For Christ's sake, Monster Beverage (MNST) - Get Report , you didn't have to dump an ungodly amount of sugar and food coloring in your much-hyped new energy drink to try to take on PepsiCo's (PEP) - Get Report Mountain Dew juggernaut.

The energy drink maker's new Mutant soft drink--which it dubs a 'super soda'--has started to arrive in convenience stores nationwide after being unveiled earlier in the year at its annual shareholder meeting. Packaged in a visually menacing 20-ounce plastic bottle, there is a green-colored, citrus-flavored option and one coined 'red dawn' that resembles fruit punch. They each pack about 115 milligrams of caffeine (compared to Mountain Dew at roughly 91 milligrams per 20-ounce bottle).

TheStreet stumbled across both flavors at a 7-11 in Long Island, N.Y., and scooped them up with an intention to do a full review (as in drink the entire bottle). But we quickly decided to do a one-sip-only review after looking at the insane sugar count found in Mutant: the green-colored Mutant has a whopping 70 grams of sugar, while the red dawn clocks in at a heart-stopping 72 grams. For a bit of perspective, a 20 ounce bottle of Coca-Cola (KO) - Get Report has 65 grams of sugar. A Snicker's bar weighs in at 27 grams of sugar.

Here's the verdict from our one sip of each flavor: these are the sweetest sodas perhaps on the market, and, as a result, border on not being a refreshing treat such as a Mountain Dew or regular can of soda. You are one bottle away from crashing hard a few hours later, without question.

The dizzying amount of sugar in Mutant may be a turn off to many consumers, marking a potentially rare product miss for Monster. Indeed, Monster execs have high hopes that Mutant is a Mountain Dew killer.

Wow look at that sugar count.

"We are putting our resources together to basically go after the leading carbonated soft drink in the convenience space, which is Mountain Dew. We are going to position it in the carbonated soft drink doors," Monster chairman and CEO Rodney Sachs said recently.

Wall Street has been pretty bullish on the impact of Mutant, too.

"Given recent premiumization trends in the convenience store channel, and the strong alignment of incentives between retailers and Monster to drive current carbonated soft drink consumers to Mutant, we ultimately think Mutant will do very well with limited cannibalization of existing Monster products," wrote Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog in a note in late June. Herzog estimated that Mutant, along with a new noncarbonated energy hydration drink from Monster called "Hydro," could ring up about $200 million to $400 million in retail sales within two to three years.

The arrival of Mutant on the market has caught the attention of PepsiCo. "We certainly take it [Mutant] seriously, there have been a number of attempts to get at the Mountain Dew franchise over the last 25 or 30 years. The Mountain Dew consumer is one of the most loyal consumers for our company," PepsiCo Vice Chairman and CFO Hugh Johnston told TheStreet in an interview.

Mountain Dew was created in Tennessee in 1940 by Barney and Ally Hartman. The Mountain Dew brand reportedly generates billions in annual sales for PepsiCo in large part due to the lack of a true competitor (Coca-Cola's Sprite is a different tasting and different looking citrus-inspired soda) for the well-known citrus flavored soda. According to Beverage Digest, Mountain Dew is third in popular soft drinks behind Coke and Pepsi, holding an 8.5% market share of the carbonated soft drink market.

As it gets ready to battle Monster's Mutant line, Pepsi luckily has carved out a loyal following among energy drink fans with lower calorie, carbonated Mountain Dew spin-off Kickstart. Launched in 2013, Kickstart--which has about 60 calories and 60 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce can--generated more than $300 million in retail sales last year, more than double the level from 2014. Sales in the first year alone reached $100 million. The momentum behind Kickstart has continued into this year, too. Sales of Kickstart rose 20.1% for the four weeks ended Sept. 10, according to data from Nielsen.

PepsiCo has also made an attempt to upscale Mountain Dew. Last year, it launched "Dew Shine," a citrus-flavored Mountain Dew beverage made with real sugar and available in clear glass bottles. Mutant's sweetness is derived from out-of-favor high fructose corn syrup.

Rest easy PepsiCo, Mutant is unlikely to be a true challenger to Mountain Dew's throne. If Monster could get the sugar levels in Mutant down to more reasonable levels, then maybe a real battle would ensue.

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