More About Energy Drinks

I have previously posted about Bing energy drink, a made-in-Colorado product made from real fruit juices and real sugar. It's still my favorite energy drink, for all the reasons I gave back then.

Now there's an alternative to Bing -- not a competitor, just an alternative. It's called Huxley. It's relatively new, having started in Minnesota in 2023 and just now reaching Colorado. It's a regional energy drink, like Bing in Colorado and Guru in Canada.

Like Bing, Huxley is made with real fruit juice, 11 percent versus Bing's 5 percent. Like Bing, Huxley is sweetened with only 5 grams of cane sugar and has only 40 calories. Like Bing, Huxley has a modest amount of caffeine, 90 mg versus Bing's 120 mg. (Remember, an 8-ounce cup of coffee has 96-195 mg).

Huxley has a few other selling points: its caffeine is derived from the cascara coffee bean, making it supposedly better than regular caffeine. Eh. I'm a chemical engineer; to me, caffeine is caffeine. It also contains l-theanine, which is supposed to moderate the buzz from that initial caffeine hit, and electrolytes to counteract the dehydrating effect of caffeine. I'm skeptical about those last two claims, but we'll see.

Bing also contains electrolytes, plus a full suite of B vitamins. As I've said before, we buy energy drinks for the caffeine and the sugar.

As far as price is concerned, the regular prices of Huxley and Bing are more or less equal.

Variety pack shown, does not include Peach

Huxley's primary claim is that it tastes good. As I wrote previously, one of the things I like best about Bing is the way it tastes. Like Bing, Huxley has a small product line, featuring only four flavors (so far): Peach, Mango, Strawberry, and Tangerine. I will be doing some, ahem, empirical research in the next few weeks to see if Huxley's claim is valid. I will update this entry with the results of my research.

I evaluated Huxley against the following criteria:

• Does it taste right? That is, does the peach taste like peaches, and so on?
• Does it taste good?
• Does it  not taste like a chemical formula?
• How's the energy boost?

Here are my first impressions:

Peach: It tastes like fresh peaches. It even has the faintly bitter edge that fresh peaches have. It's an enjoyable flavor; I could drink it all day. It doesn't taste like a chemical formula. And it has an energy boost similar to Bing.

Tangerine: It's up next.

Strawberry: mm-hmm.

Mango: mm-hmm.

Today's Useless Science: The Can-Balancing Trick

Have you ever noticed that a half-full can of soda is less prone to tipping over and spilling than a full one?

Have you ever noticed that a nearly-empty can of soda is MORE prone to tipping than a half-full one? 

Have you ever taught your grandchildren that trick of balancing a can of soda at a 45 degree angle, on the grooves on the bottom of the can?

Try balancing it like this.

 Here's the science behind it.

The good folks at the Department of Useless Science have taken the specs on the aluminum used in a can of soda, and the density of a typical carbonated drink, and calculated the center of gravity for that can of soda - from the moment before it is opened, to the moment the last drop is drained. Here's what they found.

The center of gravity is lowest when the can is a bit less than one quarter full. Knowing that, you can do that cool balancing trick to impress your grandkids.

You can also predict the most likely moment that the youngest grandchild will knock over any random open can of soda.