To continue the series of carbonated beverages, I present to you Lo-Carb Monster, a favorite of mine for over a year, despite it's crazy price.  If I'm looking for an energy drink for a quick buzz, this is the first one I go for.

The addiction started well over a year ago, at a datacenter company I worked for who stocked their refrigerator with tons of free bubbly beverages.  As you may or may not know, I'm a bit on the hefty side, and my main temptation isn't twinkies or 72oz steaks and mashed potatoes... it's soda pop.

So I looked into the fridge trying to find something that would kill the need for a bubbly drink while also not adding half a kilo of calories and weight to my daily budget.  And there at the bottom of the fridge was the peppy blue can full of Lo-Carb Monster.

I hate diet soda.  Aspartame tastes like a 9 volt battery to me*, and I simply can't choke down beverages that attempt to use it.  Most do it really badly (see:  Diet Dr Pepper) which causes me to avoid them.

Lo-Carb Monster, however, uses sucralose, known as Splenda to you consumer type people.  And, at least to my taste buds, it tastes more like a sweetener and less like something you put in a fire alarm.  This means that Lo-Carb Monster has a nice sweet undertone, but unlike energy drinks that either try to smother the tartness of the energy boosters with mass quantities of sugar or simply make a drink that tastes like straight taurine, Lo-Carb Monster actually produces a palatable tart and slightly sweet citrus beverage that I can happily enjoy while only adding 20 calories to my daily budget.

It's got a nice amount of buzz... not too heart stopping but not unnoticeable either.  My only gripe is that it's quite expensive;  at $1.75 a can in the 4 pack at my local shopping establishment, it's a guilty luxury instead of a regular snack.

Even if you're racist against diet drinks, I'd recommend Lo-Carb Monster a try.  It doesn't taste like regular monster, and it doesn't even try to (see:  Diet Dr Pepper).  It stands on it's own as a pleasant, buzzy energy drink without the calorie weight of other drinks.

* My dad once told me the best way to test a 9-volt battery was not to use the battery tester I had in my hand, but to lick the battery.  The combined "taste" of the terminals and the mild electric charge from the terminals creates a unique taste that I haven't found in the real world... except when confronted with aspartame.