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 decided to put Huxley to the test. 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. listed in the order in which I tested them. At the end of the article, I've listed them in order of taste preference.

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: This one's a solid winner.

Huxley Tangerine is a delicious and refreshing blend of tangerine and orange. It perfectly captures the tang of fresh citrus. It tastes nothing like orange Fanta, and more like carbonated orange juice. It's reminiscent of the equally refreshing Bing Citrus, but with notes of orange instead of lime or grapefruit.

I would enjoy drinking one of these after a hot day in the workshop or the garden. In fact, I went back to the store to buy more, and it's all sold out. So I waited two days, then went back and bought all of the Tangerine they had in stock -- so they're sold out again.

You know, Italy has a delicious orange soda called aranciata. By law, it must contain at least 12% orange juice, or it cannot be sold as aranciata. Huxley chose to include only 11% juice, one percentage point off the Italian standard, but Huxley Tangerine can hold its own against most brands of aranciata, 

Oh, and this one rings all the other bells, too.

This is my favorite flavor of Huxley, and a worthwhile addition to the energy-drink shelf in my refrigerator.

Strawberry: Long ago, the Pop Shoppe had a strawberry soda. More recently, Canada Dry has released a Strawberry Fruit Splash ginger ale. Those are the only carbonated strawberry drinks I can use as reference points. Other references are strawberry Starburst fruit chews, my wife's strawberry freezer jam, and fresh strawberry pie.

I'm only kidding about the Starbursts. They are delicious, it's true, but they're candy. I don't expect a strawberry drink to taste like candy. (Unless it's Alani Nu.)

Against that background, however, the Huxley Strawberry drink is rather disappointing. It's not the same strawberry flavor as that of fresh strawberry pie, for example. It doesn't make my mouth say, "Mmmm! Strawberry!"

Please note that this is a purely subjective evaluation. You may absolutely love the Strawberry. At least try it once.

Mango: I think that mangoes taste like tropical peaches, if that makes any sense. Huxley Mango tastes like dried mango -- like the best dried mango I've ever eaten. It's more intense than a fresh mango. I enjoyed sipping it for an hour, and when the can was empty, I was sad.

 I like it better than the Peach flavor. The energy boost was similar to a Bing, of course. And there was no chemical-formula undertone.

Bottom line: Huxley is good stuff, and a nice complement to Bing. I wish the company success. Here are my rankings, in order of taste preference.

1. Tangerine
2. Mango
3. Peach
4. Strawberry