So because Popeye used to open cans of spinach he is a good fit for a new energy drink company? Actually, when you think about it it's a pretty good fit. Popeye used to get real tired and beaten until he opened a can of veggies and went nuclear. While the buzz in here won't be enough to help you pick up a house or plow through bad guys, this actually makes sense.
Packaging:9
If you had to make a can for an energy drink named after popeye, I don't think you could do better. Instead of going after the newer and more cartoon versions of the muscleman, intead they opted for the comic stripped variety, complete with the newspaper dot printing and olde tyme feel. Strangely enough it works all very well, and the designers behind the brand did an excellent job of everything.
I was also impressed with the functionality of the drink as well. They listed the caffeine contents clearly, as well as all the other vitamins and such in the back supplements. While I still am not sure I get the overall premise, for being a Popeye energy drink I don't think you could possibly do a beter job than this.
Taste:9
Truthfully, I was expecting this to taste about as bland as you could get - like a novelty drink from Boston America, like the Romulan drink or Hello Kitty drinks with the slapped on lables. To my surprise, this was not ALL the case! this was a lovely clementine orange drink, something that was not terribly sweet, and full of juicy goodness. Of course that is because this was all juice - but I was very pleasantly surprised they did not use orange extracts or other such "natural" flavors to kick up the orange-ness of it. If I were looking for something for a lovely energy screwdriver, or something to get me going while feeling the boost of vitamins (like if I needed a hangover drink), I would happily turn to Popeye's delightful blend.
The only thing that got to me was that there was no spinach in here. I expected that with all the other juices in here they could have tossed in some of that as well, but I guess that was not the case for the orange flavor. Later on, I read that their spinach extract adversely effected the appealing colors created by the fruit juices, but they are planning on a spinach/apple drink to be hitting the shelves at your local soda store soon. In the meantime, the orange is a very nice substitute.
Buzz:7
Popeye's drink will not blow your socks off, but it might give you a nice enough boost to make it through your mornings a little easier. It has a very moderate and usual 160mg of caffeine, about as much energy as a Rockstar or Monster. I was really hoping for a bigger boost of energy from this - but I did not really find any rush of energy. The caffeine works well enough with the natural sugars to help you not get sleepy and have about the same amount of energy as a cup and a half of coffee, but for a drink named after one of the most powerful people in the cartoon world I was hoping for something better.
As for the nutrition in Popeye, it's a nice juice-based drink, so there is nothing artificial and everything about as healthy as they can get it, which is very nice.There is a good amount of calories in here, but this is a juice so it is what you expect. There is a ton of good vitamins and minerals in here, and it is nice to have an alternative to sucking down all those chemicals.
I was completely expecting Popeye to be a novelty drink that worked just like any Monster clone. While it didn;t blow me down,at least I stayed strong to the finish.