Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

I’ve tried a few of Adina‘s Holistics line recently, and was ashamed to realize that we have only reviewed one of them.  I also realized that my reviews have been fairly scant recently, although I blame moving a business and a home around the same time.  I should be back on the review train shortly, so today I bring you Jade Green Tea!

I really dig their new bottles, with the tribal monkey thing on it and the original shape and design.  I twist off the cap and away I go into olfactory delight.  There’s a definite herb-y scent to it, with an almost lemon-honey smell.  The taste is very herb-y and flowery, with a mysterious leafy spice in it, and a pleasant citrus, sweet aftertaste; there’s nothing bitter about this tea.

There’s plenty of good stuff in this bottle, including tulsi (Thai Holy Basil!) and some stuff I’ve never heard of like ashwagandha and eleutherococcus senticosus root.  The ingredients are organic, and the tea and sugar are fair-trade certified, which is pretty awesome in my opinion.  Aside from the beneficial bits, the sugar comes in at 26 G in the 14 oz bottle, which isn’t terrible.

Overall, I’m quite impressed with this beverage, the ingredients are unique and organic, and the flavor is surprisingly complex and pleasing.  Basically, this is delicious, and I can see myself drinking this on a more regular basis, I really can.

Score: 5 out of 5. A surprising find in an increasingly saturated market of  ‘organic herbal drinks.’

– Wiseguise

User Reviews: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Adina green tea, organic

Greetings, brave surfer of the collective internets!  I’m here to give you the down-low on an old-time Australian beverage that has gradually made its way to just about every section of the world – Bundaberg Ginger Beer!  We already introduced you to the Bundaberg Root Beer a while back, which was a big hit with us.  But the Ginger Beer flavor is evidently what started it all as the first Bundaberg product way back in 1960.  And even though they have added plenty of other items to their product line, Bundaberg credits Ginger Beer as the impetus for their startling worldwide growth.

As with the root beer, what really sets this apart is the fact that it’s naturally yeast-brewed, which is about as old-fashioned as you can get in the world of soda.  But unlike my own experiments with yeast-brewing the sweet stuff, Bundaberg’s Ginger Beer does not have a strong yeasty presence at all.  On the contrary, as I pop open the distinctive pull-tab and take a deep whiff, I am greeted by nothing but a fresh, spicy-sweet ginger scent.

And even after taking my first sip, the fermentation flavor is extremely elusive.  I can tell that something is different from typical ginger sodas, but that something works very well for it.  The spicy ginger is extremely refreshing, and it is balanced by just the right amount of sweet cane sugar to make this one delicious fizzy nectar.  I love a nice full-bodied ginger ale/beer, and this one delivers in spades.

When considering what rating to give this drink, I had a very strong urge to give it a full five stars.  But after some deliberation, I finally decided to temper my enthusiasm and go with 4.5 instead.  Here’s why:

1. Sugar!  Yes, I was tempted to glaze over (no pun intended) the rather high amount of sugar grams in this little bottle, citing its many positive health points as an excuse.  For example, they do use natural cane sugar (+1 health point).  And they only use natural and local ingredients (+2 health points).  Plus this is a naturally brewed drink and a ginger drink, both of which are  purported to have health benefits.  But in the end, 40g of sugar per bottle is still 40g of sugar.

2. Shipping!  It is a fact that we do take a look at eco-friendliness as part of our “healthy” judging criteria for companies.  And having a glass bottle full of liquid sent to you across an ocean is not exactly the most practical way to quench your thirst, especially in regards to carbon footprints and whatnot.

But damn, it’s so good!  If you’re fortunate enough to find this, definitely give it a try.

Rating – 4.5 out of 5

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Bundaberg drink reviews

Straight up from down under

The wife of my girlfriend’s co-worker hails from Australia, and Bundaberg is his favorite soda from the big island.  He was kind enough to offer a bottle for her/our private consumption.  Apparently, Pepsi has started distributing it locally, but I have no official confirmation of this.  Little did he  know I swiped it and reviewed it.  Hooray for freebies!

First thing, this has an awesome little pull tab on it, but, being the American I am, I’m not quite familiar with this method of opening a bottle, so my pull is slow and careful.  It comes off without incident, and this foreign drink is subjected to the first test of any drink, the aroma test.  It smells awesome and super sweet; there’s 44 g of the white stuff in this 12.7 oz bottle.  The first taste I recognize is the spicy, dark sweet of molasses.  I catch hints of ginger and vanilla, and the licorice shows up in the aftertaste.  This is brewed using yeast, which often turns a soda fermenty and unpleasant to most people, but I can hardly tell with this, except for the malty-sweet taste and beer-like mouth-feel after I swallow.  The carbonation is light and the sweetness is surprisingly mellow and doesn’t stick to your tongue too long.

It has a nice spice and an interesting tang to it, something many American root beers lack, besides originality. The cane sugar and molasses give it a perfect, rich sweetness that the darker sugar tones down.  The flavor combination is perfect, leaving nothing to be desired of this Australian treat.  That’s exactly what it should be considered, a treat, if you can find it.  It currently isn’t distributed in the U.S.  Their slogan on the bottle, Naturally Brewed to be Better, seems apt.  I have nothing negative to say about this soda, despite the large amount of sugar in it.  This may be the best root beer I’ve ever had.

You can get it shipped your way from The Soda Shop.

Score: 5 out of 5. Root beers rarely get better than this.

– WiseGuise

*Danithius Review Rebuttal*

Wow.  So this is what real, naturally brewed root beer tastes like.  My palate is buzzing from this brewed root tonic, which packs a champagne-y tang  from the actual fermentation process that it went through (although it is totally non-alcoholic.)  Real sarsaparilla root, licorice root, vanilla bean, and molasses make this drink about as real as any root beer you’ll ever drink in your life.   Yes, it is a helluva lot of sugar, but WiseGuise is right.  This is a treat that is meant to be savored as an experience – guzzling it would be a crime!  I dig it as much as he did.

User Reviews: (5 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Bundaberg drink reviews

Checkmate.

Welcome, libation-loving boys and girls!  Today I have a fresh pick from Purity.Organic, and this one really is hot off the presses!  Purity just came out with it in the last month or two.  And I’m especially excited (and nervous) for this flavor, because I love Half & Half’s!  (Or Arnold Palmers, as they’re known in my neck of the woods.)  For those of you not in familiar with either term, first of all, shame on you.  Second of all, it is a combination of lemonade and black tea, and when they’re made fresh they are absolutely delicious.  The two flavors are made for each other – the lemonade sweetens the bitter black tea, and the black tea cuts the acidity and intensity of the lemonade.  It’s yin and yang in a bottle!

That’s why I’m a little nervous, though – because it’s in a bottle.  I haven’t had the best experiences with bottled lemonades, so I hope this doesn’t turn out to taste like plastic lemons squeezed into my tea.  I don’t think I should be too worried, though, Purity.Organic did have a solid bottled lemonade flavor.

Let’s get to it!

Fragrance: Mmm-mm, lemony tea!  Smells like sweet, heavy black tea with a little lemon zing.

Flavor: Wow, that hits the spot… it appears that I had no need to worry about this one!  It’s got everything I want in an Arnold Palmer (Half and Half, whatever).  First the lemonade hits you, riding your tongue to a rising wave of  sweetness.  And just when you start to think “wait, is this going to be too sweet?”, the bitter black tea swoops in and calms everything down, leaving a pleasingly deep herbal taste in your mouth.  The flavor balance is perfect, the sweetness level is great, and the flavors themselves taste real and fresh.  This is the perfect summer drink.

The one and only issue that I can find with this beverage is its sugar level.  It has 19 grams per serving, which is so perfectly on the fence between “permissible” and “too much for a full score” that it’s driving me insane.  Coca Cola has about 26 grams per serving, to give you something to contrast it with.

Ultimately though, I think you need that much sugar just due to the nature of this drink.  It is necessary to balance out the two powerhouse flavors, lemon and tea.  I think if they tried to cut any more sugar out, the tea and lemon would quickly be overpowering,  thus ruining the experience of a good Half & Half.  I’ll go with the full five points!

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 - Perfectly sweet, perfectly balanced, and perfectly tasty.

-Danithius-

*****Review Rebuttal!!*****

Both Danithius and I have become enamored with the ‘Arnold Palmer’ beverage, so imagine my excitement when he tossed me one of these.  It leads off with a fruity sweetness for me, and finishes with a nice dry tartness compliments of the black tea.  It has a perfect lemony tea aroma.  I sipped the first half and chugged the rest. Quite pleasing to my palate and thirst. I wonder if I could talk them into sending a couple cases our way?

– WiseGuise

User Ratings: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Purity.Organics drink reviews

Greetings, my liquid-loving brothers and sisters!  Today I have another flavor from Purity.Organic up on the chopping block.  It’s our third and final review from Purity.Organic’s “Functional” category – i.e., lower sugar, lower calorie, Lifewater-esque beverages.  Let’s see how it holds up under the spotlight.

Fragrance: A surprisingly realistic blueberry scent with hints of grape.

Flavor: Wow.  This is downright… pleasant.  The blueberry flavor comes through beautifully, supported by hints of the grape and cane juices.  I can pick up a little bit of pomegranate flavor in the aftertaste as well, but it’s definitely understated.  Most of all, I am impressed by the sweet taste that rides with you from start to finish.  Now given, it is not exactly a miraculous feat for a company to produce a sweet-tasting drink.  However, it is impressive when said company manages to produce a sweet-tasting drink with only 14 grams of sugar per serving (about half the sugar of Coca Cola). And no artificial sweeteners, to boot.  And much of the sugar comes from natural fruit juice from local organic farmers.  Wow.  Seriously, guys, did you guys build this drink specifically for us?

Score: 5.0 out of 5 – It works for me on every level: perfect sweetness, balanced flavor, low sugar, real fruit, organic, and possibly magical.  Seriously, I’m going to order a box of this.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Purity.Organics drink reviews

The first of my share of the Purity.Organic drinks is also a ‘functional’ drink, and lower in sugar than the others.  The function of this drink is balance, according to the front of the bottle.  This one is infused with Maca, a plant grown in South America at high altitudes, where little else grows.  It is supposedly high in antioxidants, and has other bueno health effects as does cranberry.  The combination with lime makes this particular beverage very appealing, at least to me.

With a crack of the seal, I get strong indicators of cranberry and lime, a good sign for a beverage that is mostly water and white grape juice.  With one sip, I know I’m going to like this.  The tart of the cranberry leads in and followed closely by a bit of sour from the lime, then finishes with the natural sweetness of the cane juice and fruit juices.  The sweetness is light, only 28 g per 16 oz bottle.

I’m quite impressed with this, my first experience with Purity.Organic.  The flavors are well balanced and the sweetness doesn’t take over and cover them up.  I can definitely see myself consuming this rapidly during or after a good workout, run, hike or bout of video-game play, all exhausting activities.  I wish I had seen these before, but I’m not surprised since the closest place I can find that carries them is a restaurant I rarely go to.  Look for them yourself if you are interested.

Score: 5 out of 5. Sweet-sour-tart functional drink from the heavens–or wherever Purity.Organic is located.

– WiseGuise

User Reviews: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Purity.Organics all natural, organic

Viagra in a bottle?

Another Function flavor I have been meaning to review, and after two failed attempts (drank it without a notepad or camera) I have finally brought you my wisdom and advice.

As is normal for drinks not rife with chemicals and sugar, the scent is rather weak, but definitely speaks of its tropical origins.  The taste is more arousing, a passionate assault on my taste-buds with its twin cannons of passion-fruit and guava.  There’s only a bare hint of the astringent  nature of the supplements and extracts added for its supposed sexual health claims.  It leaves me with no dry-mouth or unpleasant aftertaste.  Yummy.

I see no way to easily or diplomatically lay down any evidence as to its claims, due to the sensitive nature of such information and the personal familiarity of some of our readership, so I will leave it up to the speculation of our readers; also I highly suggest experimentation on all your parts.  Ahem.

I felt a bit of a boost after my lunch, which is usually capped by some drowsy reading in the break-room and a sluggish afternoon.  Sugar content is moderate, 33 g in the 16.8 oz bottle, and the taste is excellent, by far one of my favorites to come out of the labs at Function.

Score: 5 out of 5. A flavorful harbinger of potency, also a first 5 for Function.

– WiseGuise

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5-Star Reviews, Function all natural, drink reviews

Yay! Another bad picture!

This may not seem like the Honest truth, but we have not intentionally gone out of our way to review so many HonestTea flavors, it just happened.  They are delicious, healthier and earned their spot on our 2008 Top 10 list.    Another one, which I received for my birthday a few months ago remained at the back of the rotation until recently.  Needing a pick-me-up on this wearisome Friday, out it came from its frigid prison.

I have always found the smell of iced teas to be pleasant, particularly freshly brewed tea.  This comes close, giving off a rich, earthy aroma hinting at the light sweetness.  A wash of chilled tea makes my tongue very happy here, the small amount of sugar keeps from covering up the taste of the tea, but also adds sweetness and cancels the bitterness of the tea leaves.  The lemon is faint, but adds a touch of sour to even out the taste-bud barrage.  This is about as good as it gets coming out of a bottle.

The 16.9 oz tea contains only 85 calories and 22 g of sugar.  For those of you counting, that’s much less than the 39 in 12 oz of Coke, and far less that the 48 g in a 12 oz can of Lipton Brisk Iced Tea.  And it tastes much better.  And for less than two dollars?  If you like iced tea but hate the loads of sugar, this is for you.

Score: 5 out of 5. Hits the spot, and the mark.

– WiseGuise

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5-Star Reviews, Honest Tea drink reviews, organic

I'd need another page if the name was any longer

Another unusual Talking Rain beverage made its way into my thirsty clutches, and I have finally been able to tear into it.  Yes, this is another ‘energy’ type drink, fortified with ginseng, tea, caffeine and B vitamins.  The satsuma is a sweet, seedless tangerine from Japan, if you were curious.

The scent is a weak, but detectable tangerine with a hint of ginseng and pineapple (filler juice).  The taste is much more impressive, sweet and exotic, but familiar enough.  The tea makes an appearance here.  I want to chug it, but I resist the temptation.  It is 19% juice and has only 50 calories, sweetened with an undetectable amount of erythritol, under the guise of Zerose.

I was impressed with the great flavor of this variety of Twist, and I hope I can find some more soon.  They have three other flavors, however, they note on their site that it is only available in the Northwest United States.  This drink fits our guidelines quite well, and has some great taste to boot.

Score: 5 out of 5. I had no complaints with this one at all, and our first 5 for a Talking Rain.

– WiseGuise

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5-Star Reviews, Talking Rain all natural, drink reviews, energy drink, Talking Rain

This Honest Tea was donated to our cause by a reader and friend of the BL team, to help expand our catalog of Honest beverages.  Much appreciated.

Now, I feel some trepidation when I see a mild flavor like white tea mixed a much stronger flavor like pomegranate, since it could invariably overwhelm the weaker flavor.  But Honest really seems to know what they’re doing when it comes to flavor mixing.  The pom is toned down enough to let the tea shine through, in both scent and taste.  The acai even peek out from behind the pomegranate, coming with a very mild sweetness after the major flavors play their roles and exit stage down.

At first the 20 g of sugar didn’t seem to lend enough sweetness to the tea until I got a few mouthfuls into the bottle.  It built up a little, and became just right for this flavor blend.  There’s also only 1/8th the caffeine as a cup of coffee, for those watching their intake.  This beverage was a welcome reminder of why I like tea so much, and why I will continue to buy Honest Tea.

Score: 5 out of 5. Mildly sweet with a perfect flavor combination.

– WiseGuise

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5-Star Reviews, Honest Tea drink reviews, organic, white tea