Diet Food Reviews
Bloom Energy Drink
By: | Jun 5, 2007
I was never a heavy coffee drinker until close to the end of graduate school when staying up all night was a necessity, and I can still remember the weird, hyper, jittery feeling I got when I drank my first few energy drink! Unfortunately, my body is now used to way more caffeine than it should be, so I have recently committed to no longer shocking my system with those massive amounts of caffeine from energy drinks like Rush (Lite). But there are times when you can find me up late working on this website (and Inthegym.net) and I still need a little help keeping my eyes open (especially the next day), so I was glad when I saw that Del Monte is now making Bloom Energy Drink: 50% fruit juice and the caffeine (74 mg per can) is mostly from white tea with a little help from guarana seed extract.
Bloom Energy Drink is "specially formulated for women" (whatever that means) and comes in 3 flavors, Mango Passionfruit, Cran Raspberry and Wild Berry (which has raspberry, acai and pomegranate fruit juice concentrates). Each can has one full serving of fruit and is "antioxidant rich" according to the manufacturers, but I don't seen a value for just how much antioxidant is in each can. The taste is sweet and slightly tart from the carbonation. It is definitely less harsh and better tasting than most energy drinks and there was definitely a "perk me up" effect that kept me away from my usual after-work coffee. I liked all the flavors really, but Cran Raspberry is my favorite one.
One 10.5 ounce cup of Bloom Energy Drink has 100 calories and 24 grams of total carbohydrates, of which 20 grams is sugar. There is 100% of the daily amount for vitamins B6, B12, C, riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid.
There is no added sugar but they do use the artificial sweetener acesulfame K and sucralose (Splenda). I got sent a few samples of Bloom and the suggested retail price is $1.99 per can! It was good - but not that good. Definitely go for it if you are trying to wean yourself off the zillion milligrams of caffeine in some of the more potent energy drinks, but as for the health benefits, I remain unconvinced - eat an apple. I think a bag with 8 or so is just a little over $2.50!
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Great review. I am gonna try the drink for myself when I get a chance. If you ever in Winchester hit me up at wincfood.com
If caffeine comes from white tea or coffee, what's the difference? I don't think it makes it any healthier.
Here's a question hopefully someone can help me with. If something is sweetened with splenda, then why is there an exorbitant amount of sugar anyhow? Just curious.
MaryAnne, I'm guessing that the exorbitant amount of sugars come from the natural sugars found in the fruit like fructose. That's why light yogurt like yoplait light has around 14g of sugar despite being artificially sweetened because of the natural sugars like lactose in milk.
MaryAnne, the last commenter is right - it's from the fruit juice and you can add way less sweetener than the amount of sugar to get the same sweetener. And the caffeine - it's not the source as much as the amount.
It sounded good until I saw at the bottom of your post with these ingredients "artificial sweetener acesulfame K and sucralose (Splenda)", which means I'll stick to coffee(French Roast, no sugar).
Thanks. I guess I should have figured that. It leads me to another question though- is sugar from fruit, different than sugar in say a power bar, ice cream, or soda? Can the body really tell the difference?
Good question MaryAnne. The body treats sugars the same regardless of source. So fructose in fruit is treated the same as crystalline fructose added to fruits. Sucrose is the same whether it's evaporated cane juice or added sugar.
Just a side note: Dole doesn't make Bloom; DEl MONTE FOODS does.
this is one of the greatest energy drinks when you can get it for 60 cents