Castle & Cairn

Designed to be a morning-centric alternative to a hot cup of joe, Ultra Sunrise first debuted in 2015. Unapologetically orange, it still seeks to have the light and tangy Ultra aspects. Notably it includes actual lemon pulp to help with mouthfeel. The can features a paisley psychedelic motif with a stars, plants, and planets design etched into a cheery orange exterior. 🛒 Price: $17.99/15  - Amazon with 40% subscribe and save coupon ✨Calories: 10 , 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 150mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor: Tastes very much like a good full pulp orange juice, though in this case the pulp comes across more as creaminess than strings. Underneath the orange you can get a bit of grapefruit and the faintest hint of sweeter pineapple. There is still a bit of brightness to the overall experience from carbonation, but it's mellowed a bit from some other editions. Very refreshing. 🧪 Ingredients: Around the same as the rest of Monster's Ultra editions. Sweeteners: Ery...

Debuted in 2019, Ultra Paradise is yet another of Monster Energy's always growing ultra family of low calorie functional beverages. The can is a striking green with art featuring a volcano, palm trees, and inland river with lovely pacific island theme. 🛒 Price: $17.99/15  - Amazon with 40% subscribe and save coupon ✨Calories: 10 , 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 140mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor: The official branding is Kiwi with Green Apple and I get lots of both, though the apple dominates. If you've had the Green Jolly Rancher, this isn't too far from that. There is a little bit of lime towards the finish and the mouthfeel is the customary prickly ultra pop with some effervescence. This is notably the lowest citrus of any Ultra I've had to date, so if the usual isn't your cup of tea this can be your can replacement. 🧪 Ingredients: Around the same as the rest of Monster's Ultra editions. Sweeteners: Erythritol & Sucralose (Standard Ultra ble...

First released back in 2016, this purple retro themed can probably has you thinking "grape" and you'd be right! The can art is vaguely 1970s themed with paisley and kaleidoscope designs. Ultra Violet  seeks to combine the traditional citrus tingle and effervescence of the Ultra family with a sweet red grape. How does it hold up? 🛒 Price: $17.99/15  - Amazon with 40% subscribe and save coupon ✨Calories: 10 , 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 140mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor: On the tongue, it is a lot of what you might expect from a Monster Ultra family member. The grape definitely takes a backseat and hits after the initial tangerine and grapefruit citrus tingle. It is reasonably bubbly but the conflicting flavors mute out some of the cleanliness of the experience. Most other grape beverages are sugary and syrupy, providing more of an illusion of body/thickness, which makes this seem unexpectedly lighter, a playful prickle with a purple fruit undertone. 🧪 Ingr...

With can art depicting raging speakers, skateboards, skulls, and lightning, Monster Energy's Punk Punch is part of the low calorie Ultra lineup and brings with it a fruity flare, semisweet and still with that classic Ultra bend tingle. It's basically a zero-sugar version of the previous "Pacific Punch" offering, a deeper cut favorite of many. Monster rolled out Punk Punch in early 2026 and anecdotally sales seem to be pretty solid. 🛒 Price:  $3.75  - Academy Sports and Outdoors ✨Calories:  10 ,  16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine:  150mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor:  About what you'd expect for fruit punch plus a bit of the underlying Ultra Citrus to which we're all accustomed. Pineapple, Orange, Apple, and some sort of red fruit, perhaps cherry or strawberry. It's a little less bright and and has less bite than the standard Ultra, closer to a carbonated Hawaiian punch.  🧪 Ingredients:  Around the same as the rest of Monster's Ultra editio...

Ultra Wild Passion was introduced in early 2024 as Monster Energy’s tangy take on the tropical passionfruit profile. It focuses on a tart, zesty experience with the same "crackle" as the rest of the portfolio, avoiding the syrup and nectar texture of the Juice Monster line. The embossed can art features a lush jungle-scape with corresponding animals (jaguar, snake, elephant, chameleon). Is passionfruit really the fruit of unbridled desire? Let's find out. 🛒 Price:  $2.99  - Home Depot ✨Calories:  10 ,  16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine:  150mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor: I'm actually a bit reminded of Monster's Blue Hawaiian . This has the same very citrus forward mouth that fights a bit with the passionfruit flavor. I didn't get much of the passionfruit until the transition into the finish and it seems a little odd as a flavor combination overall. Mouthfeel is bright and tingly like the rest of the Ultra line. 🧪 Ingredients: Wild Passion sticks pret...

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 pe...

Designed to mimic the same signature taste as the original, Monster Zero Sugar , introduced in 2012, is to Monster Energy as Coke is to Coke Zero. I'm a bit confused as Monster Energy lo-carb, which I love, already attempts to do that for a handful more calories (30), so you only net 20 less by choosing this can. Interestingly, only regular Monster, this can, and Ultra Zero (white Monster) were eligible for the Call of Duty promotion this year, so I figured I'd pick up a few to try. The only real difference in ingredients is the absence of glucose (sugar - 5g in Lo-Carb, Zero Sugar instead adds Erythritol) though both contain the artificial Sucralose & Acesulfame K in differing extents. You'll find the standard Monster Energy blend under both tabs.  ✨Calories:  10, 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine:  160mg (20 more than Lo-Carb's 140) 👅 Flavor: Definitely delivers on the standard monster profile which is a sweet and salty citrus. I get lime, lemon, and a minor chaser o...

One of Monster Energy's newer variety packs, this set features Blue Hawaiian, Fantasy Ruby Red, & Vice Guava and seeks to continue on the success of the White Monster Ultra Zero. They have the same high carbonation, featuring tiny bubbles for an effervescent mouthfeel, and citrus flavor focal point, but each ads a special fruited twist.  Flavor Ultra Blue Hawaiian - Pineapple dominates an undercurrent of coconut in this Monster twist on a tropical punch. Some batches have seemed to be a bit under carbonated but this variety pack edition doesn't have that issue. Strong pineapple aftertaste and juice reminiscent mouthfeel.  Ultra Fantasy Ruby Red - Officially Fresh Pink Pamplemousse, Fantasy Ruby Red delivers the grapefruit you'd expect along with blood orange and tangerine, reminiscent of the white monster but with an additional buff to the citrus and slightly more substantial texture. Honestly, this may be an improvement over the the White Ultra. Ultra Vice Gua...

First released in the early 2010s, the Rehab line of Monster Tea + Energy is a low calorie offering with added electrolytes, packaged without carbonation and complemented by the addition of fruit flavors. If you ask me, these are directly targeted at the hungover consumer needing a quick boost and some hydration to get their day on track. I remember these making a big splash on campus when they first rolled out and I may have walked off with a few cases of free samples back in the day. You can buy the flavors separately or as part of a variety pack featuring Wild Berry, Tea + Lemonade, and Peach Tea flavors. So how are they? Flavor All three flavors drink very similarly. Mouthfeel is medium thickness for a sweetened tea, not super syrupy but well blended and somewhat creamy. Flavors are well pronounced and the overall the effect is that the Rehab line is very easy to drink. This is also compounded by the absence of carbonation. If you don't enjoy the prickle of regular monsters/ul...

Pretty much everyone has seen the infamous White Monster, but surprisingly few have also tried its older, blue, and Lo-Carb sibling. Flavor Comparison Both beverages are very citrus forward, but Monster Energy Lo-Carb is much closer to the original monster flavor, slightly less sweet than the OG and somewhat savory while Ultra Zero is "bright" with what I perceive as tangerine or clementine. I would summarize Lo-Carb as being more candy-like and Ultra Zero as veering more fruit-like, though they're definitely both on the same flavor spectrum. A similar comparison would be that the blue monster is to the white monster what Sprite is to Fresca.  On the tongue, Lo-Carb feels a bit smoother with less of the electric lightning bite of Ultra Zero.   Under the Tab - Comparison of Ingredients Looking at the two side-by-side, you see that Lo-Carb has 20 more calories per 16oz. can which still only leaves you at a total of 30. Peeping the ingredients list, you'll see that this ...

As a habitual caffeine abuser, I have a soft spot for Monster, both for their expansive lineup of flavors as well as their support for Sports and E-sports. Coffee is my standard caffeination vector, so the Java Monster suite of products is the perfect mix of bean flavor and energy boost. In this post, I'll provide my personal rankings and rationale for what is a very strong lineup.  Note that I have not been compensated in any way for this write-up... I just like them. Currently,  Monster Energy 's Java Monster lineup has five available flavors: Mean Bean - Vanilla Irish Crème Loca Mocha - Chocolate Salted Caramel Café Latte There are two "triple shot" versions of the Vanilla and Mocha which contain 300mg of caffeine though their flavors are very similar to the base versions above. At this point, we should also take a moment of silence for the two cold brew flavors, sweet black and nitro latte. The nitro latte was a personal favorite and I quite liked the sweet black,...