The Best Energy Drinks for Startups

I am a HUGE energy drink fan, having tested almost everything on the market. My life requires me to constantly be on the go, and for that energy, I turn to energy drinks.

In this post we won’ go into the fact that caffeine produces a spike and then crash, because that’s boring and not as sexy as talking about the best energy drinks :) However, it should be noted how much caffeine a normal person should consume in a given day. The average adult can safely consume 200-300mg of caffeine per day.

Which breaks down to a maximum of 3 1/2 - 8 oz. Red Bulls

So at Grooveshark, we currently don’t yet have enough money for energy drinks (sponsors welcome), but once we do, these drinks will be on the top of our shopping list:

Sugar-Free Rockstar Energy Drink

Caffeine: 160mg
Cost: $2/each
Size: 16 oz.

Sitting around coding all day doesn’t do wonders for the ol’ physique, so it’s important to supply our engineers with the trimming effects of diet/sugar-free drinks. This Rockstar flavor is really quite nice, and is my personal favorite out of all the drinks showcased.

it’s important to supply our engineers with the trimming effects of diet/sugar-free drinks

And I especially like to use these for making cocktails, as it creates the best mix of flavors for a nice drink. These come in 16oz. varieties standard but are also available in bladder-bursting 32oz. and cute 8oz. Red Bull-like varieties.

Monster Lo-Carb/Sugar-free

Caffeine: 160mg
Cost: $2/each
Size: 16 oz.

This drink also has quite a nice taste to it without the aftertaste found in Red Bulls. It has about the same color as the Rock Stars, but it’s not quite as sweet. I like to drink these in the morning when I forego coffee and find they have a nice taste in the morning as opposed to the harsh taste of Red Bull in the AM. Coming in the same size varieties as the Rock Stars, these drinks are pretty much interchangeable.

I like to drink these in the morning when I forego coffee

Monster has a number of different flavors including their Juiced line which is made with real fruit juice, but unfortunately none of them are available in the sugar-free varieties. Of the “sugar-full” items, I’d say the Guava is probably the best tasting for those of you sugar freaks :)
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Enviga Rasberry Sparkling Green Tea

Caffeine: 100mg
Cost: $1/each
Size: 12 oz.

The Envigas came with the claim that they helped people to lose weight. The actual claim was if you drink 3 a day, you can lose up to 60-100 calories in one day. Well, this is a no-duh for anyone with any nutritional knowledge; energy drinks contain caffeine, caffeine increases heartrate and also metabolism. Envigas do have green tea extract in them as well, which has been shown to increase calories burned, so it’s not all marketing hype.

For those of you who are new to energy drinks, this is a great starter

This is not your typical energy drink, and luckily it doesn’t the same premium as the others. I picked up a six pack of these from Publix today for $6. For a 4-pack of Rockstar, you’re normally looking at $8, so I was extremely happy with this pickup. That being said, these drinks do taste quite yummy and could actually be tolerated while eating/drinking normal foods. For those of you who are new to energy drinks, this is a great starter; my girlfriend loves them!

Red Bull Sugar Free

Caffeine: 80mg
Cost: $2.50/each
Size: 8.3 oz.

This may be surprising to some, but the Red Bulls don’t actually have that much caffeine. There was a product that got recalled, Cocaine, that claimed to be 350% stronger than Red Bull, which would put it at around 240mg for an 8 oz can, which while pretty damn-high, ain’t no cocaine. So I’m sure all of you have tried a Red Bull and can attest to the fact that it tastes pretty bad. To me, I kind of enjoy the bad taste, and try to attribute it to “it working.”

To me, I kind of enjoy the bad taste, and try to attribute it to “it working.”

The same phenomenon you have when you take medicine or eat healthy food, you kind of expect it to taste bad if it’s actually good for you. I also like Red Bulls because they’re normally sold in the smaller 8 oz size, because normally I feel bad about drinking 160mg of caffeine and 16 oz. of sugar-free crap, so the 8 oz size is refreshing. Unfortunately, the Red Bulls are the most expensive per-ounce, so you probably want to save these for special occasions.

For more information on energy drink caffeine content check out The Caffeine Database.

Photo Credit:

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