Small Wonder not from Down Under - Coolah Energy

Unfortunately mate, I think this drink has left the market and was a casualty in the restructuring of Dr. Pepper/7up. Their website is gone - as well as their prominence in the refrigerated coolers at the grocery store. While as silly as a Bunyip, this drink showed more promise and creativity than alot of drinks out there, offering a small change in ingredients, packaging and taste. Coolah did not go far enough for this to be an Ace. Ti was still pretty bodgy - with too much fakiness, too many calories, and too many silly references to the Aussies for a drink made in Atlanta.

Taste:7
Overall, I did not find this that bad - certainly worth keeping around. This is no fantastic breakthrough of energy drinks either. This tasted like a Countrytime lemonade Rockstar. It has all the stuff you would normally imagine in an energy drink - the sour, the gumminess, the sodium - but is a bit different than the usual Red Bull offerings I was expecting to taste. And while I wish this drink were an actual caffeinated lemonade, this is still different enough from the crowd to deserve a mention.

Packaging:6
The font choices and layout are very strange. They are trying to sell the drink as an Australian drink, but other than the futuristic boomerang there is not that much Aussie in it. This seems about as Australian as INXS did in the 80's. If it was not for the absurd little motto tying this to Australia, the only slight connection between this drink and Oz would be the flavor connection to Solo, a very popular lemonade drink made by Schweppes ( they owned Dr. Pepper/7up until very recently) called Solo. And, seeing as this was made by Dr. Pepper/7up in the US, there is about as much Australia in this drink as there is there is health benefits in their "miracle" element of Boronia. I did appreciate the website info - although the site is no longer active, but the lack of caffeine content is problematic. I would love an updated version of this drink to be released - losing the silly big-note monikers and futuristic boomerang, and going for the lemonade angle instead.

Nutrition:6
Not surprisingly, there is no light or sugar free version of this that came out, so we are stuck with drinking the calorie laden high fructose corn syrup. That brings this up to about 240 calories for the 16oz can. In terms of pick me up, there is not a ton either. Energyfiend.com lists this as having about 150mg per 16oz can, so less buzz than you would get from Red Bull or Monster. As for their mystery ingredient, Boronia, there does not seem to be much in there which relates to energy or alertness. Instead, boronia is a plant with very fragrant flowers. There is the usual cast of energy drink nutrients in here - B vitamins and taurine. While not a particularly stunning offering from Dr. Pepper, this one shows at least something more interesting in taste and ingredients than Venom, the new product Dr. Pepper is trying to sell.

Website:
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Topics: Energy Drinks