XS Cherry Cola Blast

I love cherry coke. Cherry coke is, in fact, one of my favorite flavors of any soda ever. More than Diet Mountain Dew or Fresca, the tastiest invention was the addition of cherry to coke. That was one of the reasons I was SO looking forward to trying out this flavor by XS energy.
XS does almost perfect with all their flavors - from the Tea to the Mango, even if it is not the most perfect of energy drinks, it is usually pretty damn close. I saved this up for a hot day when I could crack open the ice cold Cherry Cola and refresh myself. I just could not wait for XS to give me their best, picking the first day of the spring season.
I could have waited longer. For XS, this was a big disappointment.

Taste:4
Now, don't get me wrong - it is not disgusting or anything, but for XS this was a big letdown. The taste has always been the big selling point for these Quixtar energy drinks, and I have loved the flavor of almost all of them. This scored 4 because I have tasted what they are able to do -and failed. This is a sour artificial mess, tasting nothing like cola or cherries. The one thing this did taste of is artificial sweetener and flavor.
I have to stress that this stuff is not that bad, it's really not. I would still drink this if it were around. But all their other drinks have raised the bar for them now.

Nutrition:8
The good news is there is more boost than you would expect out of this little drink. There are only 80mg of caffeine in this 8oz can, but there are enough adaptogenics in here to really give me a 2 hour lift.
I also appreciated all the other good - for-you ingredients in here, namely the adaptogenic herbal mix, containing, shizandra, ginseng, astragalus and reishi. While there is a tremendous amount of vitamin B, this does not contain all the other usual energy ingredients like taurine, inositol and Glucorolactone. It does , however contain lots of preservatives to remind you this is not supposed to be healthy for you.

Packaging:8
Like all the XS line, this comes in slim 8 ounce cans. Overall the fonts and the layout are top notch - with everything turning out nicely. The slogan and tag lines are good, but there is no caffeine listing - so the drinker just has to guess at the amounts. The second problem is the lid,which is haphazardly put on. Overall, this is just like all the other XS line - pretty but not a whole lot of substance.