On the topic of cheap energy drinks, if you ever find "Green Dragon" in your area, they are very much acceptable red-bull knockoffs for easily half the price for
similar volume (12floz), both the sugar free and the regular versions (blue and green tops).
The extra strong version (orange top) just tastes like bitter though, probably because they shoved 257mg of caffeine into a smaller can: I'd avoid it. IIRC they were all less than a dollar a can for the regular or sugar free when I've found them at Winco before, but that might have changed as online pricing shows $1.19-ish now.
Speaking of much more expensive beverages, monster released another gaudy looking ultra zero flavor and I tried it since Winco had it in before the corner store for once:
The tricolor scheme should be a tip-off, and the "tasting notes" monster provides do as well, albeit more subtly:
Not too sweet, not too tart, it’s got a fresh citrus taste that’ll blow your mind.
How gloriously non-specific.
First off, I dunno where they get citrus because it's one of the less acidic flavors of ultra zero they offer. Some citric acid is present, but I think it's just cutting down on the sweet, and the sweet is a mostly inoffensive
vaguely-fake-berry profile to my perception of it. It's definitely not "too tart" but it's very much sweet: I didn't find it too sweet though my tastes are notoriously American, but if you think other ultra zero flavors are too sweet, this is not going to buck that trend.
My overwhelming impression of this comes back to the tricolor scheme. Allow me to explain:
If you've ever gone to a soda dispenser at a fast food place and started mixing sodas together, after about 3-5 different sodas in the same cup, things start to taste like generically sweet usually brown sludge with some acidity with no specific flavors coming through.
First impression was that this tastes like they took 3 different sugar free flavors and did the same thing.
hahahahhahahh holy shit someone actually pays this much for caffeine pisswater?
This is what corner store/gas stations/checkout aisle coolers in non-grocery stores usually charge in my experience, but yes.
If you buy in bulk online you can get Monster down to around $2 a can or less (the lowest I got it to was $1.70ish), and grocery stores around $2.50 after tax especially if they are running one of near perpetual "buy x get y free" pricing. It does depend a lot on the brand though, as Rockstar is usually less in grocery stores to the point that I could find it for around $1.28 a can not too long ago at Winco.