Monster Ultra Red

The road trip is one of the greatest joys that life can give you. Hanging out in a car with friends on a warm summer day speeding down the highway with the windows down and the radio up. I think one of the main reasons I wanted to play music was to always have extended road trips in my life. According to the little blurb on this can, Monster feels the same way. They talk about being young and working dumb jobs to pay for your summer excess, but then save enough for one last blow out trip at the end of summer. I know what they were talking about and I can fully relate. My confusion comes in the form of that statement being on a “diet” energy drink. Sure I'm sure many a road trip are fueled my caffeine and taurine, but when was the last time you or anyone you knew were at a little gas station in the middle of nowhere and someone in the car said something along the lines of, “Oh make sure you grab me a zero calorie energy drink and some yogurt”? The people they are trying to reach out to with that statement more than likely don't care about their sugar intake. They are pounding bags of Doritos and roller dogs by the gallon. Perhaps they were shooting for a nostalgia angle though; people who are older, whose metabolisms have slowed down. They have fond memories of trips past, but now they need to watch what they eat so they don't end up looking like Pizza the Hut.

Whatever their intentions, they did a good job with this energy drink. They did the unthinkable and made a diet fruit punch that doesn't taste like complete garbage. I think the secret was that they kept the punch pretty mellow, unlike the Hawiian Punch taste-a-likes in the world. Also, they used erythritol as the sweetener, which taste less like poison than sucralose or aspartame. The end result is a drink that just tastes fruity without being overbearing and only tastes mildly diet.

It's rare that I find a diet drink that I don't mind, and I could see myself purchasing again. Well done Monster Corp.