After being on vacation for almost a week, I decided it's time for a review. Jeff got a six-pack of Howling Monkey Cola and tossed one over my way to review. Sure enough, it's another cola energy drink, what a surprise. I was really excited to review my first cola energy drink, despite the fact that every cola energy drink I've tried never wowed me. I found the can design particularly odd having a picture of a howling monkey and a red background lined with a circus-like pattern. What caught my eye the most out of the whole can was the words at the top of can "25% more caffeine." I think I'm in for a pretty nice kick, so let's open up the can and find out.
When opening the can to reveal a potent, subtle Pepsi-Cola aroma, I actually was pretty excited. Out of the can, Howling Monkey gave a usual dark cola color, without that cola fizziness. I wasn't expecting what I got from Howling Monkey. Instead of a lame cola flavor, I found a sweet Pepsi taste with some organic green tea mixed in. I'm finding myself taking in large amounts of this great cola energy drink, although I should be savoring it. The aftertaste differed from the rest of the drink, having a metallic taste, like tasting blood. I'd bet it's from the quinine, a rare ingredient in energy drinks. I glanced over at the ingredients list to find phosphoric acid in the mix, rather than citric acid. It's a bit more carbonated than that of a Monster, and there's more acidity due to the phosphoric acid, but it didn't stop me from gulping it down. I wasn't too surprised to see HFCS as well, but you'd be happy to know that it's no gummy at all. It would be a good idea to go ahead and pick up one of these, instead of a heavily carbonated and gummy soda.
The Howling Monkey has some pretty basic ingredients: Carbonated water high fructose corn syrup, phosphoric acid, caramel color, quinine, caffeine, taurine, and some other common ingredients. This cola energy drink tries really hard to be a soda because of it's phosphoric acid and caramel color content. Per can, you get only 180 calories and only 23g of sugar, pretty below average for an energy drink. It does not say how much caffeine is in it, but I can tell you that it has 1735mg of energy blend per can (Ginseng, guarana, quinine, green tea, etc.). For such a sweet energy drink, I was really relieved to see barely any sugar. I came back and touched up this review only because I thought I should mention the massive kick this Howling Monkey generously gave. I'm pretty sure one can of Howling Monkey had a decent amount of caffeine until a couple of guys over at Howling Monkey decided to boost up the caffeine, which was a great idea. You obviously cannot miss out on this energy drink.
Taste: 8.7 - A refreshingly different type of tasty cola
Kick: 8.3 - Howling Monkey did a great job on creating an awesome kick
Overall: 8.5 - If you happen to come across this energy drink, I advise you purchase it
Reviewed by: Chan
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