This afternoon, after convincing myself that I did not need to spend $500 on a Romanian Mosin-Nagant or $2300 on a 1943 USMC M1903*, I noticed a new entry in the “Get yourself a little something on your way out” refrigerator next to checkout at Cabela’s.

That, friends and neighbors, is the Black Rifle Coffee Company “Freedom Punch” Energy Drink. It packs 200mg of caffeine into a 16 ounce can of fruity, zero sugar, goodness.

I tell you what, when I cracked that bad boy open, I felt a distant rumble of thunder and heard the cry of a bald eagle in a mountain pass. The light carbonation tickled my nose like the smell of napalm in the morning, and the effervescent taste of 1989 MRE cool-aid served in a Vietnam-era canteen cup made my day just a little brighter.

After sipping my way down to the bottom of the can, I felt my pulse quicken, my senses sharpen, and my spirit preparing itself to storm whatever objectives the day could throw at me.

Seriously, it wasn’t bad. It was very much on the sweet side for me, and probably could benefit from additional tartness. Irish Woman has developed a taste for Alani energy drinks, and the BRCC was head and shoulders better tasting than the one, count them, one Alani I have subjected myself to.

Cost was about par for an energy drink. Cabela’s was selling them for $2.99 apiece, and Amazon has them at $25 for 12.

200mg of caffeine is about what you’d get from two to three cups of strong coffee, so you should probably take that into account in your daily intake tracker. It can take me about an hour to drink several cups of coffee in a social setting, less when it’s fuel for work, but I downed this thing in about 10 minutes. The energy surge I got afterward wasn’t as drastic as the Fort Bragg Turkish Coffee Incident of 2000, but it was quite noticable.

On the plus side, each can comes with 100% of your daily recommended value for Vitamin B12, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, (Vitamin B5)and Biotin (Vitamin B7). It has 160mg of sodium, which is slightly less than you find in the recommended serving size of Cheez-It crackers.

Overall, if energy drinks are your preferred method of your daily deilvery to your personal caffeine monkey, the BRCC Freedom Punch is definitely worth a try.

*I did not need these things, but I so, so wanted them. Darn this sense of responsibility and being an adult.