Rockstar Roasted: Light Vanilla (2007)

Rockstar Roasted's most innovative flavor is this one, a reduced calorie (70 per serving vs 140) and fat entry called Light Vanilla. Vanilla flavored coffee drinks are typically the most over flavored coffee entries -- and Rockstar has figured out a nice way to play this to its advantage. Specifically, they've used a blend of sugar, sucralose and ace-k to help cut the calories without sacrificing sweetness. In addition, this helps keep the vanilla flavor in check, giving the drink a coffee flavor that can stand on its own. However, this doesn't help the finish of the drink, which has a more pronounced energy and artificial sweetener flavor. Packaging follows suit with the other flavors, but with lighter color to denote the lighter formulation. Overall, we appreciate their effort to be different and cut the calories -- but would like it a lot more if the finish were a bit more smooth.