Joker Lo-Carb

Walking in to that same Big! Lots we found the first BooKoos and Jolts in, we were incredibly surprised to find all three Jokers plus the Joker Lo-Carb and Joker+Juice. Joker has an awesome can design with a simple blue background and and a mad jester giving the impression of a sick and out of control drink. Since the regular Joker was a Monster clone, I bet that I can count on this to be a lot like the Monster Lo-Carb. The ingredients look suspiciously similar with the same energy ingredients: 1000mg of Taurine, 200mg of Panax Ginseng, and 2500mg of the Energy Blend per serving. Just like the Monster Lo-Carb, this drink uses glucose in addition to sucralose and acesulfame potassium, the artificial sweeteners. This might be done to give it a bit of a genuinely sweet taste to the artificial sweetness. I haven't had a Monster Lo-Carb in a while, so I'm interested in trying this.

Smelling this, I think it's a little fruitier than the regular Monster Lo-Carb with more hints of pear and grape. In the background, there's that cinnamon. From what I am tasting, there don't seem to be any different flavors in here than in the Monster Lo-Carb, but for some reason they seem more intense and delightful. The last time I had the Lo-Carb, it tasted really diluted, but with the Joker Lo-Carb, there's no diluted taste and I can really get into it. The sweetness starts out tasting really good because of the glucose, and then transforms into artificial and metallic sweetness, no doubt from the ace-k and sucralose. The flavor the sweetness carries along is very close to the Monster Lo-Carb, but in my mind, better, because it seems fuller and tastier. This thing went down incredibly fast and I suppose for the price you get this at Big! Lots for, 60 cents, it's worth it.

Now with one of these Monster clones, you might know what to expect of the energy ingredients; these drinks' last paragraphs typically look the same. Because this is a clone of the Monster Lo-Carb, you've got those same two artificial sweeteners, Sucralose and Acesulfame K, but with Monster's usual trick of pairing those two with good 'ol Glucose to provide a more natural sweetness. Because of this, you'll see 3g of sugar in the Supplement Facts instead of the usual zero in sugar-free drinks. That goes to show how this is different than a pure sugar-free drink. As for energy ingredients, they all appear to be exactly the same as a Monster. Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Sodium are the vitamins in here. As for energy ingredients, you've got 2000mg total of Taurine, 400mg of Panax Ginseng, and 5000mg of Monster's energy blend, which includes Glucose, Caffeine, Guarana, Inositol, Glucuronolactone, and Maltodextrin. The only other ingredients not mentioned are Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, "Color Added," Benzoic Acid, and Sodium Choride (salt). I'm glad to have tried this and I cannot wait to see how the Joker Juice compares with Monster's juice drinks.

Taste: 8.7 - Monster Lo-Carb replica with tons more fruity flavor
Kick: 7.8 - The Monster kick, enough said
Overall: 8.6 - Great lo-carb drink I'd have anytime

Reviewed by: Jeff