I bought a bottle of yet another energy drink today, this time a bottle of Mars Refuel, I had intended to drink this during the afternoon yesterday but felt a bit of heart burn and an icky stomach for the vast part of the afternoon-cum-evening, when it comes to a bad stomach something I stay ... Read review
Advantages: Energy, Easy to drink, Smooth Disadvantages: Weak Taste, high price
...this time a bottle of Mars Refuel, I had intended to drink this during the afternoon yesterday but felt a bit of heart burn and an icky stomach for the vast part of the afternoon-cum-evening, when it comes to a bad stomach something I stay away from is a milky drink such as this so I've kept it. Now with Murray playing Gulbis in the US Open and unable to sleep anyway it seems the perfect chance to review this and cheer on the world number 2 and probably ... ...this final type that this Mars drink is most similar to with glucose, sugar and lots of milk.
Coming in a bottle that looks familiar as it's in the iconic style of the Mars Bar that we all know and many love, the gold, red and black colourings topped off with a red lid. This is what the Mars bars wrapper would be if Mars bars came in bottles instead of thin plastic wrappers. On the back of the bottle it gives us the usual “we are the ... more
I bought a bottle of yet another energy drink today, this time a bottle of Mars Refuel, I had intended to drink this during the afternoon yesterday but felt a bit of heart burn and an icky stomach for the vast part of the afternoon-cum-evening, when it comes to a bad stomach something I stay away from is a milky drink such as this so I've kept it. Now with Murray playing Gulbis in the US Open and unable to sleep anyway it seems the perfect chance to review this and cheer on the world number 2 and probably the greatest Scottish tennis player of all time.
The huge confectionery company Mars, arguably the chocolate version of Coca-Cola, have gone into the drinks industry with this energy drink. Now when talking about energy drinks we usually refer to Isotonic drinks (Powerade, Gatorade and Lucuzade Sport) which replenish the body via the usage of electrolytes and carbohydrates or Caffeine drinks, which of course rely on the energy in caffeine as seen in drinks like Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster, Relentless and Lucozade alert. Though there is also the heavy sugar energy drink, such as Lucozade Energy which rely on masses of Glucose syrup. It's this final type that this Mars drink is most similar to with glucose, sugar and lots of milk.
Coming in a bottle that looks familiar as it's in the iconic style of the Mars Bar that we all know and many love, the gold, red and black colourings topped off with a red lid. This is what the Mars bars wrapper would be if Mars bars came in bottles instead of thin plastic wrappers. On the back of the bottle it gives us the usual “we are the best option because...” spiel we are used to seeing on packaging, in this case claiming to be 50% better than specialised sports drinks and 40% better than isotonic drinks at allowing cyclists to go further. Whether or not these are fair figures or just typical wild claims made by a company trying to sell their product is debatable, but they argue it's the carbohydrate to protein ratio (4:1) that is the optimum for revitalising the human body.
So lets start on the drink before Murray actually wins under the plastic red top is a foil inner top that is easy enough to remove to reveal a brown light chocolatey liquid inside a white plastic bottle. The chocolate has an obvious taste (yes chocolate) with a really light and thin texture, very milky (of course with over 70% milk contents it will have a milk shake feel to it) but yet the chocolate taste is slightly underwhelming taste more like cheap chocolate milk than a premium priced drink. As I'd paid well over the odds for a drink, merely as I hadn't tried it and it was claiming to be an energy drink I was expecting a drink that would match the £1.40 price tag in taste.
With the possibility of the drink needing a shake to really get the flavour going properly I gave it a good hard shake, all this seemed to do was to cause bubbles to form on the top of the milk and make it taste thicker in the mouth. Sadly the taste still seemed rather poor, though it is really easy to drink it's just the fact the flavour seems a little light weight that's putting me off it. The bottles 388ml did go down swiftly and has left my tummy feeling a bit sickly again, so maybe it wasn't a good idea drinking this at 3:40 AM but oh well. I think I may be up for a while as I genuinely do feel wide awake now rather than just unable to sleep, maybe drinking this really was quite stupid as I feel re-energised and alive even with a heavy tummy.
Nutritional Information (per 200ml) 154 Calories (8%) 27g Sugar (30%) 4g Fat (4%) 2g Saturates (10%) 0.34g Salt (6%)
The drink contains no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or sweeteners which is always an added bonus in the eyes of many, though personally it's of no concern to myself. However it DOES feature E471 which is an emulsifier from fatty acids for those who try and avoid E's as far as possible.
Overall a drink that will give you the energy boost you may desire though be warned drinking it at in the early morning may be rather idiotic. Though the taste is a lot poorer than I'd expected and hoped it would be when it comes to energy drinks it's the energy that matters not the taste so it can be forgiven for being weak in taste IF the price is right. At £1.40 or so it's not worth buying again so I'll have to see if I can get it at £1.10 or so (a similar price to cans of Monster and bottles of Powerade) before I buy it again. The recommendation is that if you can find the product at a reasonable price it's a great energy drink, it is not however a great milk shake, or a great drink in regards to taste.
