Razer Respawn 'mental performance' drink mix wants to up your game
Now your gaming lifestyle has a drink of its own.
Sadly, the Respawn Shaker Cup does not support Chroma.
Razer launched an April Fool's campaign in 2010 for a gamer-focused drink, Project Venom V2. It turns out that seemed like such a good idea to some people that the company turned it into a real product in time for t his year''s E3, Razer Respawn (not to be confused with Jedi: Fallen Order developer Respawn Entertainment). But don't call it an "energy drink" -- it's a "mental performance drink mix" that "contains premium ingredients that help support increased focus, reaction time, and mental stamina."
Respawn comes in single-serving powder packets that you mix with 16-20 ounces of water. A box with 20 packets of an individual flavor runs $25 (at Razer and Amazon); flavors are green apple, tropical pineapple, pomegranate watermelon and blue raspberry. You can also spring for the $30 custom shaker, which does not support Chroma, but that would be awesome.
According to Razer, a serving has 20 calories and 95mg of caffeine. The full ingredient list is:
Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Green Tea Extract, Sucralose, L-theanin, Choline Bitartrate, Caffeine, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Ground Ginger, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup solids, Niacinamide, D-calcium Pantothenate, Silicon Dioxide, Blue No. 1, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Cyanocobalamin.
Razer distinguishes Respawn from energy drinks, saying "they tend to have excessive caffeine and sugar, giving you an initial burst but eventually leading to jitters or a physical crash."
Most of the ingredients are the various B vitamins found in energy drinks and antioxidants. But while Respawn is sugar free -- it uses the artificial sweetener Sucralose -- it has maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate that allows the powder to stay all powdery. That's why it has 20 calories.
But maltodextrin breaks down into... sugar. And it has a higher glycemic index than... sugar. So you may still get the spike and crash, and you definitely need to factor it in if you're diabetic or on a keto diet. It really depends upon how much maltodextrin is in it.
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As for caffeine, one serving of sugar-free Red Bull has 80mg; Respawn's 95mg of caffeine for a single serving is higher, but because the serving size is bigger (16-20 oz vs. 8.5 oz for Red Bull), math makes the amount smaller if you look at it by volume instead of serving size. The equivalent amount of Red Bull has 150mg or so. (In either case, they're both less than the approximately 330mg in my morning coffee.)
Razer does caution not to drink more than three servings per day.
