me as their target audience. It's true that I watch my sugar intake sometimes, but I have never been on a diet, and I am not a fan of zero calorie sweeteners, especially sucralose. There is a world of people out there who are on diets though and rely on beverages such as this to help curb their craving for sweet carbonated drinks. I think those people would be happy with this. If you drink sucralose on a regular basis you have to get acclimated to it and that weird taste probably doesn't even register to you anymore. That taste is what is holding this drink back in my eyes, but if take that out of the equation and you have a decent kiwi strawberry drink. I've had a lot of kiwi strawberry stuff in my life, but I don't think I've ever had a fresh juice where those were the ingredients. Man, I bet that would be the best. Compared to that this would be a pale imitation, but since 99.9% of the population has probably never drunk such a thing this is very passable.

Sparkling tea is a strange bird. We've done a couple of them but for the most part, they're just strange. Iced tea is a staple in my life so when you change it by adding sparkles, you're changing when my body expects.

Is this bad? No. It's not the best drink and it's pretty diet at times but you know what? It couldn't have been that bad because I drank the whole thing. I never made a "gross" face. That counts for them and not against them. You could taste the lemon. That's a point. You only sometimes get the diet taste and it's sucralose. That stuff stinks. Sparkling Ice can sometimes and somehow disguise it.

They keep sending us stuff and we keep drinking it. They're good to us. You know why this relationship works, though? They don't mind a couple mediocre reviews. I've always said that if I could have one drink for the rest of my life it would be unsweet tea. This is my favorite drink sharpened, sweetened, lemoned and on a diet. That's where the minuses come in. It's not bad. It's not for me. I drank the whole thing. It's not for me.

In Claire Baie's most diet move ever, we have this lemon lime drink. This drink comes complete with all of the accommodations that one would desire, such as but not limited to include cup holders, passenger side mirror, AM/FM radio and color matched door handles. It also has the most, but not unbearable diet taste. Finally, the taste that dieteers can understand. I'm sure gaggles of people are just dying for that fake flavor they so crave. The lemon lime is standard lemon lime. Nothing to go crazy about.

As I mentioned, it's not the worst diet drink I've ever had so if you have some sort of brand loyalty towards Claire Baie and are into diet drinks, this is the drink for you. Otherwise, this is as average as an average drink can average.

Oh look, another Claire Baie zero calorie sparkling water. I'm beginning to think that these drinks Are going to haunt me for the rest of 2016. It's no secret that neither Mike nor I are fans of sucralose sweetened drinks. Unfortunately most of this companies beverages use just that. We know these drinks have a market and people buy and presumably enjoy them. We are just not those people.

This Orange Mango one is the best one I've had yet though. Somehow the citrus blends with the sucralose and the result tastes like kids vitamins, a flavor I'm not ashamed to say I enjoy. Who didn't eat more than their allotted quantity of Flintstone vitamins when they were little? I certainly did. The orange and mango flavors in here are actually pretty decent. It's just that dumb sucralose that brings the whole thing down for me. So yet again if you don't mind sucralose, check these things out, if you are grossed out by it steer clear. It's a simple plan.

I had anticipated this being completely horrible. Even drinks that are sweetened with real sugar that are this particular hue of blue usually spell trouble. They are always overly sweet and taste only of sweetener and nothing of the flavor they are meant to be. This really doesn't stray too far from that equation, but at least Claire Baie didn't go overboard with the sucralose. I mean it's surely there in all its weird and unlikable ways for those who are not used to it, but it's not the only thing I taste. There is the general diet lemonade along with a vague berry flavor on top of that. I personally didn't enjoy it very much, but there must be a large group of people out there who drink and enjoy these diet sparkling drinks because there are more than enough companies pumping them out. I'm sure those people would find it enjoyable enough.

How do people do it? How do people drink diet drinks on the regular? I've been told that you get used to it, but I really just can't see that happening. They taste so unnatural to me. Whenever I drink something that has sucralose in it I feel like I'm drinking from a bottle that has a Mr. Yuck sticker on it from when I was a kid. It just doesn't get better for me.

This bottle of Sparkling Ice at least uses lemon juice from concentrate that helps fight the poison a bit. I don't know where the lime taste comes from, but it's a bit like a watered down Freezie Pop. Neither of those flavors are quite strong enough to overpower the sucralose taste though. I wish they were, because I think this could be strangely good instead of just good for diet.

Celsius sent us over a couple of flavors that we have already reviewed. I'm not sure if they are reformulated, or if it's just new packaging, but since it's been about five years since I reviewed the other one, I thought I'd give it another go.

When so much time has passed memories can get a bit hazy. I had a general idea of how this tasted, and reading my old review filled in some gaps. From what I said and what I remember I'm pretty sure they have tweaked the recipe a little. This has a cleaner orange taste and it's not so much an orange soda flavor. It certainly still tastes diet, but I don't mind it as much as I remembered. It's a functional beverage meant to help you burn calories, so of course it's not going to be loaded with real sugar. They seemed to find a way to soften the diet taste a bit, or else I'm just more used to it than I was back then. Either way if you are the sort of person that is drinking Celsius, then you probably have a good idea of what you're getting yourself into.

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ORIGINAL REVIEW:
A couple of friends and I were planning on riding to Niagara Falls on our bikes today. It was close to, if not over, 90 degrees out but we figured we'd be riding next to the river the whole time, so it should be cooler. It was, but it was still pretty hot. Before we left I downed this can of Celsius. I definitely enjoy their sparkling drinks over their teas. They both taste so overly diet (they are weight loss drinks what so I don't expect otherwise) but the bubbles mask it a bit. This tasted like a really cheap diet orange soda that you would find at Aldi or some such discount grocery store. It wasn't the greatest, but for what it is and what it does I can't really expect a gem. I definitely felt an energy burst from it, and I will assume it helped burn calories. So I downed the can pretty fast, let out a humungous burp and hit the pedals.

We made it about halfway through Wheatfield when we decided to stop at a gas station and refill our water bottles. We were sitting outside sipping on some crisp cold water when suddenly my front tire let out all its air. It was loud and it was fast. The bike was laying on the ground for about ten minutes without being touched for ten minutes before it happened. I blame the sun. I really think it got to hot and burst. Stupid sun, you're just fighting dirty because I put on SPF 85 sunscreen!

Here at Thirsty Dudes we understand that every beverage is not for everyone. Specifically there are beverages out there that are not made for people like us, aka people who aren't counting calories to try and drop a few lbs. When we come across these drinks we try to give them the benefit of the doubt and we attempt to be in the mindset of someone who this drink is actually produced for. These zero calorie, sweetened, sparkling waters are one such category. We try to find the best in the drinks, but after drinking so many that all taste fairly similar, it becomes hard. The sad truth is that when it comes to beverages like these a good portion of the flavor comes from the sucralose, or whatever zero calorie sweetener is being used. Some flavors cut through it better than others, but it's always there and I never enjoy it. There are also the unfortunate flavors such as this that the supposed flavor of the drink is weaker than the sucralose and you only really get it in the aftertaste. I love pomegranates, even as much as I love a variety of berries, but they really aren't allowed to shine in this. All I'm getting is gross diet-ness. People say you get used to it, but I still haven't and I don't think I want to. I'll avoid my calories by limiting my sugary beverage intake instead of switching out the sugar for a different sweetener that ruins everything.

Here's an idea, let's take a less than stellar beverage and make it somehow worse by taking out the sugar/stevia mix and replacing it with sucralose. Seriously why would they not just use all stevia? It may not be the best, but it is way better than the poison taste of sucralose. Nothing tastes real in this beverage. The peach tastes artificial and even the tea flavor seems fake somehow.. It's not undrinkable, but it's by no means enjoyable by my standards. It's like there was a science fair and a kid decided to make a soda in his home laboratory. Oh yeah, that kid is a super scientist in the making, just don't let her near anything you want to ingest. I really wanted to like this line and it just wasn't meant to be.

We were sent so many different Claire Baie drinks to review. I don't know if we have even got through half of them and I'm running out of things to say. Most of them (this one) are flavored sparkling waters that are sweetened by sucralose. I am not a fan of this particular sweetener, so it kind of ruins the lot of them for me. The flavors of these drinks are pleasant enough, and they would have made for a whole mess of seltzers that I would have enjoyed had they just left out the sweetener. Unfortunately they did not and they all have that diet-death taste to them. It just changes the whole feel of the drink in a way that I don't see a need for. This would have been a great tangerine orange seltzer. From what I can gather of the flavor that is not sweetener I probably could drink a case of this if the sucralose were left out. Oh well. I mean this is pretty much on par with other brands doing a similar thing, but I'm not a fan of them either.

You know what's periodically refreshing? Grapefruit. I might drink one Squirt per year and it's a great day. Ting? Always a good time. I don't know what does it. It could be the immense amount of citrus but there is something refreshing about it. This, even being a diet drink, is a good time. It's got good flavor and sure, with every sip you know that it's not "real" but it's good. It's got the same "sharpness" that you would get from anything in this shaped bottle (read: Sparkling Ice) but I don't hate that either. This is a good time in a bottle and it's not terrible for you. I'd call that a win in my book.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a question that I would like to pose to all of you; who are these drinks for? I'm not trying to be a jerk; I just really want to know. Who are all of the people who are buying and consuming flavored sparkling waters that are sweetened with zero calorie sweeteners? I have never witnessed anyone buy anything like this, let alone drink it. There must be market though because there are a decent amount of companies making them, and you can find them all over the place, where they are not covered in decades of dust. In my experience when someone is looking to drink a diet beverage it's usually a Diet Coke. I have seen countless numbers of them being consumed across the country. Never once have a watched anyone drink one of these though. Are Americans ashamed that they enjoy these and they purchase/consume them in secret? Do they hide them in the center of their shopping cart so that they can surround them with other groceries so that their fellow shoppers are none the wiser?

My opinion on it is if you're looking to drink sparkling water and are watching your calories, just grab a seltzer. Of course who is going to listen to me though? Very few people that is who. Would I ever purchase this drink? No, but I am not the intended consumer. I can't get down with the taste of sucralose. This is actually right at the cusp of the proportion of sucralose to the intended flavor of a beverage. While I wouldn't buy this, I will drink it since it was given to me. I don't hate it, but it's certainly not my favorite. It has a decent strawberry taste that fade into a little lemon flavor. Both of which are combating the chemical taste of the sweetener.

I understand this is made for a certain demographic, and it must sell to them. I'm just not sure who they are.

There are a whole mess of zero calorie, sweetened sparkling waters on the market. While that statement is a fact this may be the only one who's name isn't a reference to ice or being frozen. So for that, I thank you Claire Baie. Those names irrationally drove me crazy. Another difference is that this beverage has some juice in it, and as a result it is better than the rest, even though it is still sweetened with sucralose.

Oh how I wish this wasn't sweetened with sucralose. I understand it's a drink with a purpose, but tasting it I can tell how great this could have been. Actually, if they wanted to keep it zero calories they should have just forgone the sweetener altogether. I probably would have loved it that way. As it stands it's not horrible and is on the better side of the sucralose scale. It really tastes like berries and the diet taste is a bit hidden under that. It still has that coldness, which the other companies base their names off of. That coldness is simply not for me, but for what this is and compared to its contemporaries it's a clear winner.

I've been duped again. I see a larger bottle labeled “sparking water” and my mind goes to seltzer. I think, “Oh, this will be good to drink at band practice” only to take a sip and realize that it is sweetened with sucralose. This is the third or fourth time this has happened to me over the past year, and you'd think that I would learn to just look at the ingredients. Maybe I just like living on the edge. Maybe I crave the danger and excitement to breathe life into my veins. Maybe I am just dumb and I keep forgetting.

If this were a seltzer it would have a nice cherry flavor that doesn't resemble medicine too much. I would have been perfectly content with it. As it stands it is more diet than cherry, and that bodes well for no one.

I just thought to myself, “Who could ever drink all of this in one sitting?” Then I realized that it's meant for multiple servings. Yup, I was right at the end. I am in fact dumb.

I have never had a diet beverage that was passion fruit flavored before. The entire concept seems like an oxymoron since it's such a sweet fruit. It feels like the amount of sugar naturally contained in a single passionfruit would be more than the allotted amount in a drink labeled as diet, or low calorie. I guess this has no real juice in it, so that makes sense. I don't know what dastardly lab tech created an artificial passionfruit flavoring. It seems like something science should not tamper with. It's a perfect fruit and if life were a movie tampering in it would bring upon the end times. I think we are probably safe though as it doesn't have a very strong passionfruit taste. It is also not very diet tasting. I will accept the one if it keeps the other at bay. It's not the best. It's also not the worst. It's just sort of there and it gives you a decent energy burst. A portion of each sale goes to the breast cancer research, so I feel perfectly fine about purchasing this.

Tommy, you have been drinking far too many energy drinks. I can assure you that they are not improving your gaming skills. Sure, they might help you stay up until the early hours of the morning, but you're a teenage you should have no problem staying up that late anyway. I mean you don't wake up until noon. Fine, I can't handle your whining, you can have some sort of energy drink, but it has to be one of these natural ones and not that chemical swill you and your friends like to down. Also, you have to agree to go outside and have fun with your friends. Go and cause a little trouble, you're young that's what you're supposed to do, not sit in front of the TV all summer. Good, then it's a deal. Here have this can of V8. Don't look at me like that it isn't that gross tomato juice stuff, V8 has expanded their line. This is sweet potato and carrot juice with fruit juice and green tea extract mixed in. Trust me, it tastes fantastic. You don't even notice the juices except for the orange and pineapple. It has some underlying flavor that I can't really place, but it just makes it taste more interesting.

Tommy, the thing about this energy drink is that it won't give you the jitters and will make you actually play your games better with steady hands. See I'm looking out for you. It's just caffiene and B vitamins. It's also on the healthier side because it's 34% juice and it's low in calories. I know you don't care about these things, but I'm your parent and it's my duty to look out for you when it comes to these things. Okay now live up to your end of the deal and go outside. I'm calling Johnny house and if you're there you're grounded mister!