STING Energy Drink GOLD (Japan)

STING Energy Drink GOLD (Japan) Flavor

Upon opening, a rich, sweet aroma wafts out. It has the sweet scent of a typical, classic flavor.

The color is surprisingly just the typical yellow of classic energy drinks. When poured, the bubbles disappear quickly, indicating it's the type with low carbonation.

When I take a sip, the rich sweetness like syrup and a slight tartness spread in my mouth. It's a super sweet, artificial fruit mix flavor with no strong acidity or chemical taste. The flavor is that of sugar + syrupy texture + fruit (flavor), but it’s not so heavy that it sticks to the tongue.

The aroma remains consistently sweet, without the complex, rich fragrance that builds and fades like Monster, nor the refreshing feeling of Red Bull. It’s just a persistent sweetness.

So, STING GOLD doesn’t belong in the same category as the world’s top 3 energy drink brands. It’s best described as a sugar-heavy & concentrated flavor, which makes it easier to understand. I feel it’s not quite right to categorize it as just a typical flavor.

There’s no heavy aftertaste, and it surprisingly doesn’t linger too long, which is a key point. It’s “persistent in taste but not physically persistent,” and I think you'll really get that feeling once you drink it (*´艸｀*).

As mentioned in the product description, the "carbonation" isn’t that strong, so it’s hard to say it offers much of a stimulating effect.

On the other hand, the weak carbonation does allow the sweetness to be fully enjoyed, which is a good thing. Personally, I think it’s fine in this ultra-low carbonation state, especially since I don’t feel that energy drinks need to be overly stimulating or punchy.

STING Energy Drink GOLD Energy Ingredients

The caffeine content is a modest 47.5mg, and it contains the standard Japanese ingredient, 300mg of arginine.

More importantly, there’s an extraordinary 40.5g of sugar in one can. For comparison, European and American 500ml cans typically have around 60g. Honestly, consuming this regularly isn’t recommended (health first). At least, it wasn’t released in a 500ml size, which is a small blessing.

STING Energy Drink GOLD Design

The STING logo, incorporating a scorpion design, is the same worldwide.

Perhaps it was to avoid confusion with the existing "Scorpion" energy drink, or maybe it was because they didn’t want to use the typical “scorpion” name.

The tab is, of course, a silver tab.

If it had been a gold tab, it would have been surprising, but this is understandable. The overseas STING energy drinks also don’t use colored tabs.

Comparison of Japan, Vietnam, and Malaysia

I compared the Japanese STING GOLD with the Southeast Asian versions of GOLD. When opening three cans of STING GOLD, the room quickly fills with a sweet aroma, and it’s a bit overwhelming (^_^;)

When lined up, you can see the color of the contents is quite different despite all being the same yellow. Left is Japan, middle is Vietnam, and right is Malaysia.

By the way, doesn’t this yellow color look amazing in Baccarat glasses? It’s sparkling and shimmering.

Looking from above, the color difference is clearer.

The Japanese version on the left has the most subdued color among the three.

STING GOLD (Japan)

First, let’s start with the Japanese STING GOLD I’m reviewing. It has a sweet taste with a slight tartness, and it’s packed with sugar. However, when compared to the other two countries, it feels very much like a classic flavor. This is because the sweetness of the other two Southeast Asian versions is much more intense.

STING (Vietnam)

Vietnam’s version features a thick, syrupy peach, pineapple, and passion fruit mix flavor. Out of the three, it has the most intense and viscous sweetness. It’s an artificial fruit mix with no tartness, so there's no real fruitiness.

STING GOLD RUSH (Malaysia)

Malaysia’s version has a taste of white grape with both sweetness and bitterness. At first, the bitterness might seem like a chemical flavor, but it’s more like a failed attempt at chemical flavoring. It’s clearly different from the fruit mix flavor of Vietnam and the Japanese GOLD version. By the way, it has almost no carbonation, making it feel like a non-carbonated drink, and the carbonation doesn’t provide any stimulation.

Be Cautious of Overconsumption of STING Energy Drink in Japan

As I mentioned in the energy ingredients section, the Japanese STING GOLD contains over 40g of carbohydrates per can. Out of all the energy drinks I've tried worldwide, Japan’s STING GOLD is definitely top-tier in terms of sugar content. If it were a 500ml can, it would exceed 80g...

For reference, Coca-Cola contains 28g of carbohydrates in a 250ml can, and Red Bull contains 27.5g.

Original Character "Scorpion Squad STINGERS"

The Japanese STING GOLD featured an original character called “Scorpion Squad STINGERS” as part of the launch promotion. The official site streamed live-action footage and animations of these characters. I discovered that this was produced by Kayac, a famous company in the industry. Ah, so it was Kayac.

However, I was surprised by how different the promotion was from those in other Asian countries, and I had to laugh when they even created a dance called the Scorpion Step and offered lessons. It’s impressive how much money they could pour into this wacky campaign.

By the way, there are many STING energy drink commercials overseas. This one was quite entertaining (*´艸｀*)

I’m wondering if they’ll assign a color to each of the Scorpion Squad characters and turn it into a series? However, Suntory has a track record of pulling out after just one release of a foreign energy drink in Japan, so I’ll try not to get my hopes up... Σ(´∀｀；)

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