Our Soda Blog (America’s Favorite dontchaknow) is fully embracing powdered energy drinks, and we’ve got a fresh one to try today! Gamer fuel, pre-workout…liquid cocaine, every company has a different take on how to market their brand of energy, but is there really a difference in the taste and result? I’ve found more cutesy names and logos that look good on a thin fabric t-shirt, so that must mean it’s blog time y’all!
Bucked Up Pre-Workout, or simply “Bucked Up” pushes super hard on the supplements and drives its energy products for pumping iron rather than just slogging through the work day. Their product line should be given credit for their range of option: cans, single serve pouches and full on mini-kegs of their various options. They also push “antler spray” and a lot of other weird bullshit that’s far beyond the scope of this blog, so be sure to do your own research before you put any of their stuff in your body. The packaging is pretty cool, but all things being equal, but I can’t get over how stupid the energy powder name is. “WOKE AF” is billed as a heavy stimulant powder that’s “not for beginners, rookies or people who curl in the squat rack.” Oh FFS, it’s bad enough they evoke the name of internet speak that was hijacked from awareness of social inequities of minorities, but we don’t have to make this some sort of hyper-tweek that’s only meant for folks too jaded from a mere cocaine habit to get through the day. I do maybe 5 push-ups a week and walking the dog tends to make my muscles hurt, but I’m not afraid to pump some unpronounceable Chinese chemicals (sorry, “herbs” as they say) into my body before a 9 hour sit-on-my-ass session at work. It’s bad enough I have a shaker bottle on my desk at work now, I don’t need people thinking I’m a horse chasing quad blaster on top of everything else. Anyway, the generous sample pack came with two different flavors, so let’s start with “Blue Raz”.
After my last experience with a blue powder, I was a little leery about the end result, but the powder in Blue Raz seems appropriate and not an over-dyed mess when mixing. This powder however, smells to high heaven. I’m not sure which POWER HERB I could blame for this, but this is not a drink to enjoy with the nose. Shake it, drink it, and blast it, that’s all we’d be allowed to do. I’m giving these guys a lot of grief in this review, but the taste is actually pretty agreeable. I had to ice mine down with about 10 oz of water, but this tastes quite refreshing compared to market competitors. I’m still getting used to non-carbonated energy drinks, but if all my organs stay attached, I could see myself keeping this flavor around. For a Monday morning, I felt pretty damn well energetic after trying this, and caught up on my work quickly compared to normal weeks. I felt stimulated, but not overdrawn at the energy bank which was a genuine worry for this one. I’d like to recommend this to you regular folk, but maybe I’m just too caked with old guarana and taurine to feel anything but normal with this first flavor. We’ve got two packs of their “Grape Gainz” (are you f-ing serious?), and I want to call an audible.
Grape Gainz delivers what it promises, and as someone that doesn’t really like grape as a flavoring I was pleased with its taste. When shaken it tastes a lot like melted flavor-ice, but I think we can do better. For my 2nd pack of Grape, I added about 3 oz of water with a couple of ice cubes and shook vigorously to get the powder dissolved. Once ready I topped up with club soda instead of water and %^$$%!#$^^ this made a huge difference. The energy drinks I normally enjoy are at the very least lightly carbonated and I’ve struggled with the “coked up juicy-juice” that Grape gave me on day one. I’m probably like Christopher Columbus with this late-to-the-party discovery, but this might be how I do powdered drink mixes from here on out. Just as with the other flavor this was a perfect coffee replacement and I was good to go nursing my shaker drink throughout the work day.
Verdict: The WOKE AF energy supplements from Bucked Up are well made and flavorful mixes that will work for morning energy despite their horrible name and line branding choices. The company’s offerings of their energy products in multiple packaging options makes for a good trial run, and each of their products are clearly described both on the website and the packaging. Credit to their shaker bottle and merchandise for being unique, so I guess for those that can get over the hump of silly buzz words, there’s a lot of good brand energy here. I won’t have Gainz, I won’t BLAST FOR MASS, but I can add some fizzy water and get buzzed up like the ones that do. Let’s hit the racks boys, I’m all WOKED UP!
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