Photo by Darby Rose via Flickr Creative Commons.

College kids love their energy drinks. And alcohol. So any combination of the two can find their niche in a university the size of UT.

Back in February I wrote about a tasting party held by a group of students who were sampling the different flavors of the popular caffeinated alcoholic beverage Four Loko, which is a product of the Drink Four Brewing Co.

Four Loko appears to be the leader of all caffeinated alcoholic beverages at 12-percent alcohol, but its taste is sometimes its biggest drawback. Recently I’ve been in search for an alternative drink that combines an alcoholic punch with a better taste.

When I stopped by the convenience store to find a competitor, I was drawn to the attractive design of Tilt, a 16-ounce silver can with a graffiti-like “T”, appropriately tilted slightly off-kilter.

Tilt comes in only two flavors, berry and lemon lime, which is limiting in comparison to the nine offered by Four Loko. The initial sip of the lemon lime Tilt is far better than any Four Loko flavor, but the pleasant feeling is fleeting.

By the time you finish the can, Tilt mainly just tastes like regret. Its stale, metallic twinge is a cross somewhere between a mouthful of moldy limes and licking a jungle gym.

Four Loko definitely comes away the victor in a taste comparison, but another important element is volume and alcohol percentage. Again Four Loko comes out ahead, at 24 ounces and 12-percent alcohol, compared to the 16 ounce and 8-percent alcohol Tilt.

The all-important price comparison ranks the two beverages on even ground in convenience stores, at about .125 cents per ounce. With this and the other elements involved, it’d be a bad move to choose Tilt over Four Loko.

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