Archer Farms Sugar-Free Cherry Citrus Energy Drink

The first thing that hit me about this energy drink when I tried it for the first time was that it tasted sugar-free. Neither the grapefruit flavor nor the pomegranate blueberry flavor tasted like "lite" options. But with this flavor, there's even a sort of fake sweetener aftertaste—this sour chemical tinge that lingers on the tongue, and it's pretty nasty.

It does taste slightly of cherry, but then that cherry-esque essence gives way to an unpleasant aspartame-like flavor. I checked the ingredients and there isn't any actual aspartame. Maybe it's the sucralose or one of the many unpronounceable chemicals that rounds out the list of additives.

I also couldn't taste the "citrus" flavor mentioned on the packaging. I guess maybe adding citric acid to a product justifies calling it "citrus" flavored, but it doesn't really work if you add another flavor like cherry, too. The cherry flavor will overshadow the "citrus" flavor of the citric acid every time.

But, on the plus side, the drink does have caffeine. It did wake me up. It has B vitamins, ginseng, taurine, vitamin C, and all that good stuff.

And with only 10 calories, I guess I can't complain. Although, I'd really prefer a diet soda, most of which have 0 calories, over this beverage. I'm really not sure why it has even 10 calories.

This is definitely something I won't buy in the future. If I want a low-calorie option, I'll take the grapefruit flavor over this one any day. If I want a mid-calorie option, I'll take the blueberry pomegranate flavor.


Bottom line: 5 out of 10.