Hola, Libation-lubbers!  Today I’m going to review an entry from Purity.Organic, a drink company out of San Fran that backs sustainable, organic agriculture.  You’ll probably see a lot of these over the next few weeks, because they were kind enough to send us one of every flavor for review!  And as you know, while we don’t give preferential treatment in the reviews themselves, we do make a policy of placing company-submitted samples first in the review queue.

Let’s get down to business.  I’ve chosen the Orange Mango Tangerine flavor to begin with because it contains 25% juice and yet only has 14g of sugar per serving.  (This is about half the sugar content of your average cola, and much less than typical fruity sodas.)  And on top of that, it just sounds citrusy-fresh.

Orange Mango Tangerine is one of Purity.Organic’s three “functional drinks”, which are lighter on sugar and calories than their sweeter, juicier brethren.  This one is like their sports drink, containing calcium and sea salt intended to replenish the body after exercise.  I did just hit the gym, so let’s see how it treats me.

Fragrance: Well now, this does smell like real fruit.  Because this is a juice cocktail sweetened with cane juice, I was afraid that it would have that “from concentrate” smell or that it would just smell flat.  But this actually smells tangy like a mango, with overtones of fresh citrus.  I am officially enticed.

Taste: Lightly sweet, fruity, and refreshing.  White grape and citrus juices combine with tangerine oil to form an interesting flavor profile that I think is very well suited to chugging during exercise.  It’s pleasant, goes down smooth, and isn’t astringent at all thanks to the white grape.  If you were feeling parched, I think you could easily chug the whole bottle in a matter of minutes and be right back on your feet.  I mean hell, I just chugged the whole bottle in the time it’s taken me to write this review!

This drink has a lot going for it.  It’s all organic, it’s low sugar, it’s nicely flavored, and it’s produced by an environmentally conscientious company.  I’m hard-pressed to come up with a critique for this one…  The only thing I can wish for is perhaps a more defined flavor profile.  I realize that as a “functional drink” this is intended to be lighter than normal juices, and that’s fine.  But I’d like to be able to try this stuff without even looking at the label and tell you at least two out of the three flavors.  As it is now, I think I’d be able to pick only one – citrus.  Still, it’s a good flavor, and I really can’t complain.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 - Low sugar, organic ingredients, and real fruit juice.

-Danithius-

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

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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3-Star Reviews, Capri Sun, Rants drink reviews, Rants

Greetings, Libationers!  Today I’m pleased to bring you another flavor from Sweet Leaf.  Today I’m tackling their lemonade.

Now let me state from the start that I have never had much luck with pre-bottled lemonade.  It’s really, really hard to find anything that doesn’t taste like a tin can of super-fake lemon concentrate.  Sweet Leaf has had some solid entries in the past, though, so I’m willing to give them a try.

Let’s crack it open…

Fragrance – yep, smells like lemon all right.  I do detect a little bit of that concentrate scent, too.  (You know, the stuff from the little yellow plastic squeeze-lemon).

Taste – while it’s better than some other bottled lemonades that I’ve had, I still just can’t get over that concentrate taste.  It just feels fake.  The sweetness level is just right, and it could be great if it just tasted like a fresh lemon.  But there’s just no getting around the fake taste.

To be fair to Sweet Leaf, there is only one bottled lemonade that I have ever really enjoyed, and that’s Simply Lemonade.  (Which is pasteurized and kept under refrigeration like other fresh juices).  It may be comparing apples to oranges here, but in order for me to like a lemonade it has to taste like real lemons!  I simply can’t get over the concentrate taste.

Rating: 2.0 out of 5 – A worthy effort, but it still tastes like plastic lemons.

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2-Star Reviews, Sweet Leaf drink reviews

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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3-Star Reviews, SoBe Lean all natural, green tea, Stevia

Greetings, Libationers!  I’ve come home from the store again with a basket full of new beverages, and it’s high time I started reviewing them off.  First up is Sweet Leaf’s Raspberry Sweet Tea flavor. 

You may remember that Sweet Leaf won a spot on our 2009 Top 10 Healthy Beverages list for their lip-smacking honey and mint green tea.  I’m curious to find out how this fruit-infused Southern classic will measure up.

The first thing I notice is a relatively low sugar quantity – 18g per serving.  Not too shabby, considering Coca-Cola is about 25g per serving.

Fragrance: I inhale deeply and get the earthy scent of black tea and raspberry.  (Mostly raspberry).

Taste: I take a sip and the first thing I notice is a sweet raspberry flavor jumping all over my tongue.  About a second later, the raspberry ducks out of the room, and in comes the mildly bitter black tea flavor to finish off the flavor profile.  All in all, it’s pleasant, with a strong focus on the raspberry flavor.  I did notice that they use “natural raspberry flavor” in the ingredients list rather than an actual raspberry juice or puree.  It is a good flavoring, but ideally I want to see the actual product being used to flavor my drinks.  Still, it is natural, and it tastes like a solid drink.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 – A nice, refreshing sweet tea with raspberry

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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Uncategorized

This soda company has been around for quite a long time, it was founded back in 1980 in New Mexico.  In 2000, Hansen Beverage Company picked it up, moving the operation to California.  In all that time, I have never tried it, despite being available just about everywhere in the U.S.  The can design is still highly reminiscent of the company’s roots, complete with an airborne raptor in the logo.

Enough with the history lesson, on to the test.  Pulling back the tab, it reminds me of just about any other citrus soda, that olfactory tang of citric acid is very apparent.  It tastes okay, citrus-y and sweet, but only vaguely of grapefruit.  The aftertaste leaves the underlying dryness usually left by a grapefruit, so there is that.  The sweetness lingers on even longer.  This is due to the 38 g of sugar in the 12 oz can, on par with Coca-Cola.  Also, very carbonated.

Many of their other sodas have fewer calories than this, The Daily Plate lists them.  Despite the high sugar, they proudly proclaim that their natural sodas are “made without artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, caffeine, sodium, GMOs or high fructose corn syrup.”  There are also only four ingredients in the can, carbonated water, sugar, citric acid and natural grapefruit flavor. Excellent.  Do you need to use so much sugar, though?

I appreciate a company striving to remain all natural, using as few ingredients as possible, and having such a large, varied line, but in this particular drink my expectations overshot a little bit.  The flavor didn’t quite cut it for me, and the sugar content is much higher than we like to see in a soda.  Overall it was nothing special, but I still want to try their other drinks.

Score: 2 out of 5. Too sugary and the flavor falls short, more fizz than grapefruit.

– WiseGuise

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2-Star Reviews, Blue Sky all natural

Some time ago, we (and by “we” I mean WiseGuise) reviewed a couple of drinks by a company called Adina.  They both received pretty solid scores for flavor, health, and fair trade/earth-friendly products.  After that I proceeded to completely forget about the company.   And then last week I came across this striking little asian-looking design on a bottle boasting honey lemon aloe flavor (how refreshing!).  The bottle looked completely different from the ones in our previous reviews, so I thought this was a totally new company.  Little did I know they had just given themselves a facelift!  I think they took a note or two from SoBe’s design philosophy on this one.  I like the thick glass bottle and the funky monkey on the front.

As I further investigated the bottle, I found that it was 100% organic certified, and they use evaporated cane sugar as the sweetener.  As far as the actual sugar gram count goes, it scores very well – 13g per serving, or exactly 1/2 the sugar content of Coca-Cola.  I also found out that their slogan is “drink no evil”, which I think is a deliciously scathing jab to the liquid-evil factories out there.  OK, enough about fun facts, how does this stuff taste?

Fragrance: Mmm, herby.  I smell something like fruity lemongrass with a hint of green tea.

Taste: Lightly sweet, delicate, and refreshing, with a botanical green tea aftertaste.  I’m glad they sell these in 14 ounce bottles, because I think that’s just the right amount.  This would be excellent on a hot day or after a good workout, when you really want some liquid refreshment.  No one flavor really pronounces itself, though; neither the lemon nor the honey grab center stage.  Instead, all the flavors meld together into an herby mix.  This can kind of wear on you as you get towards the end of the bottle – I kind of wish there was one flavor in particular that was held up above the rest.  Still, it’s nice.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 For a cool design, organic, healthy ingredients, low sugar, and good flavor.

-Danithius-

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4-Star Reviews, Adina drink reviews

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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3-Star Reviews, Rockstar energy drink, independent company

I haven’t reviewed an iced tea in a while, and this one was politely donated by my girlfriend and purchased from the local Good Earth health grocer, and couldn’t say no.  This is not my first Steaz, I have sampled their tea before, but never managed to sit down and review one.  In a world of sub-par teas, it’s nice to find a company that focuses on theirs and strives to make them flavorful and conscientious.

After my last experience with a mint flavored tea, I was hesitant to try this, but my worry was needless.  Scent-wise, the mint isn’t overpowering, and the tea is tangible.  Flavor-wise, it’s tangy and pleasantly minty, finishing with a soft tea flavor and a perfect dryness.  This is what Lipton iced tea should taste like, (minus the mint) with less than half the ingredients and 6 g less sugar.  Iced teas have been pushed out into the market as something that should be syrupy-sweet and lemon-sour, with hardly any recognizable tea flavor and a generic taste.  This doesn’t have to be, and this tea shows it.

This entire line of iced teas are all natural, organic  and fair trade, and at least with this particular tea, only 20 g of sugar in the 16 oz can.  Light on sugars and organic like Honestea, environmentally conscious and next-door sexy like Hayden Panettiere.  Okay, that last one is only opinion, and I’m probably going to get in trouble for it.  If you like iced teas, these are definitely worth a try.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Pleasant and minty and definitely not generically flavored.

– WiseGuise

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4-Star Reviews, Steaz all natural, green tea, organic

I'm green with. . .protein

Every once in a while I get an urge to try a protein drink, despite their notoriously gritty texture and ugly mouthfeel, mostly because I go to the gym and need the most protein without the added calories of fat and carbohydrates.  These experiments usually end with a grimace and a vow never to drink another one, but I inevitably forget and see something new.  That brings you today’s post, Mix 1 Key Lime ‘enhanced protein shake’!

Now, it isn’t fair to characterize all protein drinks as a horrible experience, that has just been my sum of experiences.  The idea behind it isn’t to enjoy a smooth, delicious beverage, it’s to pack a ton of protein into your body so you can blow out every major muscle group you have doing power cleans and bench pressing while groaning like a geriatric.  Protein builds and maintains muscle, and eating too much doesn’t necessarily harm you, your body uses what it needs and disposes of the rest.

It smells exactly how I expected it to, like a lime flavored protein shake. The taste is better than I anticipated, smooth and not as thick as I suspected it to be.  The sweetness is very light, and the lime is bold and sour, almost to the point of tasting artificial.  The ingredient list denies this, listing only juice concentrate (lime, apple) and citric acid.  This goes down surprisingly well, smooth and not a single bit of grit.  Overall this was much better than I hoped it would be, leaving only a milky feeling in my mouth due to the whey protein isolate, a milk by-product.  A large amount of vitamins and minerals was added, 23 total, with 15 g of protein and plenty of antioxidants.  Calories come in at 200 for the 11 oz bottle, but only 22 g of sugars.

Drinking this has changed my mind quite a bit on what a protein drink can be like; it doesn’t have to be a harrowing journey into an abyss of gag-inducing textures from gritty, tasteless mixes than slide down your throat like a stagnant oily slurry.  They can actually taste good.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. A tasty, smooth entry into a world of thick, gritty protein shakes.

– WiseGuise

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4-Star Reviews, Mix1 all natural, independent company