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Personally I like Monster. I'd drink white monster as my top drink if it was caffeine free. But it's expensive. $4 a can is kind of nuts.
I'm a semi-rare indulger in caffeine. I'm one of those people who have to quit it and get a clean slate every now and again. So I can't just try every flavor of every brand.
So what flavors compete with white monster?
While I consider Monster (the original) to be the best-tasting energy drink, I usually get my cans from the Dollar Tree at $1.25 per can. RipIt is my main (the zero-calorie version is acceptable), though my latest haul also included 3D Energy (blueberry mist flavor, excellent, and sugar free I think; also Citrus Frost was nearly as good), Rockstar Fruit Punch flavor (I don't like the standard) (Silver Ice is also decent, like a caffeine-infused Fresca), and Venom (original flavor). These are mostly for my dayjob to get my through, and supplement my two-three coffees before I go in.
Others I have enjoyed to one extent or another:
White monster is sugar free kind of monster, so you want a sugar free type of soda? I like coke zero, that has stevia. I also get zevia, stevia sodas and they have caffeine From coffee beans.
Yeah. Sugar free is a big plus. Most sugar free soda sucks. But that white monster is favor perfection.
I never liked any kind of sugar free soda, but I got raw stevia to put in my coffee cuz that has health benefits and I liked it even better than sugar.
I avoided diet drinks until my ex-wife turned me. I never liked sticky sugar tho.
Apparently aspartame turns into formaldehyde in you, so not good. And the digestive inflammation and other things may be just as bad as the high-fructose corn syrup. So "diet" may not improve your diet.
Water, ask the Waterboy why.
Coffee?
Toche.
But if I had to give a snarky comment, it would be: Mmm, burnt cherry pits.
Ouch. Cyanide poisoning is no laughing matter! But seriously, nowadays, I just take caffeine pills. I work in a drugstore and energy drinks were taken off the shelves following an incident where a teen died due to an unfortunate interaction with a prescription drug(ADHD meds I presume) he was taking. Consequently, I had to find an alternative to get the energy I need to be productive.
Turns out 200mg of caffeine is way more effective than most energy drinks. The only issue is I end up getting a bit of anxiety with that amount. So I lowered the dose to a 100mg and I still have sufficient energy levels with less jitters and sweating. But I also have to factor in the 2-3 cans of Diet Pepsi/Coke I drink during a shift which adds about 70-105mg of caffeine more.
So in essence, caffeine is a hell of a drug but its purest form is the cheapest and most efficient. You can also mix it in any soft drink if you crush it. Hope that helps.
That anxiety/wired edge can be dealt with by taking L-theanine, available mixed with caffeine or by itself. I take L-theanine when I can't sleep as it turns into melatonin in you (I also have).
I believe inositol helps with taking some of the edge off as well.
Another note on L-thianine. It takes longer to kick in than caffeine. So if you take both at the same time, you can still get dem jitters. I certainly can, even if I feel the L-thianine later.
Also taurine. Not needed for most people but it's worth knowing about. Taurine helps stabilize the heart if you have extremely high caffine. I look at thianine and taurine as being the same concept, but one is for the head and the other for the heart.
TIL. Makes sense. Never did enough to find out.
I learned about L-theanine 20 years ago from a client who used to party hard. He was developing an energy drink "Smart Power" and I created the branding, packaging, and a campaign (painful Flash animation). His was the same as most but different with L-theanine.
What I need is to find a stimulant with a faster clearance than caffeine has in me.
Maca with ginseng?
Cocaine in little bumps rather than lines was my preference. Lines make you crazy, which can be fun, but bumps are better IMO when you're active. If you're sitting around doing it, often you just want more. If you're doing stuff you're too busy to just consume - potentially leading to addiction. Like potato chips, it's difficult to just have one, once you start.
You said my sentiments exactly. Odd.
Additionally, I buy generic brand caffeine pills (each = 1 coffee) - and often cut them in half. They're very predictable, effective, and way cheaper than any other caffeine sources.
I also have L-theanine + caffeine pills from Amazon.
I avoid them when I can, but take them when I need, rarely after 2pm and never after 5pm.
The furry Monster can will get caught in your throat.
Cocaine + ketamine is better than any energy drink I know.
I've heard good things about Alani.
I just drink light roast black coffee - it makes me happier than any energy drink.
Well, I did some online research. What other people consider close.
Fresca, white lightning creatine, and wild berry poppi.
So I bought them to do a taste test. Well not the creatine. I already have too much.
The wild berry poppi is not even close. Duh. But it did go nice with the others once testing was done.
The fresca that some people say tastes identical isn't. They are similar but it's not as good. Since I was testing anyway, I found that if you add some simple syrup you close about 2/3rds of the gap but still, nope. Fresca is far more natural. One is not the same as the other, despite reports claiming so online.
But the most interesting finding is an absurdity you'll have to try to believe. Drink some monster, it will taste good. Drink some fresca, it will be ok but similar. Then try the monster again. It's horrible. I found something equal to drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth. And strangely it comes from two products that taste 70% similar if you drink them in the other order.
One could call this pure science. Mostly because there are no applications for this obscure discovery.
The only person I know who drinks Fresca is my mom. And the Canadian version is sugar and caffeineless. Monster is the energy drink I would usually consume as it was one of the cheapest but to me it tasted horrible; like carbonated cough syrup.
The best energy drink as far as taste and ingredients go IMHO is Guru. I'm not sure if you have it in the states as it's a Canadian brand. But it has little sugar(the sugar comes from the grape juice and cane sugar), has tea extract in it and the ingredients are organic(allegedly). Though my first Guru experience was less than ideal due to a wasp going into the can...
I think they pushed the Canadian version everywhere. In the US fresca has re-branded itself as a sparkling water.
Sparkling water is just soda water.
Fresca is okay, especially in evenings with no caffeine. I like grapefruit. I don't know why they don't make chocolate soda or bacon soda. Jaritos have a variety of flavours too, but with real cane sugar.
In Canada they passed a law that dark sodas can have caffeine, like darker coffee and tea. (Diet root beer seems to have no caffeine, which is also nice.) Lighter sodas like Fresca, Mountain Dew, orange, etc. cannot have caffeine. Think of the children!
Whoa, zero caffine Mountain Dew. That defeats the concept of Mountain Dew. Wait, then why can't you get caffeine free white Monster?
New fun fact. I had to drink some of that monster last night for my testing, but I wanted to save most of it without it losing fizz, so I needed to drink one fresca and rebottle the monster. Identical color.
https://img.gvid.tv/i/25p1L1vS.png
I'm guessing cans don't count?
I can't explain it.
That's what I heard a long time ago.
I bought a White Monster yesterday. (Sounds racist.)
If each caffeine pill is $0.18 and the White Monster can is $3.59, which price tastes better?