Liquid Lightning Sugar Free

The one thing hat could have made the original Liquid Lightning better is the removal of their empty calories. Well, that, and something to help that bitter berry flavor. If you loved the taste of sour berries, nothing has changed with the sugar-free version, and in fact has gotten a little bit more sour.

Buzz/Nurition:9
I gave the regular an 8, and this is much better without the HFCS. The corn syrup is gone, which definitely adds to the health, but all the preservatives and yellow #5 and 6, it could be a bit better. Mind you, all the nutrients with a low calorie count are very nice. This has lots of vitamin B, but also lots of vitamin C. The nice surprise I found in here was how well it hydrated me after a good workout. Turns out there is potassium citrate in here, which was very cool.

Energywise, this has a lovely formula, with 208 milligrams of caffeine, and a proprietary blend consisting of taurine, glucuronolactone, ribose, inositol and panax ginseng extract. While the little eight ounce can got me about as alert as a cup of coffee, the sixteen ounce can really does the job. After this powerhorse, you can expect major alertness and a good three to four hours of hopping energy.

Taste:6
Still tastes the same as regular Liquid Lightning, only lighter and maybe a little sweeter. Overall, it still is not so great. Not that i is gross or nasty - because it is far from that, but i is not really delicious either. I can taste the artificality in here, and it does not really have a strong natural flavor of anything. The flavor would not keep me from drinking it again, but I would not pick it up because of it either.

Packaging:5
I feel exactly the same way about this can as I did with the regular version. Like the original, I was surprised that this was the best design they could come up with after a redesign. I had two real problems with the design of the can. Firstly, there are unnecessary elements on the can, cluttering up the design, like a big O on top of their Liquid Lightning logo, making it look like there is an upside down exclamation point on the can. Unless the O is part of the logo, moving it away so it is not in competition with your logo is a good idea. Plus, get rid of the unnecessary "FRB" badge, which stands for First Real Beverage. (although it might be a code word for "Fu*k Red Bull") but what it stands for does not matter. Without context, it is just more useless crap cluttering up your design.

My second issue is the printing job. I have had a couple cans sent to me, and both were printed lower quality than anything but a "value" beverage should. I thought the cans got scratched up in the mail, but it turns out it was the lightning printed poorly against the black can. Parts of the can have unreadable writing (what is with that Made in the USA logo - was it taken off a website?) and it makes it hard to take it seriously when compared to the top drinks and their clear glossy black prints. And the blue on black color scheme is not even close to readable, opposed o the yellow of the original.

I like that they printed their caffeine content, but there is no double facing design, so it is harder for workers to face on shelves, and the lid is haphazardly placed, so you end up showing the nutritional contents to everyone as you drink, opposed to their logo.