It's just nasty (Red Square Reloaded)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	Red Square Reloaded
Date:	16/02/05 (378 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None whatsoever

Disadvantages: Taste, The alcohol that isn't alcohol, Vile, vile drink

Tonight we decided to have a quiet night in with a DVD, the kids are staying at nannies so off I toddled to the shop to pick up a few bits and pieces for a nice meal. Standing in the queue I was opposite the alcopops when I noticed a new bottle. I picked it up because you've got to have a drink with a DVD, obviously.

Vodka Red Square Reloaded comes in a typical Red Square Ice type bottle except this is covered in a gold plastic meaning you can't see the colour of the drink before you pour it. Red Square comes in all sorts of colours; pink, blue and green to name but a few so this could really be any colour in the rainbow.

Pouring, I see it's a very dull cider colour, if you were picturing the striking Blue Ice or girly Pink Ice you're completely out of the loop. It's the most dull looking drink I've ever seen, sitting there in my glass like a flat lager (Carling...) with just a solitary bubble rising to the top here and there. It smells of the vodka and Red Bull drinks you get in the pub; and being as this drink is a mix of ginseng, caffeine, vodka and tequila this isn't too much of a surprise.

Taking a sip the first thing I notice is a distinct Red Bull flavour to the drink. Note the word 'flavour', Reloaded doesn't *taste* of Red Bull - it's tastes *like* Red Bull. Sort of. Over-riding this flavour is a really weird warm alcoholic flavour, the tequila that doesn't taste of tequila. I can feel the sensation of tequila, the warming feeling at the back of my throat as I swallow... but there's no real tequila taste. No matter how hard I try I can't detect vodka either. Jeeez, this is turning out to be full of false promises. Again, I can feel the harsh kick of vodka in my throat but this time it's worrying. Reloaded is only 5.1% vol so really there shouldn't be enough vodka (which comes in at 40% vol) to produce a kick, what vodka is there should be well diluted by the odd Red Bull-like flavour. Makes me wonder what nasties are causing the vodka kick that isn't vodka.

Still wondering, I popped over to the Asda site to check out the ingredients. The first thing that struck me funny is tequila isn't listed as an ingredient, take this however you like - could be Asda have messed up with their list. Or it could be any one of the SIX (yes, SIX!) E numbers that have been used to create the illusion of tequila. Then I see only a one part vodka to three parts carbonated water is used and I simply can't see where the kick is coming from.

It's not a nice drink. It's not sweet at all, and leaves a horrible cloying aftertaste in my mouth. I personally don't like the atificial tequila warmth of Reloaded, I'm not keen on Red Bull and I like my vodka neat. Reloaded just isn't for me.

From the added caffeine aspect, I didn't really notice that Reloaded kept me any more alert than usual and I suspect you'd have to drink a lot of bottles to ingest enough caffeine to make much of a difference. Have a cup of coffee and a choccie digestive if you want to stay awake and save yourself the foul experience of drinking Reloaded.

A 70ml bottle cost me £2.99 from our little corner shop, although if you buy it from the supermarket you can expect to pay around £2.50.

Summary: