Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

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

User Reviews: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

3-Star Reviews, Pepsi-Cola, Rants drink reviews, Rants

Today we have another SoBe Lifewater contender up on the chopping block: Strawberry Dragonfruit.

This is another 0-calorie “Lean Machine” Lifewater sweetened exclusively with Stevia and Erythritol.  The other lean machines have surprised me with a depth of flavor and lack of obnoxious aftertaste that I have yet to find in other “diet” products.  As regular BL readers know, we stay away from any artificial sweeteners.  But because Lifewater uses Stevia (a sweet herb) and Erythritol (a natural sugar-alcohol), they make the cut.

Fragrance: Smells like a sweet-tart tropical fruit with a hint of bubblegum.

Taste: Like all the other Lifewaters, this is pleasant and chuggable.  The sweetness level is just right, and it delivers some moderate tropical/floral notes.  But it lacks the distinct flavor profile that I’ve come to enjoy from its fruity brethren.  All in all, it just isn’t enough to make me stand up and take notice.  I expect more from the flavor-formulators over at SoBe!

Summary: Sure, dragonfruit sounds cool.  I mean come on, it’s dragonfruit.  The only way to get a cooler-sounding piece of produce would be to invent ninjafruit or something.  (I’m trademarking that, by the way!)  But the thing is, dragonfruit is one of those items that sounds cool in principle, but then fails to deliver in practice.  I’ve had it fresh; it was like biting into a cardboard-and-poppyseed muffin.  It’s bland.  They could have compensated for its lack of flavor in this Lifewater with a more pronounced strawberry taste, but unfortunately it was nowhere to be found.

Rating: 3.0/5 It has the pleasant sweetness of its brethren, but falls short in the flavor department.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

3-Star Reviews, SoBe Life Water drink reviews, SoBe lifewater

While browsing at my local Fresh Market (formerly known as Albertson’s in Utah) and came upon this pricey bottle, sold at a staggering $6.79 for the 32 ounces.  But, it was a local product, and in the name of pure curiosity, I grabbed it.  I winced after scanning it, slid my card, and brought my new acquisition home.  The name, MOAB, stands for Most Optimum Antioxidant Beverage, which sounds like a forced acronym with a possible intentional reference to a famous Utah town of the same name.  Mangosteen is a relatively unknown taste for my palate, so I was excited to try it.  The next day, I carefully opened the bottle, careful not to spill the expensive liquid, and the rest, they say, is my post.

I came into this post with equal parts excitement and hesitation, like your first time jumping of the high-dive.  I am immediately wary of anything using the word ’superfruit,’ but I am always more than willing to try something new.    At first smell, the lychee (second ingredient) wallops me with its powerful, delicious scent, with a citrus-y background that should be the mangosteen.  After a sip of the precious fluid, I am amazed at how good it tastes, especially compared to other ’superfruit’ drinks (we will have more to say about them later).  There is a tangy sweetness that isn’t overpowered by the lychee.  There are several other filler juices in here to tame the flavors, but the end result is taste-bud ecstasy.  It’s a little thick, but not unpleasantly so, and not gritty.

Along with the long list of vitamins, antioxidants and other various contents like sterols (don’t worry, they fight cholesterol) there is a great deal of sugar in here.  About 30 g to the 8 oz serving, that’s more than Coke, but at least it’s from fruit.  The truth about mangosteen, as far as I can gather, is that its health claims are highly overblown; the supposed high concentration of nutrients and antioxidants are located in the inedible skin, called the exocarp, and can only be obtained when pureed as a whole or added, adding astringency and a purple color to the juice.  This looks more like a good, pressed, apple cider.

So, although the mangosteen is probably more of a novelty than a superfruit, all the good stuff is in this bottle, including flavor and possible health benefits.  However, there’s a lot of sugar in there too.  And don’t forget about the cost, although it’s a bargain compared to something like Xango.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Would I purchase it again?  Probably not.  Would I drink it if offered? Hell, yes.  Delicious.

– Wiseguise

User Reviews: (No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...

4-Star Reviews, M.O.A.B. drink reviews, mangosteen, superfruit

Hey there Libationers!  I have a new selection here from a company called Jackson Hole Soda Company out of Wyoming.  I found it at Sundance ski resort out here in the great state of Utaw.  I’m still waiting to hear from the company about the sugar content – there is no nutritional information on the bottle.

For the time being, let’s judge this stuff on flavor merit.  A strong berry fragrance emanates from the bottle.  It smells tart and sweet.  I just hope it doesn’t prove too sweet.

I take a swig, and the sweet berry flavor swirls around my tongue.  It’s not too sweet, though, and it packs a surprisingly deep flavor.  Something like a berry cola?  A berry root beer?  It’s a pleasant surprise – there are definitely some bigger players at work than just the berry.  Then again, I’ve never tried a real-life huckleberry, so maybe this is what they taste like?  If so, I have to have one!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – a surprisingly tasty, independently bottled old-fashioned soda

Danithius

User Ratings: (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
 Loading ...

4-Star Reviews, Jackson Hole Soda Co. drink reviews

Crazy mosaic of Jones-ness decorates the bottle

Greetings, Libationers!  Today I’m tackling an interesting flavor contender by Jones Soda.  First off, props to Jones for getting off the HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) bandwagon way back in ‘06.  That switch is the reason we can review their sodas – as you know, we don’t dig the HFCS.  But alas, while Jones does offer interesting soda flavors, it is still just flavored sugar-water, with no actual fruit juice or significant vitamins to sweeten the deal.  (At least this is the case with this particular flavor.  We did reviews of their new GABA line, which were a different story).  And wow, there is a lot of sugar in this thing.  46 grams for one 12-ounce bottle – that’s 15 teaspoons of sugar in this one bottle, people!

OK, with that said, let’s get down to business.  I crack open the multicolored bottle, and it explodes a cloud of fruity mist all over my face.  I must have shaken it up on the way back from the fridge.  It does give me an immediate sense of the beverage’s smell, however, which is acutely indescribable.  It’s like… it’s like… ow.  My brain is crying out in protest as I try to pluck out a single word to assign this product.  I have to break out the big guns for this one – excuse me while I grab a wine glass.

OK, here we go.  I swirl and sniff and swirl some more, trying to take it all in.  Hang on… OK, I think I have something.  I can’t produce a specific word for this stuff, so you’ll have to make do with a metaphor.  Imagine every kind of fruity candy and bubblegum that you see at your grocery store’s checkout stand.  Now imagine the checkout stands of all the grocery stores from all across the world.  With me?  OK, now all of those candies are placed in a single giant blender somewhere in northern Texas.  Hit “frappe” on that thing, and take a big whiff of the resulting product.  Yeah.  It’s like that.

Even the color is strange on this liquid.  It’s a translucent greenish color, like pond water in sunlight.

After all the drama that came from just smelling this stuff, I’m afraid to actually put it in my mouth!  I might break something in my tongue.  But no, I must press on, for the greater good!  Here goes nothing…

Ow, my brain… so many flavors… arghh…

I don’t know what the long-term effects of this thing will be… If I don’t make another post within a week’s time, please, someone send out a rescue crew.

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 – Loaded with sugar, but good when you need a thorough mind-blow.

-Danithius- (I think?)

User Rating: (1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

3-Star Reviews, Jones Soda Co. drink reviews, reviews

Time to pop open another oogave – this time it’s their Ginger Ale.  I take a whiff and am punched in the nose by a fresh ginger scent.  It smells real, not like some kind of ginger flavoring or powder.  It’s intense… I wonder how much will come through in the flavor?

Answer: a whole lot!  This is definitely on the intense side of the ginger-ale spice scale.  It has a honey-sweet (agave-sweet, actually) flavor that works well with the ginger extract.  Despite the sweetness, this flavor clocks in at only 24 grams of sugar per bottle.  Impressive.  It does have a slight astringency on the back end, but some of that can be ascribed to the ginger extract.

After nursing half of the bottle, I’ve decided that I’m a fan.  I like the bold ginger flavoring – it’s completely different from the “Dry” ginger ales that flood the popular market.  And yet it’s not so spicy that it’s overwhelming – it’s very sippable.  This could be a great palate-cleanser, or an accompaniment to a spicy meal.  It’s refreshing.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5. A spicy, agave-sweetened ginger ale that’s low on sugar yet high in flavor.

-Danithius-

User Rating: (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

4-Star Reviews, oogave agave, drink reviews, oogave

The folks at Oogave were kind enough to send us a sampler of their six Agave-sweetened sodas. As always, we use the same criterion to judge samples sent to us as we do for our normal reviews. (Though we do give priority in the review queue to them).

Today I’ll jump right to the flavor that first caught my eye – Watermelon Cream. I just now popped open the bottle, and I’m trying to figure out what candy this smell reminds me of. Cotton candy? No. Bubble gum? No… Razzles? Arg, it’s going to drive me crazy.

OK, enough time contemplating the smell, I’m thirsty. I take a sip and let it sink in. There is definitely a bubblegum high note in this, with middle notes that deliver the watermelon flavor nicely. I’m surprised that Oogave pulled off this sweet flavor with only 24 grams of sugar in the whole bottle. (Our favorite measuring stick is a 12 oz can of Coca Cola, which contains 39 grams. There are sodas with even more sugar, but a can of Coke is a good average.) I pour some out into a glass, and am amused to discover a nice light pink-champagne color. The drink doesn’t taste very creamy to me, but the bubble-gummy flavor works well together with the watermelon.

I could see this making my regular rotation – it has low sugar, a refreshing flavor, and a rare choice of sweetener. There are a lot of interesting facts about agave nectar, the most striking of which is its low glycemic load. On oogave’s website they assert that agave nectar has a substantive feel, which helps your body know when it’s “full” in a way that HFCS doesn’t. To use their words, your body “doesn’t allow you to pound down a two-liter bottle [of oogave]. It will let you know when you have had enough”. I just like the fact that oogave is actually advocating moderate use of its product! (And not because they’re forced to, like liquor companies).

For my part, I did feel “full” after drinking this bottle, but I was never one to “pound down a two-liter bottle” of anything, especially HFCS soda, so I don’t know what the difference is like. Maybe I’ll take one for the team and try an experiment sometime…

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 – A solid agave-sweetened soda with an original flavor and low sugar.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

4-Star Reviews, oogave agave, drink reviews, oogave, watermelon cream

Ito En, as a Japanese beverage company, is one of the leading manufacturers of tea, although this beverage is manufactured in China, brought in through Hawaii, and distributed through their North America office in New York.  Quite a journey for a small bottle of tea.  the FDA says it’s cool, so I’ll give this one a chance to prove it’s tea goodness, China is known for their tea.

I popped open their supposed environmentally-responsible bottle and gave it the old scent test.  I get the overwhelming image of a fresh cut pear wrapped in tea leaves, sweet and aromatic.  Good so far.  A swig later, and my tongue is reveling in the delightful pear-y taste, giving way to a surprisingly strong tea flavor for a white tea; and with surprising sweetness for only 30 g of the sweet stuff in the whole 16 oz bottle.  The finish is a little dry with a lingering sweet-pear flavor.

Fruit teas are hard to nail down properly, often the fruit overwhelms the tea, or is left far too understated to avoid this cover-up.  This tea has struck a good balance, a good pear flavor with a nice strong tea to follow, although the sweetness is beginning to feel like a little too much, they might want to take a cue from Honest Tea and tone it down a bit.  Ito En surely knows how to make a good fruit tea, although too sweet, it still has its merits.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Excellent balance for a fruit tea, just a tad too sweet.

– WiseGuise

User Reviews: (No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...

4-Star Reviews, Ito En, Tasty Japanese Drinks all natural, drink reviews, white tea

Please welcome the belated poster-drink of the “Me Generation”!  I found this tangerine-pineapple flavored beverage cylinder amongst its equally brightly-colored brothers on the shelf of my local health food store.  As I always do when encountering new drinks, I flipped it over and checked the ingredients.  And the primary sweetener was: fructose!  Not high-fructose corn syrup, mind you.  Just fructose.  Eyebrows raised, I read on.  They also used 13% juice concentrate, some erythritol, and something called “oligofructose” as additional sweeteners.  (My eyebrows went up even further when I saw the last one.)  I did some preliminary research on oligofructose over a few different sites, and I didn’t find any negative health claims.  Evidently it’s supposed to be good for the ol’ colon, and it doesn’t add many calories, if any.

And the grand total for all of these sweeteners was: 17 grams for a 10 oz can.  Not too shabby.  So how does the flavor measure up?

Well, all I can say is that this is an incredibly tame tangerine-pineapple flavor.  It tastes like very lightly flavored, lightly sweetened seltzer water.  I want to taste the tropical bite of the pineapple, and the distinct citrus notes from the tangerine.  I want them to come out and hit me square in the taste buds, not skulk around in the aftertaste. And the flavor notes that I do manage to pick up have that distinct “from concentrate” feel to them.

One section of the can has a little blurb praising all things “me”.  Here’s a couple lines:

“You can be energetic, reflective, outgoing, moody, surprising, and unashamed.  You don’t fit a category – you are unique.  Now there is a beverage as natural and refreshing as you.”

While I am thankful for the “you are special” blurb on the side of the can, what I need first and foremost from my drink is to taste good, not to suck up to me. This drink isn’t bad, per se, it just has nothing memorable about it.  This beverage is supposed to serve as a living metaphor for someone’s unique personality?  I can’t help but wonder what personality they based it on.  Librarians*?

You can check out their site at www.findyourme.com to see bright colors and new ways to revel in your sassy, unique personality.  They have a personality quiz that will match you with your “Me” flavor.  Evidently I should have bought “Curiosity” – maybe I should reserve judgment until I try the flavor that was genetically engineered for me?  …nah.

Rating: 2.0 out of 5 – It’s all about health and flavor, and this just didn’t deliver on the latter.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...

*Librarians of the world, forgive me for using a cliched stereotype.  I know there are plenty of deeply interesting librarians out there.  Feel free to replace the word “librarian” with whatever stereotype librarians like to make fun of.

2-Star Reviews, Me drink reviews, Me

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

User Reviews: (No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...

5-Star Reviews, Function all natural, drink reviews