Drink Reaction: Monster Energy Drink- Ultra Violet

Hey-a Rad Blog.

Normally I do not cover these Zero Calorie type drinks, but how can I refuse when someone else buys it for me?

This is Monster’s Ultra Violet.

Now, it doesn’t outright say it is a Monster Zero, but along the top it is clear that it is in that family. Monster Zero also has a distinctive design. You can see on the can that the Monster logo is silver and there’s like tribal designs around it. Most of those zero calorie monsters have that design.

My co-worker who bought this for me said it is his favorite flavor of Monster. I didn’t expect him to buy it for me, but he did. Nice guy. I also probably would have never bought this myself either unless someone specifically requested it so thank you, co-worker. You’ve expanded The Rad Blog’s horizons a little.

What I find, uh, puzzling (for lack of a better word) is that zero calorie Monsters have all these unique flavors while regular Monster doesn’t. Is the diet Monster more in demand?

My co-worker said this tastes like a melted grape popsicle so that’s pretty cool. I’m not usually huge on grape, but we’ll see how well it does to capture a grape flavor. These zero calorie drinks usually make sucralose or something else like saccharin their main source of sweetener and it always tastes terrible. It usually over powers the flavor of the drink. I don’t know the exact ingredients yet, but we’ll see if Monster can aim more for grape and less for fake sweeteners in the flavor department.

I already commented on the can, but I gotta say that this purple can looks classy! Man, I love it. If it gad a neon glow to it, it would look even cooler. Oh hey, there’s little music notes on the bottom right corner. That’s cool. From afar, this looks sort of like a spider web, but the design is actually pretty intricate.

Is there some sort of testimonial on the back? Let’s see.

Oh yeah! It’s kind of cool. It basically says that this is influenced by the 70’s funk scene. Makes sense. I do get a sorta Hendrix kind of feel with it. It describes its flavor as “sweet and tart pixie dust…powered with our Monster Energy Blend.” Interesting. I’m drinking pixie dust am I? Will I be able to fly like Peter Pan?

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I think this has a good chance in tasting not bad. If they are going to lean on the tartness of grape rather than a more sweet taste of grape, then it might be able to make a good balance with the artificial sweeteners.

Oh yeah, it has that government warning about people sensitive to caffeine. Yeah, this is an energy drink after all.

Hey, let’s move to the nutrition facts and ingredients.

Nutrition Facts!

2 servings per container.

0 calories. 0g total fat. 190mg sodium. 2g total carbs. 0g sugars. 1g erythritol. 0g protein.

100% niacin. 100% Vitamin B6. 100% Vitamin B12. 100% pantothenic acid.

Hmm. This seems lower than a regular Monster. I mean, the whole can would be 200% in the B Vitamin department, but isn’t like regular Monster 200% per serving and then like 400% per can? Yep! just checked my post on base Monster and it’s 200% per serving.

Ingredients!

Carbonated water, erythritol, citric acid, taurine, sodium citrate, natural and articficial flavors, l-carnitine l-tartrate, caffeine, sorbic acid, sucralose, benzoic acid, niacinamide, d-calcium pantothenate, acesulfame potassium, salt, red 40, pyridoxine hydrochloride, blue 1, cyanocobalamin.

RED 40 CHAS RAD APPROVED! KIDS OFF THE WALLS!

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There seems to be way less stuff in this compared to base Monster. It seems their choice of sweetener is erythritol. I don’t know that one. Time to look it up!

So it is a type of sugar alcohol that’s actually found in some fruits. It says it is almost as sweet as sucrose but doesn’t have the calories and it also apparently doesn’t cause tooth decay? That sounds pretty great actually. Side effects include stomach aches and trips to the bathroom.

To make this it seems like the ferment it with yeast and then like extract it? That’s kind of wild.

Ah! The commercial brand of alternative sweetener that uses erythritol is called “Truvia.” Huh. I thought that was going to be a stevia brand. Oh well, I’m up to trying this.

Speaking of trying it, let’s open it up and pour it.

That is very purple liquid. It reminds me of antifreeze or Windex. The scent is…odd. It smells a little like grape, but it smells really fake. Like, it actually does smell like some sort of cleaner. There’s a sweetness to it too. I would guess that’s from the erythritol. The grape is pretty muted. It certainly doesn’t smell like the actual fruit.

Well, time to sip!

Hmm. Hmm. Uhhh huh.

Well, first sip is quite sweet. I am expecting it to just taste like sweet water, but no! There’s actually a little fruity flavor right out of the gate. Is it grape? Sorta. It is kind of sweet so it reminds me more of white grapes rather than purple grapes. That sort of sweet fruity flavor stays in the middle part of the flavor as it now tries to compete for the spotlight with the sweetener. The sweetener isn’t too off-putting at first either. It just tastes like normal sugar or high fructose corn syrup. The ending part of the taste is where it develops the more tart and earthy purple grape flavor. It does sort of taste like a melted popsicle like my co-worker said, but because it shifted from sweet to tart, the sweetener’s “fake” flavor pokes its head in and makes this taste more like Dimetapp. Yeah, I don’t know if it is the sweetener’s more “manufactured” taste that makes it taste like medicine or the B Vitamins. I am leaning towards the sweetener since it does have sucralose in it too which is already terrible. I also say this because this doesn’t emphasize the B Vitamins as much as a base can of Monster might. Maybe it is both. The aftertaste is terrible. While the ending part of the flavor had that grape tartness to mask the manufactured or medicine taste, it doesn’t have that same effect in the aftertaste. The tartness goes away too quickly which leaves that horrible taste to linger…and yes, it lingers. It lingers too long.

Not really feeling this one. It tried. It certainly did. It had all the elements of being able to break my “all zero calorie drinks taste fake” idea, but it just couldn’t cut it. The aftertaste really cuts into my enjoyment of this drink. The beginning and middle flavors aren’t too bad. The tartness at the end isn’t either, but it just can’t overpower that fakeness. If it was just a little stonger, I might like this way more. For now, I just can’t dig it.

I’m going to give this a broken pencil out of Rad.