Redcon1 Total War in Blue Raspberry flavor
Blue raspberry is pretty much the classic gym flavor, and Redcon1 takes it to the next level. Total War Blue Raspberry is a pre-workout powder for athletes who are already used to caffeine and want to know exactly what they are drinking. You scoop 14 grams into your shaker and get 320mg of caffeine, 6 grams of citrulline malate and 3.2 grams of beta-alanine. The 420-gram tub contains 30 scoops, enough for six weeks with five workouts per week.
A label where everything has a number
What many people don't know: a large part of the pre-workouts on the shelves use a 'blend'. Then you only see the total weight of a mixture, not how much of each substance is in it. With Total War, that is different. On the EU label, it states exactly what you get per 100 grams and per scoop, from the 6 grams of citrulline malate to the 10mg BioPerine®. That gives you clarity. You can, for example, add up the caffeine with your morning coffee. And because this is the European version, you see the same numbers that the importer provides for the Dutch and European market. With imported American tubs, you sometimes see a label with American units and without values per 100 grams. Here you don't have to convert anything.
How Total War compares to other pre-workouts
If you place this pre-workout next to what you find in Dutch webshops, the caffeine especially stands out. Most formulas contain around 200mg per serving. Total War clearly goes further with 320mg, made up of 250mg of caffeine anhydrous and 70mg from dicaffeine malate. The 6 grams of citrulline malate is in line with the stronger products on the market, while budget formulas often use 1 to 3 grams. Creatine is not included. That is a conscious choice that you see more often: this way you can take creatine separately and every day, also on rest days. In short: a pre-workout with caffeine, citrulline malate and beta-alanine, without creatine.
Beetroot and taurine
In addition to citrulline, there is 1 gram of beetroot extract. Beetroot naturally contains nitrate. Taurine (1 gram) is a substance your body produces itself and that you also get through fish, meat and energy drinks. In addition, you will find juniper extract, theobromine from the cacao family, naringin from grapefruit and piperine from black pepper.
There is one small difference with the other flavors. Blue Raspberry has a scoop of 14 grams instead of 14.2 grams, and citric acid is missing from the ingredients list. The sweet, slightly sour berry flavor comes from flavorings, sucralose and acesulfame-K. The amounts per scoop are otherwise exactly the same as those of the rest of the Total War line, so you choose this flavor purely because you like blue raspberry. Yet, flavor in a pre-workout is not an afterthought. You drink it three, four times a week, often at a time when you are actually already tired. A flavor that you don't dislike then makes more difference than you think. Blue Raspberry is in that sense a safe choice: familiar, sweet and without sharp edges.