High Roller Energy

High Roller energy drink, an import from Australia, is a great example of what is possible when you create an energy drink clone correctly. High Roller isn't anything new, but improves on what people don't like about Red Bull without taking many chances. This one is Gambling themed, emblazoned with dice both in logo and filling the background. If James bond were Australian, did parkour and chased people in a BMX before winning the house at Monaco, this would be his drink of choice.

Packaging:8
The one difference between this and Red Bull is the packaging, a lovely job of mixing together Xtreme fonts with Gambling attitude. For being a small 8 ounce can, there is a whole lot of nice layout and design. For starters, the entire can is very easy to read - even with all the dice in the background. Secondly, the tag line/slogan that all energy drinks seem to have made me chuckle, as opposed to just roll my eyes.

"This is where we write some witty slogan about how High Roller Energy will help you pick up the opposite sex and/or achieve fame and fortune in your designated sporting field.
But the Truth...High Roller Energy will help all types, from the PRO ATHLETE, to the PLAYER, to the HIGH ROLLER. Stay on your game with this special blend of HIGH ROLLER ENERGY"

They also did the rest of the packaging right too. They listed all the caffeine and nutrient contents. While double facing on an 8 ounce can is especially hard, they could have flipped the lids, to the drink always faces out in the correct direction while you are drinking. I would love to see this in a larger size. IT looked like their designers had enough fun making this package that i would love to see what they could do with a larger canvas.

Buzz:6
A larger can would improve the Buzz too. Not that this was lacking - as it has exactly the same caffeine, taurine and B vitamin mix that can be found in just about every energy drink, but because 80mg of caffeine just does not do it for me anymore. This is like taking a single shot of espresso - too much for my 10 year old, but not enough to get me moving for the day.
2 of these cans did me right though, and the 160mg caffeine punch was certainly enough to get me on my feet and able to think. 30g of sugar, 1000mg of taurine, 80mg of caffeine, insitol, niacinamide, pantothenic acid, a handful of B vitamins, and even some protein.

Taste:8
For a Red Bull flavor, this was pretty good. It did not have the bitterness that Red Bull clones usually have, while still having that classic energy drink flavor. It is more citric than US bound Monster or Rockstar, although the flavor is close. It also leaves a very citric acid aftertaste - enough that I grabbed a nearby mint to kill the flavor that was left.

Don't get me wrong - for a classic "energy drink flavor" drink this was still very nice. I would grab a high roller before a Red Bull, Monster or Venom any day. And in terms of mixing, this did great. Jagerbombs turned out fantastic - much tastier than the normal Monster or Red Bull shots.