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Jamba Juice has a new line of energy drinks that go with their new slogan, “Get Positively Charged!”And to give their new products a kick start in the market, they sent me, yes me! a coupon for a free drink! Wait, you got one, too?

I decided to try the Acai Supercharger. The superfruit, acai, contains the guarana, which supplies natural caffeine. It also contains a mild stimulant called theophylline that doesn’t sound very natural to me, it sure sounds like it could do a number on my brain. I ordered it. And then I got all kinds of crazy and asked for an Energy Boost, too. That’s B vitamins, ginseng, ginkgo biloba, rhodiola and guarana. That’s a lot of guarana.

I haven’t slept since Wednesday.

Just kidding.

But seriously, I drank the Acai Supercharger, with soymilk, raspberry sherbet, strawberries, blueberries, and ice, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, and basically stayed awake with no trouble for 12 hours. I didn’t even feel sleepy until 3 am. Scary.

The funny thing is, the Acai Supercharger, with 40 mg of caffeine, is still lower in caffeine than a single 8 ounce cup of brewed coffee, which has 135 mg of caffeine. For what it’s worth, Red Bull has 80 mg, one cup of Haagen Dazs Coffee Ice Cream has 58 mg, and a Diet Coke has 47 mg. Wait, what? Diet Coke only has 47 mg of caffeine? I feel so cheated. Incidentally, those two Excedrin taken earlier for the heavy metal migraine – 130 mg caffeine. But back to the powerful 40 mg of caffeine in the Supercharger…

Up until 3 am? I got it. Sugar rush.

Do people even realize how much sugar a smoothie contains? All that sugar is what accounts for the whopping 570 calories in single 24 ounce Acai Supercharger. That’s more than the 510 calorie quarter pounder with cheese at my least favorite burger joint.

That evil McSmoothiebucks’ marketing worked because now I am addicted. Makes you kinda wonder what’s really in those “boosts.”

By sarah (see more of her posts). You can find more of sarah's writing at her own website The Delicious Life