Shot & GO - Hemp Flavoured Cannabis Energy Drink
i haven’t even cracked this open and i can already smell the gimmick. to add insult to injury, not only is it one of those “cannabis” products, but it claims to be an energy drink too. the sickly yellow of the packaging does a poor job of suggesting 420 blaze it. instead, it’s playing a little too hard on the whole weed movement thing and comes across as shallow. not only that, but the package reads “this product does not contain thc.” bummer, dude.
i shall keep an open mind as i deal even more damage to my heart and liver. speaking of damage - it says so on the tin: this is not to be consumed by children, breast feeding or pregnant women. with 32 milligrams of caffeine per 100ml, it should be comparable to a strong cup of tea, but compounded with the sugar and taurine, it is unlikely to be a healthy choice.
taste profile: it smells like Red Bull - candy-like cream soda. there’s barely anything else discernible in there, though it may be a little tamer than most energy drinks i’ve sampled. it’s sweet, but palatable - right from the start, the sweet is offset by the sour, and the latter stickily persists all the way through to the aftertaste. it’s not poorly balanced at all, in fact, but there is little to bridge the transition from hard candy to lemon. not much else to describe here - it’s Red Bull, but repurposed into a slightly better tasting “cannabis” drink. speaking of which - as hard as i’m trying, i can’t make out any hint of the cannabis. other similarly marketed drinks have had a hint of herby, slightly pungent flavour (think yerba mate), but none of this is present in Shot & GO’s product.
rating: 6/10. it’s probably bad for you, it fails to deliver on its USP, it’s gimmicky, but the flavour is reasonably well balanced (in energy drink terms, at least). at 32mg/100ml caffeine content, it will likely keep you awake during long drives, but for those regularly chugging down coffee, it may fall short of expectations.
background - based on its website, the company was founded in 2003. the marketing surrounding Shot&GO drinks is exactly what you would expect: extreme sports, scantily clad women, music festivals. they even do a bit of influencer endorsement on the Romanian variant’s instagram page. all in all, it’s not poorly put together at all; as always, all i’m trying to figure out is how any of these products are supposed to make a dent in an already oversaturated market.
