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Full Throttle Original
Great taste for a citrus beverage, but pure citrus is an overused flavor. Average amount of caffeine and smooth mouth feel make it a solid energy drink, but there are superior beverages out there.
Overall
7
Taste
7.1
Appearance
8.1
Kick
4
Intro
Full Throttle is a drink I used to have very frequently in high school. It brings back those nostalgic feelings of the first energy drinks I ever had excessively. Then in college, they were cheap and widely available, so I would have them every Friday and Saturday night before going out as a young freshman. Now that I am older with a more refined palette for energy drink quality, I can see how Full Throttle is just an above average drink. I gave it a 7/10 because it is one of the better pure citrus flavors out there. That being said, citrus by itself is not an optimal flavor because it is not special or unique in any way. Full Throttle is a solid energy drink, but it is not as special as I once thought.
Upside
The main upside is that if you like citrus, you will love the original Full Throttle. It has 55g of sugar, so there is no need for artificial sweetener. This leaves it with a sweet citrus aftertaste that is superior to most of the artificial citrus beverages. I also really enjoy the mouth feel. It has the perfect amount of carbonation that makes it feel like an energy drink, but still quite smooth. Also, the Full Throttle logo is bold and one of my favorites across a pure black background. There are no colors to make it overly flashy, but it still always stands out from the other brands to me.
Downside
55g of sugar means there are 230 Calories in Full Throttle (220 of them from the sugar itself). Most Full throttle flavors (14 of them) have actually been discontinued, so you will probably never see new Full Throttle flavors unless they miraculously start being produced again by Monster. This is not a downside to the original Full Throttle beverage itself, but the original review seemed like the right place to mention this. Besides the sugar, the only downside is that the caffeine is at 160mg per can (10/floz), which makes the kick sub-par compared to many other energy drinks. Its ubiquitous citrus flavor along with a below average kick limit the original Full Throttle from being anything more than a 7/10.
Upshot
For a citrus beverage, the taste is fantastic. That being said, pure citrus is too common of an energy drink flavor to be exciting to me. There is an average amount of caffeine and a smooth mouth feel, so all these variables combine to create a 7/10 energy drink. I used to think the original Full Throttle was fantastic until I started reviewing far superior energy drinks. It is still a solid beverage, but there are better energy drinks out there.
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