AMP Energy Review

This morning I had the opportunity to try four new flavors of AMP Energy. AMP, which is a product of Mountain Dew, has rolled out a new campaign featuring a website which lets you determine your “AMP DNA” and matches each of four different athletes up with one of the four flavors.

AMP’s website also connects the product with racing and the NHL, but AMP is clearly trying to appeal to the young, X-games, extreme sports following crowd. Think of this as their appeal to the play hard/party hard market.

Their website features a function that allows you to “AMP Yourself” – you choose three words from a big list that best describe why you need energy and it matches your keywords up with an AMP flavor. According to the website, my AMP DNA matches me with “Relaunch” which is intended to “Revive.” The flavor is “Burst of Orange Citrus.”

So was this my favorite flavor? What did I think of the other three? Read on to find out my thoughts on the four flavors I tried.

Relaunch:Burst of Orange Citrus – I tried this one first, since it was supposed to match my “AMP DNA.” The drink was super sweet. Too sweet. It tasted similar to Mountain Dew Livewire, which I actually love, but the flavoring seems to have gone a little haywire as the sweetness was too much for me. It also has a somewhat metallic aftertaste. Not as bad as Sparks, but similar.

Traction: Charge of Grape – Very tasty. Tastes pretty similar to an average or above average grape soda, but with just a little more kick. If you are a big fan of grape soda, this is probably the best choice for you.

Overdrive: Intense Hit of Cherry – This drink is plagued by the problem a lot of cherry flavor’s have – it reminds you too much of cough syrup. The flavor is indeed intense, but although it is sweet, it’s not overwhelming. There is more of a cherry flavor than just an overt sugar taste.

Elevate: Blast of Mixed Berry – This ended up being my favorite flavor of all four, and after sampling them all, I commandeered this can so I could drink the remainder of it. The drink has a really good mixed berry flavor. Not too sweet, and very flavorful. The actual berry flavor comes across more clearly than the fruit flavoring in the other 3 drinks. Definitely one that I recommend.

So there you have it. Has anyone else tried the new AMP Energy drinks? Any thoughts on them?

(Disclaimer: I got free samples of these drinks because the company I work for has been promoting them. However, I am not involved with this client or campaign in any way.)