Cool but wasteful

Vuka. It’s a new-to-me “Intelligent Energy Drink”. My 14-year old son bought it because he thought the bottle was cool. And it is.

However, his comment on what was inside: “pretty disgusting”. He also described it as a “fake energy drink”.

My take: the container is hugely wasteful. The bottle is heavy-gauge aluminum and must have accounted for half of the cost of the product. If the lid were up to the same standard of permanence, it would be a nice thing to hang onto. But it will probably last for about two refills and then strip out. Sad.

Update: See some interesting comments and a rebuttal in the comments.

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6 Replies to “Cool but wasteful”

  1. Funny! “Vuka” in Swahili means to cross over, like to cross a river (kuvuka mto). Maybe they’re subtly saying that their energy drink will let you ‘cross over’ the threshold between mediocre and elite performance. LOL! A bit too subtle for non-Swahili speaking markets.

    Maybe a lid from a plastic water bottle or 2-litre soda bottle will fit.

  2. Ridiculous. I’m sure the bottle is 90% of the cost. Someone did a review of energy drinks. Most of them are worthless, as I recall.

  3. Hi there – we’re glad our drink is provoking some conversation at least! We have four different flavors available, so hopefully there’s one that your son might enjoy. We’re one of the few energy drinks on the market that is completely all natural, with no high-fructose corn syrup and no preservatives. As for our aluminum bottle, it is made from recycled aluminum, and we chose to go that way because it is 100% recyclable, a cost we feel is well worth incurring! We have many consumers who have been re-using our bottles for months, with the original lids! And we’re in fact busy developing a carabiner lid to go along with it. A lot cheaper than some of the aluminum bottles for purchase out there. And lastly – we’re from South Africa, where Vuka means “wake-up” in Zulu!

    1. Alexia – thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I’m sorry I was so negative. I guess I feel that there are more people who will throw it away than makes the high use of aluminum worth it. If all would recycle it, that would be ideal, but the world is not ideal. Also, it costs more energy to recycle more aluminum than less aluminum.

  4. It’s nice to know “the rest of the story”. And, I learned a bit if isZulu today. Paul, you’re good — always something interesting and educational. BTW, I enjoyed my trip to “the Springs” a couple of weeks ago. Got in some great chilly runs (one morning was 35°) and loved seeing the sun come up on the Rockies. The best part, though, of the route I ran the most was turning the corner off of Chapel Hills onto Research. Why? Well, partly b/c of the mountains but mostly because I knew it was all literally downhill for the next 2 or so miles!!!

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