Venom Black Mamba

You wouldn't believe how long I've held on to this drink. I've stowed it away for about 2 months and I think Jeff motivated me to finally take it out of my fridge and review it. I really respect Venom, their can design is mean and their low carb energy drink is brutal and tasty. I believe Venom Black Mamba will definitely be a winner in my book; and now that I think about it, I'm really excited to twist it open and check it out. Venom has an awesome can design being a fierce red snake eye with a dagger pupil and a black, scaly body. Venom is printed in a white sharp font with a blood red outline. The V and the M are stretched down to form a fang looking vicious and complimenting the cool red eye. I'm really thirsty right now, so I hope this is a refreshing Monster-like energy drink. I'm just about ready to find out how this beast will impress me, sorry for the short paragraph.

I twist it off with that crackling noise and get a extraordinarily sweet Monster Clone; also smelling pretty refreshing. The color is predictable having an golden amber color with a slightly brown tint and minimal carbonation. Venom kills at making an insane Monster clone taste, but really too sweet to be exactly like the Monster or Deton 8. The taste is hard to describe, I guess it could be citrus/grape/apple with a lot of noticeable natural sugar like glucose and sucrose. A Monster clone is one sweetened with sucrose, glucose, and sucralose (Optional), not a dull HFCS. I really wasn't expecting this much sweetness from Venom, but wow, it hits you, just about as sweet as an Amp. Although that may be a problem for some people, it's an insanely tasty Monster clone for everyone else. The carbonation compliments the original flavor having barely any, which is great. I'm regretting chugging it because I wished I had enjoyed it more, but hey it was refreshing and I was thirsty. As for gumminess, I was a bit disappointed to have this drink backed up with gumminess, although it's not even sweetened high fructose corn syrup. Overall, it's another amazing Monster Clone that anyone would enjoy. I advise you go up and get yourself one.

The ingredients are basic yet interesting having carbonated water sucrose, glucose, citric acid, maltodextrin, taurine, sodium citrate, glucuronolactone, natural and artificial flavors, ginseng, caffeine, guarana, and sucralose. Venom improved the flavor of their Monster Clone drink by sweetening it with sucrose and glucose, rather than HFCS. Sucralose, however, is a bit noticeable in Venom, but not as much as you'd think it should be. One thing about the Venom Black Mamba is that there's too much sugar, or just too sweet for most people like Jeff and I. Per 16.9 ounce can, you get 240 calories, 56g of sugar, and 2g of protein. Although it's only got a bit more sugar than a Monster, it really is like 5 times sweeter; not great. The calorie count is 40 more than a Monster, delivering more sweetness and more energy from calories. It has 400mg of ginseng and an energy blend of a powerful 6,000mg. Even though it doesn't have much caffeine (160mg), the guarana and ginseng donate a killer kick that got me hyper for a good 2-3 hours. All in all, Venom doesn't joke around when it comes to making a mean energy drink, but the Low Carb definitely out tasted this one.

Taste: 8 - Nice Monster clone, very tasty and refreshing
Kick: 8.7 - The kick was pretty dynamic and dominent
Overall: 8.3 - I would stick with the Low Carb Venom if I had to purchase one again

Reviewed by: Chan

Monster Black Ice

Monster fans rejoice! Monster has released a new energy slurpee called Black Ice. I've heard so many great things about the New Monster Black Ice and I knew it was about time to head over to my local 7/11 and grab one. While I was there, I thought I'd take a look for some energy drinks as well, I saw the two Spike Shooter energy drinks. I decided to wait it out and review the energy drinks I already have, but I did get the Monster Black Ice. I was pretty fond of Monster's idea of advertising, using a new type of logo. It's an intense black 'M', with some crazy black storms going on in the background, probably representing a crazy energy blend, I'd say it's my favorite logo thus far. Every 7/11 stores I've been to lately have been advertising this new Slurpee like crazy, I think it'll do fine even if it's not that great. All the companies are making energy drinks Slurpees nowadays, and I have gotten to try them all, but haven't had the chance to review them. The Amp Slurpee was just Okay, too gummy, and the Full Throttle Slurpee was pretty good, I hope this one can conquer the whole idea of a 7/11 Slurpee. If it does, then you can bet it would be one of the most popular energy Slurpees of all times. Well, let's check this behemoth Slurpee out.

I wasn't expecting what came out of the spigot and into my little cheap 7/11 cup. It's the same color as the Monster Mixxd, but darker, almost like purple-black. I remembered to smell it before I took a sip from the straw, my head drew back in shock, an extremely sweet Monster aroma, with some added unknown ingredient. I was even more surprised when I took a sip, being like every single Monster flavor packed in a frozen delight. Off the top of my head, I named all the flavors of Monster that I found in this drink: M-80, Khaos, Mixxd, Assault, Heavy Metal, Original, and Lo-Carb. It first hits you with a cola taste (Assault), then it changes into a tropical juicy flavor (M-80, Khaos), and it fades away with an original citrus-grape-berry-apple flavor (Original, Lo-Carb, Heavy Metal, Mixxd). The flavor is so intense, it forces you to take only small sips every once in awhile, don't be mistaken if you think you can down a 40 ouncer; it's not your average 7/11 Slurpee. It's nicely carbonated, just like every other Slurpee out there, which compliments the flavor real well, and doesn't steal the thunder, like some other energy drinks would. The aftertaste is really mild, leaving you with a basic Monster taste, calling for you to take some more sips. Since it's hopefully sweetened with sucrose and glucose, the gumminess is very mild, having barely any, but you can still feel some lingering around somewhere. Overall, Monster did an amazing job combining all their flavors in one, but beware: flavor EXPLOSION in this energy drink, expect some crazy good intense flavor.

I'm not sure what to list in this ingredients paragraph, I'll try my best. For starters, I noticed some cola, so I'm sure they threw some Pepsi-Cola flavoring in. Next, I can taste some juice, so I'm pretty sure they put some of that M-80 tropical fruit from concentrate, like pineapple, mango, and melon. The Khaos is similar, having some orange and apple flavor, probably from concentrate. The Heavy Metal has mostly apple, I wouldn't be surprised if some of that was thrown in. Lastly, they definitely put some Mixxd grape cider flavor as well as a lot of original Monster flavor: apple, raspberry, and citrus. It sounds like if Jeff and I were to make an energy drink, these would be some key ingredients in ours. I'm feeling pretty jittery right now, so I'm positive there's a lot of energy blend in here (Guarana, ginseng, caffeine, taurine), but I can tell most of it is from the sugar in the Slurpee, although Monsters aren't that sugary. All in all, Monster made the perfect drink, I think; there's no gumminess, it's lightly carbonated, a lot of flavor, mostly natural, and just refreshing and tasty. It's limited time only, so after this sentence, you go out and get yourself one of these Monster Black Ice's.

Taste: 9.5 - The prefect blend of all Monster flavors
Kick: 7 - This can vary, depending on what size you get, but I'll stick with an average
Overall: 9 - Words cannot describe the amount of greatness in this energy Slurpee

Reviewed by: Chan