Liquid Death's energy drinks are too slick to be memorable

Liquid Death has built a canned water empire on the back of bold, aggressive branding. It upended the world of La Croix by countering "pamplemousse" with flavors like "severed lime" and "mango chainsaw."

Then came teas. And sodas. The inevitable expansion landed on energy drinks in 2025, promising a modest dose of caffeine -- 100 milligrams to the standard 150 to 200 milligrams of competitors -- and the flavor and packaging that's driven one of the fastest growers across American grocery store shelves.

Energy drinks, however, are an especially dense field that continue to fill up with new entrants (often with terrible influencer tie-ins. This is not a medium that holds customers in high regard). Liquid Death toned down the caffeine aggression and imported the leftovers into a bunch of slightly confusing flavor names. Welp, if it sounds dumb but tastes good, it's still good.

Let's see if Liquid Death energy is any good.

Murder Mystery: C

This is undoubtedly the funniest flavor of the bunch. All the others have some hint as to what's inside. This one? Just MURDER MYSTERY. And then, in small print, "flavored with other natural flavors." Phew. Wouldn't want my MURDER MYSTERY to be tainted with artificial sources.

Pouring over ice leaves few clues to what the mystery is. It's clear and smells vaguely fruity. The first sip is... wild berries. Wild berries and the undeniable tongue-coating sheen of stevia. Well, that's a letdown. Liquid Death has moved into sodas; why not make your mystery flavor a little weirder or a little less common in the energy drink realm? Celsius has a cherry cola variant and it's great!

You're left with a pretty generic drink that lacks some of the acidic tang of its competitors and replaces it with the soft sweetness of that sugar substitute. It's more gentle, which is ironic coming from the company that promises murder with every can. It's also boring.

Orange Horror: B

A wave of big orange soda energy rises up from the pour like a mushroom cloud. There's no mistaking what you're getting into here -- this is a slightly less snappy Sunkist.

There's a little creamy aspect that makes each sip a bit more complex than it smells. While the stevia dims things a bit, you get a little bit of melted ice cream to each gulp before it's snapped off by the bubbles. That's not anything new or original in the soda/energy drink realm, but it's nice.

So you get some sweet, bright orange, a little bit of cream and some unmistakable sugar substitute that hangs around a little longer than you may want. That's solid, if a little uninteresting.

Scary Strawberry: C+

It pours with a strawberry smell that matches my gummy vitamins. The strawberry is vibrant and sweet, but undeniably artificial. There's a hard candy influence the bubbles can't shake.

That's not necessarily bad, just generic. This tastes more like a knock-off Fanta than an energy drink, lending to the lower acidity and use of stevia. It's sweet and enjoyable but settles on one note and plays it the whole time. There's no snappy finish that brings you back for more. It's just kinda-fruit, kinda-sugar and we're done here.

It works. The modest caffeine content is a nice touch. I have no problem sipping two of these across my morning to get me to lunch. But there are better flavors out there.

Tropical Terror: B-

"Actually, the Terror was more of a polar ship," he chuckled to himself with a very nerdy history joke that was not good or interesting in any way. This one pours the expected effervescent clear and smell more like pina colada than a fruit punch.

That coconut pushes through to be the primary flavor. I'll give Liquid Death this; after three boring combinations, Tropical Terror is certainly different. It's not fully pina colada, instead stopping for a bit more citrus beyond the pineapple and lime. The softness of that coconut blends with the stevia to create a slightly pillowy flavor that could really benefit from some energy drink tang here.

Instead, it sorta lingers in that not-quite-colada realm. That's the issue with all of Liquid Death's sparkling energy flavors. They finish flat instead of crisp. The bubbles alone aren't enough to leave that snappy, dry-ish ending that makes you want to come back for more. Instead, you're left with some Shasta-ish soda vibes.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?

This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Liquid Death Energy over a cold can of Hamm's?

I appreciate the effort, and having an energy drink with a reasonable caffeine level is a nice addition to the landscape. But that's too much stevia for me.

This is part of FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Liquid Death's energy drinks are too slick to be memorable

Reporting by Christian D'Andrea, For The Win / For The Win

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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 9:02 AM.