Monster M-80 eight oz.

When a close acquaintance and fellow caffeine junkie strongly recommended I try and review Monster M-80, I did my best to track one down. But a decent amount of time had past 'til I saw the eight oz. can variety at Big Lots for $.50. I quickly grabbed one or two(or three or four or...), along with several other drinks and made my way out the door. That was earlier this week, and now it is time to finally see what he had urged me to try. Now, the Monster line and me have had a pretty good history, and if it is anything like Khaos I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

FIRST IMPRESSION: The can for M-80 uses the same design that Khaos did, and I think it was for the better. The yellow fits the metal panel quite well and along with the name M-80, helps give the can an edgy look. I am impressed about how clean the can looks. A lot of energy drinks now a days are riddled with cluttered cans, so it is refreshingly clean. I'm not a fan of the size of the can, but I can't really complain as they do make larger ones. Overall, the clean yet industrial look to M-80 make it one of the better looking cans I've seen in quite some time.

TASTE: I opened the can and took a sip. The flavour starts out a sweet and fresh pineapple taste, that then fades away, leaving behind a tart and gummy mix of several other citrus fruits, mainly lime, berry and some more pineapple. Through out the whole flavour experience the drink is pretty sweet, most noticeably in the initial flavour and the aftertaste. Overall, if the sweetness was turned down just a tad it could of been great, but for now, just good.

KICK: Each can contains: carbonated water, several fruit juice concentrates, natural flavor, glucose, guava puree, Taurine, citric acid, panax ginseng root extract, caffeine, niacinamide, guarana seed extract, and riboflavin. This blend of ingredients might of given me a good kick if it was sixteen oz., but since it is only eight or so oz., it gave me a pretty weak kick. For only around two or so hours I felt mildly mentally improved and jittery. Overall, if you want to get a good kick out of M-80, either buy two eight oz. cans or find the sixteen oz.

FINAL WORD: Overall, I feel that Monster M-80 is a decent energy drink. Nothing about the drink is anything I haven't seen before, which was a mild disappointment. If Monster improved the taste a little, and if I could find a sixteen oz. version, Monster M-80 could of been great, but for now, it is just decent. For fifty cents, some might say its worth a purchase, but because you can buy a much better energy drink for only ten more cents, its almost criminally insane to stick with M-80. All in all, Monster M-80 is just not good enough to justify a purchase at $.50, and should be skipped...3/5

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