Loud Energy - great energy in horrible packaging

Straight outta the hood, and of course by hood I mean upstate New York, comes the next hip hopping body slammin drink from Steve Rifkind, the CEO behind Loud Records. Loud Beverage’s is a joint venture between Rifkind and executive Ron Urban, with backing from partner Universal Music Group. This company is behind promoting big groups by street teams, producing such acts as Wu Tang Clan, Xzibit, Three 6 Mafia, Mobb Deep, Tha Alkaholiks, the X-Ecutioners and Dead Prez. So what kind of promotion is behind this energy drink? Well, a horrible can, a stupid website, and ZERO online marketing is killing what could have been someone's great idea.

Rifkind was planning on using his street teams to get the word out about this drink - but you need to have someone like Xzibit to try to make someone as marketable as xzibit. So you got an great tasting powerful energy drink - that is only partway there. If it looks like crap no one is going to drink it. When you follow that up by a horrible web presence and odd distribution, no amount of street team savvy will get this into consumer's hands.

Rifkind did have designs for a grassroots marketing campaign"We will launch this product market by market in the manner of breaking records," says Loud's Rifkind. "In addition to traditional beverage marketing, we utilize radio, DJs, mix tapes, club nights and promotions with non-traditional entertainment and lifestyle accounts. This company's rich musical history has its roots in marketing, and that's the same approach we are taking with Loud Energy Drinks."

Of course he is shady - he is a record producer. These people can leave slime trails in their wake. Rifkind went from " They licensed my Loud branding for an energy drink" to "My new energy drink even helped a guy with headaches" to "my migraines completely went away" in interviews he had for various publications. I have a feeling there is someone in Florida, really frustrated they ever hooked up with this company that used them and ruined their product. Loud Classic was a real tasty drink - very flavorful and very energizing - and it is a shame it did not get the attention it deserved.

Packaging:2
This can is about as bad as you could get. Simple plain bare aluminum rarely looks good - and especially when having a bad print job. The art on this can is immature at best, using a hard to read grunge font along with a big cartoons starbust. Even the Loud logo with headphones has this weird dissolving border around it which looks grainy at best. Actually, it has 2 starbusts, as the word "NEW" had to be in its own little burst. One thing I did like is the size, how they managed to make a nice 12oz can, which looks different that both energy drinks and soda cans. I just with they went more with the design. For all the backing they had, I really have a hard time believing that a real designer was behind this. Add to that the lack of caffeine content and no marketing or slogans, this can is one for the crusher.

Taste:9
Completely impressed! I was totally expecting a Red Bull Clone. I thought, crappy can - crappy website, crappy drink - but I could not have been more wrong. This drink is super tasty, not Classic energy drink at all, instead this was very fruity and full of berry. this was a very surprising punch. Could it be cherry too? They do list natural flavor as an ingredient, but of course who knows what flavors. I do know that this is one of the better drinks I have had in a long time. Even with the HFCS this did not taste syrupy or gooey. While the thing holding it is no t so spectacular, pour this in a glass with some ice and enjoy!

Nutrition/buzz:7
There was no reason to expect much energy from this can either, as it seemed like a dud from the get go. There was no listing of caffeine ion the can, and the simple can gave me the impression of not having much going on. So I drank on, ready to either bounce or flop. I started to feel a little bounce, but nothing too amazing. So I gave it some time to kick in. and waited and waited. The slight caffeine buzz lasted about 2 hours - just about as much as a small cup of good coffee does. After calling Loud beverages, they informed me it had 82mg in the can - so it is less strong than a small Red Bull or Monster ounce for ounce - and on par if you drink the entire can of Loud. There was High Fructose Corn Syrup in it, so it did have a small sugar high, and added to the mix with a little milk thistle and ginko biloba. There was both Guarana and caffeine added, so part of the rush might have been from that too. While not blown away, it did pack a nicer punch than expected.

Again, I give enormous thanks to beverage boutique for helping me find this drink way out of their normal distribution area.

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