I must say that even though we reported this was coming out two and a half years ago…I had forgotten about it completely. Mostly because I never saw it in stores. I assumed it was the energy drink equivalent of vaporware. And hell, there’s such a glut of energy drink brands coming and going, I figured maybe it had gotten a limited release and then dropped out of sight.
But I actually found it in one convenience store…and then haven’t seen it since. The can, if you drink the whole thing (and honestly, who actually uses one of these 16oz. cans as two servings) gives you 200% RDA of your niacin, 500% of B6, 400% of B12. For sugars, it relies on glucose, sucrose and sucralose (my favorite!). Its proprietary blend of stuff contains caffeine, taurine, horny goat weed extract, panax ginseng extract, guarana extract, damiana leaf extract, inositol (more sugary stuff), and schisandra extract. The new one on me is damiana leaf (apparently an aphrodisiac–well, of course). And no idea how much caffeine is actually in this–looking around didn’t give me any info, either.
After finally cracking it open, I must say that my favorite part of Playboy is still the articles. I got the regular version, not diet of course, and it’s got an orange…ish taste to it. In fact, it’s the first energy drink I’ve noticed needs to “breathe.” Upon first opening it, it had a taste not unlike…well, you know if you’ve ever imbibed just the fizziest part of an orange fizzy drink? It was like that. Then it mellows out and eventually tastes like…an orange version of every other energy drink. I must say that the arrangement of sugars has kept me from tasting the sucralose to excess, so I might actually be able to finish this.
I have to say, though, it’s just not terribly impressive. While I imagine I’ll get some kind of a boost out of this just due to the ingredients list, it hasn’t happened yet. While it’s not offensive, it just doesn’t do anything for me taste-wise. And unless it’s a drink with Wired-level buzz, then taste remains an issue. While I wouldn’t turn one down if I was desperate to stay awake, I wouldn’t bother seeking out that odd convenience store to buy another.
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