One of the constants in caffeinated products has been bigger and better. Every product comes to the board proclaiming loudly that they are badder, bigger, and more caffeinated then the last three, combined. How often do the product promises actually ring true? Well I was recently graced with a chance to try a product which has every right to be loud and proud. Foosh Energy Mints which declare themselves Seriously Caffeinated, are product of Vroom Foods Inc . Love the onomatopoeia in the names by the by. They are also caffeinated mints. Mint flavored lozenges with a hefty dose of caffeine is a better description for these things, not dainty little tic tacs but serious business. I consider myself a seriously caffeinated individual so I couldn’t wait to give them a trial run.

The Claims:

I like Simple claims and easily provable or disprovable grounds to judge products on.

• Claim #1: As much caffeine as a cup of coffee
• Claim #2: Good tasting mints

Like I said Simple enough for anyone to give it a run down.

Whats Inside:

According to the packaging there is 100mg of caffeine in each mint, which equates roughly to the amount of caffeine you would see in a standard cup of Coffee, which runs on average from 80 mg – 140mg. That’s simple enough. They also include a healthy dose of “B vitamins, Ginseng, and Taurine” A quick check of the label saw that all doses of vitamins are below the recommended daily allowances so I felt safe to continue. There are plenty of products out there which overload you with a B vitamin cocktail, and i just don’t feel like turning my body into an FDA lab.

Taste:

This is a big category for me. While I like caffeinated products as a whole they have a very heavy bitter taste to them, and more often than not i end up with a sour mouthfeel after trying a product. That was not to be the case with these. The mints themselves while a bit on the large side have a nice and sweet taste, provided you don’t suck on them for a half hour like a jolly rancher. The longer you keep them in your mouth the more the sweetness seems to wear off, but only after 5 or more minutes. Most normal people have long since chewed that little guy up like the fuel for your engine that it is.

Effects:

I am not a person sensitive to caffeine by any stretch of the imagination, just take one look at how much coffee i drink on a daily average and you get and idea. So i was very pleasantly surprised to see the effects of the mint quite evident. I did not get the jitters, or the shakes from the mints, I felt energized. Which is right about what one cup of good coffee would do to me.

Cost:

According to Vroom Food’s Website the tins with 12 mints inside cost around $3.99 per unit, you can buy 3 packs of the 6 serving blister packs for $6.75, and if you really feel like going for it you could always snag a case of tins for $37.00, that’s 144 mints. The prices are right in line with most other products in the market so not big upside or downside there. If you compare the cost vs a cup of coffee then the mints are far cheaper depending on the vendor. I love coffee and would never replace it but this makes an easy to travel alternative.

Conclusion:

I even conducted a wider taste and effect experiment. I collected about 5 of my coffee loving and interested friends. We all had one mint before heading out for my friends bachelor party, normally we would have stopped off for coffee before heading out. Needless to say the night was epic… am I directly associating the caffeine buzz with the great times? No I’m not but i am telling you that every single person who went with us that night had plenty of energy, liked the taste of the mints and asked me for more mints the next time we were all headed out. Overall its a great product at a reasonable price of $3.99 per 6-pack. Think of the coffee bill otherwise. Seriously Caffeinated indeed. I just might need to pick up a shirt, its not just about the mint at that point its how I live my life in general.