Muud Coffee

Muud coffee - a very unique and tasty coffee drink is hitting the shelves, trying to compete against the big boys of Monster, Rockstar, Full throttle and the rest, doing their take on a canned coffee drink here in the US.
Looks like they got a rocky start, fist calling their drink Mud coffee, until they got into trouble with another coffee maker in new york called Mud Coffee. According to the lawsuit filed in federal court last week, Mud Coffee in first became aware of Mud canned coffee drinks last December and instructed Mud's parent company, Underground Beverage Brands, and its founder, Matthew Marini, to stop using their name. Mud first changed it's name to MUUD , then asked permission to license the Mud name. Mud Coffee then turned around and sued MUUD for trademark infringement and unfair competition, asking the court to force Muud to turn over any profits from their line as well as hand over damages. - pretty steep price for Muud picking the wrong name. Good thing they did not call their coffee Brown Bull Energy Coffee or there would have been true hell to pay.

So for all this, is Muud even worth it? I tried 2 of their cans out, one being the Mocha Mud and the other being Vanilla. Both are very very tasty, although they use the milk thickener used in those cafeteria milks, so it ends up being very thick. Not to mention, the mocha variety does seem a bit like pouring espresso into a jug of Nestle's Qwick. They have "all natural" posted on their cans and on their very simple site, so I was kinda surprised to see ingredients such as disodium phosphate, mono and diglycerides in here. Are both of those things really natural? I usually don't think of white crystalline anti caking powders made in a lab as natural, and hydrogenated oils might keep this longer on the shelf, but also might add to the ALMOST 200 Calories per little 8oz serving (!!). I hear these come in 15oz cans now, which would put a can of your morning coffee at near the calorie count of a large chocolate shake. Mind you, it could be worse, but still vaults past even a Starbucks 16oz hot mocha with whipped cream.

As for the packaging, the design is very nice and clear. The logo works very nicely, as well as the rest of the layout. I am just wondering if this product is something out of the ordinary, unique enough to have someone grab this instead of the numerous other offerings by companies with a Monster potencial for getting in front of consumer's faces. Unlike Shock Coffee which has a big boost of caffeine, or others with a unique catch, this entry just seems much more of a "me too" product not destined to live a long life, even if they get out of their legal troubles.