The can is a beautiful pastel yellow, on yellow affair. It states, "Sugar Free", boldly on the can. The back, like many other energy drinks I've reviewed lately, is inundated with a mile and a half of text. "Funny how a cold drink can heat things up. Sugar-Free BURN 16oz. combines EGCG from Green Tea Extract, with caffeine and calcium to boost your metabolism, and burn calories. And if provides all the healthy energy of our original with Ginseng, Guarana, B-Vitamins, and Antioxidants!". The aforementioned paragraph was in a newspaper-comic-style bubble. The next bubble uninterestingly carries on, "Built from the ground up to be the healthiest, best tasting (they need to keep trying on this one) energy drink there is. BURN gives you the energy to do what's important to you......and that's what we call energy for the good life. The can also claims that it's a "high-energy supplement". Drink good, feel good, look good. "Look good?", that's as ridiculous as the Original Burn claiming to be "wetter". Who writes this stuff?
This is one of the rare occasions when a sugar free energy drink tastes much better than the sugar version. This isn't saying a great deal, since in the 2006 Energy Drink Awards I described Source Burn as tasting, "Like licking a toilet at the Jolly Rancher reject fruit flavor testing facility". This still has the horrible aluminum can aftertaste, but when served cold, the sugar free source burn is actually slightly refreshing. I personally enjoyed every other aspect of this drink, and could probably even say I enjoyed it, if it were sold in a plastic bottle instead of a can. Only 10 calories, and very low sodium, this drink's not half bad.
The "burn blend" of energy ingredients is really where this drink shines. I frequently drink 3 energy drinks in the first 4-6 hrs. of any given day. Source Burn Sugar Free energy Drink was the only energy drink I drank the entire day, and I experienced no shortage of energy, and that's saying quite a bit.
Energizing or not $2 is too rich for my blood. I'm not Macaulay Culkin, and I've never portrayed a character named Richie Rich. If I were Macaulay Culkin, I'd probably be more happy about dating Mila Kunis than being able to buy Source Burn Sugar Free. I think being friends with Seth Green would be pretty cool too, but I'm almost certain people constantly asking me to pose for pictures with my hands on the side of my face with my mouth agape would get old really fast. As an interesting sidenote, "The Good Son" was twice the movie that "Home Alone" ever was, IMHO. Macaulay and Elijah Wood both pwned those parts.
Like the original burn, I thought this drink tasted like the can it came in. The lack of sugar was actually a plus, but I still got that post-vomit tingle in the back of my throat, and periodically felt the need to hock up and spit out an orange loogie (which I assume is a buildup of all the fruity pieces that make up this drink). I was not pleased with the taste, but it wasn't so bad that I didn't finish it.
On a positive note, this can is loaded with lots of feel good energy. I believe my coworkers were inspired by how much I seemed to enjoy Chumbawamba "Tub Thumping", about an hour after drinking this. I believe they thought I was on drugs. As far as energy goes, Source Burn Sugar Free Energy Drink scores a big slam dunk in the last inning.
Around $2.09 per can, if you can get around the rancid taste, and shameless use of scantily clad women to promote their product, the energy boost is worth the price. Unfortunately, I couldn't scald my taste buds enough to ignore the rotten taste.