There are some things that John wanted to do differently. One thing was more "liquid meals." No, not alcohol like when people say, "Hey. Want to get a liquid lunch?" Just to be able to drink more meals and more rapidly turn into vitamins and minerals versus wasting calories with traditional food. Look, John likes pizza and tacos as much as the next guy. He can't keep doing that every day, though. He needs to supplement. John loves chocolate so he figured what better way to replace one meal that he loved with another flavor that he loved?

He bought a case of the Organic Valley Dark Chocolate protein shake and just started replacing. Day after day, meal after meal he found himself enjoying life more and more. He had more time to spend with friends since a meal now took him five minutes versus the hour it took him before. His bosses noticed his dedication and gave him a little raise. Everyone at work saw him as a hard worker and gave him the respect he deserved. He enjoyed the taste. It wasn't chalky like some other protein drinks he's had in the past. It's dark chocolate but just barely.

John has gotten what he wanted and more. He really stuck to it and learned a few things; You spend a lot of your life thinking about food and eating and Janet in accounting eats subs every day of the week and still looks fine.

Is this a treat? Eh, it's not bad. Some of the other versions of this have been less diet tasting. This, so far, has taken the cake as far as "the award for the most diet goes to..." It's not awful. It's really not. It's not remarkable. It just unfortunately falls into that "just another diet drink" pile that only people like your aunt drink. Your poor aunt, she'll never lose that weight if she keeps eating Quarter Pounders like she does. No matter how much diet drinks she drinks.

I understand the allure of lower sugar content and saving calories. After decades of ingesting pretty much anything, Americans are finally becoming more health conscious. We're sick of the garbage we eat and drink contributing to our eventual demise. The only problem is that I have yet to come across a low calorie sweetener that hasn't affected the flavor of the beverage it is used in in a negative way. There is a reason people love sugary drinks. They are delicious. Sugar is basically a drug and we all like to get our fix. Drinks made with sucralose, aspartame, and stevia are like giving a junkie a beer when their body just needs a dose of heroin. It just doesn't give you what you want. I admit that the use of monk fruit in here is closer to the end goal, but it's still not there.

I am an all or nothing type of person. I would rather have completely unsweetened seltzer water if cane sugar isn't available. Actually I would prefer that seltzer over even the cane sugar a lot of the time these days. I understand that not everyone is like me, and that others need some sort of “sweetness” even if it isn't the real stuff. While I would never go out of my way to drink this, I would certainly choose a can of 2B Lemon Lime Fizz over a can of Diet 7 Up any day. It may have an aftertaste, but it doesn't taste chemical or unnatural. I'd have to say that the flavor here is probably 50% lemon, 10% lime and 40% monk fruit. If you're okay with those percentages, give it a go.

I know a lot of people who say things like, “Well obviously I would prefer organic, but without all of the chemicals, energy drinks just don't work.” Okay maybe no one has ever said that to me, but it's basically the message that comes across. I'm here to day to tell those people that they are very wrong, and I have a restless night to prove it to them. I knew I had to stay up late last night, so around 8PM I drank 2/3 of this can. At 4:30AM I was still tossing and turning for no other reason than I partook in this beverage. That's right, I didn't even consume the entire can and over 8 hours later I couldn't rest no matter what I tried. To be fair I am more sensitive to caffeine than your average person, but that is a ridiculous amount of time for it to still be effecting me. All of its energy comes from green coffee beans and guarana seed extract, butI promise you that these Rockstar Organic energy drinks do work, and you can down them without feeling terrible about putting a bunch of chemicals into your body.

As an added bonus to the effects, this tastes pretty great as well. It may not contain any juice, but it has a nice passion fruit flavor mixed with a general exotic tropical fruit amalgamation. I'm pretty sure there is guava involved in there, but maybe that is me tasting what I want to taste. It doesn't matter if it's in there or not, it's one of the best tasting energy drinks I've ever tasted.

Things got rough for the members of Guns and Roses after the mid 90's. I mean just take a look at Axl Rose. Most of the members wallowed in their former fame and fell into the gutter, but guitarist Izzy Stradlin worked with his money and invested in beverages. He hung up his Gibson for bubbles and slowly started an empire. Wait…€¦Oh…€¦his name and the company name are spelled differently. He has nothing to do with the beverage company, huh? I'm just having another one of my fever dreams brought on from boredom. Sorry about that. Imagine is a guitarist with that fame, from that era had the restraint to use such simple packaging on his beverages. That would be the real miracle. If what I said had been true I'm sure this bottle would have been covered in Ed Hardy style design. Let's count our blessings that the two are not related and sit back and enjoy this sparkling water.

The Izze sparkling waters are essentially seltzer with the smallest amount of cane sugar added to take away a little of the bitterness. There are only 2g of sugar and that leads to 10 calories. Not bad at all. The lime is definitely a bit stronger than the mandarin orange, but it's still in there and this is quite pleasant. I imagine it would make a great mixer for some sort of alcohol, but what do I know. I'm just going to enjoy it the way it is. It gives me tropical feelings. I need those in this snow.

Water! Now with fluoride! It's the best thing made better. Your teeth, stomach, blood, brain, heart, liver, hands, eyes and bladder thank you. What else can be said? Water with fluoride, everyone. Water with fluoride.

I know there is a whole culture out there of people into infantilism (grown people pretending to be babies) and while I don't think they were the intended target audience for this beverage I'm guessing that they are responsible for a good portion of Plum Vida sales.

If this juice came in a bottle I feel like I would be writing a glowing review here, minus the fact that I think they went a little heavy on the pear, but it coming in this pouch just makes me think that I'm savaging for food and they only thing I could find was baby food. I'm sure there is a reason they chose this packaging, probably something environmental as everything in here is organic and it is BPA free. I just keep imaging a room of grown men, hairy sweaty grown men, sitting around in diapers and bonnets just slurping away at this juice. I'm not judging, it's just what comes to mind.

Never mind my fever dreams for the moment and let's discus taste. Serve this to me in a glass and switch out that pear puree for boring old apple and you've got my attention. This is cherry, raspberry and beet juice with a bit of ginger in the mix All four of those flavors are present and very accounted for, so I have no complaints (well seriously I'm just not a fan of pear, can we swap it out?) I'm not exaggerating when I say that if a glass of this was served to me at a juice bar I wouldn't think twice about paying $5 for it. Seeing as these are about $1 each that is pretty astounding.

One of the moments in my life when I was completely embarrassed for someone I was with was back in the late 90's when a handful of friends went to Denny's late night to hang out as teenagers are prone to do. One of us ordered some sort of chicken dinner and when it arrived he realized he hadn't read the description correctly, and he asked the waitress to take it back because it wasn't what he expected. Just typing that my spirits dropped and I got a pit in my stomach. I am of the belief that if you order something and it is what it says it is, you deal with it. Just because you come up with something in your head it's not the establishment's responsibility to meet your imaginary expectations.

I feel the same way about this beverage. When I grabbed it I saw the “rhu” and I expected some strange rhubarb soda. I completely ignored the second half of the title, which would have actually prepared me for what this tastes like. It tastes like someone made a soda from those little strawberry candies that come wrapped in cellophane that looks like the fruit. Once that soda was created that added a little bit of rhubarb flavor to it. This is certainly a candied soda, and that's fine, but it's not what I expected, and not what I wanted at this moment. That's on me. It's not Twig's fault. Don't be like me. Read into things. Life's no fun when you're a dummy.

There is lime in this. Why wouldn't there be? Good question but you would be surprised. This actually has a good cherry taste and lime taste. That's both tastes. Two of two tastes are good. All together how is it? It's good. I didn't polish off a whole bottle in one sitting but that's no insult to the drink itself. It's good. It tastes like a cherry limeade you would make yourself with cherry Kool-Aid and lime juice. Do you make things like that yourself at home? Perhaps. This is also made from real sugar so it doesn't taste like poison at any stage in the game. I've got a couple bottles of this line that I am now looking forward to.

We were sent so many different Claire Baie drinks to review. I don't know if we have even got through half of them and I'm running out of things to say. Most of them (this one) are flavored sparkling waters that are sweetened by sucralose. I am not a fan of this particular sweetener, so it kind of ruins the lot of them for me. The flavors of these drinks are pleasant enough, and they would have made for a whole mess of seltzers that I would have enjoyed had they just left out the sweetener. Unfortunately they did not and they all have that diet-death taste to them. It just changes the whole feel of the drink in a way that I don't see a need for. This would have been a great tangerine orange seltzer. From what I can gather of the flavor that is not sweetener I probably could drink a case of this if the sucralose were left out. Oh well. I mean this is pretty much on par with other brands doing a similar thing, but I'm not a fan of them either.

I want to ask a serious question here, who decided to name the “cherry” flavor? I've eaten an obscene amount of cherries in my life and not once have they tasted like what companies have been labeling cherry for years. It was like they created a flavor that was red and they said, “Cherries are also red. This must be cherry. Nothing else on the planet is red but cherries. All I see are cherries. Are you a cherry, because you're wearing a red shirt? You most certainly are a cherry, and I shall refer to you as such from now on.”

This soda tastes a little closer to what a cherry actually is, but it still borders on that flavor that is not really cherry. Also the sourness in here tastes like it was something added, and not just a tart fruit. It's not horrible, but I can't see an adult finishing a bottle of this. To be fair if it wasn't for the use of cane sugar I would probably have written this off as garbage store brand soda, but the cane sugar does give it a bit more legitimacy in my world.

You know what's periodically refreshing? Grapefruit. I might drink one Squirt per year and it's a great day. Ting? Always a good time. I don't know what does it. It could be the immense amount of citrus but there is something refreshing about it. This, even being a diet drink, is a good time. It's got good flavor and sure, with every sip you know that it's not "real" but it's good. It's got the same "sharpness" that you would get from anything in this shaped bottle (read: Sparkling Ice) but I don't hate that either. This is a good time in a bottle and it's not terrible for you. I'd call that a win in my book.

Do you have anything to celebrate? Honestly, who cares? Celebrate this drink by drinking this drink because it's great. Open it up, blow some noisemakers, throw some confetti around, pull one of those things that pop and fill the air with strands of colorful paper and the smell of farts. It's time to celebrate this drink.

It doesn't taste like armpits or feet which, often, to me, black current tastes like. Rosehip I've had before but couldn't pick it out in a lineup. Basically, this tastes like a good, almost grape sparkling, non-alcoholic champagne. It's really good. I shared it with a handful of people and the only complaint is that it was really sweet and they couldn't do more than one glass of it. That's fine.

Ten years ago I was sitting in a kitchen in Portland, OR and a mug of tea was placed in front of me. I took one sip and my world changed. Up until that point I had never had yerba mate before and I had no idea how vastly different it was from every other tea I had ever drank up until that point. It was earthy, woodsy, bitter wonderfulness with a nice boost of caffeine. Since that time it has become more prevalent and I couldn't be happier.

From my own gathering of intel Guayaki seems to be the longest running and most readily available producers of ready to drink yerba mate on the market. I have yet to try one of their flavors that I wasn't in love with and I drink them all the time. As someone who doesn't normally drink coffee, these beverages give me a nice little push of energy from their caffeine content.

With the Bluephoria tea they have mixed in elderberry and blueberry juice in with their already wonderful tea. The result is just as good as you would imagine. The juice kind of sits on top of the tea, flavorwise, so there's not so much a new taste, just the separate flavors hanging out together, and that is how I like my tea. It has aa decent sweetness to it without tasting like liquid candy. The fact that it tastes like blueberries and elderberries and not just some generic sugar-berry amalgamation is what makes this drink so great. Guayaki has done it again and I can't wait for their line to expand yet again.

Steaz pumps out more flavors that almost any beverage company that I can think of. I feel like we get packages from them more than anyone else, and I am certainly not complaining. They manage to work out new teas, but they also keep their quality high. My only complaints seem to come from their zero calorie sweetener lines, and that's not on them. There is only so much a company can do when they want to sweeten a beverage, but keep it zero calories. Also, I've had issues with their carbonated teas, but I'm simply not a fan of carbonated tea for the most part.

This is one of that flavors that stands out in a sea of greatness though. I love jasmine tea and I love all things hibiscus. I once drank multiple pots of jasmine green tea at an Asian restaurant because they kept bringing it. It was so good that I couldn't help myself, but of course I haven't slept since due to my caffeine intake. Mike and I have also been known to purchase obscene amounts of hibiscus tea for our pleasure drinking, which we don't get to do much of.

Steaz has combined both nicely. One might think that combining the two would make everything too floral, but that is not the case at all. Sure, you can taste florals, but it's not like you got into a fight at a funeral and someone shoved an arrangement down your throat. It's nice and subtle. The hibiscus is just that, hibiscus. There is no trace of the spices that sometimes accompany this flower, but even though I love them, I don't think they would have a place in this beverage. So it is classic hibiscus mixed with classic jasmine all of which is lightly sweetened cane sugar and just a drop of lemon juice. It's wonderful and if someone kept pouring it into my glass I could see myself drinking a case of it before I even knew what happened.

Point brewery makes a less than stellar root beer, but they certainly know their cream sodas. This is what I expect a product from the wonderful state of Wisconsin to deliver. It has a very strong vanilla flavor that is somehow improved by the addition of a little honey. Honey and vanilla certainly play well together and this soda gave me just what I was looking for this afternoon. It's fairly sweet, but it's not too much.

After drinking this I really need to grab another bottle of that root beer and give it a second chance the next time I'm in Wisconsin (actually that might be next week). This is one of the better cream sodas, sorry vanilla cream, that I've ever tasted and I hope that crosses over into their other sodas as well.

Blackberry raspberry. Recipe for wonder, right? Eh, add fake/faux sugar to it and you'll be amazed at how quickly this drink is dropped pegs or rungs or steps or whatever form of dissension you so desire. It could have been good but then it wouldn't be diet. I think that's a lose/win or a win/lose depending on which you want more. Do you want it to be good for you? Than it doesn't taste wonderful. Do you want it to taste good? Than it's going to do a great job helping you gain that "freshman fifteen" you've so wanted.

Look. It isn't that bad. It's just a diet, sparkling drink but if you've ever had something like a Sparkling Ice, it's like that but less sharp. It's just a regular drink for regular people. Are you extraordinary? This might not be for you. You should be drinking something with some more pizzazz or zip. You're better than this. You're better than me.

Look at you Sotea, you're moving up in the world. You've taken off the training wheels and have put out a flavor that is actually pretty decent. You may not be ready to go on a 40 mile bike trip yet, but you are moving out of the driveway and onto the sidewalks. This may be the dumbest analogy I have ever used and it doesn't even really make sense. My point is that while the other two Sotea flavors we have reviewed left a lot to be desired this one is actually pretty good. It tastes like carbonated green tea (always a bit weird, but sometimes enjoyable) with a fairly good (black)berry flavor to it. Sure, there is stevia in the mix with the cane sugar that is messing with the taste a bit, but it's nothing horrible and I can easily see past it. I feel like this is what they were reaching for (and missing) for the other flavors. I can only hope that with the other flavors we have on deck that they get even better.

When Editor Dan and Jay and I get together, we eat food. We love the stuff. It's like we need it to live. When we've got a couple more minutes than normal, we do what other extremely attractive and confident men do which is go to Big Lots.

Why wouldn't I like a nice, tall mocha drink? You're right. I wouldn't not like it. Except, of course, when it tastes like this.

I don't think it's the almond milk because I've had that but something in this drink gets stuck to my tongue and tastes bad and tastes bad for an extended amount of time. My live-in girlfriend likes it so I'll try to think of the good parts. It does have a good mocha taste. It's nice and smooth. Badness? It's just got some sort of...presence that sits on your tongue like you on the couch after the boss was riding you all day. You aren't moving. You don't care what's on TV. You will watch The Bachelor if it comes on. You like watching those girls fight about their completely fabricated lives anyhow. This drink resides for so long that it should have to pay rent or mortgage depending on your current living situation.

I wish this was better. Almonds? Love 'em. Mocha? Love it. This? Naw, bro. Swing and a miss.

"Where da ginger at!" I exclaim as I drink sip after sip. "Where da ginger at!" I yell when I can't find my live-in girlfriend. More importantly, though, this drink didn't have ginger in it as far as I know. You can tell me up and down that it did but taste it, bro. Ginger it does not. There isn't that earthy flavor that ginger brings and there isn't that sweet heat that ginger so generously gives.

Gingerless aside it was good. Like a lightly sweetened half and half. Oh a half and half cut into thirds called a "third and third and third" with lemonade, tea and ginger? Now we're talking. You hear me, Steaz, if that is your real name. Now we're talking.