COMPANY: Brand X, LLC - Tucson, AZ

CAN DESIGN: I'm a little torn on the can design. For a juice drink it works. The design is nice and professional. For an energy drink I'm uncertain since the name is Kaboom. I expected something wilder like an exploding orange or something that is going, well, "Kaboom!" I don't think the design will hurt the appeal of the drink when you will see it on the shelf, but it doesn't live up to the name Kaboom and with all the competition surrounding it this can design may be too nice to attract attention. My suggestion would be to have a small explosion of juice or an image in motion that looks refreshing. Something in the image has to go Kaboom otherwise change the name.

CAN DETAILS: 8 FL OZ, 90 Calories

PRICE: This is a sample sent to me by the company so I do not know what they are charging. My guess would be 1.99 or higher.

WEBSITE: The site is still a work in progress but glory hallelujah I can see that the design is good for once. Start up energy drink sites are notorious for using bad template designs overloaded with gray textures. Kaboom's site relies on it's logo and is a step in the right direction. We shall have to see what they do to fill out the site since there's not much there yet. Again, I believe site content to be crucial to marketing so what can an Organic Energy Drink do to entertain visitors? First off, bash the high sugar drinks that promise energy but maybe don't live up to it--I want to see a brawl. If Kaboom hypes itself as "Infinite Energy" then let's see some test cases of individuals trying out the drink to stimulate their day, maybe even in comparison to someone who downs a Red Bull. There are plenty of ways to have fun with this.

TASTE: So it almost sounds like this is just a juice; there's no carbonation, no sugar overload, just natural ingredients. Why should this even be included in the Soda Wars? Okay, it shouldn't, as far as soda goes. But Kaboom does fall into the Energy Drink Classification for two reasons:
1. Unusual Taste
2. Hype
The taste falls into that "can't quite describe" category that most energy drinks fall into. It is a mixture of tropical fruits. My first sip left me unsure if I liked it but then after a couple of swallows I got used to it and eventually had to stop myself from drinking all of the samples so I could save one for this review. It's a perfect drink for the morning. To be honest I can't quite describe the taste except that it has mango, green tea and unnamed natural flavors. What that adds up to is something similar to mango but sweeter and not quite mango--make sense? The drink is also not heavy, as in real juice. That's a plus for me since Orange Juice, which I like, can sometimes upset my stomach or make me feel too full.

AFTERTASTE: A little mango taste left on the tongue but again it's not heavy like juice normally is.

SUSTAINED EFFECTS: Here's the hard part. Kaboom claims to be "Organic Energy" or natural energy that is better than the manufactured-super-sweet-false-sense-of-energy that Monster and it's predecessors provide. How can I verify that?
Well, it is pretty obvious to me that sodas/energy drinks overloaded with sugar and caffeine will make you crash. Though I must admit that Rockstar Juiced and Monster Khaos are pretty good about not doing that to me (maybe the secret is juice in general). I drank Kaboom three times in a row in the morning to get my day started, and whether it is the drink or whether it is psychological, I did feel pretty good. Let's face it, a drink based on juice is probably going to do you much better than one on sugar and caffeine.
But then when we guzzle energy drinks I would hope most of us understand that we are drinking hype and like the hype--which is the reason for all of the crazy names. Kaboom may not appeal to the Monster lover, it's in a different category I believe. However, even Monster lovers have to drink juice once in awhile and Kaboom is a good choice (depending on the price). If you're burned out on the usual energy drinks I'd give Kaboom a try.
I would note that why I consider Kaboom to be hyping is that I don't necessarily think "Organic" is better. There is a lot of hype with the word "organic" and my philosophy has always been that what is natural isn't always safer for humans. Nature is out to kill us in many cases and has evolved ways of protecting itself, not to mention that ecoli and other icky things crawling on plantlife would like to bring us down too. I'm fine with pesticides and man's interference in our food products as long as the evidence shows that it's still safe. Sometimes "organic" may be the best way to go and other times it may not.

OVERALL: Kaboom is promising and yet it may have an identity problem with energy drink fans. The hype is there and the taste is good, but if you put it up against competitors like Red Bull I think it would lose. It seems to be in a different category, maybe one that is still building and that is Energy Drinks for the Health Conscious. "Organic Energy" or "Natural Energy" may be next in line to compete for our drinking dollars. True, there are plenty of juice drinks out there already but they aren't blatantly aiming at the energy drink market. Kaboom is by the very fact that they named their drink "Kaboom." I think they may need to step it up a bit in their image. They don't want to alienate buyers of organic products but they do have to attract Energy Drink eyes and they look for something that excites them.

WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN? Yes, depending on price. I'd like to see this in six packs for a reasonable price.

GENERAL COMMENTS: Kaboom has a way to go to gather enough attention to be a success. Taste is not enough. Marketing is going to have to decide what to do with what is really an organic juice trying to nudge its way inbetween Red Bull and Monster. Something has to explode in order to justify that name.