THE MARKET FOR BEVERAGES styling themselves energy drinks is a crowded one and, with sales of almost £40 billion worldwide, a fast-growing market.

The problem for lovers of such drinks is that choosing becomes harder and harder as more and more products slap “energy” on their bottles and cans. Cue baffled shoppers in health stores and supermarkets.

Luke Raskino, 45, and Jonathan Reeves, 42, entrepreneurs who have worked with multinational food companies, have created Flyte, their own energy-drink brand, based in the City. And it has extra appeal: the production process is carbon-positive. Yes, better than carbon-neutral. 

At £2.50 per 330ml bottle, it is not cheap and so far is available around Hackney at only a few shops, so you will not yet see it in high-street chains.

What’s it like? Loving Dalston’s former food writer, Shooey, tested it. She reports: 

“Flyte says the ingredients of its lightly carbonated, clean-energy drink are 100% from natural resources and use organic green coffee beans. The sweetener is steviol, not sugar. All very on-trend… but what do its two flavours, red berry and green mango, taste like?

“The red berry lingers on the taste buds long after the drink is swallowed and is neither over-fizzy nor sweet but refreshing and thirst-quenching. The green-mango flavour was not as strong as the red berry’s. Some friends disliked what they termed as an ‘industrial’ aftertaste.

“I prefer water to energy drinks, but if I wanted an energy drink, this would be my choice.”

Let’s hope Flyte can get itself into a few bars and pubs. It would be useful at those times when the body wants a break from booze.

Hamish Scott 211118

* Suppliers in Hackney: AMPM, Falafelicious, Fanny’s Kebabs and Shoreditch Stop

* Backstory: A new kind of Hackney night out; Eat, drink and be sober; Healthy bargains in Dalston; Fizz and fritters from elderflower

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained. A link indicates neither approval nor disapproval by Loving Dalston.