Gazzu Redeems itself with an Awesome Cherry Soda

Gazzu had a long way to go.  Even though it was made by BooKoo, and seemed to have a good handle on the market (even to the point of hiring an outside market research team for input)  the Low Carb version I tried was a very disappointing experience.  But what kind of reviewer would I be if I did not give them the benefit of the doubt and try all their flavors.   I am so glad I tried this one next - as it has completely restored my faith in Circle K and BooKoo's joint brand.  Gazzu Cherry is better than 98% of all the cherry sodas I have ever had.

  Feel free to check out my review of Gazzu Low Carb for info on this companies background, and info on the name, market research and other background on this drink. As for the actual review of Gazzu Cherry, read on...

Taste:9
SWEETNESS! This drink does not mess around with health or nutrition and goes straight for your indulgent sweet tooth - it is a world class soda. 3 kinds of sweetener fuel this - with sugar, HFCS and sucralose packed in it - over 54 grams of sugar! This bright very strong cherry drink is a real treat - from the taste and the color to the kick - I knew on first drink I found the first energy drink to hit my personal Slurpee machine this season. Right from the freezer this drink tastes just like an ICEE, and cried out to be a frozen desert treat. Seeing as it is summer and around 100 degrees, I took out my drink maker and froze myself a 16oz can - and was seriously worth the effort. For those of you who dont have a frozen drink maker, try opening the can ( very important step) and pop this in your freezer for 20 minutes or so - its better than the Full Throttle Slurpees could ever hope to be! Bookoo needs to partner with Circle K to put this in their smoothie machines immediately.

Nutrition:7-8 depending.
Gazzu either has has 120mg of caffeine per serving or 80mg of caffeine per serving. There are conflicting reports on Energyfiend.com over the official amounts, which is a significant enough difference enough to affect the rating. There is a pretty significant amount of calories from sucrose(sugar) and High Fructose Corn Syrup, and not much else except for the usual enegry drink mix of taurine(2000mg), glucuronolactone, inositol and B vitamins. This drink did give me quite a nice buzz regardless, and kept me up for a couple hours, but the calories and sugar gave me quite a crash afterwards too.

Packaging:8
Cool looking 16 ounce can for a private label. The can is deep black with a bright red G and some cosmic swirling circling going on. "We knew that there was all these entries into the energy drink category. There's a lot of great ones, a lot of great brands. We knew if we were going to do proprietary, we would have to stand up to the best out there," kidd told CSNews Online. To do that, Circle K invested money into the drink's packaging. "We did not want this private label to look like a private label," said Kidd. "We spent the extra money and effort to design the can, and create a first-class looking package." - and kudos to them on this one. There is the website info as well, but why not put the caffeine content on the can too? the little story on the side is a bit TOO silly for it's own good - and works against it. Still, much much better than other proprietary store brand stuff.

Website:http://www.gazzuenergy.com 3
Man! I am SO brought back to 1999! I love the cheese techno - and the big splash image with a big blue border. This is the best website 1999 had to offer, with the latest in Flash 4 technology. The silly song has a horrible loop after about a minute, and the animations play SO choppy I felt like i was on a 56k connection as well! I double dog anyone to listen to their site for the time it takes them to look up all four drinks information. You can not do it. The only thing I learned is they are sponsoring a racecar. If ever you want to see why NOT to make a flash site, this is the reason! You would think that a giant like Circle K OR BooKoo would not let this thing out to the public.

Thanks to bevnet for the awesome photo
 
Taurine Rules

Topics: Energy Drinks , Extra-caffeinated soda