Things I've recently learned about myself include the fact that if you make a coffee drink “Mexican” I will probably love it. Generally that means adding cinnamon and chilies to it. I also think of it as having to do with chocolate since my first forays into it were with Mexican hot chocolate. This does not have chocolate. Actually it doesn't have chilies either. That doesn't stop it from being amazing though. What it does contain is high quality cold brewed coffee, cane sugar, vanilla, almond and cinnamon. The results are flat out fantastic. It's one of the best coffee beverages I have ever tasted. Even with all of the added ingredients the coffee is still the main flavor, and it's smooth and delicious. The other things are just icing on an already delicious cake. There is something about this that makes me think of a drink from when I was younger, but I can't put my finger on what that drink is. I know it's the cinnamon that's pointing me in that direction though. While you could drink this at any point in the day, it would be perfect as a dessert beverage.

Whether or not there was coffee in this is another story, but this was fantastic, man. It had the earthiness from the chilies and the cinnamon. Really, I don't know if there was coffee in this and if there was, it was highly masked by the rest of the flavors. It wasn't spicy as much as it was the flavor of green chile. The chile and cinnamon were generously sprinkled on like a medium dusting from the spice fairy, a fictitious (presumably) creature that puts spices on food and drinks alike. The mocha was a good umbrella flavor. I don't go to Starbucks often but as soon as I saw this was out, I ditched whatever lunch plans I had and went there and was pleasantly pleased I didn't have to pull the old, "Do you have this? You don't? Welp, see you later." and walk out the door awkwardly. We've all done it. It's one thing to do it in a restaurant but have you ever done it in a drive through? Way worse. When the person wants you to pay for your meal and you have to say, "Oh, no. You didn't have what I wanted so now I have to sit in line with the rest of these buffoons." that's the worst. This was in stock and supposedly for a limited time, too so hurry on over and get one.

What exactly does the year 1922 have to do with ginger ale? A quick google search came up with nothing but a couple of ads that came out that year. Wikipedia tells me that ginger ale existed in a marketable form for decades before that. Perhaps, since this is a sugary beverage, they chose 1922 to celebrate the first successful insulin treatment of diabetes. Okay I dug deeper and it turns out that 1922 was the year that College Club Beverages (the company that makes Fiz) opened its soda streams. That makes more sense. Since I couldn't find any info, I'm guessing that ginger ale was one of, if not the first flavor they produced.

This is a nice little soda. It's sweet, but not in the “this is 99% sugar water and 1% flavor” way. It tastes like a fairly standard modern ginger ale. You don't actually taste the earthiness of the root, or the spice, but there is no mistaking that it's ginger ale.

So here we are, two for five with Sotea. Most of these flavors don't really work. Carbonating tea is always a crapshoot, and more likely than not turns out less than stellar. The same thing can be said for putting mint in drinks. I don't really want my drink to taste like I just brushed my teeth or I'm chewing gum while drinking it. Somehow this Mojito Mist beat both of those odds and is actually pretty darn good. It launches past acceptable into really enjoyable territory.

While I've never had a real mojito, every virgin version of one that I have drunk has been great. There is something about lime that counteracts the weirdness of mint and makes it acceptable for it to exist in beverage form. Neither are overly strong and blend together into a new uber flavor. The tea in this tastes a little weird, but it works with the lime and the mint. This is one unusual soda, but I find myself with an empty bottle wishing that there was more. That doesn't happen often these days.

"I wish they would bottle the flavor of vanilla cupcakes so I could drink it all day." Yeah? I dare you to drink this for a whole day, dude. Two sips and I'm tapping out. It smells like a sixth grade girl, also. You remember when they all wore that temporarily good smelling cotton candy perfume? I liked it but for a limited time. This...I could be surrounded by six girls talking about Taylor Swift, Shopkins, One Direction, lip gloss, Gary from third period and Snapchat at the same time and take that longer than I could deal with the immense flavor of this.

Smell? Spot on. It's a cupcake. Taste? Sugar flavored sugar. It's so sweet and completely distracts from the flavor. The kid that you remember that used to sneak and eat sugar cubes from the coffee table wouldn't be able to drink this. This is turning into quite a "dare drink." Have at it, friends. Don't send me the doctor's bill, though.

Do you identify with the majority of Americans who ingest far too much sugar, but find it hard to give up soda pop? Do you just crave the bubbles, but seltzer doesn't taste right to you? At the same time do you think that artificial sweeteners are just the worst? I was once where you are friend. I wanted out of the sugar game, but I had my vices. For me the change came in the form of Polar vanilla seltzer. It bridged a gap for me and led me down a path where I drink an abundance of seltzer, to a point where I had to look it up if it was bad for me. I understand that this might not be the gateway beverage for everyone, but I have good news. Izze is here to hold your hand while you eliminate a lot of sugar from your diet, at least of the soda variety. Their Sparkling Water line is essentially seltzer water with 2g of sugar added. I know what you're thinking; 2g is not a lot when a can of Coke has 39g. The thing is that it's just enough to give a faint hint of sweetness and overpower the weirdness of seltzer and help you acclimate yourself to it.

This actually tastes sweet to me. I don't know if it's because I don't drink much sugar these days, or if it would taste like that to anyone. Would Coke taste sweet enough with only 1/3 of the sugar they use? I would really like to taste Coke with different levels of sugar and see where it really needs to fall. I feel like the current amount it a bit extreme. Whatever the case may be with that, I think there is enough sugar in here for anyone to enjoy. Then once their body gets used to the lower sugar content they can ween off of it. I know that's probably not the Izze plan, as they need to maintain sales, but it's probably for the betterment of our countries health. Hell, people could just stay with these instead of normal sodas and I bet the effects would be astounding.

Did I mention at some point in my tirade that it also tastes great? I don't really get much watermelon, but it has a nice berry flavor. It's light, due to the lack of sugar, but it's just where I want it to be. Nothing is disguising it and that is how I like things. Low sugar, great taste. It's like a 90's beer ad.

Towne Club started selling soda in the 60's and it was the prime rival to Faygo, decades before it was coopted by the clowns. I did not know that, but Wikipedia just informed me and I always have more respect for such long running companies. Sure, the company has changed hands throughout the years, but it's still bottled in burnt out Detroit. Do people in Detroit get upset when people talk about how their city is falling apart? I've been there many times and it is certainly one of, if not the most, run down cities I have ever been too, and I travel to a lot of garbage places. Oh well, I hope they have pride in their city. The crappiness of Buffalo is what made me love it and I kind of hate that it's starting to become nice, because it's taking away the things I loved about the city. Maybe the denizens of Detroit feel the same way. They can live cheaply, so they can do what they want with their lives and not be tethered to a job struggling to make rent. It could also just be a terrifying place to live. I have no idea.

I will say they have some decent local sodas. As an adult it would be very rare that I would reach for one of these, but in my younger years when I craved all the sugar I could get, I would have loved it. It's slightly fruity cream soda that reminds me of the pink Crush cream soda (soda mousse) in Canada. I loved that as a teenager, so logic follows that I would have loved this as well. This is mostly sugar flavored, but there is enough of a “cream soda” taste that shines through to make it interesting. It's nothing mind blowing, but it's a local soda made with cane sugar with a wide variety of flavors in a classic looking bottle. I can get behind those things.

I love grocery stores. I don't really know why, but when I'm traveling I love stopping in at local stores and different chains. Even when I don't need anything I just like wandering around in them. I live in the land of Wegmans, so it's hard to beat what I have at home, but I still enjoy the differences of other stores. I've always been a fan of Kroger. Their stores look pretty standard, but they generally carry some different and decent stuff, especially for vegetarians. I recently was told about their new Private Selection line and I couldn't wait until I was back in their territory to check it out. It is their fancy store brand stuff. They call it artisanal. I call it delicious, well at least this soda.

Some other things that I greatly enjoy besides supermarkets are huckleberry and hibiscus. I used to be a big fiend for cream soda in high school as well, even though I don't drink it too much these days. Actually I guess I drink the adult version of it every day in the way of drinking Polar's vanilla seltzer. This soda took three things I am a fan of and mixed them together into something that is greater as a whole. Real fruit juice is used and the cream soda doesn't taste even remotely cheap. The huckleberry and hibiscus mix together nicely leaving only the faintest tinges of floral. This all interacts with the vanilla in a way that couldn't be better.

The fact that this is as good as it is and is a store brand is kind of a game changer. Sure, it does have a higher price (I think it was $5 for a 4-pack), but it's on the cheap side of the quality that you receive. I do warn you that once you try this there is a chance you will never look at another cream soda the same way again.

Sometimes man, cherry cola is a perfect drink. When I would go to Mighty Taco, a local chain/franchise after a punk show, I would always get a cherry cola. I don't know why. It's one of the only times I drink the stuff. I like to keep it minimal because it makes me appreciate it more.

I thought this was "just" cola but oh no. Lucky cherry indeed. This is cherry cola and it's very good. It's very sweet and has a decent, candy-like cherry cola taste. It's a lot. I bet a lot of people would think this is too sweet and they most certainly would not be wrong. I probably couldn't and won't today finish this bottle myself. Twenty ounces is masochistic. It is good, though. I don't want my inability to drink so much cola to count against this otherwise delicious treat.

I want someone to pull a prank on me. I want to order a nice cold lemonade and have one of my friends slip this shot into the mix. They will smile as they hand me the glass, stifling a giggle, but the joke will actually be on them because this could do nothing but improve any lemonade. Normally I'm not a huge fan of lemon (well except in perfect lemonade), it just seems like a boring flavor, but it always pairs perfectly with ginger, and boy oh boy is this some ginger. This is the most intense of the shots that we were sent. The sourness of the lemon somehow enhances the burn and I can't take a sip without making a ridiculous face, and I love every second of it. It is so, so sour. I'm making that cartoon puckered lip face that you see on lemon products that don't actually do that to you. This does it. This makes you pucker. I want to give this to Mike's soon and see how he responds. He'll probably hate me. Eh You win some you lose some.

When Mellow Mood first came out there were insane. I almost died because I didn't know how strong they were and I drank one before a twenty minute drive home. Shortly thereafter they apparently changed the formula and lowered the effective dosage. I no longer feared going from completely awake to asleep in a few short minutes, but they definitely relaxed me and helped me to get to sleep on many a restless night. My brain tends to go into overdrive sometimes and when that happens my chances of organically falling asleep are slim. Mellow Mood allowed me to have following days that weren't completely miserable due to lack of sleep. It was a lifesaver.

Now there's a new can, and kind of new flavors (there was a light version of this available in the past), but this can did not have the same effect on me as they have in recent times. I'm afraid they changed the formulation again and it no longer works the way I want it to. I blame the lack of melatonin. I ended up lying in bed all night and I remember light creeping around my curtains before I finally fell asleep. I really hope this is still available in the old formula because this simply won't do. I mean this is really delicious, but that was never a problem with these drinks. It tastes like a perfect Arnold Palmer with a little bit of raspberry mixed in. I still don't know what that has to do with Bob Marley, but I love the way it tastes. I just wish it still helped me get to sleep.

What a refreshing treat. This is kind of the perfect green tea for me. Little bit of bitterness and a subtle sweetness. It tastes like honey and you know that it's green tea. I think at this point, we ignorant Americans can tell the difference between "Far East" tea and good, ol' fashioned British tea. America, sometimes you can be real morons. I shouldn't even have to write that but quite honestly, and this is not part of the review, but this country is in a state of disrepair. How did I get here from a beautifully crafted green tea? Well your ignorance and inability to accept foreign norms with open arms because you're so close minded and worried that something is going to happen if you do. Open your hearts, you turds. Seriously, just be cool. Open your mind.

This is a great tea. If you see it, put down that cola and put down that energy drink, take a breath, and prepare to close your eyes and take sips while envisioning yourself with your feet dangling off a pier. In this vision, your feet can be in or out of the water. It doesn't matter. It's the place and state of mind that matters, not your wet toes. Relax. Be cool. Drink this green tea. Doctor's orders.

If your company makes an apple soda, it's more than likely that you are doing it all wrong. Chances are you have loaded it with sugar, or even worse, tried to make it sour apple. You needn't bother my friends. There are only two ingredients needed for an apple soda and they are apple juice and sparkling water. I mean you could probably directly carbonate the juice and it would turn out just as good. The people at Apple Rush are smart folks. They know that sometimes people crave carbonation, but at the same time they don't need loads of added sugar (there are 36g of sugar in this bottle, but it's all from the fruit directly).

This is fantastic. It tastes like high quality apple juice with bubbles in it. Why would anyone need anything else out of an apple soda? I mean sure maybe you want to throw some other fruit in there, or perhaps some spices, but if you're looking for straight up apple pop, look no further. I'm going to come close to guaranteeing that you won't find a company who does it better.

Spindrift has been good to me. For the past five years I have enjoyed their sparkling beverages with no added sugar. At first they proved to me that soda can exist in a delicious way without being full of sweetener. Then they were a gateway for me to start enjoying seltzer, which I drink constantly now. I thank them for helping keep me on a healthy track. I didn't always have their products available to me in Buffalo, but because of them I found other companies that filled the void. I cut a ton of soda out of my diet, and transitioned to drinking a lot of unsweetened iced tea.

Now it's summer and it's the most humid it's ever been in Buffalo (not an exaggeration, records have been broken). The heat is nearly unbearable, but I have my beverages to help me get through it, which I promptly sweat out.

I love watermelon, but I never get it for some reason. It's probably due to laziness, or maybe it's because eating it outside of a picnic/beach type scenario seems off. I was excited for this drink. It's in their sparkling water line and not the seltzer one because there is juice added to the sparkling water and that leads to a whopping 3g of sugar. This is the first time Spindrift has really left me wanting. Overall this would be great, except for one thing. The watermelon tastes more like the rind than it does the red mushy fruit part. I don't know if they just ground up the whole melon, but it's not really what I'm looking for when I think of watermelon. It's not horrible, but I wanted something different that they did not deliver. Oh well, one misstep does not ruin a company for me and I will continue to enjoy their other products.

Who doesn't love the most refreshing beverage in the universe, vinegar? You douse your French fries in it. You use it to color Easter eggs. You use it as a cleaning agent. Sometimes when you don't shower for a week you smell like a combination of it and old onions. Wait, vinegar is horrible and I never want to ingest it outside of it being used in salsa. It's actually one of my most hated flavors and many a food has been ruined by it, yet here I am consciously drinking a bottle of it. The things I do for Thirsty Dudes.
When you first take a sip of this a wonderful honey and cinnamon taste washes through your mouth. I thought, holy crap this is actually really, really good. It tastes very natural and I can't believe I'm enjoyi…€¦. Before I could finish my thought the vinegar was there, ruining the party like it always does. I had other people try this and they said it was pretty mild and they enjoyed it. Me, as a sworn enemy of vinegar couldn't do more than a couple sips. I'll let my friend's enjoyment weigh on my rating though. If you don't mind vinegar then this is probably awesome. I mean the cinnamon flavor was possibly the best I've ever had in a beverage and the honey was quite good as well. I wish I could enjoy the rest of the ingredients, but nope, it's not for me. I'm sure it's super healthy though. People drink vinegar for health, right?

Twix, a cookie not a candy bar, is a wonderful cookie not a candy bar. Carmel, crunch, caramel and chocolate. If we're talking about "The Four C's," screw diamonds, dude. Twix is where it's at. How is this though? Sweet. I don't even know after all these years if there is any coffee in iced cappuccino, or as we in Western New York like to call them, "Iced Capps," anymore. They might be but it's so overpowered by sugar and cream and now cookie crumbles that what's the point anymore. This small was more than enough. There was probably the amount of a "fun size" Twix grinded up on the top which was fun to get through the straw at the end. The rest was just a sugary blur of cookie flavors and brown. I say that like it's a bad thing. Look, if you're the type of person to buy an iced cappuccino, you know what you're getting into and you know what you're doing to yourself. I'm not going to say it, but deep down you know what you're up to.

Carl, why did you give me this fire in a bottle? What did I. What did I. What did I do to deserve this? It's like drinking citrus flavored lava. I don't know if there was orange but it was citrus. If I had a straight ginger and drank this side by side I might be able to confirm that it's orange flavored but the burn is just so intense that the flavor is lost. It's not bad at all, though. I appreciate your gratuity in burning off my taste buds but I still don't know why people drink this. Is it energizing? Is it good for my insides? Why did I just subject myself to this self-torture? Fun? Carl. Carl. Baby. Don't do that to me. I've had a long day. You know what? I do like it. Would I drink it again? We'll see if I'm given the opportunity but as much as I'd like to give your tongue an Indian burn, which might be racist at this point, I appreciate you giving this bottled up ending scene from Terminator 2.

Sparkles with a lil' bit of citrus. That's it and that's all, friends. This is the simplest seltzer that money can buy. It's got a strong lemon flavor and tastes like seltzer. You can call me an idiot for that review if you aren't doing that already but it's true. It's good in its simplicity and that will win the race if you ask me. They've got more ambitious flavors so this is the gateway drug, if you will, to more dynamic and interesting flavors. Start with the lemon wedge, go to the watermelon and end with the cilantro lime. It's a trip worth taking.

So here we are. We have finally completely the trifecta of drinks. When we first started Thirsty Dudes we stated that there were three drinks that were no longer in production that we wished we could get our hands on to review; Orbits (which we found be sold in Canada 14 years expired), Ecto Cooler (which got a re-release with the new movie being out), and now Crystal Pepsi is in our hands. Nostalgia for the 90's is high right now. I mean I snuck into an En Vogue concert last week in Michigan and alternative bands are on the rise once again. Pepsi knew that if there was ever going to be a time to bring this back it was now, and let me tell you, people are talking. Well, there is a slight murmur on the internet about it.

We shot a video of us drinking a bottle and discussing our thoughts on it. The conclusion is that is tastes like re-carbonated flat Pepsi with a hint of 7Up mixed in. It's odd, but still enjoyable. Sure the video cuts off after 5 minutes, and sure we probably kept rambling nonsense for five more without realizing it, but do you really need to hear more of us pretending we aren't awkward by pretending to be awkward?

Folks, I think this is it. I believe we have finally reached the bottom of our cache of Claire Baie beverages. I can't say it has all been enjoyable, but at least I went out with something pleasant.
It's in the mid 90's now and it's so humid that you can feel the air move when you walk through it. It's kind of disturbing, and it really, really just needs to rain to get all of the water out of the air. I wonder how much of the humidity is just from people's sweat? Ugh, that's gross. How much of the moisture you feel in the air is other human's grossness? I needed to cool off and drink something cold and refreshing. What better beverage to fight the summer miserableness than lemonade? This is made with real sugar, and it is sweet. I really want this to taste like fresh strawberries squeezed into classic lemonade, and well about half of that came true. I would say it has a “strawberry” flavor, but it doesn't taste like perfectly ripe fruit. Most people would never complain about this, but I get picky. Regardless , it helped me pretend I was dehydrated from sweating so much, and it had a decent taste. I can't really complain. I'm sure you'll love it.