Tested: Del Monte Bloom Energy

As far as I knew, Del Monte just did canned fruits and fruit juice. But last year they made the jump into the energy drink market with Bloom Energy.

I found it by accident one day when I was buying an Ito En Sencha Shot and browsing all the super-unhealthy energy drinks - and then I saw this bright silver can with the Del Monte logo.

I checked it out and was quite surprised to see a list of healthy ingredients! A full serving of fruit, vitamins, etc. Naturally, I bought one of each flavor (wild berry, mango passion fruit, and cran raspberry) so I could do a taste test.

Starting with Mango Passionfruit:

The taste? Good. Almost great.

The mango flavor tastes nice, it’s very tropical and flavorful. It’s definitely thick like mango juice but with that lightly carbonated crispness that makes it refreshing.

And now Cran Raspberry:

The taste? Pretty good.

The cran raspberry is nice, but unfortunately it ranks at the bottom of my list. It has the standard cranberry flavor, but a little dull. Luckily it’s not sour or overpowering; instead, you really notice the raspberry.

Finally, Wild berry:

The taste? Great.

Wild berry tastes freaking awesome! Again, there’s that slightly carbonated flavor, kind of like sparkling grape juice, but with a hint of raspberry in there. In other words, really good.

While all the flavors are pretty good, I LOVE the wild berry!

Now we can talk about that energy boost (or “bloom” as they say.)

There’s not much to talk about though, since the energy kick isn’t really there. If you’re drowsy you’ll feel more upbeat and awake, but it’s not a crazy boost like those other energy drinks like Monster and Red Bull.

However it does contain taurine, ginseng, etc, like most energy drinks.

That reminds me, the ingredients…

There’s no high fructose corn syrup or other crap like that. It has fruit juice concentrates that do a great job of sweetening things up. However, hidden towards the bottom of the list is sucralose. I’m not exactly thrilled about that, considering its link to cancer. I just avoid any kind of artificial sweeteners to play it safe.

But what I don’t understand in this case is why it’s necessary. The juice concentrates should provide plenty of sweetness on their own. (After all, it does have 20g of sugar, which should sweeten things enough.)

And that adds up to 100 calories in a 10.5 oz can.

The price.

Retail is $1.99 so at least it’s cheaper than Red Bull.

My final verdict is…

So yeah it tastes great, like real fruit juice, but even better with that slight bit of carbonation. And it’s full of healthy ingredients.

But then there’s the sucralose. If it wasn’t for the sucralose I’d drink this all the time. As it stands, I won’t be drinking any more.

Seriously, WHY WHY WHY do they need sucralose?? I bet it’s sweet enough with the fruit juice, and it’s full of healthy ingredients so it caters to the health-conscious consumers, unlike Red Bull.

So why does it do all that then turn away those of us who are weary of the dangers from artificial sweeteners???

Del Monte official site: www.drinkbloomenergy.com

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