BAWLS Guarana: Cherry

Brand: BAWLS Guarana
Flavor: Cherry

Caffeine Content: 103mg

Other Notable Ingredients:

• High-fructose Corn Syrup (a big deal for some, and an ingredient of which I am personally not a fan)
• Sugars - 25g
• Carbs - 25g (likely all from sugars)
• Guarana Extract

Calorie count per serving: 90

Serving size: 8oz. (or half of the 16oz. can)

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Now, to be fair to BAWLS (yes, I intend to fully capitalize it throughout the review), they do market this as a highly-caffeinated guarana soda, so the presence of HFCS shouldn't come as that much of a surprise, nor should the lack of B vitamins or other supplements. That said, I'm going to review this for what it is on its own merits, not as a typical energy drink.

Original BAWLS has, honestly, always been a favorite of mine, so when ThinkGeek ran out of the blue BAWLS (go ahead, get the giggle out of your system) and the Exxtra, I decided to go ahead and jump right in with the cherry for the first time ever.

First impression: This stuff tastes kind of like the old-school cherry 7Up. Not that Anti-oxidant stuff; I haven't actually tried that version yet (which should tell you how long it's been since I've had a cherry 7Up since I don't think they make it without the anti-oxidants anymore). No, this is like the stuff from my childhood, which is a point in its favor; the only problem is that it's slightly blander than the 7Up version. I've had friends compare it more to the Luden's cherry cough drops (you know, the good kind that came in a box and always stuck together but tasted just like candy), so as with anything, YMMV. It's relatively sweet, it's smooth, it goes down easy (provided you like cherry), and is still unmistakably BAWLS-y. (See what I did there? See? ...No, I'm not proud of myself.)

It is, however, colorless, which oddly disappointed me. I don't know why I expected it to be red inside, but it was kind of a let-down when it came out clear. That's just a side-note, though, and isn't going to impact its rating.

Flavor Rating: 4/5 For a soda, particularly one that's got the evil HFCS in it, it could have been a little bit sweeter with a bit more tang to highlight the cherry flavor.

Energy-wise, it definitely gave me a boost that lasted a good few hours; however (likely due to the lack of other supplements and the presence of the HFCS), I did wind up crashing afterward. It sustains, sustains, sustains...then very abruptly, it does not. I had to take an energy shot to get through the last hour of work and the commute home, which is never a good thing. I knocked back the entire 16oz can at around 11am and by 3:30/4pm was popping the energy shot, so there's that.

Energy Rating: 4/5 I honestly expected it to last longer.

Side-effect Rating: 3.5/5 The crash was unpleasant.

Overall Rating: ~3.8/5