Big Red Boots

Caffeine Examiner
Trying desperately to pull my overworked brain cells from their perpetual desire to slog off, I scour the aisles for the perfect caffeinated substance. From Korean Drink Cans to stomach churning bargain caffeinated malt liquor to organic hand picked beans from the Peruvian mountaintops, Ill help you on your journey through the world’s most popular psychoactive substance.
  

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Caffeine Examiner

Syzmo leads the crop for straight-on Energy Drinks

POSTED July 18, 11:29 AM
Big Red Boots - Caffeine Examiner
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Syzmo Original is one of the best energy drinks ever made. This is a drink in the upper echelons of energy drinks, like Steaz and Guru, as being really tasty, packaged fantastically and full of great nutritional items. Syzmo has received nothing but raves from whoever tries it. They may not have started off so good, but their newest incarnation is really a treat. Imagine if red bull actually tasted good. If the flavor was complex and full of flavor - but really healthy and maybe even (gasp) good for you.

The brand SYZMO was derived from the Spanish word sismico meaning seismic or Earthquake. Also, its fun to say. SIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Moe.


Nutrition:10
Syzmo is the only drink I have tried that pulls off agave nectar so well. Sure, Full Throttle Blue Demon tried, but that drink is in a different league than this one. The comparison between Full Throttle and Syzmo is sorta like the comparison between a three dollar rubber-and-plastic digital watch found at the family dollar and a Shock Prof Guess Watch. Sure they both tell the time, but there are a hundred years of craft behind one of them.

SYZMO is Made With Organic Premium Blue Agave Nectar, which has the lowest Glycemic Index of all the sweeteners on the market. The glycemic index is a way to measure sugar in substances, and this is not just for diabetics either (although people with diabetes should rejoice that they can now have their caffeine through something besides coffee too!). Lower sugars also means longer and more sustained energy, as well as absolutely no crash. Very sugary drinks give you the energy first, then you come off them very fast. With Syzmo, the sugar is absorbed more slowly and more gradually, so there is no jittery caffeine-high-fructose-corn-syrup high and nap cycle. As for everything else in here, there is 130 calories per 12 oz. Can, and get their organic caffeine from coffee, Guarana Extract, Green Tea Extract and Yerba Matte Extract, amounting to 120mg of caffeine in the can too! most just have lab processes caffeine - let alone using about every natural caffeinated substance to flavor and pump up the energy. They also use Vitamin B2, B3, B6, B12, Biotin, Folic Acid, Zinc, and Co-enzyme Q10.

To summarize, high caffeine, extra energy products, unique sweetener, all organic. What else could you want for ingredients?

Taste:10
Syzmo Original is what happens after Red Bull gets older, cleans up it's bad habits and moves to Santa Fe. I could tell that they were riffing off the usual Red Bull/Monster flavor, but instead of making a clone, they improved the drink tenfold. Gone is the bitter slightly sour flavor, like biting into a sweetened lemon. Instead this drink is flavor and complex, tasting gummy and delicious. YOu can taste the nectar in this, but it does not come across as sticky or syrupy in any way. IT even tastes... healthful! You can taste the coffee berries, mixed with the smoky tea qualities of the Yerba Mate. For this flavor of energy drink, Sysmo original is on definitely on top.

Packaging:9
Very unique design. The new logo looks A MILLION TIMES better than the older one, coming across as a serious energy drink, while still maintaining the feel or a healthy alternative to the usual convenience brands. I know everyone in my office picked up this can when I had it out - just to see what it was about. The font choices are very nice, being very clear to read and adds to the overall look of the can. There are 2 badges on the front, one superfluous and one is necessary. The glycemic badge on the front stands out and helps the consumer understand what the drink is about, but the Organic badge could definitely be moved off to the back, where the other badges go. There is full disclosure of every ingredient on the can, including a caffeine count - which definitely helps. The only issues I see is the problem with convenience stores, where the product must be faced correctly in order for the logo to be seen and not the large information and ingredients list. This will make it harder for the drink to be seen in the cooler shelves. The drink info is also in Spanish, which is not only a nice thing to do, but definitely adds to the mystique of this drink, with so many ingredients not easily produced in the US.

Website:3 www.syzmo.com
A spectacular failure. With a drink this good, why not hire someone who knows what they are doing to help build your site? I dont even know where to list the problems. First, you get the ridiculous and huge splash page, which shows silly pictures spinning into the frame, and signals what is to come. The logo flies in, and then cycles over and over and over until you click in. Once you do, you get hit with a page which for all intents and purposes should be in html. Basically, you get a clickable picture, with noting else interactive. You even get a pulsing flashing button that does not link anywhere. You get a click, but it is inactive. 80% of the site is still coming soon, and while there is a bit on glycemic indexing and contact info, the whole site had been launched with most of it not ready for consumption. Backend, the online store just sells the drink by the caseload, and the Yahoo store looks absolutely nothing like the rest of the site. The code holding the flash movie is published DIRECTLY from flash, with no coding ( not even including meta or title tags??) whatsoever added. Next time, get your act together, hire a professional, and then release your site. Also, only use flash if there is a reason to. in this case, you could achieve the same thing with a much much smaller size html version instead.

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Topics: The worst and the best , Energy Drinks

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