Lionel Messi’s sports drink Más has made a lot of noise coming out of the gate; produced in partnership with the Mark Anthony Group, it has hit the market with a strong presence in major locations like Walmart and 7-Eleven and has already expanded into Canada. Formula-wise, the brand doesn’t stray too far from the script, bringing together a variety of B vitamins, a gram of cane sugar for a touch of sweetness, and, of course, to make it a sports drink, key electrolytes to support hydration.
There are four flavors available for Más by legendary soccer player Lionel Messi, each based around a different time of his life in Orange D’or, Berry Copa Crush, Limon Lime League, and Miami Punch. The options are all available in two rather intriguing and separate formats with a standard half-liter plastic bottle and a sleek 12oz can. With all of the hype and attention surrounding the beverage, we went ahead and purchased a variety pack straight from the brand to find out if it tasted any good.
Review
Taste is arguably the most important factor when it comes to functional beverages like sports drinks and energy drinks, given that they have the active ingredients in there to be categorized as something that can support hydration or energy. With a gram of cane sugar and the goal of leaving you refreshed, refueled, and rehydrated, we suspected a light taste from Más, similar to other long-running legacy sports drinks like Gatorade, Powerade, and Bodyarmor. It is not like an energy or even pre-workout where the taste is usually more intense with carbonation involved and more complex ingredients to mask.
Much to our surprise, this thing is sweet, and we don’t mean super sweet like some of the flavors of the Prime Hydration Drink or even the sweet and smoothness of the tasty Ghost Hydration Drink; we mean over-the-top sweet. The individual flavors communicate reasonably well when you look past the slap-in-the-face taste strength, but we had trouble finding enjoyment in this one. Sometimes, a high level of sweetness can be alright, although Más doesn’t level out; it hits you with a high-powered syrupy flavor that doesn’t fade until you swallow, and even then, it leaves a lot of that intensity in your mouth.
The flavor of Más by Lionel Messi is very reminiscent of homemade popsicles or any nostalgic beverage involving concentrated flavor syrup where a pinch extra can be catastrophically too much. The Berry Copa Crush and Lemon Lime League are probably the strongest of the four in terms of flavor, with Miami Punch and Orange D’or playing into that intensity a bit better, but they still have that over-the-top taste. We had some people who would not take another sip and some who finished the cans but wouldn’t grab again if they saw it in coolers.
Summary
If you’re a fan of high-powered, over-the-top, sweet sports drinks, then Lionel Messi’s Más might be worth picking up. We’ve had our fair share of functional drinks, including an immense amount of hydration beverages, and none are on this level of sweetness. We can certainly imagine people getting on board and loving it, especially since it’s not an experience you’ll get anywhere else. Watered down Más is much more palatable; however, that obviously and completely defeats the purpose of an on-the-go drink.
