FatManSeoul

Here at FatManSeoul we want to bring you the good, the bad, and the just plain weird of the food world. One way of doing this is by eating and drinking things that you may be curious about, but sensibly aren’t willing to try without giving it to a guinea pig first. Consider us here your personal lab animals, out to try the best, worst, and strangest of the foods out there.

YA! Wakey Potion

This time we’re trying two experiments at once: In addition to picking some of the most peculiar new foodstuffs out there, our bold Gomushin Girl is going where no one has gone before and is doing it live. Because this blog will be going out as she writes it, Korean translation and pictures will be added after the fact.

Hola! Gomushin Girl here, bringing you a live update from the land of energy drinks. Now, there’s lots of energy drinks out there, most of them relying on a combination of sugar and caffeine to get you up and moving . . . or at least keep you awake through the mid-afternoon slump in your cubicle. The problem is that you end up wired for an hour and then you crash like a lead balloon. Not good.

The response has been to start making energy drinks that promise more up-time. The new drink YA encourages me to “take your chance” on its “wakey potion” for 5 hours of energy. Let’s put this bad boy to the test! I’ll be doing an hourly update to this blog (Korean and pics to be added later) to let you know if this drink passes the test, or if I pass out.

Hour 1: The trial begins! Ya looks a lot like most other energy and vitamin drinks in Korea. Same squat bottle, but they’re trying to be a little cutesy with the label. Anyway, it says it’s for a “society that even works at night (밤에도 일하는 사회)” and is a “sleep solution drink(졸음해소음료)” and with taurine (the same ingredient as other drinks like Red Bull) as one of the first ingredients, that seems like a promise it can keep temporarily. The question is, will the ingredients help keep me going through an entire workday?

The taste is pleasant, but nothing really special. It’s got a vaguely citrus tang to it, maybe even more than some of the vitamin c drinks on the market. Kind of nice, actually. It’s not the greatest thing I’ve ever had slide across my tongue, but it’s not the worst, either. Although I don’t think it’s carbonated, there’s a fizzy sensation. Fun stuff.

I should mention here that I’m the caffeine queen, and can drink pretty ridiculous amounts of coffee with nary a shaky nerve. In college I used to drink espresso right before bed without a problem. My friends once watched me consume five cans Starbuck’s Double Shot and slowly but surely drift towards falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon. It takes nearly suicidal levels of energy drinks to give me a boost. Let the contest begin . . ..

Hour 2: I wouldn’t say I’m more alert than usual. An hour after taking this stuff I feel . . . hm, not quite jittery, but as if I needed to jump around a bit. Not quite “run a marathon” energetic, but definitely to the point of typing well over my usual 60wpm rate. My brain isn’t quite up to speed with my finger though, and I sat and brooded for ten minutes on what word to use instead of “participant” in a poster I was editing. Mental acuity is not improving. On the other hand, I can twirl pencils now.

Hour 3: Still feeling a little hyper , but that’s about it.

Hour 4: I no longer feel the need to twiddle my thumbs or constantly tap my toes, which is probably a good thing. This is normally about the time of day when I start to lag a bit, but I’m actually feeling . . . well, wakey.

Hour 5: Back to being a bit twitchy fingered, but getting sleepy. It’s like my usual mid-afternoon mental slump has hit me, but later than usual. I’ve got the same sort of feeling I used to get back in college after I’d stayed up all night to study for a test or finish a paper. Yeah, I’m awake and moving, but there’s nothing alert normal about me. I feel like a cartoon character.

It seems that yes, Ya will keep you going for a good four or five hours but is it worth it? Yeah, it kept me awake, but it hasn’t done anything to improve my concentration or mental acuity. It just made me type faster. And fidget. If I were, say, trying to stay awake to finish a term paper or study for a test, I would skip this. If I’d used it back in my student days I would have just ended up pacing the halls, running to the 7-11, and making a nuisance of myself to my roomates because I just wouldn’t be able to sit still and concentrate. It doesn’t really give you energy. I would use it if for some strange reason I decided to stay up all night baton twirling.

Special Hour 6 Update: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Hmm, apparently while I was asleep I missed the part where I turn into a superhero. Darn.