Vibe Energy Gum

Thanks to the King of Caffeine, I am getting to sample this very cool looking gum from the U.K. Why cool? It comes in a tiny dildo or a large cigar wrapper, awesomely covered in a great printing job and to top it off - the product is even named Vibe.

Vibe is a different sort of gum than the dozen or so out there. Whether it is different enough to warrant the price of the kick-ass tube it comes in is another story. Unlike many gums with a caffeinated outer shell, Vibe uses a compressed powder technology gets the caffeine into your blood faster. Besides that - it is nice to see a 40mg gum which finally breaks free of the standard chicklet blister pack.

Buzz: 6 Taste:8
When I unscrewed the cap, I was ready for a serious jolt. Having spent too long last night experimenting with a new beer put out by the folks who make Four Alcoholic Energy Drink (fittingly called Avalanche Malt Liquor), I was in need of some serious caffeine relief to get me to work.

At first, I was disappointed by the knowledge that I needed to chew a whole bunch of these to get the caffeine effects. At only 40 mg of caffeine per piece, I thought this meant a morning of chewing - which I don't do well. I already have enough of a hard time with gum, let alone gum chewing for hours. I tend to do bad things with it, like swallow pieces, chew with my mouth open, or somehow mess up and bite my cheek or tongue. Yeah - I am that lame.

I popped the first one in my mouth and was pleasantly surprised! It tasted good, or at least not bad, it started off as almost a crumbly powder, but then congealed into an Altiod-like gum. IT was fresh and very minty - and after the first minute or so it was actually very good! I continued chewing the one piece for the entire bus ride into work (about 15 minutes) without it losing flavor. After the bus, I popped in the second one and headed to work. Needless to say, by the time I got to my first work meeting about an hour and a half later, I was on my 6th piece and loving it! I spent the entire morning munching away at my desk (probably smacking my lips and pissing off my coworkers, but oh well) and had a very nice sustained buzz from about 20 minutes of chewing until about 5 hours later. I just kept dosing myself every half hour of so to keep my caffeine levels up all day long!

Packaging:10
Kudos to Vibe for coming up with something original to put their gum into. This is an awesomely printed thin metal tube with a rounded tip. Enough with the blister packs with Chiclets - time to get original! Even on such a thin package as this one, they still manage to get in a really good design, info about the gum, a caffeine listing and so on. It does not take a creative genius to come up with what this aluminum rod looks like. A cigar tube! It does not help that this product is named Vibe. It helps even less that if you send a picture of you "re-using the tube", they will send you a new one. I wonder how many people have slid this into places where you would imagine a product named Vibe and sent them pictures. Thank goodness there is no gallery...