Today's model, Edel the corgador.

We’ve reviewed a surprising number of grapefruit-themed beverages on this site (search it if you don’t believe me) and I am pleased to see this flavor being tackled by Zevia, one of out favorite soda companies.  The mainstream attention to this complex flavor is sparse, limited to just about Fresca and Squirt; however, the independent companies seem more keen on their attempts to master it, so we’ll see how this one fares.

The scent is thin and citrusy, like being in a room where someone is cutting open citrus fruits. The taste is suddenly tart and vaguely citrus, with a very light hint of something like  grapefruit, but it fades quickly, leaving me with the iconic sweetness of stevia and just a memory of the flavor.  In fairness, the word ‘citrus’ is bigger than the word ‘grapefruit’, but  I was still hoping for more of a grapefruit taste.

The overall impact of this on my taste buds was less than I had hoped, despite its still unique flavor, and left me wanting the dry, tart, sweet taste of a grapefruit.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still tasty and refreshing, with a perfect fizz factor, it’s just not what I was expecting.  For those not fond of lemon-lime sodas but still crave a fizzy citrus beverage, this might be right up your alley.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Citrusy for sure, but misses the mark on the grapefruit.

– WiseGuise

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**Danithius Review Rebuttal!**

Hmm, I agree with WiseGuise on this one.  It is vaguely citrus-y, but if you blindfolded me with a gun to my head and asked what this tasted like, the last words out of my lips would be “Diet Sprite?”  I don’t pick up on the grapefruit much at all, but I wish I did – I’m a big fan of a good grapefruity drink.  I think this one could use a trip back to the lab.  I’ll give it the same score as WiseGuise.

You read that right, this is a beverage based off of the well-known cleaner and folk remedy vinegar.  Apple cider vinegar is supposed to have several health benefits and potential for aiding in weight loss, but can have negative effects if used excessively.   I’ve used it before in attempts to rid my throat of a stubborn cold, with dubious results, though I’m not very patient when it comes to experiments like that.  Anyhow, I spotted this at my local Sunflower Market and my curiosity overwhelmed my distaste for consuming vinegar, so I decided to give it a shot, all for you, our awesome readers.  Today, I happen to be feeling the effects from lingering illness, so it should be as good a time as any.

The label has a old-timey, folksy feel to it, which fits with the theme of this drink; there’s a Jesus-fish on the back with a fairly benign scripture reference in it, 3 John 2.  The first smell is a little overwhelming, strongly promoting its namesake ingredient, but with a pleasant overtone of concord grapes.  The first swallow slides over my tongue with little hints of the fruit juices it contains, and the vinegar marks its presence at the entrance to my throat.  It’s not a strong burn, but not entirely pleasant, either.  Subsequent mouthfuls go down easier, the vinegar not becoming as apparent.  The flavors are mild and almost not sweet, not something you would expect from a sugary juice like grape.  This is sweetened with stevia, and only has 10 g of carbs in the whole 16 oz bottle, so bonus points for that.

This drink rates a little more toward the extreme end on the drink-o-meter, not something I would personally drink all that often.  The power of the vinegar takes some getting used to, but when you do it isn’t a terrible experience.  This could have been much worse than it was, but wasn;t quite what I expected, even though I’m not sure what I expected, really.  The aftertaste feels a little on the dry side, like after  mouthful of wine, but has no unpleasantness to it (unless you happen to burp–don’t do this).  I didn’t think I was going to finish the whole bottle when I started, but I did anyway, I almost started to like it by the end of the bottle.

After some consideration, I would recommend this to anyone daring enough to try things out of their comfort range, anyone looking to cut down on the sugar content in their diets and anyone looking for interesting homeopathic remedies to their daily woes.  I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone why can’t handle acidic or non-sweet beverages, leaving their comfort zone or folk medicine.  The after effects of this remain to be seen, but my nose seems to be clearing up already and I feel fuller, another effect of vinegar.  Come on, you know you want to try it.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. A strange concoction bound to test the limits of your palate and might keep you younger!

– WiseGuise

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Hey faithful Libationers!  Now it’s time to have a look at one of the spirited soda entries from BlueSky soda.  Today I’m looking at Dr. Becker, BlueSky’s version of big soda’s Dr. Pepper.  How will it measure up?

Scent: Welp, it smells just like Dr. Pepper.  (Fancy that!)  It has a berry-vanilla aroma with a rich cola background.

Taste: I can definitely see the resemblance, but this soda has taken it in a slightly fruitier direction.  It’s a combo of black cherry, cola, vanilla, with the cherry giving it a nice tart berry overtone.  It’s like a halfway point between Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke

Health Factor: This whole can has 38g of sugar, which is just one gram less than a can of Coke. It’s sugar-sweetened.  (Actual cane sugar, not HCFS).  I like the steps that companies like Blue Sky and Jones Soda have taken towards more natural sodas by eliminating HCFS and going to regular sugar.  But just that isn’t enough!  In the end, this is still just a can of sugar-water, and that ain’t exactly healthy.  Let’s lower the sugar content, not just change out the type of sugar we use.  Let’s use fruit juices and real ingredients rather than “flavorings” (even if they are naturally derived).

And while I’m at it, let’s talk about BlueSky’s overall strategy here.  For those who aren’t familiar with them, they have a wide range of soda flavors that are marketed to “free-spirits” and “wanderers”, and are usually found in health food stores or alternative grocers.  But here is the reason I have never really taken them seriously: it just doesn’t feel original.  Rather than develop their own interesting flavors, for the most part they seem more fixated on making the same sodas that everyone else does.  Root beers and cream sodas, colas, Dr Pepper imitations, and all the other flavors that have been done to death in the soda world.  And they even go for flavors that are usually reserved for cheap grocery store knock-off brands, like grape and orange soda.  When I shop for soda, I’m looking for fresh original flavors and hopefully a significantly healthier composition, and I don’t feel that BlueSky offers either.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 – a decent Dr. Pepper-y flavor, but still a whole lotta sugar!

-Danithius-

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Hey there Libationers!  Today I’m going to tackle a classic soda flavor that I first discovered long ago in Michigan: Birch Beer!  If you’ve never heard of it, it’s something along the lines of a root beer but with an almost wintergreen overtone.  I had to go for a few years without birch beer after coming to Utah, but then I discovered this contender from Boylan’s at the store.  They claim to be keeping it old-school since 1891, so let’s see how it measures up!

Aroma: Definitely wintergreen.  That’s the first scent that jumps to my nostrils, followed by a rich root-beery-vanilla fragrance.

Taste: Whooo-wee, that’s minty indeed.  The birch beer flavor that I knew from Michigan had a root beer flavor with wintergreen overtones, but this one has switched the two around.  It’s not a bad thing, though, and as you might imagine, it’s quite refreshing.  The mint and vanilla flavors come off very clean and fresh.

Health Factor: Obviously this uses real cane sugar and not HFCS, otherwise it wouldn’t be making an appearance on our blog.  It also uses natural flavors and extracts, which I like.  However, in the sugar quantity area it won’t get much love from me.  It packs 28 grams of sugar per 8 ounce serving, which is actually more than your Coca-Cola’s sugar content.  This beverage should be considered a nice occasional treat, a “dessert” item.

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 - great flavor, but loses points for high sugar content.

-Danithius-

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Hello libation loving folks!  After another brief delay, I have returned with reviews.  Today, I have decided to venture back into the hit-and-miss world of low/no calorie beverages.  My last SoBe lean review taught a valuable lesson; that even large, adored companies like SoBe can screw up on occasion, and produce something few customers like. I’m still cautious, but hopeful when it comes to the new Lean line, so here goes nothing.

I crack open the plastic bottle  and give it the standard smell test.  The berry is the most evident scent, with a hint of lemons.  Good so far, but now comes the most important test.  The taste is mild and lightly sweet, lacking the sour tang of most lemonades.  The raspberry is there, but fades quickly.  The sweetness lingers, something I’ve picked up before on drinks using erythritol, is seems to stick to the back of your tongue.  This sports a paltry 2 g of sugar per 20 oz bottle, and a dash of vitamin C rounds out the benefits.

I find this an unoffensive,  but lackluster -ade, light on sugar but also on flavor, though it avoids the atrocious taste of the SoBe Honey Green Tea reviewed previously, an opinion our readers have reinforced in droves.  I can’t say I would ever go out of my way again to drink this, but the light flavor and low sugar may appeal to others, particularly those watching calories and looking for sweet refreshment.  SoBe did a better job of blending in the sweetness of the erythritol and reb A (stevia) than our previous encounter, which is good to experience, but it covers the sourness looked for in lemonade,and that I cannot forgive.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. A lemonade that gets an A for effort, but a C for execution.

– WiseGuise

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Hi, Libationers!  Firstly, let me apologize for our unplanned Summer sabbatical.  I assure you, it was spent entirely fighting against the man in the name of healthier beverages.  But WiseGuise and I were so busy advancing the revolution that we barely had time to sit down and write new reviews!  But not to worry – here’s a brand new contender ready to be put to the test: a new Hansen’s flavor entitled “the Grove”.

Hansen’s was kind enough to send these out for us to review, so expect to see WiseGuise’s opinion coming up soon.

First, let’s start with the basic pro’s and cons of what I can see here.

Pros:

• Real cane sugar
• All natural
• No funky artificial colors

Cons:

• Sugar content – there are 34 grams in one 12 oz can.  (Coke has about 39 grams per can).
• No actual fruit content – the flavors are from fruit extracts.

This is all information that you can get just from glancing at the label.  But at the end of the day, you know I’m a sucker for flavor – so how does this stuff actually taste?

Berry-riffic, with a surprisingly tart/tangy aftertaste.  I really like the initial fruit flavor, which is a complex mix of berries and citrus.  But the dry astringency in the aftertaste makes it a little hard to keep up with.  This is definitely a sippin’ soda, if for no other reason than it would be almost impossible to chug.  But that’s okay, it still works on some level.  Is it my favorite?  Nope.  But it’s a worthy effort, and I like the direction they’re heading with it.

Conclusion

Hansen’s is taking a similar course as Jones Soda, who switched to all cane sugar some years ago.  I do like the all-natural approach, and this soda is assuredly better than many mainstream sodas out there in both flavor complexity and nutrition.  But I would like to see them take it to the next level, ala Izze’s real fruit juice content or Fizz Ed’s portion/sugar content control.  I like this, but in the end, neither the flavor nor the nutrition content is quite enough to make me seek it out at the grocery store.

Rating: 3.0 out of 5

-Danithius-

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Yes, the famous pouch

I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic recently, so I bought a box of Capri Sun pouches on my last trip to the store.  Growing up in the Eighties and Nineties, these were a familiar sight in lunch boxes and floating around in coolers in summer time.  I don’t remember anyone ever saying ‘man, I hate those Capri Sun drinks.’  Let’s reexamine this childhood delight.

First off, the box now proclaims “25% Less Sugar Than Other Leading Juice Drinks” as well as “No Artificial Sweeteners” and “NO high fructose corn syrup.”  Each pouch has 16 g of sugar, which is about 21 g of sugar per 8 oz (the pouches used to be bigger, 6.75 oz, but are now 6 oz due to the infamous “grocery shrink ray“).  This is a little better than letting your little rugrats suck down superfluous quantities of sugar, but still cannot match Crayons, and particularly Honest Kids in sugar content, and they have a pouch too.

As for the sensory experience, sadly it cannot be easily subjected to my olfactory nerves without squeezing the pouch into a cup, and let’s just face it, I’m a little too lazy for that.  As far as the taste goes, it is as pleasantly fruity as I remember, but perhaps a bit more watery.  My guess is the 25% less sugar than before.  I still enjoyed drinking over half the pouches in the box while I procrastinated on this review, just as I did as a kid.

My overall feelings on this come down to this:  yes, it has let sugar than a soda or other fruit drinks, and yes, it’s now sweetened with sugar instead of HFCS, and yes, that pouch is pretty handy, and they have a program (with Terracycle, same as Honest Kids) where you can recycle them and they get turned into purses and pencil carriers, and a few cents get back to the schools.  All good points.  But.  The original line is not 100% juice, has added sugar, and those huge boxes don’t look particularly environmentally friendly.  They are also distributed by Kraftfoods in the US, not a small company.  The truth is, there are still many better alternatives out there for your kids, most importantly water.  THEY SHOULD DRINK WATER.  Sweet drinks should be a treat for them, not a daily requirement.  I know no one likes anyone to tell them how to raise their children, but seriously, childhood obesity rates are astronomical right now, almost 20%.  So toss a bottle of water in that lunchbox, and a juice drink on occasion.

Score: 3 out of 5. A better effort from a behemoth distributor, but still plenty full of sugar and not enough juice.

– WiseGuise

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New plastic bottle!

Until now, I never really drank the SoBe Lean line of diet beverages, with their notorious use of Ace-K and Sucralose as sweeteners.  I found this in a local Maverik store and picked it up, excited to see that it has been switched to the erythritol/Reb A sweetener blend now used in all the LifeWater beverages.  After getting this home, I sat down at the computer and began to search fro information on this new packaging and sweetener change, and was dismayed to find a complete lack of any such information.  In fact, the only thing I found was a page on CostCo’s website where you can purchase it in bulk and a Pepsi website listed caffeine content in their drinks.  I called their customer service line, got the computer, and was eventually redirected to their website, which has no information on this product.  Thanks, guys.

Having given up on finding anything helpful about this product, I decided to just let my nose and tongue tell me everything I needed to know about it instead.  Cracking the seal, I am reminded of an iced tea, and don’t really detect any honey.  A look at the bottle and I can see why; it’s the last ingredient, and the amount in the bottle apparently so minuscule that it added no calories to the tea.  The flavor is not at all honey-like, although I can sense the presence of the stevia.  The tea flavor doesn’t really last long either, it is the third to last ingredient.  The flavor overall is sweet and temporary.  It is far better than the Swiss Premium Tea I regretfully experienced, but nowhere near the excellence that is HonestTea’s honey green tea.

I found this flavor surprisingly uninteresting and lacking for SoBe, who have become one of our favorite (despite their subsidiary status) drink companies out there.  The ‘honey’ and ‘green tea’ were difficult to enjoy amidst all the sweetness, and were some of the last ingredients in the bottle, not quite what I would like to see in a tea.  I was unimpressed with this beverage, but I might still be caught drinking it on a hot day in a pinch.

Score: 3 out of 5. No detectable honey and not much tea in this honey green tea and lots of  sweetness for a zero calorie drink.

– WiseGuise

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Matte black with pinstripes, like a muscle-car

Despite being out for a few years now, this product has escaped my attention until now.  Tonight I’m looking forward to a lengthy sit in class followed by a late movie with the girlfriend, so I decided I needed a bit of a pick-me-up.  I usually don’t care for energy-drinks like Rockstar, those medicine-y, carbonated, buzz-creating liquids that rarely taste good, always cost too much and leave you feeling jittery.  This 16 oz can was only $1.99 at the 7-11, so I grabbed it and waited for my chance to review.

Popped open the can and I’m instantly reminded of Pepsi, but then I taste it.  The kola nut flavor is immediate, then fades into a sweet, tangy-energy flavor with a slight herb-y undertone, most likely from the guarana, ginseng, ginko-biloba and milk-thistle extracts added.  There is almost a citrusy-sour element to the flavor, I can’t quite place it.  The sweetness lasts, most likely due to the 66 g of sugar in the can.  That is honestly quite a lot, 33 g per 8 oz serving definitely beats out Coke.  The flavor overall is pleasant, but not nearly as interesting and complex as Red Bull Cola.  I can feel the caffeine kicking in, along with its supplemental buddies, but I don’t get too jittery or anxious.

Researching this drink brought me across some interesting information I was not aware of before.  One of the co-owners and founder of Rockstar is Russell Weiner, son of  the inflammatory right-leaning radio personality Micheal Savage, who has been accused of racism, bigotry and homophobia among other things, as gleaned from his writings and radio show, and some worry his influence extends to his son.  Russell Weiner was involved in the creation of the Paul Revere Society, a group dedicated to stopping ‘illegal’ immigration.  There have been boycotts of Rockstar, especially by the LGBT community, although Rockstar agreed with Change.org to donate 1oo K to LGBT rights associations last year.  Around the same time, the CFO of Rockstar, Russell’s mother and wife to Micheal Savage stepped down from her position in Sagave Productions and is no longer professionally associated with the show.  It would seem that Rockstar is now devoted to clearing up its image, donating and supporting causes and just being a profitable business. As with any conscious, conscientious purchasing decision, we implore you to make up your own mind about companies you buy products from.

Rockstar has been distributed by Pepsi-Co since mid-2009, since dropping from Coca-Cola, but that really hasn’t changed its availability.  I’m not condoning the wanton consumption of energy drinks in any way, and seek out only ones that do not use HFCS or any artificial sweeteners, which is most.

In closing, I found this a tasty, albeit sugar-loaded energy drink that did the job, without giving me the jitters, and without excelling in the areas of flavor or originality.  I would still rather drink a Red Bull Cola over this any day despite the lack of energy supplements.

Score: 3 out of 5. A decent-tasting energy cola that doesn’t really outperform, or make me feel like a rockstar.

– WiseGuise

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Retro is in . . . again!

Last year, I began this post with all intentions of finishing it, after I heard the news of Pepsi’s ‘Throwback’ experiment.  I speculated a little on their reasons, mostly whether or not the mounting HFCS backlash had anything to do with it, and planned a long diatribe on using a planned fad disguised as nostalgia to mask another layer of a market experiment.  Needless to say, it got pushed back, and the eight-week run of the stuff ended, the sodas disappeared, and the post was largely forgotten, buried amongst review corpses in the drafts folder.

The idea resurfaced again when Pepsi rolled out another round of  Throwback’s with different designs back in December.  This week, a co-worker showed up toting a twelve pack of it into the break room, and invited me to have one at my leisure.  I put it off for a few days, then grudgingly accepted the open offer on an experimental basis.  I sat down for lunch with a can, and snagged a regular Pepsi out of the soda machine with an idea.  I would write about the marketing angle, and throw in a taste test for good measure.  Now, since I don’t care for Pepsi much, I feel I can remain unbiased when it comes to the taste difference.

The Test: I pulled two paper cups from the water machine and set up my taste test on the table, Pepsi on the left and Throwback on the right.  My palate cleaner sat ready at my elbow for better distinguishing of tastes.  I began with the classic, and was greeted with pretty much what I expected; the Pepsi was syrupy-sweet and over-carbonated, with a slight acidic tang to it.  The sweetness lingered like a sweet glove on my tongue.  I readied my tongue again and had my first ever taste of the Throwback.  The sweetness was more pronounced, but not syrupy, it reminded me of table sugar melting on my tongue.  The carbonation was surprisingly lighter, not giving as much bite as the regular Pepsi.  the same acidic tang is there, but the sweetness fades away much quicker that the HFCS does.  If I had to choose, I would pick the Throwback over the regular Pepsi.  I still don’t care for it, though.

The Complaint: Now that I got that out of the way, I can focus on the more important implications of this second run of Throwback sodas.  The first run came with a press release lavished with self-praise over their new, nostalgic sodas.  In a Throwback review on  BevReview, a Nicole Bradley of Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages noted that, “these products were not created because of any health concerns…”  Many have a hard time believing this, due to the soda industry’s near dependence on HFCS to keep costs lower, and the (at the time) escalating backlash. The corn industry was already leading their own ‘information’ campaign, yet SoBe, a subsidiary of Pepsi, began switching their products to sucrose from HFCS at the same time.  Sugar still isn’t good for you, but many see it as better than HFCS, and the industry must ultimately bend to the will of the consumer if they can’t convince them.

I see this as Pepsi testing the waters of a sugar switch, at least on a small scale, to see how their consumer base reacts.  The reaction has been generally positive; the first run of Throwback sold out, and the second seems to be well on its way to doing so as well.  I’m sure Pepsi is far from ever considering switching their entire supply back to sucrose (the sugar in the Throwback’s being a combination of cane and beet sugars), but the timing may hint at their apprehension with the stirrings in the soda-drinking population about HFCS.  We’ve talked plenty about it and the questions and health concerns its use raises, and would be more than happy to see it disappear from use in drinks of any kind, but know this is still wishful thinking, as long as the population at large remains uninformed about and addicted to HFCS.  Let us just consider the Throwback experiment as a nod to those of us who have become informed, and rejoice.

Score: 3 out of 5. I still don’t care for Pepsi, but it tastes better than its HFCS counterpart.

– WiseGuise

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