From city to town, you're bound to find a decent variation in beverage choices by region -- be it gas station, convenience store or how we do it here at StreetLevel, the good old bodega. A staple of New York City living, the bodega or corner store, is a place to purchase snacks, blunt wraps, cigarettes, beer, diapers and condoms of dubious quality.

The bodega also carries a special range of drinks you just wont find at your average Missouri truck stop, 7-11 or Cali Circle K -- we find the melting pot of city life provides us with a special range of energy drinks to choose from when we cruise the around the block. We picked up seven of our 'hood favorites and tested them out -- for their flavor and for their energy delivering promises.

Here's our test run of the best cornerstore energy drinks. As the avid runner writer on the SL team, I took to the pavement to see what these drinks did to enhance an average four mile jog.

7) STRAWBERRY NUTRAMENT

KEY INGREDIENTS: Skim milk, sugar, corn syrup ('cause nothing says fitness like corn syrup), canola oil

CLAIM(S): "THE ENERGY & FITNESS DRINK, MILK SHAKE TASTE and VOTE! FOR THE NEW CAN," errr . . .

FUN FACT: They give these out at methadone clinics so people coming off heroin can get enough calories and vitamins. That's what's up.

TASTING NOTES: Gross. These have been around forever somehow. Maybe it's related to our fun fact. Leaves you with a funky cough syrup mouth. They highlight that it has "milk shake taste" -- no sh*t, there are 360 calories in one of these bad boys, about the same as a bag of Doritos. I'll opt for the Doritos.

PERFORMANCE: Now, we noticed that the less healthy a drink, the more likely it is to have people playing sports on it (see also number 4). As much as I wanted to eat french fries after downing a Nutrament, I was still able to come in at about 5 seconds under my 8 minute mile average pace. Maybe if I drink more Nutrament I can dunk a football like the guy on the can.

SCORE: 6/10



6) ED HARDY ENERGY DRINK

KEY INGREDIENTS: Rhinestones (just kidding), carbonated water (really, first ingredient), citric acid (mmm . . .) CLAIM(S): "FOR THE WORLD". more like "FOR LONG ISLAND".

FUN FACT: Don Ed Hardy, this drink and brand namesake, is still alive and kickin'. We figured he was dead and his kids were getting paid in the shade. Who knew?

TASTING NOTES: Apparently this is apple flavor. Tasted more like the pee-pee of a tiger wearing a bowler hat, as seen on the can.

PERFORMANCE: I purposely ran slow to ruin the results on this drink. Just kidding. Since it's carbonated water, not surprised that it didn't do anything either way. I did though have the strong urge to gel my hair up so I look like I'm in Dragonball Z afterwards though, for whatever that's worth.

SCORE: 5/10

5) KOREAN GINSENG DRINK

KEY INGREDIENTS: Korean ginseng root (Literally. There is a damn a root floating in the bottle).

CLAIM(S): Extra strength - I guess so, if you put the whole root in the bad boy.

FUN FACT: Ginseng is proven to facilitate penile erection in lab animals.

TASTING NOTES: Literally tastes a little bit like dirt, because of the root, which grew in... dirt. Now, some people might knock that, but I think it's legit - why pussy foot around like the other drinks with synthetic ingredients, when you can cut to the chase and just put the real deal in there. However, I chewed on the root and it was way gross.

PERFORMANCE: I'm not sure if I got a woodrow because of the drink or because "Face" by Rick Ross and Trina came on. Oh my pace was down a little too -- 7:45.

SCORE: 7/10

4) MILO

KEY INGREDIENTS: Sugar then milk CLAIM(S): Enriched with B Vitamins -- what isn't at this point? also -- it's Hala! Hollal!

FUN FACT: Milo is marketed to the West Indian community -- goes great with Tower Isle beef patties.

TASTING NOTES: Malty. I've never seen a soccer player drinking a chocolate malt on the sidelines, but I guess it could happen.

PERFORMANCE: Like the 'tarded looking soccer player running away from a gigantic glass of Milo, I ran pretty quick on this stuff, most likely due to the immense amount of sugar pumped into each can - 7:48 average pace.

SCORE: 7/10


3) DRANK
KEY INGREDIENTS: They say rose hips, melatonin, valerian root. But really, water and sugar with citric acid makes up the vast majority of this one.

CLAIM(S): Extreme relaxation beverage "slow your roll."

FUN FACT: This is modeled after the Houston favorite, prescription pain killer cough syrup and soda. Duh.

TASTING NOTES: Well they got it half right -- this is grape soda. It took a few sips to realize that though, so there's a little bit of something in there. Maybe it was the melatonin.

PERFORMANCE: Despite my initial skepticism, I did feel a little mellow. It probably didn't help that I was listening to a Screw tape. Next thing I knew I was mixing my Drank with some port wine, after which I fell asleep in my Asics.

SCORE: 9/10 fun factor, but sorry, have to score low on the sports performance tip 0/10 since I fell asleep instead of running.



2) ULTRA RED GINSENG

KEY INGREDIENTS: Carbonated water and then, like the name implies, Korean red ginseng. Surprisingly, no caffeine. This is hard core ginseng-heads material. CLAIM(S): a bold one - "IT'S THE SUN" not sure what that means. Also the bottle offers a bit of a caveat - more or less, if you find shit floating in your drink, it's all good, it's supposed to be that way. Weird, but ballsy.

FUN FACT: This is the third ginseng heavy drink on the list. While this one shows the root, it does not actually contain a root, like number 5. Also, Ultra Red is produced by the "Chill Sung Co.", which I believe they cribbed from a Wu-Tang skit.

TASTING NOTES: Again, straight ginseng is a bit of an acquired taste, but once you get into it, you'll enjoy it. Or just stick to Dr. Pepper if you can't hang. And if you're an absolute pussy, you might say this tastes like carbonated dirt and still be right.

PERFORMANCE: Ultra red helped me shave about 10 seconds off of my 8 minute pace. Not bad. Maybe it would have been better if I got a can with more sediment floating in it... SCORE: 8/10


1) BABA ROOTS

KEY INGREDIENTS: Chainy root (high in iron), sarsapilla [sic] (no relation to SARSPepsi), hug-mi-tight (I have no idea what this is)

CLAIM(S): "The ingredients of Baba Roots aid in the cleansing of your body's systems." You mean like water, right?

FUN FACT: BABA stands for "Basic Administration for the Benefit of Africans." Obviously.

TASTING NOTES: The most frequent refrain of those tasting Baba Roots for the first time is, "is this a drink or a sauce?" The roots are pretty damn sour, due to their ingredients and the fermentation. Also, due to the fermentation, the roots have just a little spike of alcohol in 'em -- I had a minor buzz by the time I finished 2/3rds of the the bottle.

PERFORMANCE: I think the baby-buzz I caught off the roots helped me zone out and run my ass off. I dropped down from 8:00 average pace to about 7:30 average across the four miles. In the Baba spirit, I banged a little Bounty Killa, which I don't think ever fails to get folks amped up.

SCORE: 9/10


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