Zipfizz is a powdered energy drink that comes in a variety of flavors with ingredients such as 100mg of caffeine per serving and various micronutrients like Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, and vitamins A, B, and C.
Furthermore, it comes in single-serve tubes and they recommend mixing it with 16-20 ounces of water. But, you can mix it with more or less water to suit your taste preferences.
This is also true for other powder energy drink formulas like Spark drink, Gfuel, and REIZE. That’s just one of the reasons that we love them so much and make our own.
In this article, let’s find out what goes inside these tiny tubes. You’ll be surprised!
Zipfizz Company Overview
With over a dozen flavors in their energy drink powder range as well as sports and vitamin drinks, Zipfizz is fast becoming a global powerhouse.
The company was acquired by a Chinese food and beverage giant in 2018 for $80 million, perhaps signifying the beginning of a new era of growth in Asia, or perhaps signaling a shift in production to China to save some money.
Zipfizz energy drink powders are available in 11 different flavors:
- Orange soda
- Grape
- Fruit Punch
- Blueberry Raspberry
- Pink Lemonade
- Berry
- Black Cherry
- Citrus
- Orange Cream
- Pink Grapefruit
- Lemon Iced Tea
Zip Fizz is also available as a ready-to-drink energy shot. That flavor is a fruit punch!
Zipfizz Ingredients
Each tube of Zip Fizz contains:
- 20 calories
- 2g of carbohydrates
- 100mg of caffeine (Zipfizz certainly isn’t one of the strongest energy drinks)
- 500mg of Vitamin C
- 15 IU of Vitamin E
- 2,150 IU of Vitamin A
- 500mg of Vitamin C
- 0.75mg of Thiamine
- 0.85mg of Riboflavin
- 10mg of Niacin
- 1mg of Vitamin B6
- 200mcg of Folate
- 2,500mg of Vitamin B12 (41,667% of the recommended daily value)
- 5mg of Pantothenic acid
- 60mg of Calcium
- 100mg of Magnesium
- 7.5mg of Zinc
- 35mcg of Selenium
- 0.25mg of Copper
- 950mg of Potassium
- 75mg of Sodium
- 60mcg of Chromium
- 1mg of Manganese
- Grape seed extract (amount not specified)
- Green tea extract (amount not specified)
- Guarana (amount not specified)
Although there does seem to be some confusion about the inclusion of Guarana because the company says that the caffeine comes from Guarana, then they don’t mention Guarana in the list of ingredients.
Is Zipfizz high in caffeine?
No, I don’t think Zipfizz contains high caffeine. However, it depends on your level of tolerance.
Each tube of Zipfizz contains 100mg of caffeine. Not too much, not too little.
Come to think of it, that’s about the same as a regular coffee.
Furthermore, here is a table that will help you understand Zipfizz’s caffeine level and what is considered safe.
| Zipfizz Caffeine Content | FDA Recommended Caffeine Content |
| 100mg per tube | 400mg per day |
Zipfizz Vitamins
Zipfizz contains a bunch of different vitamins such as Riboflavin (synthetic B2), Cyanocobalamin (Synthetic B12), and D-Calcium Pantothenate.
There may also be other artificial vitamins, but the packaging doesn’t reveal whether the other vitamins are natural or synthetic.
I don’t really mind taking synthetic vitamins. I’m not so worried about the vitamins that I shop in the “organic” food section in the grocery store, but my main concern about the list of vitamins inside a tube of Zipfizz is the amount of some of them.
There’s 833% of the recommended daily value of Vitamin C and get this… 41,667% of the recommended daily value of the above-mentioned, artificial Vitamin B12.
What on Earth were they thinking?
Firstly, these vitamins (B & C) are “water-soluble”.
This means that our bodies don’t store any surplus to requirements and flush them straight out on the next visit to the washroom.
Next, why would you want to put in so much of an artificial ingredient anyway?
Of lesser concern, but still worth mentioning, some studies have shown that extremely high quantities of these vitamins may cause a range of health issues including acne and other skin problems.
I’m no mathematician, but I would guess that 41,667% of the daily dose qualifies as “extremely high”.
Botanical Antioxidant Blend
Each tube of Zipfizz contains 205mg of what Zipfizz calls a “botanical antioxidant blend”.
This is a proprietary blend with a fancy marketing name for the purpose of including something healthy-sounding in the list of ingredients.
Many energy drink brands invent a special name for some “unique formula” that only they know. They then trademark that name so that they are the only ones that are allowed to promote that their product contains the said miracle blend.
But the truth is that these special blends that are unique to each brand aren’t amazing scientific breakthroughs. All of the ingredients are readily available. But the exact ratio is kept a secret and that is what is trademarked and used for marketing purposes.
If you look closely at the 205mg that makes up this “Botanical Antioxidant Blend” you will notice that 100mg of the 205mg is caffeine.
That means there is only 105mg of the other ingredients.
Other Ingredients
The other ingredients in the “Botanical Antioxidant Blend”, besides 100mg of caffeine, are:
- Guarana seed extract
- Green tea leaf extract
- Alpha-Lipoic acid
- Green coffee bean extract
- Grape seed extract
- Grape skin extract
The amount of each of these ingredients is top secret. After all, they are the only ones that know the exact ratio of all of the things goes into making their trademarked “Botanical Antioxidant Blend”.
Wink, wink…
The name of the blend gives away their intentions. It seems clear to me that Zipfizz is using this as a marketing weapon to be able to claim that Zipfizz has antioxidant qualities.
The label doesn’t say how much of each of these ingredients is included in a tube, but we know that in total they all add up to just 105mg.
The problem is, to have any sort of antioxidant properties you need around 300mg of EGCG per day. Some experts suggest an even higher dose is required to get any benefits.
Clearly, 105mg is well short of the requirements to reach what is considered to be a clinically effective dose.
What this means is that the ingredients in Zipfizz won’t give you a meaningful antioxidant boost.
Is Zipfizz really healthy?
The Zipfizz slogan is “healthy energy”, it’s printed at the top of every tube. In my opinion, Zipfizz is no healthier or worse than most other energy drinks.
Sure, it contains a bunch of vitamins, but many of them are artificial which isn’t exactly “healthy”.
There are some good ingredients included in their top-secret proprietary blend, however, the total amount of those ingredients is so tiny that they may as well not be included at all.
But alas, marketing requires them to be included in the list of ingredients…
I think it’s great that Zip Fizz is sugar-free and only contains 20 calories, but there are plenty of other great energy drinks out there that are also sugar-free, with even fewer calories.
REIZE Energy Drink is one of them (and it’s my personal favorite).
Does Zipfizz make you lose weight?
Drinking Zipfizz alone will not help you to lose weight. However, combining caffeine with exercise may help you to burn more calories than if you exercise without consuming caffeine.
For that reason, you could say that drinking Zip Fizz in combination with exercise does help you to lose weight.
But the same is also true for any other caffeinated energy drink.
Does Zipfizz break a fast?
The general consensus is that Zipfizz does not break a fast, but the only way to be certain is for you to check your blood sugar levels.
Zipfizz does contain artificial sweeteners, which have been shown to spike insulin levels in some studies, but not in others.
The jury is still out on the effect of artificial sweeteners and fasting.
It’s worth considering your reason for fasting and how terrible it would be if you broke your fast inadvertently. If the penalty for being wrong is minimal, then you don’t have much to lose.
But, if the ramifications of being wrong are significant, it’s probably best to play it safe and skip Zipfizz while fasting.
Where to Buy Zipfizz
You can buy Zipfizz online on Amazon, Sam’s Club, The Vitamin Shoppe, or eBay. It’s also available at Costco, FredMeyer, Bartell Drugs, Hi-health, and BJ’s wholesale club.
Or you might find this research on the best Zipfizz deals helpful.
How much does Zipfizz cost?
Zip Fizz costs a little over $3 per serving, depending on where you buy it. You may also be able to take advantage of special offers or sales and get cheap deals from time to time.
At roughly $3 per serving, it’s not the cheapest, nor the most expensive option in the energy drink category.
It’s definitely cheaper than the likes of Red Bull, Monster Import, and Rockstar. But it’s also about double the price of my personal favorite, REIZE.
Oh, and REIZE includes shipping to your door for that deliciously low $1 price tag!
Zipfizz Review
I bought a 20-pack of Zipfizz on Amazon for $64 and was excited to give it a try. That’s around $3 per drink to get them to my door.
I was a little disappointed to find that I didn’t receive a notification that my parcel had shipped for 4 days after I made the order. In recent years I’ve started buying virtually everything online and was expecting faster shipping.
The packaging wasn’t anything special and there were no surprises inside the box.
It felt a bit “mass-produced”.
Zipfizz Taste Review
My first impressions were pretty darn good.
In fact, the first flavor that I tried was orange soda and I mixed it with about 16 ounces of cold water, just as the website recommends. The smell of the powder was like orange sherbet and the mixing process after I added water to the glass was fast.
I let it stand for a minute until it looked like mixing had finished and had my first taste.
In my opinion, it tastes like crushed-up orange vitamin C tablets, which I like. The orange flavor doesn’t taste overly artificial either, which was a bit of a surprise given the list of ingredients.
The flavor was consistent until the last couple of mouthfuls of liquid were left in the bottom of the glass where the color was darker than what it was at the top of the glass and some of the powder had settled on the bottom instead of mixing through evenly.
A final couple of mouthfuls of the drink weren’t as nice as the first mouthfuls and I wasn’t even game to try to drink the last sip.
Overall, I would say that orange soda Zipfizz was 7/10.
I also reviewed 10 of the 11 Zipfizz flavors myself, which you might like to check out.
Does Zipfizz work?
The effects were a boost in my alertness and wakefulness, and I noticed them after about 30 minutes. It seemed to last for about 2 hours until the energy boost dissipated.
I didn’t notice any crashes, which is part of the reason I prefer sugar-free energy drinks.
Later I tried all of the flavors, with my favorites being “Zipfizz fruit punch”, “Zipfizz black cherry” and “Zipfizz orange cream”.
I would say they were about an 8/10.
My least favorite Zipfizz flavors were citrus, pink grapefruit, and pink lemonade which I didn’t like at all and wouldn’t suggest you give to your worst enemy.
But hey, some people like them.
Zipfizz Alternatives
Zipfizz is a good energy drink for many reasons, but there are many other great products that are similar, and perhaps even better than Zipfizz.
Here are a few that you should probably know about…
Powders:
- Advocare Spark (check out my review here)
- Gfuel
- REIZE (10 out of 10)
Ready-to-drink cans:
Or if powders and cans aren’t your style, you may want to check out caffeine pills or Mio liquid drops which are other viable alternatives.
Whatever you choose, always remember to consume energy drinks in moderation.
REIZE (10 out of 10)
Considering the value for money, taste, and energy boost I got, I would say Zipfizz is a decent option, but I prefer the taste, price, and effects of REIZE Energy Drink.
REIZE is considerably cheaper, and ships right to your door for about $1 per drink. That’s about half the price of Zipfizz.
REIZE also contains fewer calories and tastes better in my opinion.
Give it a try today and you might just find that you prefer it to Zipfizz.