The whole energy food and drink phenomenon is a total anomaly to me. On the one hand we’ve got jillions of kids out there being diagnosed with ADHD, and we do everything we can to calm them down. Then once all these hyperactive kids grow up, we dose them up with No-Doze, cans of Red Bull, and candy like the Maxxed Energy Pop. Is it only me who sees the problem with this? I seem to recall getting high enough on the amount of sugar in candy like Blow Pops, without the lovely people from Charms feeling like they needed to add more stuff.

These enormous lollipops are packed with loads of somewhat questionable stuff - taurine, ginseng, guarana, b-vitamins, caffeine. Sadly, they forgot one essential thing on that list - flavor! These lollipops taste hideous! I actually kept it in my mouth for quite a while, hoping that somehow the taste would improve. It didn’t, and I have no problem with saying that this lollipop is so nasty, it verges on the inedible. The texture is incredibly like sandpaper and the size is so huge as to appear almost obscene.

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I am not going to lie to you: I am not a big gummi person. Unless gummi bears or their squirmy gummi worm cousins are coated in a thick layer of sour sugar, I’m usually not interested. So when I heard about Loud Truck Energy Gummies at the All Candy Expo, I was hesitant to try one, until someone on the floor said the magic words: “It’s like eating a bag of Red Bull.”

To some people, that statement would be terrifying. To me, it was a starter pistol that sent me racing over to the Loud Truck Energy booth to sample these mystical bears of energy and goodness. I love Red Bull, and most energy-fueled treats, so I was hoping that Loud Truck gummies would provide a new (and possibly cheaper) alternative to my beloved Red Bull fix. I instantly fell in love with them at the All Candy Expo, and couldn’t wait to review them once I returned home.

This morning at 8:00 am, I ripped open a new pack of Loud Truck Energy Gummies to start the day. Taste-wise, the gummies are quite good. The bears are firm but soft, with a nice chewy texture that doesn’t stick to the teeth. They have a subtle citrus flavor that gets stronger as the bear is chewed - a nice bite toward the end of the chewing process brings to mind a sip of Red Bull - a fizzy citrus taste that lingers after the bear is gone.

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If I’ve learned anything about gum recently it’s this: gum isn’t just for chewing anymore. No, nowadays it freshens your breath, entertains your taste buds, even sends caffeine coursing through your system. X-it Sugarfree is no exception. In addition to X-it Sugarfree Gum, I also received several different types of mints and bonbons. I have enough gum and mints to keep my breath fresh for a decade.

What’s my favorite thing about these X-it products? Honestly, its the packaging. Each product comes in an attractive tin that tucks easily into your purse or pocket, guarding the lining against spillage. Even better, the tiny mints come in tins with black plastic lining that dispenses a couple at a time - even more protection against spillage!

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Want some sustenance for an all-night gaming session, something that’ll deliver a kick of caffeine just as well as your Mountain Dew and Bawls? Uncommon Loot thought so. They recently sent over a few Headshot bars, whose packages boast, “Headshot is a candy made for gamers by gamers. Feeling tired owning all those newbs? There is enough energy packed into this bar to improve your game so much, that people will be complaining you have an Aimbot!” Made with guarana, a highly caffeinated berry, the bar promises to pack quite a punch.

The first flavor Uncommon Loot released is Chewy Chocolate Toffee, though they plan to follow up and release new flavors such as Chewy Peanut Butter, Fudge Graham and Mocha Cappuccino every three months. The packaging looks like something a gamer would pick up - it’s silver and adorned with a cross hair and bullet holes.

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Everyone remembers Jolt Cola, they hyper-caffeinated cola, right? Besides making Jolt Cola and Jolt Gum, now you can get Jolt Caffeine Energy Mints. The Mint Flurry flavored mints contain caffeine, guarana, and ginseng to give you a quick energy pick-me-up whenever you need it. Five mints equal the caffeine content of one cup of coffee and each tin contains 45 mints so a tin is 9 cups of coffee worth of caffeine.

The mints themselves are roughly the size and shape of an M&M and are off-white with a Jolt lightning bolt embedded in each one. They are very tasty too - probably the best tasting caffeine/energy mint I have had yet. The mint flavor is very nice - it reminds me of many of the “cool”/”icy” gum flavors that are out right now. The minty flavor doesn’t last long after the mint is gone, and because they’re tasty, it’s easy to eat five in a row to get the coffee cup’s worth of caffeine.

The mint’s texture is not quite as gritty as an Altoid, but not as smooth as an Ice Breaker. It lands somewhere in between and is just a little bit chalky like a Tums, but not overly so. Overall Jolt Mints are surprisingly good and since they are so tasty, I have no problem recommending Jolt Mints to anyone.

• Jolt Mints website

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, jolt, mint, mints, caffeine, ginseng, guarana, energy

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Admittedly, these aren’t actually candy, so I may not be the best judge of these. I’m just not an energy drink kind of guy. In fact, I don’t think I have ever bought an energy drink (wait, I might have had a Red Bull cocktail once - maybe). Diablo Ice Energy Strips are made by the same company that makes Diablo Energy Drinks (they sent me one of those too and I tried it - yuck - I guess you don’t drink energy drinks for the taste). The strips are said to have:

• All Natural Flavour
• Guarana (a natural source of caffeine)
• Ginseng (sustains and promotes energy)
• Cranberry Extract (antioxidant)
• Vitamin C

They are also sugar free, fat free, calorie free and ephedrine free. They are supposed to provide a quick pick-me-up when needed. They suggest taking 1 or 2 (up to 18 in a day) so you can be “instantly energized” and they come in a small pack of 18 of the now-familiar strips that everyone is making nowadays.

They taste like medicine, or mouthwash. They are tingly and minty and make my mouth feel like it does after rinsing with mouthwash only not as extreme. They are red and since they say they have cranberry extract I expected them to taste like cranberry, but they don’t. So, did they “instantly energize” me? I’m not sure. They did make me slightly light-headed for about 15 minutes when I took two, one after another. Does light-headed = energized?

So, do these actually give you instant energy? I’m not sure. They definitely affected me, I’m just not sure if it was energy that it gave me. If I really needed a pick-me-up, I would probably just hit the Shock-a-lots (taste great) or Foosh Mints (lots of caffeine). The Diablo Ice Energy Strips do freshen your breath (as a side-effect), but the freshening only lasts a short time - they might be good for a quick breath freshening when needed in a pinch, but I would think (though I don’t know), that something Listerine PocketPaks Breath Strips or a mint might work better for your breath.

• Diablo Ice Energy Strips website

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, energy, energy drink, energy drinks, guarana, ginseng, cranberry, cranberries, vitamin C, caffeine

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Does everyone remember Jolt Cola - the cola with all the sugar and twice the caffeine? I remember people in college pulling all-nighters to study for exams and they used Jolt and NoDoz to stay awake (NOT recommended). I tried NoDoz once and I truly felt like I was addicted to drugs. Never again.

Anyway, back to Jolt….the makers of Jolt thought they would spread their love of caffeine into the realm of gum and have created Jolt Gum, so just for kicks I thought I’d try it out. The package says “2 pieces of Jolt Gum = 1 cup of coffee”. Now I’m not a coffee drinker - I’ve always been afraid I would get addicted to it like my wife and mother are. I do drink Mountain Dew though, so I am no stranger to caffeine. I wanted to wait to try Jolt Gum ’til I was sleepy one morning but the morning I decided to try it I wasn’t any sleepier than usual.

I popped 2 pieces of Jolt Gum around 10:30AM on essentially an empty stomach. The gum is of the “chiclet” variety - the rounded rectangle shape as opposed to sticks of gum. The gum comes in both Spearmint and Icy Mint flavors and I tried one of each (separately). They both had good, strong minty flavors and the flavor lasted a long time - much longer than most gums last, though I didn’t actually time it.

About 15-20 minutes after putting the initial piece in my mouth I got a serious buzz - I felt a little light-headed and just slightly nauseous - I am attributing that to the caffeine kick the gum gave me (and it could have been the Ginseng and/or Guarana it also contains). To someone who drinks coffee frequently, the caffeine from a single cup of coffee could have little or no effect, but I definitely felt it.

So overall, the gum tastes good, the flavor lasts a long time, and I believe it truly does have the caffeine kick that it says it does. Drop by the Jolt Gum website to learn more or even to order some Jolt goodies - gum, cola, T-shirts, hats, etc. Be sure and check out the Jolt Gum FAQ - it has some really funny stuff in it like this:

Do you guys hang out with the 5th Trident dentist who wouldn�t recommend sugarless gum for his patients who chew gum? And shouldn�t they survey more than 5 dentists?
- Jeamie C., NY
A little known fact is that the 5th dentist is either a really really bright dentist or a hypochondriac…
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Jolt Gum website

candy gum mint mountaindew jolt joltgum jolt+gum

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