Review for Monster Energy--Khaos

CAFFEINE CONTENT

 

160 mg/16 oz. can

240 mg/24 oz. can

EASE IN ACQUISITION—9

Even if it’s a bit less so than some of the company's other products, Monster Energy—Khaos is still pretty dang easy to come by.

APPEARANCE/PRESENTATION—8

This and the other two Monster Energy drinks of the juice persuasion (MIXXD and M-80) sport a bolted sheet metal design as a background, with an fluorescent orange Monster M in its usual prominent place front and center.  This doesn’t look quite as nice as the purple of Monster Energy—MIXXD or the yellow of Monster Energy—M-80, but it’s still quite aesthetically pleasing and enough and earn one’s consideration.

TASTE (SCUNGY MONSTER FORMULATION)—6

Okay—as tired as I get with the repetitiveness of the “Red Bull clone” phenomena, I'm typically okay with it as long as the company does a decent job with it.  However, with a drink that’s 50% by volume of a couple of different fruit juices (apple, orange, peach, tangerine, pineapple, white grape), I don’t think it’s wrong to expect something to be even just a little different.  You open up the can, and it smells exactly like the original Monster Energy.  You taste it, and whoa!  It tastes exactly like the original Monster Energy, except… I don’t know…scungy.  It’s hard to explain; there’s no real fruit taste there, just kind of a dirty aftertaste that you get after you’ve had a cheap fruit drink.

TASTE—7

It occurred to me that Monster might have redone Khaos’ flavor after I drank the 24 oz. version.  I remember drinking the 16 oz. version very well, and I even remember having my brother taste it—he agreed with my “scungy Monster Energy” assessment.  Tasting Khaos, I swear it was a different drink—it actually tasted like tropical fruit.  Not the best tasting thing in the world, but definitely a step above the what I got out of the 16 oz. can.

16 OZ. CAN

KICK (INTENSITY)—5

By and large, the kick I got out of the 16 oz. can was fairly below average.  It’s still discernible, true, and sometimes that is all you need, but it’s not ideal for situations in which you need an actual jolt to keep you awake, rather than just a clearing out of the cobwebs.

KICK (DURATION)—5

Any semblance of an appreciable pick-me-up didn't last very long at all.  The feeling that I was actually being kept awake lasted about an hour and a half, and after that, it was as though I hadn't drank the dang thing to begin with.

THE DRINK OVERALL—5.33

Based on my experience with the 16 oz. Monster Energy—Khaos (remember this was the scungy Monster Energy flavor), the Monster Energy Company didn’t really care about what they were doing when we made it.  The taste was just an inferior version of the original Monster Energy, and the kick is not strong enough to be especially useful.  It’s just another product to take up space on the store shelves, and one that I would personally recommend bypassing in favor of something stronger.

24 OZ. CAN

KICK (INTENSITY)—10

The 24 oz. version of Khaos packs a pretty mean punch, vastly more than what I got out of 16 oz., and about as much as I’ve gotten out of a Monster Energy drink, Heavy Metal aside.

KICK (DURATION)—10

In addition to its formidable intensity, the 24 oz. Khaos possesses an admirable longevity, providing about 5 hours of energy before ending in a minor crash.

THE DRINK OVERALL—9

As I tasted it (the 24 oz. can was the one with the actual tropical fruit flavor) and experienced it, I vastly prefer the 24 oz. can to the 16 oz. can.  Flavor aside, the 24 oz. can outperformed the smaller size to an extreme degree, enough that it’s well worth paying the extra.

WEBSITE: monsterenergy.com

KEYWORDS: Monster Khaos Energy Drink review, Red Bull clone, traditional energy drink flavor, 50% juice, tropical fruit flavor