Unleash the Beast?...Maybe not.

Monster "Energy Drink" under the microscope

In my continuing endeavors to document mundane household products and OtC medicines under my microscope, I followed up on a suggestion to take a look at Monster Energy Drinks. Occult-symbolism & subliminal marketing aside, I was curious to see what properties this human-diesel would exhibit. Fair to say what I found was a distinctly unique drying and crystallization process, quite unlike other products I’ve personally examined. The closest I can liken these formations to would have to be the fractal shards you tend to see when using chemical stains such as Methylene Blue. However, even in that example, you don’t tend to see such pronounced characteristics. Fanning sheets of finely-rowed crystals. Needle-like shards that clump and scatter. Just imagining this stuff making its way through the gut… & I know guys that drink 3+ of these A DAY!

Monster Energy "Ultra Paradise"

Next point of notice: the accompanying contaminants. I cant claim for certain that these fibers and other objects didn’t make their way onto my slide from the environment, but if they didn’t come straight from the can, they sure showed up quickly. Some of the filaments I observed seemed to have unusually squishy, organ-like features. while others I might’ve sworn were pieces of braided string; if they weren’t so damn tiny!

Fibers and unusual looking contaminants

I’ve developed a practice of covering half of the slide with a cover slip and leaving the other half exposed. I do this because crystallization takes on different characteristics in each case. My Monster slide still hasn’t developed much of note under the cover slip, but it’s looking like it wants to and the liquid under the slip seems like it hasn’t fully dried just yet.

Close-up of crystal developing under cover slip

I’m awaiting a new microscope camera that should arrive any day now. I’ll hopefully be able to produce some higher quality images for the records. Thank you to everyone who’s shown an interest and motivated me to continue down this path of discovery! It really is an honor to be in the orbit of people so dedicated to exposing truths with paradigm-shifting, life-saving potential. For me, this has been an endeavor of personal discovery, but if it helps contribute to those larger objectives in the smallest of ways; all the better!