Still As Life

As with many other products that Coles do their own brand of, Coles have brought out their own energy drink, “Coles Zu Energy”. It is available in two flavours, today I will be reviewing the Ballistic flavour. If you are interested in the Sublime flavour, have a look at the “Coles Zu Sublime Energy Drink” page.

Coles have really been pushing these drinks, at market day back in week 1 of uni, Coles had a stall setup where they were giving out heaps of cans of both flavours for free. There was no other energy drink company present at market day at all, so Coles pretty much had a free reign.

According to the Coles guys giving out the free drinks at the market day stall, the Ballistic flavour is meant to have a berry taste and be similar to the flavour of Red Bull. While I don’t think it is as good as Red Bull, flavour wise, it is still a very appealling taste. It does leave a funny feeling in your mouth though, like a sugary coating, but that goes away soon enough.

Each can is the average size of 250ml and as you can see from the photo, the colour is much the same as the Sublime flavour, though it is a tad lighter.

They are currently $1.49 a can at Coles and Coles Express (Shell) service stations. As far as I know they are not available anywhere else.

Coles Zu Ballistic Nutritional Information

The label indicates the following per 100ml:

It is recommended on the can not to drink more than 2 per day which is a pretty standard warning.

As with the Sublime flavour, Ballistic has similar levels of caffeine, taurine and other additives as the more expensive energy drinks, but at a much lower price, compared to Red Bull, it is a quarter of the price (Red Bull I have seen go for anywhere between $3.80 and $4.80 for a 250ml can).

As you can see from the above, compared to the Sublime flavour, the nutrition information is much the same, however, Ballistic has 10mg more inositol per 100ml than Sublime. This may be why Ballistic seems to leave more of a sugary residue/coating in your mouth than Sublime.

While it definitely tastes great, it could be called a cheap version of Red Bull, which would be true. However, aside from the sugary coating it seems to leave, it is a great drink, and in my opinion, the price difference between Ballistic and Red Bull makes it very appealling.

Coles Zu Ballistic Ingredients

The ingredients according to the can are as follows:

Carbonated water, sugar, food acids (330, 331), taurine, guarana extract, caffeine, preservative (211), glucuronolactone, inositol, colour (150), maltodextrin, vitamins (niacin (B3), pantothenic acid, B6, B2, B12), flavours.

Coles Zu Ballistic Ratings

Quantity - 250ml
2.5/5

Price - $1.49
4.5/5

Flavour
4/5

Overall
3.5/5

Popularity: 72% [?]

V Berry is in my opinion the nicest variation of the V energy drinks. It does however come at a cost, it has a lower caffeine quantity. It is probably also the healthiest of the V range as it actually has some fruit juice in it (thus the reduced caffeine quantities in order to fit the juice).

Taste wise, it does still have the regular V flavour, it is quite prominent, but the added berry flavouring makes it much nicer in my opinion.

Whether this is true or not, I’m not sure, but I have heard that V Berry was intended to provide a V variation that was closer to the Red Bull flavour, and thus creating some more competition with Red Bull.

Like I said, I don’t know if that’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

V Berry are currently $2.20 a can at Coles and are available individually, in 4 packs, and occasionally you find them in an 8 pack (6x V and 2x V Berry). V Berry is also available in a 35oml bottle. You can also get it at Woolworths, Aldi, Kmart, Big W, Spar, 7-11, most service stations, most other smaller food stores and many vending machines, and no doubt many more places as well.

V Berry Nutritional Information

The label indicates the following per 100ml:

V Berry has the standard warning not to drink more than 2 cans per day.

V Berry Ingredients

The ingredients according to the can are as follows:

Carbonated water, sugar, reconstituted fruit juice (apple (2.9%), blackcurrent (2.6%), raspberry (2.5%), lemon (0.3%)), acidity regulators (citric acid, sodium citrate), taurine, guarana extract (0.12%), flavours, glucuronolactone, caffeine, vitamins (niacin (B3), pantothenic acid, B6, B2, B12), ginkgo biloba extract (0.004%).

V Berry is different to the other V energy drinks in that it has fruit juices, but also with the inclusion of the ginkgo biloba extract. Ginkgo biloba can have any of 3 effects on humans, it can improve blood flow; it can protect against oxidative cell damage from free radicals; and it blocks many of the effects of platelet-activating factor (platelet aggregation, blood clotting) (Wikipedia). As Ginkgo supplements are generally taken in between 40mg and 200mg doses a day, I don’t see that the tiny amount in V Berry or any other energy drink is enough to really have any effect at all, except to say that it is there.

Drugs.com lists a multitude of adverse side effects that ginkgo biloba extract can have, including:

• headache
• dizziness
• heart palpitations
• GI and dermatologic reactions
• Ginkgo pollen can be strongly allergenic
• The fleshy fruit pulp may cause allergic dermatitis similar to poison ivy.

Again, I don’t think that the quantities in an energy drink would be enough to cause these side effects, but it doesn’t hurt to be aware of them

V Berry Ratings

Quantity - 250ml
2.5/5

Price - $2.20
3/5

Flavour
3/5

Overall
3/5

Popularity: 50% [?]

So you’ve got your normal V, then theres your sugar free variety, aptly called “V Sugar Free”.

This variety of V actually tastes very much like the regular stuff. Like any sugar free variant, it does taste somewhat worse than the original, but it’s not much worse.

They are currently $2.20 a can at Coles and are available individually or in 4 packs. V Sugar Free is also available in a 35oml bottle.

Theres not much more I can say about it really. It’s not a bad drink, it’s not a good drink. Is it healthier? Good question. I say no, it is worse for you than the regular stuff. I will explain why after the ingredients list below.

V Sugar Free Nutritional Information

The label indicates the following per 100ml:

This is identical to that of the regular V, and also very similar to Coles Zu Sublime Energy Drink.

V Sugar Free has the standard warning not to drink more than 2 cans per day.

V Sugar Free Ingredients

The ingredients according to the can are as follows:

Carbonated water, sugar, acidity regulators (citric acid, sodium citrate), taurine, guarana extract (0.12%), sweeteners (acesulfame potassium, aspartame), colour (caramel (derived from wheat)), glucuronolactone, caffeine, inositol, thickener (xanthan gum) vitamins (niacin (B3), pantothenic acid, B6, B2, B12), flavours. Contains phenylalanine.

So why do I believe that the sugar free variant of V is worse for you than regular V?

You may have noticed the little warning at the end of the ingredients, contains phenylalanine. This is because one of the artificial sweeteners used in place of the sugar, aspartame, is a source of phenylalanine. Now, is phenylalanine bad? No, it’s a naturally occurring amino acid. It’s in proteins and meats and so on. However, according to 3DChem, aspartame has roughly the same amount of calories as regular table sugar. So, you are getting the same amount of calories, it’s just not sugar. In addition to that, there are health problems linked to aspartame, particularly related to people with PKU (phenylketonurics) and diabetics. It seems that there are also a lot of diseases that are related to aspartame, there is a fair amount of information about this on sweetpoison.com, it’s definitely worth a read if you are interested in finding out more about aspartame.

The Aspartame Information Center is adamant that the synthetic chemical is safe. While that may be so, I personally think that the amount of it that can be found in diet drinks would be cause to make it unsafe if continually ingested in those sorts of quantities on a regular basis and is thus why I generally avoid drinking diet drinks, as I said, earlier, it’s around the same amount of calories, so there is no benefit to it in my opinion (plus diet drinks generally taste worse). It’s up to you to decide what you think about it though and do more of your own research into it.

Further reading on aspartame and phenylalanine:

• Sweet Poison
• Wikipedia - Phenylalanine
• What is PKU?
• 3DChem
• Aspartame Information Center

V Sugar Free Ratings

Quantity - 250ml
2.5/5

Price - $2.20
3/5

Flavour
1/5

Overall
2/5

Popularity: 59% [?]

V is manufactured by Frucor Beverages in New Zealand and is one of the first energy drinks in a can to appear on the market in Australia (on their website, V acknowledge Red Bull as being the first) and it seems to have remained one of the most popular.

I refer to V a lot in other energy drink reviews, so I thought it’s about time I wrote about it.

V has a unique taste that I can’t really compare to anything. I have heard it is meant to be a lime flavour, but aside from the green theme on the cans and their website, there is nothing that I can find from V as to what flavour it is actually meant to be.

I regularly refer to V as one of the worst tasting energy drinks, but I will admit, that there is a time when I liked it, and before I did this review, it has probably been 3 months since the last time I had V. I find that the taste of V is very easy to get sick of reasonably quickly. I didn’t mind it when I had it today, but I would definitely be over it if I had much more.

They are currently $2.20 a can at Coles and are available individually, in 4 packs, 6 packs, and occasionally you find them in an 8 pack (6x V and 2x V Berry). V is also available in a 35oml bottle.

V Nutritional Information

The label indicates the following per 100ml:

If you read my earlier review on the Coles Zu Sublime Energy Drink, you may have noticed that the Zu additives are near identical to the additives in V, the only real difference being that V has 10mg extra of Inositol.

V has the standard warning not to drink more than 2 cans per day.

V Ingredients

The ingredients according to the can are as follows:

Carbonated water, sugar, acidity regulators (citric acid, sodium citrate), taurine, guarana extract (0.12%), colour (caramel (derived from wheat)), glucuronolactone, caffeine, inositol, vitamins (niacin (B3), pantothenic acid, B6, B2, B12), flavours.

V Ratings

Quantity - 250ml
2.5/5

Price - $2.20
3/5

Flavour
1.5/5

Overall
2.5/5

Popularity: 85% [?]

Can anyone else say awesome?

I’m a fan of good ice coffee, and I really like the normal Ice Break Iced Coffee, so I figured hey, why not try this new one, Ice Break Loaded which is basically the normal ice coffee but with added guarana.

It tastes slightly different to the regular Ice Break, but it’s definitely not a bad difference, it just tastes like stronger coffee.

It doesn’t have all the extra additives of other energy drinks, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on your point of view.

Ice Break Loaded are currently $2.89 for a 500ml bottle at Coles. This makes it roughly the same price as the cheaper energy drinks like Coles Zu Sublime and Ballistic.

Ice Break Loaded Ingredients

The ingredients are simple:

1. Reduced fat milk (95% where 1.6% is milk fat)
2. Sugar
3. Coffee (0.5%)
4. Guarana extract (0.5%)

According to the nutritional information label, there is 32mg of caffeine per 100g. This is on par with the average amount in energy drinks in my experience thus far. It doesn’t list a quantity for guarana, but given that the ingredients indicate that it is the same percentage as coffee, I would assume that there would be around the same amount of guarana per 100g as there is caffeine, 32mg. This is higher than the average energy drink which seems to be around 10mg per 100g.

It is probably worth noting that the standard Ice Break has 23mg of caffeine per 100g, so there is added caffeine as well.

My assumptions are, that this is probably a healthier alternative to the regular energy drinks as this is milk based and doesn’t have a huge amount of anything unhealthy. There is 9.3g of sugar per 100ml and thats about it. By comparison, there is 10.6g of sugar per 100ml in a can of V.

Ice Break Loaded Ratings

Quantity - 500ml
4.5/5

Price - $2.89
4/5

Flavour
4.5/5

Overall
4.5/5

For anyone that’s interested, the photo in this article was taken on my new Sony Ericsson K850i.

Popularity: 100% [?]