Alani Nu vs Bang vs Lotus-What is the Best Zero Calorie Energy Drink

Alani Nu vs Bang vs Lotus-What is the Best Zero Calorie Energy Drink 

By Lily Zeff

Energy drinks have gained massively in popularity over the last decade and a half, and these drinks can be found in almost every convenience or grocery store with a wide variety of brands and flavors to choose from. With more options than ever, zero sugar energy drinks are a great way to enjoy something refreshing and tasty without guilt. For those options I chose to go with Alani Nu, Bang, and Lotus; but which one is the best? Which one will keep you up during your busy day without you crashing? Which one tastes the best and which one will get you the best bang for your buck? 

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How I Tested Them 

With these questions in mind, I set out to test some beverages that I've seen on the shelves countless times but never had before. I'm a caffeine addict myself, with coffee being my drug of choice, but I'm not shy of the occasional energy drink. I wanted to give each energy drink a fair chance to prove whether it was good or not. Over three days I picked up an energy drink from my local gas station or mini mart and drank it in the first hour of work to see how it affected me and if it did its job well enough. Here are the variables that I graded by: taste, caffeine per ounce, price per ounce, and how I felt after drinking it. These will be the deciding factors that judge which one will be the best. 

1. Alani Nu Pink Slush 

Starting off strong with Alani Nu, I dive into some background on the drink. Alani Nu is marketed heavily as a healthy energy drink. It has only 5-15 calories per flavor and being gluten free, vegan and even having biotin, B6, and B12 as displayed proudly on the side of the can.  I only wish the can was bigger as it is only twelve ounces, but it only has five calories. I bought the can for $2.56 without tax, averaging about $0.22 per ounce.

2. Bang Peach Mango 

Now with Bang energy and its background; Bang is known for its loud and flashy advertising from influencers and its high caffeine content. They are zero sugar and have zero calories and doesn’t advertise much else on their can. The drink is in a 16 ounce can giving you a good amount to sip on at the start of your shift or class. I bought the drink for $2.98 without tax, averaging out to about $0.19 per ounce. 

3. Lotus Purple 

Finally, Lotus, starting with some background details. Lotus energy drinks have been around for a while and have always advertised themselves as a sort of healthy energy drink, with the fact that it’s vegan, gluten free, sugar free, has zero carbs, and that its caffeine is naturally sourced from plants. All these bits of info are plastered on the can alongside the advertised 10 calories. The can is twelve ounces. I bought the can for $2.50 without tax, averaging that out to $0.21 per ounce.  

Overall Taste

To begin with Alani Nu, the flavor I tried is pink slush. It had a very concentrated, almost overly sweet flavor, with a pleasant level of fizz and no unpleasant aftertaste. On their website it's called strawberry cream soda, and it tastes a little bit like strawberry hard candy, but I can definitely taste that cream soda flavor. 

Next was Bang, the flavor I got was peach mango which had a tart start that hit the back of my cheeks. It was very fizzy with an overly sweet, syrupy taste and an unpleasant acidic aftertaste. 

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To wrap up the taste section there’s Lotus, the flavor I tried was just labeled as purple lotus, it says its boysenberry infused and it tastes pretty good; it has the tartness of a blackberry and a light sweetness to it without too much fizz and no bad aftertaste or acidity that you can get with other energy drinks. 

Caffeine 

Starting with Alani Nu, the can has a whopping 200mg of caffeine in its tiny 12-ounce container, averaging about 16mg of caffeine per ounce. A decent amount for your day but will leave you buzzing if drunk too quickly. Bangs can hold 16 ounces of fluid and holds a whopping 300mg of caffeine, bringing it to almost 19mg of caffeine per ounce. It should be noted that the daily recommended caffeine intake for an adult is 400mg, bringing you quite close to that number at the beginning of one's workday. To finish with Lotus, the can is only 12-ounces and has 160mg of naturally sourced caffeine making it about 13mg of caffeine per ounce. It may not seem like enough, but it is a healthy amount and will get you through your day. 

How I Felt 

We’ll start by talking about Alani Nu and as I stated before, I drank it during the first hour of my shift. The first 2.5 hours I felt great and had high energy. After that I had a noticeable slow decrease tapering off as the night went on, feeling like the caffeine fully wore off at around hour 4, and I was yawning. It was either the smaller can size not making it last as long or maybe the caffeine quality was what did me in. 

Up next is Bang and as mentioned before, during that first hour of my shift, Bang had me wired; my heart was racing. Its acidic taste made it harder to get down and it tasted very artificial. The caffeine content was so high it almost made me a bit sick to my stomach for the first two hours then it tapered off over the next few hours with a headache. To say the least I had high energy for about five hours, but the crash was hard and fast, leaving me feeling awful. 

Finally, how Lotus performed. After drinking it I felt great, it didn't leave my heart racing and I generally felt more upbeat and like I had more energy, like I didn't get a sudden onslaught of caffeine, it was steady and fueled my day well. It tapered off at about 4 hours, but I never got that super high energy feeling like with the rest, but I also didn't get the caffeine crash and yawning after it seemingly wore off. The drink performed well and seemingly did what it was advertising, providing steady, plant-based energy that won't leave me crashing. 

Final Thoughts 

Image by Ayush Kumar

After trying all three of these drinks I had to decide, some of them were much easier than the others. While Bang was the cheapest per ounce and had the most caffeine, it ended up making me feel worse in the end and I don't feel like it did its job very well. Alani Nu tasted great and had good stuff in it, and I honestly felt energized, but not for very long, and I still ended up getting that energy crash at the end. Then there was Lotus, it didn't taste bad, I would maybe try other flavors, but it also left me feeling energized and without the crash that other energy drinks leave me with. Overall, the price for the Lotus is less than Alani Nu and I think the price drop with Bang isn’t worth drinking it. Even though the caffeine content is the least out of all of them, the price is decent, I believe the Lotus energy drink performed the best out of all of them.