Guarana is busting out all over in the States, but before it became par for the course for energy drinks to have it in their ingredients list, guarana was in drinks coming out of Brazil. It was at a Brazilian grocery store (as in one that sells Brazilian stuff–I have sadly not snuck away to Brazil recently) that I came across these two by Matte Leão. I don’t speak Portuguese and these bottles came with very little English on them, so if I make assumptions and get it wrong, don’t mock me too viciously.
First up, I tried the Matte Leão + Guarana. From what I could taste, we’re talking mate tea plus guarana. And my reading of the ingredients list seems to support that. And real sugar, so that’s good. I don’t believe there’s fake sugar in here, although it could be on the ingredients list and how would I know? The guarana-laced tea taste was very interesting, especially since it seemed to have a bit of caramel in there as well, and it had a bit of a kick to it. The yerba mate plus guarana combo was a nice one.
[ad#longpost]I saved the “Power” variation for last, because I thought: hey, not just guarana–but GUARANA POWER. Sort of an irresistible name, right? Well, this is just a flat out guarana drink, much like the classic Brazilian guarana beverage, Guaraná Antarctica. It’s like the previous drink but without the yerba mate tea to help it out. And honestly, I preferred the tea variation just because of its different taste. Whereas guarana drinks all by themselves can be exceptionally sweet and thus a bit hard to finish. And of course, the kick wasn’t as pronounced with this one.
If you want a standard guarana drink, then the Power isn’t a bad pick. But if you want something a little different and, surprisingly, with more power than the Power, the standard +Guarana variation is the way to go.
