Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

Here’s another Hansen’s review I dredged up out of the notebook, hopefully my memory serves me well enough to fill in the details. Our experiences with Hansen’s various lines have averaged 3 stars, so not bad.  Let’s see how their attempt at an all natural cola fares against my picky palate.

I yank back the tab and get a good smell, and it definitely has a cola aroma, and I can already detect the 41 g of sugar in the can.  It has an almost caramel sweetness to it, thanks the the natural cane sugar.  It leaves a mellow, lasting sweetness on the tongue, not acidic like Coke, but seems to be quite carbonated.  Has a vaguely citrusy aftertaste, and reminds me somewhat of Ironport.

After some consideration, the only thing that really stands out to me in this cola is the sweetness.  Despite its smooth drinkability that other colas lack, there are better, more complex colas to be had.  However, it may tickle the fancy of some of you out there, and is worth a try.  Also, they should get kudos for the interesting can design, far different from your more mainstream sodas.

Score: 2.5 out of 5. All natural, but nothing outstanding from this ‘original’ cola.

– WiseGuise

User reviews: (2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)
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2-Star Reviews, Hansen's drink reviews

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-

User Ratings: (2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)
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3-Star Reviews, Hansen's drink reviews

Simple designs are not always boring

I came by this simple looking can at my local Sunflower Market, and I liked the design and possibility of trying a new flavor from this established company, and though their reviews here have not yet broken past a 3, I’m more than willing to give a company another chance.  Also, I was thirsty and this was on sale.  Everyone wins!

Sparkling water doesn’t usually agree with me, and this isn’t quite an exception, but close.  The fizziness doesn’t totally turn me off, and I hear some people like that sort of thing.  The scents are understated but tangible, the cranberry doesn’t walk over the grapefruit or vice versa.  The taste is about the same, tame and fairly equal, although the grapefruit wins out for the aftertaste.  The fruitiness is light, as is the sweetness, 24 g of cane sugar in this 10.5 oz can (far below our benchmark can-of-Coke).  Aftertaste is pleasant and sweet, no dry-mouth or cotton-tongue.

Hansen’s seems to still be doing business independently, with several different lines of drinks and several new products like this one. I also noticed that they are quite open about their financial information and any inter-company agreements, so kudos on the transparency.  As for the beverage, I found the taste to be quite enjoyable, cranberry and grapefruit mix surprisingly well.  The carbonation was a little too intense for me, although others may enjoy it far more, I’m not a sparkling water kind of guy.

Score: 4 out of 5. A natural, fizzy sparkling water with the right amount of taste and sugar.

– WiseGuise

User Ratings: (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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4-Star Reviews, Hansen's all natural, independent company

I contracted a cold sometime during the past 24 hours, and I am currently bombarding my immune system with everything I have, hoping something drives away whatever nasty bacteria or virus has turned my throat into a petri dish.  Having had plenty of tea already, I decided to break out this Green Tea Soda to see if the 35 mg of EGCG would have any effect.

I can already tell we’re going to have a carbonation problem here; it’s so strong it downplays the tea and tangerine scents right out of the can.  Taking a swig, I get a mouthful of bubbles that subside into an awkwardly fizzy green tea flavor, then comes the tangerine, sweet and timid.  Even after I shook most of the carbonation out of the can, the flavors really don’t pop out, vanishing quickly and leaving me with a vague, orangy-sweet taste in my mouth.

The sugar seems a little high, 44 g per can, but the sweetness is just about right for this mixture.  The only other thing this brings with it is the antioxidants, no vitamins or even a drop of juice, just fruit and tea extracts and cane sugar.  Overall I was not impressed with this soda, and I don’t believe tea should be carbonated, especially to this degree.

Score: 2.5 out of 5. Weak flavors and waaay too much carbonation ruin this tea soda.

– WiseGuise

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2-Star Reviews, Hansen's drink reviews, green tea

Why so much pink?

Now I’ve gone on before about my love for the sweet-tartness of pomegranate, and my adoration for tea, so finding a mixture of the two is usually a guaranteed purchase for me.  Xingtea has one, and it’s good, but not great.  Spying this effort by Hansen,I tossed it into the back of the fridge for a couple weeks and forgot about it.  Running low on stockpiled potential reviews, I found it again and decided I should give it a shot, despite my less-than glowing review of their last drink.

Upon cracking the plastic seal and giving it a whiff, I catch the pomegranate escaping the confines of its plastic prison, along with its smaller, weaker inmate, tea.  It smells sweet.  My first mouthful is an oh-my-god-that’s-a-lot-of-sugar experience, and I glance at the bottle.  On the front it claims to be ‘lightly sweetened with cane sugar,’ and on the back it admits to 23 g of the sweet stuff per serving.  That’s nowhere near Coke’s 39 g a serving, but it still is not light.  After the sweetness rapidly fades away like an exceptionally brief love-affair, the real flavors are allowed to show their tastes.  The aftertaste is far more pleasant than the initial sugar rush, but it comes back with every mouthful.

Honest Tea is able to get its pleasant sweetness with only 12-20 g of sugar per serving, so I am curious why others aren’t able to do the same.  This one is obviously too sugary, they could easily lose 5 g a serving and still be plenty sweet.  And I’m also not quite sure what ‘Naturally Selected Ingredients’ are.  Picked by humans and not robots?  Whatever.  This wasn’t bad as flavored teas go, but not going to come out on top in a head-to-head with Honest Tea.

Score: 3 out of 5. Good flavors, but too much sugar almost overpowers them.

– WiseGuise

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3-Star Reviews, Hansen's green tea

This little brown number is from Hansen’s Signature line of all-natural sodas, known for their varied tasty beverages that I have personally enjoyed for fifteen years. This particular soda is apparently flavored with sarsaparilla, an American root. It is one of the main flavoring ingredients in root beer, along with sassafras. And guess what? It has super-powers!

Instead of letting this bottle languish in the chilly depths of my personal food-prison, I drank it almost immediately. It smells just like root beer–surprise! And it tastes like. . . wow, like a creamy root beer. Sweet and smooth, not much of a kick or bite, unlike ginger beer. IF you like that sort of thing, check out Danithius’ Ginger People review.

I was honestly hoping for more of a spiced flavor, but was instead greeted with a melody of vanilla and familiar root beer flavors, almost like a cream soda. There is actually very little sarsaparilla, encompassed by the last ingredient, ‘Natural Flavors.’ And at 45 g of sugar in 12 oz, comes in just under (correction, well over) Coke. Yikes. But if you’re looking for a natural, sweet, root-beer-like soda, this might just be your ticket.

Score: 3 out of 5. Lots of sweet, not enough kick.

– WiseGuise

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3-Star Reviews, Hansen's drink reviews