Alright, so I'm long winded. Here's the short version - Amino IV is effective and in my opinion, it tastes OK. Bang. Now onto the long version.
I've never used any kind of intra-workout before. As you can tell by my name, my workouts are of the HIT variety - they are short, intense, and they usually leave me very sore for days. It is not abnormal for me to have a hard time walking for up to 3 days after a leg workout. I am overweight though, and I decided it was time to get serious and drop a lot of weight. I started a PSMF diet and realized that it may be a good idea to supplement with BCAAs before and during my workouts to avoid muscle catabolism as much as possible on 600-800 calories/day. During the past 10 weeks I have dropped 37 pounds (diet being the main catalyst there).
Having used a number of PES products, and having recently tried PES Select CNC and fallen in love with the delicious flavor PES created, I figured I would try out the flavoring of Amino IV. If I'm going to use a BCAA it may as well taste good and PES was proven in my mind. Cherry Limeade sounded delicious, so I went for it.
Well, that is where I was moderately disappointed. Moderately. This product tastes good, no issues with it, but it wasn't great. It wasn't to BCAAs what Select is to protein. Maybe the flavoring was just a big weak? I don't know. I have read other reviews that stated the mix had a "vitamin" flavoring too it and tasted a lot like a crushed up multi-vitamin. I think this is way overstating it, but it was there. Still, I had no issue drinking it and it tastes good - better than plain water and there was nothing about it that made me NOT want to drink it. I'd give this a 6 or 7 out of 10.
As far as mixability - for the most part it mixed up very well in a shaker cup. It would clump at first on top of the water, but 2-3 shakes and it was pretty much dissolved. For some reason, however, no matter how much you shake it there is some grit that always settles on the bottom of the cup. I tend to drink what I mix, then pour water in the cup and get the grit out with my second fill. I'd say the mixability is 9 out of 10. The grit is a very minor nuisance.
But I wasn't really paying for a good drink. I could get that for half the price. I was paying for intra-workout support, and this product delivered. Since I have started this product, I have noticed my DOMS has been GREATLY reduced. Some days, I feel like I could workout a muscle group the very next day and could barely feel the pain at all. This is very unusual for me - I am almost always sore. It's just how I am. So, this is a big win for Amino IV - decreased DOMS for certain, IMO.
Second, all of my strength levels remained relatively consistent over the past 10 weeks. I may have lost a couple of reps on this exercise and gained a few on that exercise, but I'm lifting all the same weights, and my workouts are consistent. This statement is NOT impressive to me, since we all want to gain strength on a regular basis, not stay the same. It is EXTREMELY impressive when you remember I am on a PSMF though. 600-800 cals/day and relatively no strength loss? Maybe if I was taking a SARM, or PH, or gear. I'm taking Amino IV, Fish Oil, Multi-vitamins, vitamin D, protein powder, and green tea.
What is impressive about this is that I didn't throw this product in as an addition to what I was already doing, per se, but I threw it in to counter-act what I had taken away (food). This product would have been impressive if it just helped me slow the muscle loss. Even in an extreme deficit it definitely contributed toward virtually STOPPING muscle loss and turned me from someone who always has heavy DOMS to a person who has none-to-light DOMS. So, in my mind, it works.
Finally, I am at the end of my tub and given the fact that I'm not eating a lot, it would be nice to have an intra that was a little more tasty. I've spent 3 days looking for something to replace Amino IV with. There are 1-2 products that look promising in the taste category, but they are all lacking in other areas - particularly the HICA ingredient. Cost is also a factor for me and I was trying to go cheaper. At the end of my 3 days of searching, I realized that there is a Watermelon flavor of Amino IV. This product is relatively inexpensive when you compare what you get to other products, and I am a believer that it works - so I pulled the trigger on a second tub.
If you compare cost on this product, please realize that there are 60 scoops for 15 grams of active ingredients in each serving of Amino IV and most other formulas have 30 scoops with 3-8 grams of active ingredients. So, even though some other products may be 2/3's the price overall, you are getting half of the amount of active ingredients for much more than half the cost.
So, to summarize, this product tastes good (not great), mixes very well, and I really believe it works in that it stops DOMS and helps spare muscle. On top of all of this, it is relatively cost effective. I would recommend this.