Have you ever spotted this unique 10 oz blue glass bottle? Featuring "grip control bumps," this interesting shape holds Bawls Guarana, a "high caffeine soda." Or in laymen's terms, an energy drink.
Bawls Guarana High Caffeine Soda
Per a CNN interview from 1998, company founder Hoby Buppert explained that the unusual name "represents a state of mind. Bawls is a very common slang term — to be bold and daring — and that's how we see the product." A popular drink on college campuses and with military personnel, the company ran into financial problems in 2009 that forced out the original founders. As a result, Bawls pretty much became a nonexistent brand, disappearing from store shelves. A new investment group (Bawls Acquisition LLC) purchased the assets and resumed operations in 2010, resulting in the company and product line we have today. The revived operation has even purchased other brands, including Crunk Energy Drink.
The main hook behind Bawls is the high level of caffeine derived from the Guarana berry. This 10 oz bottle contains 65 mg of caffeine, which breaks down to 6.5 mg/oz. For comparison, regular Mountain Dew contains 4.5 mg/oz., Red Bull 9.64 mg/oz., and Monster Energy 10.0 mg/oz.
When you twist off the bottlecap, you are greeted with a slight citrus scent. The drink itself is clear in color, and presents a light flavor, hinting a lemon/lime flavor note sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. There's light carbonation, with a slight taste of "energy-ish" elements in the aftertaste, notably the Guarana. There's a decent caffeine "buzz" that's hard to miss, but as noted, it doesn't contain as much as leading energy products.
Overall, for an energy product, Bawls Guarana has a great taste. In fact, that taste can be deceiving, as you could find yourself easily digesting multiple bottles based on taste alone, resulting in a substantial caffeine boost. The product packaging is excellent and distinctive, doing a wonderful job of differentiating the product from others in the category. The higher caffeine level is attractive to those looking for the effects of a stimulant, while not sitting as such a high level as to scare away those who may be overwhelmed by the likes of Red Bull or Monster.
Bawls Guarana High Caffeine Soda
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural guarana extract, sodium benzoate (as a preservative), caffeine, natural and artificial flavors, and caramel coloring.A 10 oz bottle contains 120 calories, 35 mg sodium, and 32 g carbs (32 g sugars)
Gotta love Bawls. It is too bad that it is typically more expensive than most other energy drinks.
I can tell by the bottle that you guys have reviewed the old recipe for Bawls. Can I request that you buy the new recipe and submit another review? The new bottles have "Manufactured for Hobarama" under the ingredient list and have a white star with a K in the middle. I used to drink this stuff like water but that is no longer the case. They "I'm assuming for more profit" decided to change their flavoring from natural & artificial to strictly artificial. Before there were two distinct flavors we knew to be "original", the slightly sweet more crisp and flavorful bawls in the blue bottle, and the hyper sweet, more mcdonalds clown koolaid like mystery flavor in the blue can that had only been listed as artificially flavored. After all, you didn't really think you could get almost twice the amount in the can for the same price as the bottle did you? Well now they pump the same junk into both the bottle and the can and it is just downright sad; it gives you a small hint of taste of what it used to be but also makes you want to gag because of the aftertaste that ensues shortly there after. It's like when a restaurant gives you a diet coke instead of a coke zero; to the occasional drinker, they probably won't notice much, to the die hard fan, they aren't fooling anybody. I guess the new owners of Bawls are just as greedy as everyone else, profit is more important than customer satisfaction and product quality. I would rather pay a few more cents a bottle for the good stuff than pay anything for this cough syrup-esque concoction of chemically flavored corn syrup water. It's unfortunate that even my favorite drink has now been ruined by corporate America.
Mr. "Another corporate ruined product", why would a new bottle of Bawls have "Manufactured for Hobarama" written on it, when Hobarama LLC is the company that failed, with Bawls being rebooted by Bawls Acquisition LLC?
Unfortunately that's a question for someone at Bawls HQ, I've asked that along with other questions with no reply so far. The outside of the box is marked Feb 11/12 and they were just purchased Monday from thinkgeek.com who is an official supplier. My local gas station who sells Cherry, diet, and root beer favors all have the Hobarama label as well and they get their supply straight from Bawls. Whatever is going on at their plant apparanty wasn't fixed with new owners.