🔌Review - Monster Energy - Ultra Strawberry Dreams

Monster Energy Ultra Strawberry Dreams can on a wooden desk

Introduced in the first half of 2023, Ultra Strawberry Dreams is Monster Energy's take on a sweet and tart red berry beverage, crisp and lacking the overly syrupy feel of many other strawberry beverages. After release, it became the best selling Monster Flavor in both the US and UK, toping the charts for low sugar energy drinks. The embossed can art features a dreamscape of abstract strawberries, lips, skulls, and rainbows etched into the bright pink outer covering. Is strawberry and aphrodisiac? Monster seems to think so.

🛒Price: $2.99 - I got it for around $1.30 a can on Amazon. Monster runs 30% off coupons for setting up subscribe and save fairly often which brings the cost of a 15-pack under $20.

✨Calories: 10, 16oz. can

🍵Caffeine: 150mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee

👅Flavor: The strawberry is evident from the get-go but is not overly sweet, more of a berry tingle with a subtle tart element. There is some "creaminess" which I perceive as a hint of vanilla on the mid-palate. The finish is clean and more citrus fruit, very similar to the standard white ultra, free from any off-notes or metallic funk. Overall the experience is more crispy tingle than cream soda.

🧪Ingredients: Ultra Strawberry dreams sticks pretty closely to the standard ultra formula. It does use a small amount of vegetable juice and Beta Carotene (natural pigment in sweet potatoes and carrots) for color, a light rose. Other than that, the only major difference I saw was in the amount of sodium, 260mg for Strawberry Dreams vs. 380mg in White Ultra (a difference of around 5% of daily value).

Sweeteners - Erythritol & Sucralose
Energy Blend - Taurine, L-Carnitine, Ginseng, Inositol
B-Vitamins - B3, B5, B6, B12 (200%+ DV)

🏆Rating: 4.5 - Great - If you'd told me that strawberry would be my favorite monster varietal, I'd have said you are crazy; yet here we are. Ultra Strawberry Dreams is well composed and executes well on everything the original Ultra brought to the table while also being a little smoother and more refreshing. I do like that it's not quite as salty, and the can art is fun as well.

⚖️Scale:

1 | Bad | Don't Drink it | I Wouldn't Drink it

2 | Poor | I would drink it if there was nothing else or it was free

3 | Good | Serviceable | Buy it on sale

4 | Great | A Cut Above | White Monster | Buy at full price

5 | Excellent | Standout in the Category | Pay venue prices

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