Rad Blog!
I found this cool thing after searching for Salted Caramel Java Monster. This is basically Starbuck’s response to Java Monster I’m sure. This is called Doubleshot Energy which is a coffee energy drink. I liked Java Monster for the most part, especially Loca Mocha. This is Starbuck’s version of a mocha energy drink so I thought I’d give it a try and see which I like better.
I’m pretty sure they cost about the same amount, at least where I got this one from they were.
This is only my second Starbucks product! The first one I did was a coffee lemonade which I can’t really recall that well. It was an early Drink Reaction. It looks like I only kinda liked it. It was supposed to be a green coffee where the beans are mixed in with a drink. In retrospect, that sounds bloody gross, but isn’t that basically what flavoured tea is?
This is straight coffee with energy drink stuff on the side. It has milk and everything in it. I kinda looked and I could see the whole anti-caking stuff in the ingredients.
What do I think of Starbucks? Not much honestly. I don’t go there for coffee because I have Wawa and Wawa is worlds cheaper. I have had Starbucks coffee before. It was pretty good I guess. Very acidic for sure. I feel like people are love or hate with Starbucks.
Then they have their non-store products like this and I tend to avoid them because they sometimes go for 5 bucks. This was probably 2 or 2.50, which is close to what an energy drink costs these days.
It says right on the fairly boring can that it has guarana, B Vitamins, and ginseng in it. If you know energy drinks, like I probably do by now, those are three things most of them have in it. I am surprised they really emphasize guarana. That’s usually an afterthought with most energy drinks, but hey! They can go for it. Guarana is a fruit or at least they use the seeds of the fruit.
The can is, well, boring. Brown and lighter brown. It is simple if you compare it to Monster who usually have cool designs on their cans. What do I see when I first look at this can? The Starbucks Lady. What do I see on Loca Mocha? The cool looking wood. I’ll give a point to Java Monster for that.
There’s a little excerpt on the back of this can that basically says drink this cool thing because it is Starbuck’s awesome coffee with guarana and B Vitamins! It is what you’d expect. IT doesn’t have any historical context gimmick like some of these drinks do. I like the straightforwardness.
So! Let’s hop in to see what’s in this drink.
Huh! Serving size is 1 can.
200 calories. 2.5g total fat. 1.5g saturated fat. 0g trans fat. 15mg cholesterol. 160mg sodium. 1020mg potassium. 33g total carbs. 0g dietary fiber. 26g sugars. 10g protein. 8% Vitamin A. 40% calcium. 20% Vitamin D. 200% Niacin. 50% Vitamin C. 2% Iron. 200% Riboflavin. 200% Vitamin B6.
1020mg potassium! Dang! 29% of daily value! Dang yo. Also, I have Loca Mocha up to compare.
The first thing I noticed that this goes fro the straight 200% in the B Vitamins. Starbucks isn’t messing around here. They beat the Java Monster by 10% with the energy Vitamins. Starbucks doesn’t stop there either because they include other nutritional information on this that Java Monster usually says isn’t significant enough to put on the can. We can see Vitamin A, iron, and Vitamin C on this thing!
I don’t know how good or bad potassium is for you, but this destroys Loca Mocha’s tiny 460 mg. There’s even fewer fat in this too. Nutritionally, I’m giving a point to Doubleshot for the energy and the better nutritional values. Also, don’t take my word for it too far. I am not a nutritionist. If I was, I probably wouldn’t be drinking this.
Let’s check the ingredients!
Starbucks coffee (water, coffee), reduced fat milk, skim milk, sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose, taurine, natural flavors, cellulose gel, panax ginseng root extract, inositol, sodium ascorbate, guarana seed extract, cellulose gum, niacinamide, ascorbic acid, sucralose, tricalcium phosphate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D3.
Huh. Not a ton of difficult words to say in this. It is either I’m getting used to them, or that there isn’t that many compared to Monster. In fact, I think this has less in it. There’s less preservatives and more energy things. Then again, this is missing on Java Monster’s l-carnitine l-tartrate and d-glucuronolactore. The l-carnitine l-tartrate are energy givers while d-glucuronolactore supposedly helps make the body feel detoxified. Also, it is missing caffeine and other stuff that are prevelant. What does this have? Probably higher doses of taurine, pyridoxine hydrochloride, and niacin. As the can says, it is pushing the guarana and ginseng too so maybe they want to focus on those “natural” things instead. How much of them are in this? I can’t tell. There isn’t a number, but the way they are listed shows that ginseng is slightly higher in priority than the guarana. That’s kinda odd since guarana is first on the can and the little description boasts how it is in here with B Vitamins. I was kind of hoping for a focus on guarana myself, but that’s just the luck of the draw. Advertising and marketing! Yay!
Well, time to try this thing!
Also, I want to point out it says “Mocha” big with “flavor and other natural flavors.” Natural flavors did not appear in the ingredients! They mean actual natural flavors! Woo!
Also odd is that the drink doesn’t say “contains milk” when it clearly does. There’s also no warning to pregnant women and children too! What the heck, Starbucks! I suppose these warnings aren’t forced by law, but still. Does the extra ink cost that much more? I’m about to subtract a point for that.
Poured!
It looks like what you’d expect really. It looks like a really milky chocolate milk. There’s a nice little foam on the top of the cup here from the milk. It smells kind of like burnt coffee and chocolate, but that’s actually just how Starbucks coffee smells.
If I am going to be more in-depth, it smells very, very roasted. Like, the aroma is very acidic and hardy. I can smell a bit of chocolate too, but it is mostly the hardy aroma.
Well! Taste time!
Oh! Oh! Erhh
Well, at first sip this is very milky. It is pretty smooth until the coffee flavour comes in and boom! It is straight cold coffee. The taste is so acidic and earthy-bitter that I am surprised this is even called mocha. This tastes basically like coffee with nothing else in it. After the coffee taste sits for a bit, I get the kind of sour taste of medicine flavour from the energy giving things. In fact, it just doesn’t dilute very well at all. I think there’s a reason why Java Monster has all those other ingredients in them which is to help keep the medicine flavour drowned by something sweeter.
On the plus side, if you like coffee, you might like this a lot. The coffee flavour is very earthy and acidic. That’s what I liked most about the Starbucks coffee I had. I liked how earthy it was. The aftertaste on this is straight earthy in flavour.
This is not mocha really. I mean, I guess it is, but it tastes nothing like Loca Mocha. If I am going by taste alone, Loca Mocha wins it hands down, but the coffee flavour of this drink is much better. If I wanted a mocha flavoured energy drink, Loca Mocha wins. This is just a good alternative for people who prefer a more coffee taste. Me? No. I was expecting a chocolate flavour with a coffee undertone.
This isn’t a bad drink, but it isn’t very good either. If I wanted black coffee, I’d go get a black coffee. I was expecting a unique flavour and I didn’t get it from this.
I’ll have to give this a take the rest of the day off but you have to fill out paperwork for work at home for the next day out of Rad.
Like I said with the lemonade Starbucks drink: Eh!
chasrad.wordpress.com 
Comments are closed.