You might recall back in February when I posted about wanting to cancel my service with Verizon Wireless.  After almost 10 years of service with the company I felt completely let down as a loyal customer and was ready to walk.  At the time it was my second attempt to try and upgrade my phones early and get some sort of break, but the company refused to budge.  Even after speaking with multiple sales people and a store manager, I left the Corona Crossings location empty handed.

After a few months of shopping other providers I was teetering on the idea of whether or not to give Verizon another chance.  After all for over 7 years now the company has had exceptional service, it wasn’t until this past February that they really disappointed me.  So today, when my wife went to pay our cell phone bill and inquired about upgrading and was told we could upgrade to the Blackberry Storm at a significantly discounted rate, AND charge it to our monthly bill I decided now was a better time than ever to give Verizon Wireless a chance…Boy was I wrong.

This evening my wife and I went into the store tinkered with the Blackberry Storm for a bit and both decided it was in fact what we wanted.  The sales manager we were dealing with confirmed that we were in fact eligible for the upgrade as well as the Blackberry promotion to buy one get one which made the two Storm’s and a few accessories just over $200.  When we expressed that we wished to charge it to our account the manager told us that he wouldn’t know if we were eligible for that until the end (Something the other salesperson that my wife spoke with earlier failed to mention).

Though wary because of past experiences like this I told the sales manager to go ahead and proceed and after about 20 minutes in the store we are disappointed to find out that we are apparently ineligible to receive the charge to our account because we have had a few late bills and a few instances where our phones were shut off.

I’ll admit that we don’t have a perfect track record, but even in the instances where our service has been disconnected we have paid the amount needed to have it reconnected within an hour of it going down EVERY time.  Not to mention if you look at my nearly 10 year history with them it’s only gotten to that point over the last year or so due to various hardships we had run into.  Again after some serious aggravation and discussion I again was forced to leave the store empty handed because the manager couldn’t do anything for me.

My biggest problem with this situation isn’t that we were denied billing the phones to our account, I get that there are consequences for late payments and such; my problem is that the salesperson my wife spoke with previously said we could and he had our account information in front of him at that time.

Even more so I am upset because this is the second time this particular Verizon Wireless store has let me down.  The biggest kicker here?  They won’t let me out of my contract until August yet they have failed to hold up their end of the contract and provide me the kind of service I expected from them when I signed that 2 year agreement.  Why are so many companies during these tough times doing even worse to keep customers happy?  Why in a down economy do you want to turn away customers willing to spend the money, it just doesn’t make sense.

Happy Friday everyone!  Welcome to my second installment of the new feature on my blog, Fuel for the Weekend, where I will review five energy drinks on flavor, energy factor, smell, and more.  Last week I took on five from Monster Energy and this week I decided to take on Mountain Dew’s Amp Energy.

Amp Energy

The original energy drink from the makers of Mountain Dew doesn’t fall far from the tree.  When you crack open a can of Amp Energy you get a wiff of a familiar citrus smell that Mountain Dew drinkers will quickly associate with, but the Mountain Dew kick doesn’t stop there.  Amp Energy carries a citrus flavor, with a strong lime kick that reminded me a lot of Mountain Dew itself.

One thing I noticed about Amp Energy is again, much like Mountain Dew, the drink creates a bit of a film in your mouth and keeps a citrus flavor for a significant time after drinking it.  Fortunately for fans of Amp, I found that the flavor consistency continued even after the drink sat at room temperature so this drink can last you through the morning and still be pleasing to the pallette.  The downside I found to Amp Energy is that the energy factor just wasn’t there for me.  I didn’t find the kick to be much more than that of your everyday soda.

Amp Energy Sugar Free

Amp Energy Sugar free is the “diet” version of Amp Energy.  Boasting being “low on calories, high on power” Amp Energy takes their classic flavor and strips it down for the more health concious drinkers.  Sadly they stripped Amp of much of it’s taste with this dieth makeover as well.  Amp Energy Sugar Free has a very light citrus smell that isn’t noticable upon opening the can.  Sadly, what it lacks in scent it also lacks in flavor. Amp Energy Sugar free tastes like a watered down version of Amp Energy.  It still has the citrus taste, but nowhere near as strong as that found in Amp Energy.

Amp Energy Sugar free also packs a bit of a punch in the carbonation department.  I found that Amp Energy Sugar Free had a bit more of a bite to it in terms of carbonation when you drink it.  What I found most interseting about Amp Energy Sugar Free was that as it got warmer the taste got sweeter.  It’s almost as though the sweetness is somehow enhanced by warmth.  Again, the energy factor is sub-par in my opinion and only packed about as much punch as your average soda.

Amp Energy Overdrive

What many would call the “Red Amp”, Amp Energy Overdrive is the cherry flavored variation of Amp Energy.  Cracking open a can of Amp Energy Overdrive gives you a sweet inviting smell of cherry when you first open the can.  Sadly, the sweetness ends there.

The flavor of Amp Energy Overdrive reminded me a lot of drinking grenadine straight.  It doesn’t posess the sweet cherry flavor so many soft drinks have come to posess.  Instead it contains the more bitter flavor similar to that of a real cherry or grenadine.

Like the Amp Energy Sugar Free, Overdrive has a bit of a bite to it in terms of carbonation and doesn’t go down as smooth as the original Amp Energy.  Long term falvor on Overdrive is also lacking since it seems to get worse in taste as it reaches room temperature.  The one plus to Overdrive is that the yerba mate ingredient seems to give this one a bit more of a kick in comparison to other Amp’s.

Amp Energy Elevate

The “blue Amp” introduces us to the berry variety of Amp Energy.  It’s scent is very pleasing when you first open the can and reminds me of my days as a youth enjoying the rasberry blue Blow Pops.  This enjoyment continues with your first drink of Amp Energy Elevate as the berry flavor tantilizes your taste buds, but sadly the great taste is short lived.  Amp Energy Elevate is quick to have a bitter after taste, which screams of artificial flavoring.  Over the course of the morning the bitterness in flavor got worse, which leads me to beleive that this is an energy drink that should be consumed almost immediately.  The energy factor with Elevate was so-so, but definitely had more kick than the original Amp Energy.

Amp Energy Traction

Grape variations of any soft drink are always hit or miss in my opinion.  Grape seems to be one of those flavors that has to be spot on or it just doesn’t cut it.  When you first open a can of Amp Energy Traction you are introduced to a very pleasing grape aroma, sadly it is misleading.  What follows in flavor is terrible.  Amp Energy Traction screams artifical flavoring, and to me tasted like I was drinking grape Kool Aid powder.  The flavor is tart, chalky, and just overall unpleasant.  I choked this one down in hopes it would at least still give me a jolt, which fortunately it did.  Aside from the energy factor and pleasant aroma Amp Energy Traction is a terrible energy drink…

Overall this weeks winner is the original Amp Energy, but only for flavor alone.  The energy factor is not enough to make me want to go out and buy Amp again and when comparing it to the other options available this week it’s strong lime flavoring was superior to the artificial flavor travesty found in its other varieties.

Welcome to the first of what I hope is a long series of blog posts on Musings for a Darkened Room.  A lot of blogs have fun Friday posts on their blog;  CJ over at Science for SEO does the infamous TGIF posts which feature interesting finds and funny musings, and of course Search Cowboys does the ‘Weekend Reading List‘, so I thought it might be kind of fun to open up Fridays to share my thoughts on something people surprisingly ask me about quite a bit.

I am an avid energy drink consumer.  I for a long time drank an energy drink a day and bought them by the case.  Because of my drinking habit more and more people have come to ask me if certain energy drinks are good or if I’ve tried certain energy drinks.  So I’ve decided to take my love of energy drinks and people’s wanting to know my opinion on them to start this new blog series called Fuel for the Weekend Friday.  I titled it Fuel for the Weekend because I felt that since this series of posts will go up each Friday you can try some of these drinks to give you that extra boost to party all night or get up and get going after a late night of partying.

Each Friday I will review 5 energy drinks. Where possible I will try and group the same brand of energy drink together if they offer a variety of  flavors or types and I will highlight AT LEAST the following four aspects of each drink:

• Scent
• Flavor
• Energy Factor
• Cold vs Warm Flavor Variations

I include the cold and warm flavor variations because I usually enjoy my energy drinks through the course of a morning and so by about 7:30 or 8:00 the chill factor is long gone from most of my energy drinks, so keeping a consistent or pleasant taste is always a must in my book.

For my first week I have decided to go with one of the more popular brands out there; Monster.  I chose Monster for a couple of reasons.  First their Lo-Carb variety is one of my favorite energy drinks out there and second, they are brewed here in my home town of Corona, California.

Monster Energy

When you crack open a can of Monster Energy you are greeted with the familiar fruity, almost bubble gum-like scent that is possesed by many of the energy drinks on the market today.  Unlike many energy drinks Monster Energy goes down smooth.  When you take that first drink you aren’t hit with a bite or any sort of bitterness that many energy drinks posess, instead  Monster Energy is quite sweet with a hunt of citrus.  I enjoyed the Monster Energy drink for this review over the course of my lunch and the last part of my afternoon and I was happy to see that it in fact kept a consistent flavor even when at room temperature.  While the flavor is much more crisp and refreshing while cold, it’s definitely drinkable at room temperature.  The energy factor for Monster Energy is decent, while it didn’t give me the jolt or hyperness I have experienced with other energy drinks, it was definitely a good afternoon pick me up which lasted through the remainder of my day.

Lo-Carb Monster Energy

I tried my best to not be biased on this one since, as I mentioned before, Lo-Carb Monster Energy is probably my preferred energy drink.  The interesting thing I found about Lo-Carb Monster Energy, which I hadn’t paid much attention to in the past, is that it doesn’t have much of a scent.  What faint scent it does carry is similar to the regular Monster Energy, but is so faint I literally had to sniff the top of the can to get a whiff of it.

Carrying on with the tradition of Monster Energy, Lo-Carb Monster Energy has a very sweet flavor to it without any sort of bitterness or sour kick to it.  One thing I did notice about the Lo-Carb Monster Energy is that it posseses a bit more of a bite to it in terms of carbonation.

Another thing to note in regards to Lo-Carb Monster Energy is that after taking a drink the flavor seems to stay on both your lips and mouth and becomes even more sweet to the taste.  Again, not noticing this prior to this review, I found it to be a pleasant surprise while drinking it.

Finally Lo-Carb Monster Energy withstands the warmth test by far.  Again like Monster Energy it is much more crisp and refreshing when cold, but it’s flavor does not deteriorate when warm.  The energy factor for Lo-Carb Monster is quite similar to the regular Monster Energy in that it doesn’t give you any sort of joly or hyperness, but gives you a decent boost to start your day or get you back into the swing of things.

Monster Assault

Monster Assault is one of the more “exotic” blends of the Monster Energy family.  With a camaflouge can “because it looks cool” and a a call to “Declare war on the ordinary!” Monster Assault is definitely far from ordinary.  When you crack open a can of Monster Assault you are introduced to a very sweet aroma.  The first sip introduces you to a spicy, almost cider-like, flavor.  I wasn’t very fond of the flavor in particular mostly because it reminded me too much of the spiced cider I’ve drank during the Christmas season in the past.

While it does have a bit of a spice to it Monster Assault does manage to go down quite smooth while still cold.  I did notice over time that the flavor starts to get worse as the drink gets warmer and at room temperature the Monster Assault reminds me of a cheap generic cola that has gone flat.  The degenerating flavor I experienced made it a bit harder to choke the rest of this one down.  Furthermore the energy factor seemed almost non-existent for me.

Monster Khaos

Do you like orange juice? Do you like energy drinks? Ever wish you could mix the two and enjoy them over your morning breakfast? Well now you can thanks to the makers of Monster Energy.  Monster Khaos is plugged as “Energy + Juice” right on the front of the can and boasts a slogan of 50% Juice – 100% Monster” on the back.

When you crack open a can of Monster Khaos you will smell a hint of orange, since orange juice is one of seven juices packed in to every can of Monster Khaos.  In addition to orange juice every can of Monster Khaos also blends apple, pear, peach, tangerine, pineapple, and white grape juice, but you’d never guess it if you didn’t read the ingredients.  The orange juice dominates this drink both in scent and flavor.  In my opinion Monster Khaos tastes like a carbonated version of pretty much any canned orange juice on the market, be it from Monster’s parent company Hansens or even Minute Maid. The flavor is very bitter and flat and doesn’t carry the sweetness or tang found in most fruit juices on the market.

The nice thing about Monster Khaos is that if you like the flavor it does keep a consistency even at room temperature and additionally the energy factor matches that of both Monster Energy or Monster Lo-Carb Energy.

Java Monster – Russian

Russian is one of the eight varieties of “Coffee + Energy” that is offered by the makers of Monster Energy.  The premis of the Russian is a take on the adult coffee beverage of the same name, minus the alcohol.  When you open a can of Russian you are instantly hit with the pleasant aroma of caramel and coffee.

The fun doesn’t stop there though, upon drinking you will find the delicios caramel and coffee combination you experienced when you opened the can will now tantilize your taste buds with a smooth and rich coffee and caramel blend.  However, like most coffee drinks, it does leave the bitter coffee after taste.

The Russian keeps a consistency in flavor at room temperature and definitely packs a punch in terms of energy.  The Russian gave me a bit of a jolt on the morning I drank it and was a great pick me up for the morning.

Overall this week I think that the Lo-Carb Monster Energy drink and it’s carb filled counterpart Monster Energy are probably your best bets in terms of flavor, consistency, and energy kick.  For the coffee lover I would definitely recomend giving the Russian a try, as it will both entice your taste buds and give you that extra boost to get you through the morning.