Arizona A.M.Awake energy shots

In collaboration with Celebrity Nutritionist, Oz Garcia Ph.D. Oz Garcia is a nutritionist and life extension specialist. He has a Longevity Lounge on Central Park West. Don't confuse him with a Dietitian or someone with medical backgrounds. Nutritionists are to dietitians what Psychotherapists are to psychologists. All you need to be a licensed nutritionist is 60 bucks and filling out a form online. Even One Guy's dog is a licensed Nutritionist.

Not that this has any bearing on the shot. So many shots out there are made by doctors, dentists, and Professional wrestlers, it is all about the ingredients. And this shot has a whole lot of them.

Taste:6
This shot is supposedly citrus flavored. I did not taste a whole lot of citrus, instead tasting the strong tea and juice blend. Not that this is a bad thing, in fact it is OK- but it is not citrus.It starts off well in the mouth, with a strong fruit harshness that mellows into juice. However, once you swallow there is a very uncomfortable medicinal harshness that coats your tongue and stays there for quite a while.
While there have been a whole lot of shots in the market that taste worse than this, it does not fall in my top 5 for flavor.

Buzz/Nutrition:8
It takes a while for A.M. Awake to kick in. Actually, it takes a whole lot longer than expected for a little 2 ounce shot on no food.A.M. There is no mention of the caffeine, except the "2 cups of coffee" bs on the side. Their website has a typo (I hope) listing this as containing 9mg of Caffeine. My guess is they meant to print 90. Either way, expect about a two hour jolt from this - nothing really insane. The mental sharpness and acuity is longer, but the actual caffeine jolt wears off pretty quickly.

Oz did do a nice job jamming in lots and lots of ingredients in here. There is a plethora of of Juices, 13% to be precise: pear, apple, peach and mango juice. It is sweetened with sugar ,sucralose, ace-k and honey, which is nice too. As for the "performance blend", it is packed full of crazy stuff. While I have heard of Glutamine, Carnitine, Taurine and Ginko Biloba, I am new to the effects of Green Oat Extract (enhances stress coping abilities in rats). It not only has the amino acid Leucine, but also listed is l-lso laucine, something even Google has never heard about. There is the anti-aging herb Rhodiola rosea, kola nut extract, and if you believe in such stuff, there are ingredients that promote healthy immune system function through lots of antioxidants, like monniera and pomegranate extract too. There are even more host of little healthy "nutrients" packed into 2 little ounces.
No wonder is tastes so strong!

Packaging:8
Like most Arizona's this bottle is designed to perfection, with the slogans and logos and colors all working together to blend the Asian (Kanjii that probably says something offensive) and lotus flowers with the Arizona desert skyline at dusk. OR sunrise. Either way, it works very well.
One thing they got wrong though, it that the did not list the caffeine amount, or even list any added caffeine. Yes, I get it - they get their caffeine through listing Guarana and Green Tea. For a drink that is supposed to be heralded in by someone who is there to help your nutrition, this is a big fail. They do list that this has as much caffeine as 2 cups of coffee, which means it has somewhere between80 -250mg of caffeine, which is a huge range.