I knew about energized mints, gum, chocolate pieces, candy bars, and even potato chips.  Now all the sudden my mailbox has been ambushed by two different energy chews in a few weeks time.

Since Hydrive Energy Chews were the first energy chews I’ve ever had, let’s see how these brand new Atomic Energy Bites compare!

Taste

Opening up my first package of Atomic Energy Bites, my taste buds took a defensive stance, bracing themselves for an assault.  As soon as the first chew entered my mouth, before it even hit my tongue, my tension unwound.  It became immediately apparent that these chews kick some serious ass!  With my first package I forgot to even pay attention to the energy effect.  Make no mistake; these chews are a premium candy treat.  They’re a whole level above what Hydrive has to offer.  Even better, there’s 5 scrump-dittily-umptious flavors:

• Lemon Lime – Key lime pie!
• Fruit Punch – Fruit punch!
• Orange Raspberry – Rumba Energy Juice!
• Cinnabomb – Atomic Fireball hard candies!
• Mocha Crunch – I hate coffee!  But I’d bet good money on this flavor tasting wonderful to coffee lovers.

So seriously, I’m not being lazy with the flavor comparisons.  This is literally what the flavors taste like, they’re astonishingly identifiable.

Ingredients

Every 3 bites will deliver 100mg of caffeine, 25mg of guarana, and a few hundred percent of your B values to your system well under the radar.  You can purchase Atomic Energy Bites in packages of 3 or 6.

Effect

We’ve got a little life lesson here: it’s nearly impossible to have the best of everything.  There’s always a negative somewhere to accompany every positive.  These bites just don’t quite cut it for me, even when I gobble up the larger 6 pack.  Maybe if you’re a caffeine lightweight you’ll be happy with them.

Verdict

So in this informal energy chew dual, Atomic Energy Bites destroy Hydrive Energy Chews in the taste department, while Hydrive Energy Chews offer energy that the Atomic Energy Bites just can’t keep up with.  Now go forth and be an informed consumer.

Reviewed by Dusty Smith

Hydrive’s recent entries into the energy product market have provided some much needed aeration to the stagnating market.  They just simply refuse to conform.

Their first beverages were refreshingly unique and enjoyable, and now their new energy chews show that Hydrive is not ready to merge onto the beaten path.  Have they lost sight of what consumers are looking for?

Taste

My first experience with these supercharged “Starburst” wannabes was certainly impressive.  Not because of the flavoring, but because of a nearly undetectable bitter aftertaste.  Most of us know by now that this is almost unheard of when it comes to energized food products.

As for the Berry Burst flavoring, don’t get the wrong idea, these morsels taste great.  A tart and wholesome berry taste is right up front and there’s enough sweetness to make these chews at home on a candy rack.  Four chews come in a pack and after eating the first one, I couldn’t help but keep tearing through one after the next until I emptied the pack.  A little side note, sometimes I detected a mild metallic aftertaste.  I’m not sure what to make of it, but it’s not a deal breaker.

Ingredients

Eating a pouch of these chews will deliver 160mg of caffeine your way, with 200% DV of B-vitamins 3, 5, 6, and 12 as reinforcement.  Apparently all of these ingredients are “encapsulated” to mask the bitterness.  Pretty word… With epistemological intents, extrapolating the encapsulated elements to estimate the effectiveness yields an expedited delivery of energy.  Ooh that’s fun.

Effect

These chews mount more of an ambient attack on your ho-hums for about 3-4 hours.  They offer energy like the kind you get after a full night’s rest, but who am I kidding, none of you know what that feels like.  Just know that yes, they are effective.

Verdict

So is there hope for these candies?  Absolutely.  I know there are many people out there who could fall in love with them if the chance were given.  I just wish that instead of individually wrapping them, they’d mold them into those gummy candies that look like mini hamburgers.  That’s an unstoppable combination.

Written by Dusty Smith

You can buy Hydrive Chews on-line here.

Although greeted with less than open arms, Foosh mints have lasted the test of time, the truest sign of a good product. With previous successes, Vroom has decided to take another gamble, this time with a pseudo-chocolate looking concoction known as Buzz Bites.

Buzz Bites might sound catchy but chewable candies resembling chocolates often bring back bad memories of vitamins. Ever seen chewable calcium chocolate? These things looks exactly the same.

Biases aside, I popped the portable tin container. Inside, I was greeted by the hand of Zeus holding a rather fiery lightning bolt underlined by the words “BUZZ Bites” and the motto “SERIOUSLY CAFFEINATED!” In addition to the proficient use of the caps lock, six large aluminum wrapped cubes awaited my consumption. The foil encasing the black/brown blob quickly fell victim to eager hands.

Taste

Face to face with The Blob, I sat contemplating why anyone would rather their caffeine be in a bulky chocolate rather than a small mint. I found far less appeal to this method of ingestion, but perhaps there’s a certain market niche that is being marketed to? Chocolate lovers? Non-male chocolate lovers? I’ll leave my observation at that.

The smell was rubbery, vaguely reminding me of my last dentists appointment. Fans of latex will be more than pleased with the strange aroma. The texture seemed soft by also gritty. The flavors minty and yet vitamin in essence, not dissimilar to eating mint-brownie mix. My mouth was left with a cool sensation, with a faux chocolate aftertaste that lingered a while after.

Ingredients/Energy

I have a common annoyance with the candy energy market and their listings of caffeine. The common practice is to say “Our product has 1.75 energy drinks per serving!” The only problem with this being that a Spike Shooter has a helluva lot more caffeine than even a Redbull. So which energy drinks are they comparing to? With Buzz Bites, they further complicate the situation by stating 1 chew = 1 cup of coffee or 1.25 energy drinks, an even more unreliable statistic given the variation of caffeine in coffee beans. Just tell us the caffeine content for once! We’ll all be much happier with your newly found transparency in marketing.

Editors Note: If you visit Vroom’s website they clearly state that 1 chew contains 100mg of caffeine.

Verdict

My final verdict on Buzz Bites can be summed up in four simple excerpts;

• “Bad memories of Vitamins”
• “Fans of latex will be more than pleased”
• “Mint-Brownie Mix (uncooked of course)”
• and lastly “Just tell us the caffeine content for once!”

As with every gamble, you win some, you lose more. I didn’t dislike the product enough to start grass root campaigns against it, but I would suggest you be very familiar with similar chocolate chew products and a bring a very open mind.

Reviewed by Josh

You can try Buzz Bites for yourself at ThinkGeek.

Despite the abundance of candy products released last year, this year has had few post-worthy options.

Well, the list of recommendable products has just gotten a little bigger. With the release of Revive Energy Mints which means Stay Alert finally has some competition.

Taste

The mints themselves are soft blue in color and smell of sweet mint plants. Upon popping the nickel sized tablet a cooling effects travels completely through the sinuses. Refreshing, freezing, and delicious, Revive isn’t your normal energy mint. Stay Alert, for example, was all about the caffeine rush. The flavor was unpalatable for many and they had to force themselves to keep chewing. That’s all changed with Revive, which is being touted as “Nature’s Energy Mint”.

Ingredients

The title is mainly due to the ingredients Acai, Mangostreen, and Goji; three well known “Super” antioxidants. Granted each mint contains relatively minor amounts considering caffeine, Guarana, green tea, ginseng, and the three antioxidants come to a total of 101mg, but the emphasis on health is much more important.

Note: The manufacturer stated that there is 85mg of caffeine per mint.

Energy

Will these mints give you a kick-in-the-ass caffeine rush? Its unlikely. Swallowing an entire pack at once might have that effect, but that would be missing the point. Like many “natural” energy products, they’re supposed to give alertness rather than a rush. With this in mind, Revive mints do exactly what they say they do and actually taste good. Now I know what you’re thinking, the concept seems far fetched, but apparently, caffeinated products can be both strong and taste good. Simply amazing.

Verdict

Either way, Revive is an everyday energy mint. It doesn’t take justification to put in your mouth and it certainly won’t leave you feeling guilty for taking so much caffeine in one day. At the same time, they aren’t nearly as strong (caffeine-wise) as Stay Alert so gauge accordingly. In all, a perfect classroom, date, work, or driving companion.

Reviewed by Josh

Flavor

Mini Thin Rush energy gum starts off as hard and chewy, more so than most gum out there. However, once you’re chewing on it, it tastes absolutely great. The spearmint flavor strikes a great balance of sweetness and spearmint zest. With only 40mg caffeine per piece, there was very little noticeable bitterness.

Ingredients

Mini Thin Rush gum contains 40mg caffeine per pieces plus vitamin B6, B12, niacin, riboflavin, and pantothenic acid.

Energy

As for the gum, two pieces containing 40mg caffeine per piece gave me the same effects as a Red Bull – a nice light boost of awareness and concentration.

I wasn’t that impressed with Mini Thin Rush energy shots, but  Mini Thin Rush Gum is another story – without getting you too hyper, a couple pieces of this gum taste fabulous and give a nice moderate boost of energy.

Reviewed by JD

What’s different about Blitz Energy Gum is their claim that they have infused the entire piece of gum with caffeine instead of just putting caffeine in the candy coating.

Each piece of gum contains 55 milligrams of caffeine as well as taurine, and vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, and B12.

Blitz gum now is available in three flavors; original (red bullish), peppermint, and spearmint. It’s not marketed as a breath freshener so don’t be surprised if it tastes differently from other gums.

You should notice the caffeine hitting you in about ten minutes because it’s absorbed through the lining of the mouth instead of the stomach.

Blitz Energy Gum is available at convenience stores like 7 eleven, Fas Gas, Husky, and Macs. You can also order it online from ThinkGeek.com for $3.99 a pack or $9.99 for a three pack.

Good News! Energy drinks are being banned at schools but kids can still get their caffeine fix through Blitz Gum.

Maxxed is a caffeinated lollipop that is packaged inside a can…

It has 40mg of caffeine along with all the other goodies such as Taurine, Glucuronolactone, Guarana, and Panax Ginseng.

Apart from that it’s pretty much just sugar.

What’s bizarre is that you can only buy hats and T-shirts from the Maxxed store (so who knows how you get a hold of the lollipops?

Not sure how long these have been available for – but each little 1 ounce bag of jelly beans packs 50mg of caffeine (according to Jelly Belly).

Jelly Beans have long been used by endurance athletes as a source of sugar – and the “sports” formula has electrolytes in it is well.

Who would have thought that Jelly Beans could be so much fun?

You can buy them in 24-packs from Jelly Belly.

When looking for a daily pick-me-up most people are limited to one of two choices, either drink Coffee or down an Energy Drink. Either choice provides a reasonable boost to a daily routine but what about the times when a beverage isn’t a viable option? What about the times when you want to be able to carry the caffeine on hand, whether you’re out snowboarding, in class, at your desk, driving to work, living life. There are just too many times when mugs and liquids are a hassle.

In the past we’ve done reviews of caffeinated candies and ThinkGums in search of the Holy Grail of hand held caffeine, but for what could be the first time, I think it’s been found. Stay Alert is the new bull on the block, and this bull has some serious bawls.

I don’t know how many times Stay Alert has caught my eye in the past while I scrolled through our Caffeine Food Index. Not only does the gum have 100 mg of caffeine per piece, it was also designed and approved for US Military use. Not knowing what a gum of that strength would be like, I resisted trying it until the day that fate decided to step in.

While browsing through a local mart of mine I came across the famous (or infamous) gum and my inner Energy Fiend took hold. Needless to say, there was no escaping what needed to be done and the gum was bought.

The Rush

Two pieces was more than enough to feel the effects, the biggest difference between the usual energy drink rush and a caffeinated gum rush is that much more caffeine is absorbed through the blood vessels under the tongue than through the stomach. The package states that within 15 minutes of chewing, 99% of the caffeine has been absorbed. Step out of the way Redline Power Rush, if your looking for a speedy caffeine fix there’s no beating this.

200mg absorbed straight to the head in 15 minutes definitely gives a noticeable head change. A constriction can be felt quickly around the eyes and tongue, leaving a numb feeling for the duration of the gum which can be somewhat pleasant, given the taste of the gum. The gum comes only in cinnamon flavor but even that only lasts for the first five minutes. After that you’re left on your own, just you and the bitter, almost sickening flavor of caffeine.

Sick

A word of caution to anyone wanting to try this gum, multiple people I talked to said that in the 10 minutes following the 5 minute cinnamon flavor they felt what they could only describe as “sick”. Not a vomit sort of sick but they said it was similar to feeling the need to gag. I assured them they would be fine and to stick it out and all of them ended up loving it. If the gum is bitter it means there is still caffeine left to absorb, once the caffeine is gone it will be a mild enjoyable taste for as long as you choose to chew.

I really did enjoy the product tremendously, in fact, the gum I’m chewing while writing this is from my second order of Stay Alert. In the span of two weeks I ended up using my entire 30 piece pack, most of the time using one piece at a time instead of two. 100 mg is perfect for exercising, studying, test taking, and doesn’t bring on any jittery feelings. The gum can be bought online from the Amazon: Stay Alert Group in sizes as little as 30 pieces (costing around 10$ including shipping) and as big as 120 pieces (35$ per pack). This is the only caffeinated gum I would recommend and it has been the only gum to energize me like it promised.

Overall Score (5/5)

Review by Josh (blog: Cubicalism and Coffee)

According to CandyBlog:

It smells much like the regular Snickers, has the same texture … same crunchy peanuts, chewy caramel and super-sweet nougat with a hit of salt. And then it comes along, the caffeine kick. And when I say kick, I mean in the mouth. It’s a bitter aftertaste that sits high and in the back of the mouth.