Ever wanted to make your own acai berry energy drink? It would have to be cheaper than buying them at the store, and much cheaper than the “acai berry pills free trial” offers where you get billed tons of money after the free trial.

Well Zug.com (a humor site, of all places) has your answer! Check out their Acai Berry Energy Drink Challenge.

You should try the Acai-Oxidently, which looks like a very tasty acai smoothie! Nice and healthy!

The Promise: Drink some brewed green tea with a few additives and get an energy boost.

Ingredients: Premium brewed green tea, high fructose corn syrup, taurine, caffeine, panax ginseng, inositol, guarana, milk thistle, 100% DV of some vitamins.

Taste: It tastes a lot like Arizona green tea, but with a little carbonation and a tiny bit of vitamin taste. It’s still pretty good tea though.

Conclusion: I shy away from Arizona (and most other) ready-to-drink teas, because they are usually loaded with way too much sugar. This one is no exception.

The moderate energy boost makes up for the slightly “off” taste of the green tea, so it’s a good taste for those who like their tea, but to me this is “yet another sugary drink.”

If you don’t have your kids drinking soda and eating sugar cubes, this shouldn’t be in their diet, either.

More Reviews:

• Arizona Green Tea Energy at BanddDesigns
• Arizona Green Tea Energy at CannedReviews
• Arizona Green Tea Energy at JunkFoodBlog
• Arizona Green Tea Energy at TaurineRules

The Promise: Chew a couple of these taffy-like candies and you’ll get all-day energy from healthy antioxidants (with no crash.)

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, quercetin, green tea extract, caffeine, sucralose, (and a few vitamins.)

Taste: These things are kind of funny since they’re like candy. The texture is pretty good, like taffy.

The flavors are a bit odd though. There is lemon lime, orange, and pomegranate blueberry. The lemon lime and orange candies taste like their respective flavors of sports drinks, in solid form. They’re not too bad, but definitely not candy.

The pomegranate blueberry is the saving grace, with its “not so typical” flavor that is actually fruity.

Conclusion: I have a hard time believing these are “health chews” after seeing the ingredients. The first ingredients are sugar and corn syrup, and then there is even artificial sweetener thrown in!

There are vitamins and antioxidants in there, but actual fruits are a better way to get your antioxidants.

The energy boost is there, but short-lived (maybe an hour or so.) You should stick with the actual FRS liquid drink if you go for that.

More Reviews:

• FRS Energy Chews at CoachLevi
• FRS Pomegranate Blueberry Chews at CoachLevi

The Promise: 100% natural and made with certified organic ingredients, GURU combines the power of carefully chosen ingredients borrowed from ancient cultures around the world. Scientifically designed for health-conscious lifestyles, GURU Energy Drink helps deliver the mental and physical boost you need in the afternoon, at work, before sports or during periods of stress or fatigue.

Ingredients: Sparkling water, organic white grape juice concentrate, guarana seed extract, ginkgo biloba leaf extract, echinacea flower extract, panax ginseng root extract.

Taste: By using sparkling water, there is a more pleasant taste than with stronger carbonated water. That goes well with the citrus-like taste that is not too sweet but not quite strong and bitter like Red Bull.

Conclusion: The best part about Guru is the selection of natural ingredients, especially ginkgo biloba, echinacea, and ginseng. These ingredients might not give you a lot of energy, but they’ll keep you in good health.

Good news though – Guru has guarana which will give you an energy boost like caffeine. Overall it has a pretty good taste, pretty good energy boost, and healthy ingredients. It’s my favorite healthy energy drink that tastes like an energy drink.

More Reviews:

• Guru Energy Drink at TaurineRules
• Guru Energy Drink at BanddDesigns
• Guru at Energy-Drink-Ratings
• Guru Energy at BevNet

The Promise: “Feel Good” results within 10 minutes, crystal clear energy that lasts for hours. (On natural ingredients and no added caffeine!)

Ingredients: Carbonated water, Fibersol-2 (Dietary Fiber), Guarana seed, Juice Extracts, Green Tea, Panax Ginseng root, Stevia leaf extract, L-arginine, Taurine, L-camitine, Tyrosine, Maca root, Maltodextrin.

[No need to mix the powder this time.]

Taste: Coming from an Act energy powder background, this was a bit of a shock. The flavor is still that cherry/berry flavor, but the texture is totally different thanks to the lightly carbonated water base.

This one is more kid-friendly thanks to the cool cans and fizzy water.

Conclusion: If you like Act but don’t like to mix powder, or you thought the Act powder was too weak, you might prefer Act in cans.

It’s still pretty healthy, but a little more expensive. I’ll stick with the powder when I do get ACT, but the cans can be refreshing.

More Reviews:

• ACT Energy Drink Review at CoachLevi
• ACT Energy in Cans at BanddDesigns
• ACT Energy at BevNet

The Promise: “Feel Good” results within 10 minutes, crystal clear energy that lasts for hours. (On natural ingredients and no added caffeine!)

Ingredients: Fibersol-2 (Dietary Fiber), Guarana seed, Juice Extracts, Green Tea, Panax Ginseng root, Stevia leaf extract, L-arginine, Taurine, L-camitine, Tyrosine, Maca root, Maltodextrin.

Taste: When mixed thoroughly, Act Energy has somewhat of a cherry/berry flavor. The taste is pleasant – not sour, but not too sweet. If you mix it with plain water, it goes down a little easier than carbonated drinks, but it’s not quite as fun.

It can be a little strong though. Mixing a packet with 8 ounces of water was way too strong for me, so I mixed it in a 16 ounce water bottle. Teenagers probably won’t mind the taste though.

Conclusion: The taste is enjoyable enough that I can drink this each day. The energy boost is kind of light, and it lasts usually 3 hours for me. The good news is that there is no “crash” after.

When it comes to health, this is a much, much better choice than Red Bull or Full Throttle or whatever names they use these days. In this regard, the energy boost is very good (in comparison to drinks like Cranergy.)

The downfall comes not with the price but the availability. You can’t get this in stores. Instead you have to find an “independent distributor” which is a lot like Mary Kaye cosmetics representatives, i.e. MLM schemes.

More Reviews:

• Tested: ACT Energy Drink at CoachLevi
• FRS vs ACT Energy at CoachLevi
• ACT Energy Drink Mix Review at TaurineRules
• ACT Energy at Energy-Drink-Ratings
• Act Energy at BevNet
• Act Energy at BanddDesigns

The Promise: It tastes like soda but is healthy like green tea.

Ingredients: Sparkling filtered water, organic evaporated cane juice, natural raspberry flavor, organic Ceylon green tea, Vitamin C.

Taste: This tastes like soda, only not as strong. But the orange and grape flavors do taste like orange soda and grape soda, respectively.

Conclusion: This is a soda with a little green tea added. It’s still filled with carbonated water and sugar, so it’s not exactly healthy. Actually, it’s just barely a tiny bit healthier than regular soda.

It doesn’t taste bad though.

Energy boost? Nope.

More Reviews:

• Steaz at BevNet
• Steaz Green Tea Soda at i Fit Healthy
• Steaz Green Tea Soda at Junk Food Blog
• Steaz at I Ate A Pie
• Steaz Organic Green Tea Soda at CoachLevi

The Promise: It’s an energy drink that also contains vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Ingredients: Carbonated water, caffeine, guarana, taurine, ginseng, sucralose, B vitamins, vitamin C.

Taste: This tastes good and is very sweet. If you like any other wild berry drinks (juice, specifically), you’ll probably like this.

(Try Pomegranate Blueberry too.)

Conclusion: If you like sweet drinks, this is for you. If you don’t like sucralose, this is not the drink for you.

It wasn’t much of an energy boost. It has some caffeine, but very little in comparison to real energy drinks…

More Reviews:

• Archer Farms Wild Berry at TaurineRules

The Promise: Bring some zest to your day with Archer Farms energy drinks, which give you an energy boost plus vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Ingredients: Carbonated water, caffeine, guarana, taurine, ginseng, sucralose, B vitamins, vitamin C.

Taste: For the most part, this is like a blueberry juice. There is a little hint of tart pomegranate in there, but like most “pomegranate blue” drinks, the blueberry takes over. It tastes great though.

The texture is soft but complex, like sparkling juice.

Conclusion: This drink comes somewhere in the middle between the energy drinks packed with stimulants, and the juice-based drinks. It has the good flavor, and the stimulants, but seemingly lower levels of them.

The energy boost is not huge, but it’s plenty for someone who doesn’t drink much caffeine.

Again, there is sucralose, so I don’t love it, but overall it’s pretty good.

More Reviews:

• Archer Pomegranate Blueberry at TaurineRules
• Archer Pomegranate Blueberry at DrinkAddict

The Promise: You’ll get energy that lasts all day, with no crash, and it’s all done with healthy antioxidants and green tea extract (with no guarana, taurine, etc.)

Supposedly you are getting the antioxidant equivalent of ~5 servings of blueberries, in one can.

Ingredients: White grape juice concentrate, blueberry concentrate, Quercetin, green tea extract, sucralose, B vitamins.

Taste: This is actually a very good flavor. It’s close to a juice almost, but still has enough of a vitamin/energy drink taste that you know it’s not just juice. Luckily there is no aftertaste from the sucralose.

I’d say the “wild berry” is an even mix of blueberry and raspberry, but in general we’ll just stick with “wild berry”

Conclusion: This FRS flavor is very good, one of their best flavors. It’s not perfect, but considering all the vitamins and antioxidants it provides, we’ll let that slide.

The energy boost is surprisingly good too. It lasts long enough to get you through the mid-afternoon slump at work and still have enough energy left to cook dinner and put the kids to bed.

I don’t like the sucralose, so I try to stick with the all-natural FRS flavors (which are higher in calories, but don’t contain artificial sweeteners.) It’s a trade off!

More Reviews:

• FRS Energy Drink (in cans) Review at CoachLevi
• FRS Low Calorie Wild Berry at TaurineRules
• FRS Wild Berry Energy Drink at Energy Drink Ratings
• FRS Healthy Energy at Runner’s Resource