Juice Monster Energy, Ripper, 16 Ounce (Pack of 24)

I had been bummed out that I could not find Monster M80 anymore and had a feeling that it was soon to be discontinued. However after being informed that it had been reintroduced(and slightly modified) here in the U.S. under its original European name "Ripper", I was beyond excited!! And naturally Amazon.com was the first place I looked for them, as I still could not find them locally.I have to start off by saying that the essence of the original flavor is all still there!! Opening up the can and tasting and smelling this delicious beverage for the first time in ages, the taste and smell still instantly puts me in the mood to go to Hawaii!! Pleasantly sweet flavor with strong emphasis on the pineapple juice(along with some other juices) and light carbonation gives it some kick!! Has the potent nature of an energy drink without really tasting like one at all. A very unique tasting drink in general, energy drink or not.With that said, yes they did reduce the juice content in the reissued M80/Ripper. Like the name implied, the M80 was always 80% juice whereas I the Ripper was(and possibly still is in Europe) 60% juice. The new US Ripper is 20% juice.Those who have drank the M80 a lot in the past like me will notice the difference that the lowered juice content makes. The new version isn't quite as rich tasting and and maybe just a little more sweet/artificial, as though Monster added more sugar to compensate for naturally occurring sugar/sweetness that the high juice content gave the original version.Is the difference due to the reduced juice content enough of a difference to warrant complaining? Maybe for some, but in my opinion Monster somehow managed to maintain most of the original flavor even with the juice constant being much lower. The flavor it is still so close to that of the original that I have zero complaints. I am just happy to be able to find and purchase this drink again. Highly recommend this product if you liked the M80 and if you are a fan of pinepple/Hawaiian tinged drinks.

I reminisce the days I was in the best shape of my life and this was the only drink I would settle for beside water. Other flavor just don't taste good and dehydrated me . The M-80 monster was a staple in my diet. Great energy, and excellent hydration. So why am I writing this review 9 years later. Well 2021 I now enjoy the Ginger Brew flavor called Mule. I stay well hydrated and it doesn't make me feel like my heart is gonna bust thru my chest like other flavors. But sadly, it too is disappearing from the shelfs. The main reason I head to convince stores, I traveled to 6 in desperation on day. Well so long to the best flavors ever in the monster line up, I drop 30lbs last year and while I didn't get to my best shape before, it may be time to get a little chubby once it disappears. And No, Ripper is not the same. The quality sucked, it was a bait and switch tactic. M-80 and Ripper are 2 totally different products. I did not enjoy Ripper at all. Sorry if you missed out on good times tho.

Updated review (12/22/2014). As many of you know, M-80 is gone and has been replaced by "Ripper". This is not the same product. See a comparison of ingredients here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qX9aCFv64KiAH2x1885Izwx9vJidLnQrpvJP9uA74k8/edit?usp=sharing . As you can see, 3 new ingredients have been added to Ripper, notably orange juice and lemon juice. Also, the relative amount of passionfruit juice has been lowered significantly. See bottom paragraph for my original info on M-80 as-of March 2014. I wrote Monster again this month and they sent back a clueless reply about finding various flavors at various retailers. But even their own website shows Ripper on the M-80 page, and as-of today the text still describes M-80. So dumb.Anyway, as for the taste -- it's not horrible. It's not M-80 by any stretch. It's still okay, but not great.If anybody is still getting 80% juice, I'm guessing they are old cans. Here is an e-mail from monsterenergy.com on 03/13/2014: "We conducted several taste test[sic] based on information and suggestions gathered from our loyal Monster Energy consumers. Consumer's[sic] preferred the taste of the 30% juice so we decided to make the switch. Consumer's[sic] also wanted to see less sediment in the product. Using less juice in the product minimizes separation and/or sediment. I'm sorry you are having a hard time finding M-80. It may be in limited distribution in some areas. Monster Energy is always coming up with new flavors so stores may not have all the flavors available. Please ask the store manager to order it from their distributor."

But for some reason I'm unable to find it in the stores anymore. My buddy and I used to go on local M-80 searches all over town buying up the supply whenever we found it. That soon lead to despair when we found less and less. Amazon Subscribe & Save came to our rescue, my case of morning-wake-me-up (with 80% juice) now arrives like clockwork, allowing me to focus my time on my other worldly concerns.M-80 tastes like Pineapple juice with a kick, so it's not as straight up sugary as a soda. If you're not a coffee or tea person and regular monster tastes a bit bitter first thing in the morning after toothpaste, give M-80 a try. It's the closest thing I've found to caffeinated orange juice and tastes SO much better than any of Mountain Dew's Kickstart products.

After some research it looks like they pulled the original (they re-released a crappy imitation also called ripper but in a black can with very different ingredients and flavor,) formula because good apple, guava and passion fruit ingredients were more expensive in relation to most of their generic sugar bomb flavor cocktails (corporate greed never ceases to amaze me, as this had to have been one of their TOP sellers of all time and they still pulled it). Shame, I'll be looking fervently for any and all alternatives that can deliver the same or at least similar flavor to this one good monster energy product.