Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

Yep, it's pretty red.

Time to finish my set of Crayons drink reviews, this time with the flavor entitled “redder than ever fruit punch”.  Let’s see how this one measures up!  (I rather liked its brother-flavors, orange mango and watermelon berry).

First off, this entry has 30% juice and 3g of fiber.  It’s sweetened with pure cane sugar and Erythritol (sugar alcohol also used in SoBe Life Water).  And it comes in a cute little 8 oz. can, which is becoming popular for drinks aimed at the height-challenged population.  (Kids, not midgets.  OK, “little people”.)

It smells like a typical red hawaiian punch kids drink, except this has more distinct accents of ripe pineapple.

True to its title, this drink delivers a tropical-sweet-n-tangy fruit punch flavor, just like you remember drinking as a kid.  However, unlike what you drank as a kid, this beverage isn’t a soulless shell of nutritionless sugar water loaded with HFCS and red 40 food coloring.  This actually has redeeming qualities.  And the fruit juice comes through well, giving more depth to the flavor and a real fruity taste that you don’t get from the sugar-water stuff.

Rating: 5/5 For a vast improvement on the traditional tooth-rotting kids drink.  Sharper flavor, real fruit juice, and fiber to offset the sugar content set this one apart from the crowd.

-Danithius-

User Ratings – (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Crayons drink reviews

The little can even looks like a fat aluminum crayon.

Time to review another contender from Crayons.  I really liked the Watermelon Berry flavor, so I hope this doesn’t disappoint.

First off, there’s no HFCS.  Crayons uses sugar augmented with Erythritol and real fruit juice.  (Erythritol is a sugar alcohol also found in Life Water).  There’s 19g of sugar in this 8oz can, which ain’t too bad.

It smells just like a fresh-cut mango, complete with that peculiar mango bite.  If you really focus, you can pick up traces of the orange juice scent as well.  Let’s hope it tastes as good as it smells.

And it does deliver.  It’s sweet, tropical, and refreshing, without being too powerful.  The mango bite is there, but it doesn’t come through as strongly as I thought it would.  You have to look for it.  Then it has a faint hint of orange aftertaste to finish with.

In fact, the overall flavor is much lighter than I expected.  It danced around my tongue and slipped down my throat before I could nail down the finer points of its fruity taste.  By the time I finally finished the few short sentences above, I had already guzzled the entire can!  (Usually I have a pretty good grip on a drink by the first few sips, but this one was a different story…)

Rating – 4.5/5 For a light, refreshing tropical flavor, small can size, no HFCS, and fiber content.

-Danithius-

User Rating – (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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4-Star Reviews, Crayons drink reviews

Wow, sugarguard protection! I don't know what that means...

Crayons’ brand of drinks were singing our song right off the shelf.  They were practically begging for their own drink reviews.  So, being the softy that I am, I obligingly adopted about five of these, and took them home to let them live comfortable lives in my refridgerator.  Until I decide to pop their tops and consume their insides.  That’s when the metaphor kind of falls apart….

Right then, back to business.  As I was saying, these are right up our alley.  Displayed proudly on the front label – “NO high fructose corn syrup”.  “All natural fruit juice drink”.  “Sugarguard protection”.  Which, upon further investigation, means that they add some dietary fiber to all of their drinks, which is supposed to control the rate of sugar absorbtion.  Interesting.  I shall have to investigate sugarguard’s site.  Also check out Crayons’ website for more info, and watch for more reviews on this brand.

Similar to LifeWater, Crayons contains both sugar and Erythritol.  But unlike LifeWater, Crayons contains real fruit juice as well.  30%, to be precise, which is just about right.  People seem to think that pure fruit juice is the only way to go for a truly health-conscious beverage, but this is simply not the case.  Most pure fruit juices contain more sugar than regular soda!  And most don’t include the pulp, which has the fiber, which helps regulate the sugar, which is one of the benefits of eating fruit straight up!  Fruit juice is tasty, but you should regulate your intake just as much as you do for soda.

OK, time to get down to business.  Once you pop it open, this slender can puts off a surprisingly potent, fruity smell.  It smells like a full-on 100% berry juice blend.

Wow.  It tastes surprisingly sweet for its sugar content.  (18g of sugar for the 8 oz. can, and 8g of Erythritol).  It has a spot-on watermelon overtone with a nice, puckering berry finish.  It’s very true to the flavor on its label.  Moreso than most adult beverages that I’ve tried.  Seriously, I can’t see kids not liking this.  Screw Sunny D, give your kids Crayons!  (And while I’m at it, screw the kids, I’m buying this for me!)

Rating – 5/5 – Plenty of flavor for both kids and adults, and nothing to make your mom worry about stunting your growth.

-Danithius-

User Reviews – (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Crayons drink reviews