Month: June 2008

REVIEW: Full Throttle Coffee Energy Drink (Mocha, Vanilla, Caramel)

Marvo 17 Comments

Full Throttle Coffee Energy Drink (Mocha, Vanilla, Caramel)

Coffee is probably one of the original gangstas of energy drinks, so the idea of adding an energy drink to coffee seems unnecessary, like a bra on an Olsen twin. But companies who like to energize the masses and make money doing so think this fusion is necessary and have created coffee energy drinks to make the beverage of choice for tired office workers everywhere in their cubicles of shame a little more extreme.

Monster Energy was the first to do it, Rockstar Energy was next to do it, Starbucks recently came out with theirs, and now Full Throttle Energy Drink has their own coffee energy drink with the uninspired name of Full Throttle Coffee.

Next up for the Full Throttle Energy Drink? Following others into a volcano.

Full Throttle Coffee comes in three flavors: Mocha, Vanilla, and Caramel. I’ve pretty much enjoyed every single coffee energy drink I’ve tried, including these from Full Throttle. However, these are definitely sweeter and creamier than the coffee energy drinks from the other companies. But I guess when each can has 43-48 grams of sugar and has cream in its ingredients list, it fucking makes sense.

The chocolate, vanilla, and caramel flavors really drown out the coffee taste in their respective drinks, which is good if you don’t like the bitterness of coffee, but bad if you like your coffee to be as bitter as your feeling towards your ex-significant other.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 can (varies between flavor) – 250-270 calories, 7 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 370-390 milligrams of sodium, 45-50 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 43-48 grams of sugar, 4-5 grams of protein, 15% calcium, 200% niacin, 200% vitamin B6, 1123-1124 milligrams of taurine, 167-168 milligrams of ginseng extract, 27 milligrams of carnitine, 1.3 milligrams of guarana extract, and 126-131 milligrams of sweet, sweet caffeine.)

Item: Full Throttle Coffee Energy Drink (Mocha, Vanilla, Caramel)
Price: $1.99 (15 ounces)
Purchased at: 7-Eleven
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Mocha)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Vanilla)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Caramel)
Pros: Smells and tastes good. No high fructose corn syrup. Creamy. Strong chocolate, vanilla, and caramel flavor. Over 100 milligrams of sweet, sweet caffeine.
Cons: Another coffee energy drink. High fructose corn syrup. Lots of fucking sugar. Sweetness drowns out coffee flavor. Maybe too sweet for some. Uninspired name. Cubicles of shame. Just following other energy drinks.

REVIEW: Strawberry Chex

Marvo 17 Comments

The Strawberry Nesquik powder mix was a guilty pleasure of mine growing up. It was probably the only pink thing I enjoyed during my days of Underoos, Robotech cartoons and ColecoVision. I didn’t prefer it over Chocolate Nesquik, but it was nice to drink on occasion…on the down low. Because what little boy who doesn’t like to get beaten up would admit they enjoy the girly-colored Strawberry Nesquik. I’m not sure why I enjoyed it. Maybe it was its unnatural strawberry taste or unnatural Pepto-Bismol pink color or because when I drank it, it made me feel so alive…so alive.

Now that I’m older and don’t fit into my Underoos anymore, I’ve come across other guilty pleasures that have replaced Strawberry Nesquik — some legal and some illegal in certain states. Because I’m a big boy now, I need a big boy way to consume artificial, unnatural tasting strawberry goodness. Thankfully, Strawberry Chex fills my need, and apparently the need for the General Mills Corporation to make their Chex Cereal flavor choices seem less ethnic. Rice Chex? Chocolate Chex?

The Strawberry Chex cereal consists of oven toasted rice and corn cereal with 50 percent of the cereal having a powdery strawberry-flavored coating on them. I think the cereal was pretty tasty because it smelled and tasted like strawberry Pop-Tarts, although not as sticky sweet. In milk, the cereal got soggy at a normal pace and the cereal’s powdered flavoring gave the milk a slight strawberry flavor, which took me back to my younger days of hiding Strawberry Nesquik in my Return of the Jedi Thermos.

(Nutrition Facts – 3/4 cup – 130 calories, 2 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 1 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 35 milligrams of potassium, 26 grams of carbs, <1 gram of dietary fiber, 8 grams of sugar, 17 grams of other carbohydrates, 2 grams of protein, and many vitamins and minerals.)

Item: Strawberry Chex
Price: $3.00 (on sale)
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Good. Tastes like strawberry Pop-Tarts. Milk turns slightly strawberry flavored. My Return of the Jedi Thermos. Strawberry Nesquik making me feel so alive. Robotech cartoons.
Cons: 50 percent of the cereal has the strawberry flavoring. Having to hide my guilty pleasure of Strawberry Nesquik. My current guilty pleasures. My Underoos don’t fit anymore.

REVIEW: Revolution 3D Tea

Marvo 19 Comments

Coffee and tea are very much alike. Both need to be roasted to get their flavor, both come in caffeinated and decaffeinated forms, and both are spelled with unnecessary letters, that if removed, wouldn’t affect their pronunciations. Cofe or T, anyone? If I had to choose between a racist tea party with Amy Winehouse or a coffee-fueled marathon of The Hills, I would have to choose the racial slur slinging and tea sipping festivities with Ms. Winehouse and hope that no stray needle hits me or her eyelashes don’t devour me like a Venus Flytrap. I would choose the tea party because I really enjoy tea in any situation and because watching several episodes of The Hills would cause my IQ to drop by about 50 points.

Recently, I’ve been enjoying the new Revolution 3D Teas because I like my tea just the way I like my Fruity Pebbles — cold, fruity and sweet. The canned beverage comes in four flavors: blueberry, mango, pomegranate and green apple. According to Revolution Tea, it’s a “Multi Dimensional Beverage” because it contains a super fruit, multiple vitamins, white tea, yadda, yadda, yadda. All of that is nice, but I’ve been staring at these Revolution 3D cans for hours and have yet to see the image of a sailboat or anything else pop out at me.

Each Revolution 3D Tea had a perfectly balanced taste. Its sweetness was just right, each flavor had a slight tartness, the fruit didn’t overpower the flavor of the tea and the tea didn’t overpower the flavor of the fruit. I really enjoyed all the flavors, but the mango and pomegranate were my favorites. What I also really enjoyed about this product are the sweet, sweet antioxidants from the white tea and super fruits, although each only contained 2% juice, so I’m not too sure how much the super fruits contributed to its antioxidant content. All that I hope for is that it’s enough to protect me if I were to get hit by one of Ms. Winehouse’s flying heroin needles.

(Nutrition Facts – 8 ounces – 70 calories, 0 grams of fat, 5 milligrams of sodium, 17 grams of carbohydrates, 16 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, 100% vitamin C, 20% vitamin B3, 20% vitamin B6, 20% vitamin B12, 20% vitamin B5, and 3D.)

Item: Revolution 3D Tea
Price: FREE (12 ounces)
Purchased at: Sent by Revolution Tea people
Rating: 8 out of 10 (mango)
Rating: 8 out of 10 (pomegranate)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (green apple)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (blueberry)
Pros: Well balanced flavor. Sweetness was just right. All flavors were really good. Slight tartness. Use of pure cane sugar. No High Fructose Corn Syrup. Antioxidants, but I’m not too sure how much. Fruity Pebbles.
Cons: Contains only 2% juice. Can’t see 3D images on can. Getting hit by a Winehouse heroin needle. Watching a marathon of The Hills.

Pink Lemonade Metamucil

Marvo 18 Comments

According to the experts, who probably wear lab coats and ask others to call them Dr. So-and-So, we should be consuming 25-30 grams of fiber per day, which is roughly more than half a loaf of whole wheat bread, a little more than an entire can of kidney beans, or approximately the amount of fiber found in the large cardboard box a refrigerator comes in. The experts also say that most don’t consume an adequate amount of fiber every day, except for Jack LaLanne, prune lovers, and panda bears. I know I need more fiber in my diet, but I feel there’s a major problem with fiber. It’s just not flamboyant enough.

Thankfully, there’s Pink Lemonade Metamucil which now makes fiber a little more FA-BU-LOUS.

Sure, it’s better for me to get my fiber from real foods like whole wheat bread, brown rice, bran cereal, vegetables, fruit, Taco Bell’s bean burrito, and Idaho potato vodka, but they just don’t have the sense of style that the Pink Lemonade Metamucil does. Many of the foods that have a decent amount of fiber come in the color brown, but despite all the efforts of UPS, brown has NEVER been in style. Some of you might be saying vegetables and fruits are colorful, however, I say to those people, J. Crew clothing is also colorful, but I would never be seen wearing any of it.

The Pink Lemonade Metamucil tastes like pink lemonade and for something that’s sugar free, it’s surprisingly sweet. Thank you, aspartame. It’s just as flavorful, fiber-rific, fierce and fabulous as the Berry Burst Metamucil. It’s also several times tastier and better looking than the plain old original orange Metamucil, which makes people drinking it look like they should be at a Florida farmers forum. The cloudy pink color of the Pink Lemonade Metamucil is totally fabulous, although its slightly grainy texture is not so hot, but it’s what I expected from a fiber supplement. However, if you like your fiber to be as flamboyant as a flamingo or Richard Simmons, this Metamucil’s for you.



Click here for link to YouTube clip

(Supplement Facts – 1 rounded tsp – 20 calories, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of dietary fiber, 2 grams of soluble fiber, 0 grams of sugar, 0.5 milligrams of iron, 35 milligrams of potassium, and 50 grams of fierce.)

Item: Pink Lemonade Metamucil
Price: $10.34 (24.1 ounces)
Purchased at: Wal-Mart
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Flavorful, fiber-rific, fierce and fabulous. Tastes like pink lemonade. Sugar free. Better than the original orange Metamucil. Jack Lalanne. Panda bears. J. Crew clothing.
Cons: It’s got a grainy texture, but that’s expected since it’s Metamucil. Turns into goop if not consumed quickly. The color brown. Trying to consume 25-30 grams of fiber per day. Eating cardboard.

McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich

Marvo 40 Comments

The McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich is cute. I’m not talking Hello Kitty cute, I’m talking women being courteous and calling a dude’s wiener “cute,” instead of the term they’re thinking in their head, which is “small.” Just like those courteous women do when they get a glimpse of the “cute cock,” I giggled a little when I saw the latest chicken sandwich from McDonald’s. The sandwich is 3.5 inches in diameter and not very tall. When I first saw it, I thought to myself, “God, I could stick that whole thing in my mouth with ease.”

For years, I’ve been telling women while crying that it is not the size of the boat that matters, it is the motion of the ocean, but the McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich made me realize that I am wrong. The sandwich consisted of seasoned, lightly breaded all white meat chicken with two pickles in between a buttery tasting bun. The chicken was surprisingly juicy the first time I had it, but wasn’t when I had another a few days later. It seemed like there was very little seasoning on the chicken, making its flavor quite bland and I thought overall it really tasted like a mediocre McChicken sandwich. I didn’t even notice the buttery bun, but the pickles did help with the flavor, although you can’t get a pickle in every bite. So maybe having a bigger pickle would help a lot.

The idea of the McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich apparently comes from a Chick-Fil-A sandwich, which also has breaded chicken, a buttery bun, and pickles. Since I’m thousands of miles away from a Chick-Fil-A, I can’t make a comparison, but it does sound like McDonald’s ripped off the idea. But is copying something so bad? Without copying others I wouldn’t have a college degree, high school diploma, passed my SRAs, and gotten through playground pattycake competitions. But what is bad is doing a poor job of copying, which seems like what McDonald’s did with the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 sandwich – 400 calories, 17 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 1030 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, and 24 grams of protein.)

(Editor’s Note: Thanks to TIB reader David for suggesting the McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich. I would’ve reviewed it earlier, but last month I swore off all fast food in hopes of a slimmer waistline and the ability to run more than 100 yards without collapsing.)

Item: McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich
Price: $5.29 (“Value” Meal)
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 4 out of 10
Pros: Cute. High in protein. Biting pickles. My pattycake skillz. Big pickles.
Cons: Small sandwich. Taste like a mediocre McChicken sandwich. Pricey for its size. High in sodium for something so small. The motion of the ocean doesn’t matter.