Monster Energy: The Doctor

This drink is intended to honour MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi, whose nickname is apparently “The Doctor”. This is all very confusing to me as the only person who should sport that name owns a TARDIS. Oh well, on with the drink itself. It’s described as citrus flavoured, and I guess that orange is a citrus fruit – I was expecting something a little more on the lemon and lime side of things though! It’s very orangey, but that’s not bad because it’s still quite nice. Even the large quantity of drink you get in this large can doesn’t get too sickly, so they’ve managed the balance just right.

Monster Assault

I’m told that this is a standard issue energy drink in the US, but in the UK you can’t get hold of it. I found this in Spain so jumped at the chance of trying it without paying extortionate money to import a can. It’s really good! It tastes like fruit punch with a whole load of caramel in, and possibly a dash of cola in the background somewhere too. Whatever the flavour ingredients are (I don’t know, the can was in Spanish), they clearly work well together. I didn’t get the usual synthetic Monster flavour that is so prominent with this brand in this drink either which is a plus-point in my opinion.

Update 2021-09-23: Obviously since I first reviewed this drink over seven years ago, it has been available in the UK for quite a while. They have now updated the can design too, so I’ve updated the image on this review too. I am also now very certain that this is basically a cola flavoured drink.

Rockstar Juiced – Mango, Orange, Passion Fruit

It might list the fruits on the can, but it really is just a tropical flavour energy drink. Sweet, fruity, mildly refreshing but mostly a bit too sickly for my liking. I still prefer the more artificial flavour of Monster Ripper if you’re going to go down the tropical route.

Source Tropical

Meh… just a bland tropical tasting drink really. It’s inoffensive and that’s about as complimentary as I can be. To be honest, Morrison’s have just included this flavour to complete their band-wagon jumping range.

Rip It – Red Zone

Mmm strawberries. I have to be honest and say that I was expecting a much stronger strawberry taste, but that would probably lessen the appeal to the masses making it a bit too sickly. Rip It Red Zone has struck a nice balance, it’s got the nice strawberry flavour I like but it isn’t too overpowering and sickly. The background flavour is the same as the Rip It Shot of the same variety only without the bitterness you get with energy shots. Caffeine-wise it is one of the lowest in the range at 35.4mg/100ml but it is still much higher than most UK energy drinks! The drink is obviously a bright pink colour (red food colouring?) to associate it with strawberries even further.

XS Energy (XC Energy)

It’s a very large can of generically budget energy drink. It’s a sweet mix, but slightly watery even though it keeps a decent 31.5mg/100ml of caffeine in tow. Mega hit of energy, and a rather nice flavour. I’d buy it again. One thing you should note is that it appears to have changed its name. The can I purchased was named XS Energy, but the web site declares a name change to XC Energy, presumably because of a trademark issue or other such problem.

USN Spike

I purchased this from a health store, so it must be good for you, right? Hmm, well, it’s absolutely jam packed full of sugar as well as the fruit juice it declares on the front of the can. Taste-wise, there’s something of a Monster Ripper essence to it which is nice but very sweet. The main flavours come from apple, pineapple and passion fruit, but they’ve also bunged guava, orange, and a whole host of B vitamins in to boot. All-in-all, it tastes good and gives you one hell of a kick.

Rockstar Pure Zero Fruit Punch

Yay! It’s another drink that tastes like a Swizzels Matlow Double Dip! I love it, it’s a very synthetic and sugary tasting mixed fruit drink which fizzes itself down, yet contains only 4 calories per 100ml. Rockstar do seem to put in a lot of effort with their non-standard energy drink flavours and their range contains many of my personal favourites which includes this one. Even a lot of effort has gone in to the can which oozes quality with its dual texture surface.

No Fear Tropical Storm

No Fear is generally one of my favourite brands of energy drink, not only for the flavour but also for the originality of a re-sealable can. The two newest additions to the range, Blue Storm and Tropical Storm, do not feature this latter unique selling point unfortunately. Whilst I enjoyed Blue Storm, Tropical Storm was sadly nothing special. It’s a sharp and sweet tropical drink which tastes much the same as any other tropical flavoured energy drink. Still, if you like that sort of thing then you get a lot of drink for your money so far as premium brands go.