5-Hour Energy Extra Strength

A Fair & Honest Energy Drink Review

5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Retail Package Description

The bottle is mostly black (I guess it's nighttime/sunset instead of the conventional bottle appearance of daytime/sunrise). The faced shows the iconic dude running for the hills (one reviewer suggested he's running from the bad taste of 5-hour energy). As has been the case for some time "Chaser" no longer appears on the bottle, but I'll refer to it as "Chaser 5-Hour Energy" anyway, because it's a free country, and I can call it "Horse Turd Energy" if I want. The cap is impressively easy to get into, there's now a pull tab in the center, where you used to just have to twist really hard to get it off, which was nearly impossible, if the perforations didn't line up properly with the cap. The front text states that it's "Extra Strength", and "Extra" has a glow affect applied to it. Maybe since this is "extra strength", it will be remotely as effective as the original 5-hour energy. Under that, a red line, with text underneath that reads, "Sugar Free – Only 4 Calories", then another red line. At the bottom the text reads, "Berry Flavor – 2fl. oz.(59ml) Dietary Supplement". The back contains the usual information, which I'll paraphrase. Drink the whole bottle for max energy, drink half or less for moderate energy, and discard unused portion after 72 hours. Contains premium coffee's worth of caffeine, limit other caffeine intake to reduce unwanted side-effects. You may experience a niacin flush (See the Q and A in "The Stig's" review for explaination of "niacin flush"). People under 12, and Phenylketonurics shouldn't drink this.

Caffeine Addict's 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Review

Chaser 5-hour energy extra strength is probably the best of the 5-hour product line. The bitterness is surprisingly low, until you realize that for a product called "Extra Strength", it seems to have a lot less caffeine than you'd expect. Since caffeine is bitter, taking it out seems to be 5-hour energy's approach to making a better tasting energy shot. I'd argue that this is the best tasting of the bunch, and I expected it to be the worst.

Hopefully it's no surprise that I don't like 5-hour energy as a company. Aside from there being better products for lower prices, (Redfin, OnGo Energy Shot, Crakshot) I wouldn't buy 5-hour energy if it were the only energy shot on the market, and they were under $2/each. So, since this drink claims to be "Extra Strength" and hardly lives up to "regular strength" standards of many other energy shots I'm further disappointed.

Like The Stig, I experienced little difference between this and other (often cheaper) 5-hour energy products. It's tart and drinkable, but mediocre in effectiveness.

For all the college students wasting $3/each on these, I implore you to buy better energy drinks and shots at lower prices. A great deal of energy shots can be purchased online in 12 packs at about half the price of buying these individually at the store.

Energy Junkie's 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Review

Like Red Bull, 5-hour energy was one of the early players on the scene. Like Red Bull, it's remained over-priced and inferior. 5-hour energy doesn't maintain their own web store, so the store I was taken to when I click "buy online" on their website will ship a case of this to me with no shipping fees, but the 12-pack is $28.99. That works out to $2.41/each, which is remarkably cheaper than the $2.99 they want for them at the store.

The taste isn't that bad. It's better than the original berry flavor, but the original berry, to my recollection was much stronger than this. I don't believe that the formula in production now is the same as the repugnant-tasting concoction available in 2005.

I genuinely can't tell any difference, in terms of energy, among this and the other caffeinated 5-hour energy products in circulation today. That's not to say that it's not energizing, but I'd expected to for this to really get me moving. The only real difference I noticed is that I may have been slightly more irritable, nervous and quit-tempered. I'm not sure if that's really a positive. I was certainly awake, and didn't fight fatigue or drowsiness. I didn't experience any "crash", which, as I've noted in the past, I don't experience from 99%+ of other energy drinks.

Energy shots were a novel idea, at first. I enjoyed putting one in my backpack, book bag, laptop bag or car glove box for when I needed that extra boost. I've found that, the majority of the time, I also want a great-tasting beverage. Guru Lemonade tastes great, independently of it being an effective energy drink. Concerning convenience, why lug around 2oz. when I can throw about ten 0.1oz DynaPep Energy Micro-Shots in those convenient storage places I'd normally put a single 5-hour energy? Energy shots have a place in the market, but like Red Bull in the energy drink market, I encourage consumers to branch out from "The Original" (the quotes indicate that neither were first-to-market with their respective products).

Overpriced, with a reasonable taste and performance. "5-hour energy" is the energy shot equivilant of "Red Bull"...and I wouldn't read that as a compliment.