Product Review: Hornet Juice

Over at Tri-Scoop, many of the members have been going wild over a product called Hornet Juice. I've been meaning to try it and when one member gave away a couple packets, I took him up on the offer.
From the company website:

A powdered sports drink containing 17 amino acids that you mix with water or your favorite electrolyte drink, which you take before, during and after exercise, to give you increased energy, endurance and improved recovery time.

Hornet Juice works as a trigger for the oxidation of fat, which provides you with an abundant and long lasting source of energy.

What’s in it?

17 Amino Acids including; Proline, Glycine, Lysine, Threonine, Leucine, Tyrosine, Valine, Isoleucine, Alanine, Arginine, Phenylalanine, Glutamic Acid, Tryptophan, Histidine, Methionine, Serine, Aspartic Acid.

This unique combination of amino acids combine to trigger the burning of fat for energy, thereby increasing your athletic endurance.

Where did it come from?

It was developed after extensive research of the giant hornet's amazing ability to fly 50 miles a day.

Hornet Juice replicates a mixture secreted by the hornet larvae, which the adult hornet ingests to provide them with the energy they need for their incredible flights of endurance. It has even been the subject of an award winning National Geographic documentary.

At the very least, it sound like an interesting product, but color me skeptical. Some of the Tri-Scoopers noted that they felt much fresher after HJ powered workouts than the normally do, though any researcher worth the paper their degree is printed on could point out that could be a placebo effect. I was thinking about conducting a blind study on myself to see how I reacted to it, but for now I had only one packet, not exactly good for a reliable sample size.
So, a couple weeks ago, I mixed up some Hornet Juice for a Wednesday run and gave it a shot. The results were mixed at best. I can't say i noticed any improvement in performance or in how I felt... but that may have been partly due to the fact that Hornet Juice just tastes plain old AWFUL.
How bad is it? Have you ever smelled a skunk? Well, imagine a skunk spraying directly into your mouth...
Yeah, it really tasted that awful. And, of course, it left an aftertaste.
Maybe it does improve your performance or your recovery. I don't know, I don't know if I could say that without seeing some more reliable science or conducting a blind study myself. But there's no way you can conduct a blind study with this stuff tasting as terrible as it does. Nor would I want to.