This obviously isn’t a food blog, but the good folks at Go Fast Sports recently dropped off some samples. Since many climbers love their energy drinks, I thought a review would be welcome.
While they mainly distribute in the Rocky Mountain region, Colorado based Go Fast appears to be aggressively expanding. Their main pitch over competing energy drinks is the distinct (better tasting) flavor and natural ingredients which are perfect for athletes who may carry a bow case.
While Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar and the like dominate the market, Go Fast definitely has an angle with their approach.
I tried four flavors of Go Fast – regular, light, Z17, and GFTea. While the branding is a bit confusing, the taste of all but one was quite good.
Each of the drinks had light carbonation, no preservatives, no aspartame, and no high fructose corn syrup. Those are some pretty decent selling points. Unfortunately, something still needs to be used as a sweetener so Go Fast uses sucralose. There have been numerous documented negatives of each so it may be a wash. For their high energy mix, each drink has a high dose of caffeine, ginseng, ribose, and guarana.
The original flavor, my least favorite, had a distinct cherry/strawberry taste. I dislike cherry flavoring so even a hint of it is enough for me to pass on this one. The light version had much of the same flavor, but it was subdued and much easier to drink (with a bonus of less calories).
The Z17 and GFTea flavors tasted much better to me and were the only ones I would actually purchase. I’m not sure how to describe the flavor of Z17, but as you can guess from the name the GFTea tasted, well, like tea. The company says it contains a mix of white, green, and black teas which is definitely a welcome change from most of the other energy drinks on the market.
My main concern with all energy drinks is the high levels of taurine they add. Every one I’ve read the ingredients for include around 1000mg of taurine per serving. That’s 2000mg in one of those standard 16oz cans you see everywhere.
There’s not a lot of evidence that taurine is necessarily bad for you, but a high dose of anything is enough to make me pause. Granted, not enough to not drink these at all, but definitely enough to never drink more than one per day.
Overall I like the approach here. Go Fast is trying to tackle a pretty saturated market with a unique twist. If you’re looking for a better tasting energy drink, I can definitely recommend giving the Go Fast lineup a try.
2 Comments
these are on sale for 50 cents at a local shure-fine grocer, out of date by a month or so, and I took the bait. OMG these taste terrible! Its like apple juice mixed with grape zarex, disgusting!!! That being said.. they WORK, much more so than the other brands.
Tastes like 5 hour energy shot, watered down.