If, like me, you travel a lot, you must be dealing with the issue of transporting your supplements. When I discovered C4 Drink, a pre-made version of a popular pre-workout drink, I had to give it a try. But does it make sense to invest in it? Isn't it just a money grab with a rubbish formula? Does it taste even a little bit acceptable? Find out that and much more in our review today.
Content of the review
I originally decided to try this pre-workout because the original pre-workout from this company has done very well in our comparison of pre-workout supplements. And to make matters worse, we tried three of the four available flavours. More on that in a moment.
Unfortunately, the ingredients are hidden behind a proprietary blend
When we took a closer look at the ingredients, we weren't too impressed. In addition to vitamins and minerals, the blend contains the so-called Explosive Performance Energy blend, which hides these substances:
- Citrulline malate for maximum NO concentration and thus better pumping
- Beta alanine for a pleasant tingling sensation in the limbs and improved strength, energy and endurance
- Betaine anhydrous to improve nutrient utilization and promote protein metabolism
- N-acetyl-L-tyrosine for proper adrenaline and noradrenaline production
- 200mg of caffeine anhydrous for better fat burning and maximum concentration for training
While these ingredients are well-chosen pre-workout ingredients, they are nonetheless high incaffeine, we don't know the exact amount, so the composition is a bit harder to judge. However, it can be assumed that the concentration of these substances will be insufficient, as only effective will giveof citrulline is approximately 6 grams, whereas the entire mixture contained in one can is some 6,73 grams. Leaving aside the non-transparent composition, which detracts a lot from my overall impression, there is another negative.
Almost half of the flavours contain brilliant blue, which according to many scientific studies is a carcinogenic dye that is even banned in many countries around the world.
On the other hand, the relatively high caffeine content (i.e. 200mg per can) and zero carbohydrate or fat content can be considered positive which makes this pre-workout a relatively good supplement for the end of some more drastic diets. But if a few grams of sugar isn't your thing, there are certainly better alternatives.
Compositionally, C4 Drink is more or less an uninteresting supplement - the lack of concentration of the constituentsof active ingredients and the use of carcinogenic dye are not compelling reasons to buy it again.
The extremely high price tag, which is a tax on convenience
One of the undeniable benefits of the pre-workout in drink form is undoubtedly convenience. You don't need to carry a shaker with you, you don't need to fill up water anywhere. Just open the can and drink the whole drink. Drink for . And that's another of the problems we run into with C4 Drink.
Even the best pre-workouts from our comparison of pre-workout drinks still cost significantly less than what you'd pay for a single can of this supplement. Unfortunately, just because of that high price alone, I think most athletes probably won't invest in it. And honestly I don't even recommend it if you have any other option.
The taste and color will attract any chemistry lover
In order for me to maybe think about buying more pre-workouts in a can from this company, I would have to be very surprised by the taste. And surprise it did, however a little differently than I originally expected. The flavor is really artificial, some flavors are completely colorless and look like sparkling water, yet have flavor and aroma. The detailed evaluation of the flavours looks something like this:
- Frozen bombsicle (4/10) was a flavour that was quite strongly reminiscent of raspberry. However, it was a little confusing to the senses that the colour was transparent and the whole drink didn't smell very appealing. When it cooled in the fridge, however, it was refreshing and the taste wasn't downright bad, but I definitely wouldn't have it more often, if only because of the brilliant blue. We therefore give it only 4 points out of 10.
- Tropical (4/10) was the only flavour we tasted that was colourful, but more or less the same in terms of taste. Again, the chemical taste is more than noticeable, it doesn't contain as many bubbles, but I found it even sweeter. I also give it 4 points out of 10.
- Strawberry and Watermelon (3.5/10) was another transparent and chemical flavour we tasted. Again, it was completely transparent and unnatural, plus you would be hard pressed to find a watermelon flavor. It deserves only 3.5 points out of 10 from us.
So, as you can see, we weren 't impressed with the C4 drink in terms of taste either. Moreover, it should be noted that this drink had to be served chilled, because it tasted much worse unchilled. But if you need a fridge to chill it, the pre-workout loses one of the most significant positives, namely practicality.
Final assessment
Basically, I don't see a single reason to invest in this drink. Unless it's chilled, it's not going to be very appealing to you anyway, the ingredients doesn't provide what it should at an extremely high price, and our overall impression is very negative. Yet we were so pleased with C4 Original that we included it in the above-mentioned ranking. Unfortunately, this drink is a big disappointment for us.