Anyone taste BAWLS?

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I was just curious if anyone here has drank the energy drink that is marketed heavily for gamers, BAWLS. I ordered two bottles, and I kinda liked the taste. It wasn't sweet, or even tasted great, its an acquired taste like beer. But I can say, this stuff is greatly overrated for energy. I drank both bottles at work and was unimpressed with it, it was like drinking pepsi, and the claim its twice the strength of coffee.

[Endymion]

Bawls is great. It's bottled here in Miami Beach. Ironically however, you still can't find it just anywhere. Publix, the largest local South Florida grocery chain, keeps a good stock of both the regular and the sugar free variety. Of course everybody goes for the non-sugar free blue bottles so at any given time there are a load of clear SF ones on the shelf. 7-11 started an arrangement to stock Bawls at their stores nationwide after keeping Texas and New York well-supplied for about six months, back in March. I can find Bawls at 7-11, but they aren't too aggressive about keeping them in stock because they always sell out and you won't see it there again for weeks at a time.

Bawls is not an energy drink. It isn't advertised as an energy drink. At least I've never seen it advertised as such. It does however contain guarana. Guarana contains caffeine, but it is not caffeine. It has a slightly different/additional chemical composition, and it comes from a berry that is common in South American rainforests, so it occurs naturally. Either or both of these are likely contributing factors, because the feeling is different from caffeine. It keeps me "awake" a lot better than caffeine, in the sense that I'm more alert and about myself; I wouldn't go move furniture or head out for a ballgame after drinking it, but I would grab a couple of these for a long roadtrip before any other soda, or coffee for sure.

Or for gaming all night. The stuff tastes great and I don't really need to chug as much of it as other sodas. It's more like a delicacy. I do wish they had bigger bottles though.

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http://www.xoxide.com/bawls2bottles.html
http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/drinks/2818/
http://svc.com/baendr.html
http://www.frozencpu.com/pad-12.html?id=hAaquwjb

[Endymion]

Okay, but the company doesn't seem to advertise it as anything but a high-caffeine beverage. A real energy drink is going to have all sorts of stuff that Bawls has never had.

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How is a high caffeine drink with guarana and other funky herbal crap not an energy drink? They even sponsor gaming events...

And anyways, I was reffering to how I hear from gamers how it keeps them going all night from one bottle.

[Endymion]

Yes, I'm well aware of what they sponsor, but is coffee an energy drink? There's about as much caffeine in it as a cup of coffee, but of course it's caffeine from the guarana, and that is its main selling point. Whereas an energy drink has Taurine and loads of other amino acids and crap that supposedly fuel the brain somehow, as opposed to merely stimulating. Energy drinks also tend to dehydrate you--with the concentration of the vitamins and such included the bottler will even recommend that you drink more water after having their drink for this very reason. No such disclaimer for Bawls--it is not what I would consider an energy drink. Bawls doesn't have any of this "herbal crap," where do you see that? The ingredients are identical to that of a straight soda, the only difference being the inclusion of guarana.

But as for keeping you up, yes, one bottle has kept me going all night. The first time I had one I rearranged the living room and cleaned out my closets, laundered every stitch of clothing I owned at the time and then played games for the next two hours while waiting for the wash to dry, then continued til the sun was up. If you're into caffeine you should definitely feel the difference between the guarana and caffeine. There are some other genuine energy drinks like SoBe Adrenaline Rush (it's okay) and Mountain Dew Amp (much nicer) that contain guarana and the other non-protein aminos that energy drinks are known for, but I don't like either of them as much as Bawls. Maybe it's an acquired taste but everybody I've recommended it to so far has loved the stuff right off the bat.

More info on Guarana.

[NFG]

About ten years ago I found a drink in Australia called Stuff Cola.  It was really great, and contained Guarana.  It was not a popular product and most people in .au have never heard of it.  I really wish I had 40 more cans of the stuff.

Didn't Josta have guarana in it too?

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Didn't Josta have guarana in it too?

Yes. First time I had Josta was in the cafeteria of the Pittsburgh General Hopstial while my brother was getting brain surgery. Haven't heard of Josta in years. I did a google and found this neat page http://www.murrayhead.com/josta/josta.html