Peter Ayala was often a hungry man and when he was hungry, he knew there was no better place to go than the Greek place by his house? Why is that? Well it's because they had everything on the menu. What other place could you go where on the same menu they had, gyros, hamburgers, meat loaf, bahn mi, pizza, and quesadillas? Sure, nothing was mind blowing but when Peter was hungry and didn't want to go through the whole, "Where do I want to eat?" thing, he would just go to the Greek restaurant and just get something.

One thing he thought was a classic move, that no place aside from Greek restaurants do anymore, was they put out the little bowl of After Dinner mints. He loved that they had the glass bowl and a little spoon in it and you just helped yourself. He loved those mints. One day when the manager wasn't looking he took a couple more than he normally would. Sure he could just buy them at the store but he wanted to try something a little different.

He went home, unloaded two dozen mints onto the table and filled up an empty two liter of pop with water, put the mints in along with some peppermint leaves and just let it all infuse together. Then, the time was ready. He readied a glass and took a sip. He couldn't have been happier. He was worried that it was going to be too strong but to his surprise it was a nice, refreshing drink that didn't taste like toothpaste or like he put candy inside water. He could make more and more as the summer heat came down, as it was a very refreshing and cooling drink.

He would never tell the restaurant what he discovered but every time after that faithful day he would take twice as many mints as he should have. One serving for him and one for the drink he would always make to cap off his day.

Oh how I dream of a proper pineapple soda. My mouth waters on a beverage that is just sparkling water, pineapple juice, and I guess a little cane sugar. It would be heaven to your taste buds. Seriously, they would have visions of tipping their caps to St Peter and they entered the pearly gates. They would spend the rest of time resting on clouds while being bathed in this delicious concoction.

Unfortunately this drink only used two of the three required ingredients I mentioned above, and a bunch of superfluous ones. There is no actual juice in this soda, and the flavor suffers because of it. This just tastes like your average pineapple soda, that doesn't really taste like the fruit, but it's close enough to trick you into thinking it does. On one hand their use of real sugar puts then at an advantage, but on the other the flavor is a tad on the weak side compared to its contemporary sodas.

It's not amazing. It's not terrible. It would certainly do in pinch if you had an undying need for something that tasted vaguely like pineapple.

Oh Sir Limonitz. What brings you to this part of town? You don't leave your castle as much as you used to. It seems that you just wave your scepter around having us peasants to do your bidding for you. Sir, if I may say so, you have become rather slovenly since you have taken this position as a proper sir. Don't think that we haven't noticed that you have begun to overflow out of your once respectfully fitting clothes. We still adore you, sir, we really do, but I thought that it would be nice if someone told you before it got out of hand.

So what brings you here to these parts? A new beverage? That's fantastic. Your last lemonade was very good and we can only hope that this one is as well. Let me see here. Ahh, strawberry. Good fruit choice, sir. Oh, it smells wonderful. It smells like a veritable bouquet of strawberries. I also appreciate the bountiful amount of pulp that is swirling around in here. Let's take a sip...wow. Sir, you have outdone yourself with this. It tastes as good as it smells and it probably bites harder than your little dog that you've got there. It's got a wonderful lemonade base but the fruitiness of the strawberries cuts through. Sir, you have outdone yourself. Now I know why you have us doing your tasks for you; so you can invent things like this drink. Keep up the good work and, Sir, please, take care of yourself.

Apparently someone else out there, besides me, doesn't like maple syrup. Said person, whose name may rhyme with Leiland Kirk, most certainly got a tapping kit as a zany Xmas gift, and didn't know what to do with it. Why would he want to go harvest his own maple syrup, when he has no taste for the stuff? Instead he decided to take it another way. Since he was such a big fan of birch beer he went out to the woods behind his house, found the largest birch tree his little eyes could spy, and drove that tap right into it. Rumor has it that as soon as he did a great torrent of birch juice flooded out, nearly drowning our hero. I don't believe a word of it. I tend to think that he left that spout in the tree for a good week before he remembered to go back and check on it, and he had gathered maybe half a bucket full. There's not much juice in them there trees, you see.

Our recipient of an unthoughtful gift was a bit disappointed to find out that the liquid that came from the tree did not in fact taste like his favorite soda. Instead what he got was a slightly sweet liquid that tasted very lightly of trees. On it's own he found it to be a bit bland and nothing that he cared too much about but he decided to add a little blueberry juice to the mix, and he was onto something. The flavors blended together wonderfully, and tasted nice and sweet, without being overly candy-like. It had a taste all it's own, and it was something that he grew to love. It was just unfortunate that the trees would only produce the juice in the spring before they sprouted leaves. This became a seasonal drink indeed.

So you don't like oxidants, huh? Do you, or 99% of the population even know what they really are? I'm pretty sure I don't. I know that they have something to do with being sick, and ingesting antioxidants helps to stave off said sickness, but that's as far as my knowledge goes. Even though I don't know the science behind it, I can tell you a lot of fruits that are high in antioxidants. It just so happens that all three fruits mentioned in the name of this beverage fall into that category. What we have here is a naturally flavored sparkling water that is rich in antioxidants and vitamins, or so the company tells us. I have to interject and say, sure there is sparkling water in here, but once you add this much flavoring and sweetener (albeit zero calorie) it ceased to be water in my eyes.

Do you want to know more about how this drink tastes? Well, it tastes like a diet Vitamin Water with bubbles in it…€¦a lot of bubbles. If this wasn't diet, I think I could get behind it more, as the flavor is fairly decent. Actually, if they had used erythritol or stevia to sweeten it I would probably enjoy it more. The sucralose just makes it unmistakably diet in a way that I can't handle as much as I try.

We've been hard on ol' Rob in the past and he has been very good to us. I should say, and we should say more often, that they gave us these drinks to try and they are glass, plentiful, and heavy so that was probably no easy task. It's hard to dis companies that are so nice to us that might put out not-so-good drinks. Credit where credit's due, Rob's is pushing the envelope when it comes to some of his flavors and he has to know that they're not going to be for everyone.

Now, on to this coconut water. Everyone knows the pains of coconut water. You have to drink it when it's ice cold otherwise it gets chalky and gross. Append that to the fact that they use Erythritol and you could have a dangerous mix on your hands. Was Rob able to man the wild horses, save the town and get the girl? Yes. Rob rode the blackest steed in all the land, tamed it and then fed it a friggin' carrot. He gave the bad guy a wedgie and also took his lunch money. He got the girl and the girl had a ten face, ten body and liked playing video games. This might be the best coconut drink I've ever had. It's got a good mix between real coconut and candied coconut shavings you would get on an ice cream or a Mounds bar. The Erythritol just kind of cools it all down while sweetening it up.

Rob deserves a pat on the back and all the gold in the land for taming that beast.

When Jay goes on tour, he comes home with some different drinks. If you stay in one place, things get stale. Jay knows that all too well so he's on tour a fair amount and, if I didn't know better, he spends as much time with the band as he does on the hunt for new drinks.

Now he just was in the United States but came across this little Australian tart. You know a drink that comes both in glass and with an awesome pull-tab is going to be good, so is it? Well, it's good and it's better than most but is it as good as I wanted to be? I don't think so. It is a nice, dark licorice filled root beer. That's for sure. What's wrong with it then? It's a little too sweet. Is it the molasses? Maybe. It almost tastes like a good root beer with something like a grape hard candy in it. That's not the worst thing but whatever that "candy" thing is in there, it knocks its great potential down a peg or two. Am I in the position to be assigning proper peg state? I like to think that I am. I would like to think that in turn someone out there is placing me on some ladder whether it be a skill ladder, sexual ladder, or something in between. We can all agree that those are the two extents of social ladders, right?

Mark Smits was a famous actor. He rose to stardom after a series of romantic comedies and after that, his stardom just kept rising. He quickly saw the danger in being so famous and influential. People were doing things like carving their names in their arms, getting tattoos of his perfect face on their bodies, and dressing like him at comic book conventions. His friends started to notice it and made him do things to see just how far people would go "in his honor." They would do things like have him go up to people in the streets and say that he'll give them a hug if they grab strangers butts and they would do it without hesitation. He made people get "MARK SMIT" tattood on their knuckles with the leftover "S" on their thumb and a peace sign on the other thumb and people did it and smiled the whole way. To step it up a notch, his friends dared him to start a company with the premise of people buying anything he endorses. The challenge was on.

Mark bought a thousand bottles, went down to the point in city where the trucks dumped all the snow and just filled up the bottles with salty, dirty, melted snow water. People cringed a bit when they drank it but since Mark said that it was cool, so did everyone else. He decided he did not like what he had become and quit acting all together. He decided to take his million of dollars and invest it wisely and spend the rest on doing good in cities around the country. It would all come full circle when he was working across the country at a soup kitchen and a case of his salty snow water came in and the homeless people recognized him from the campaign and made him sign bottles of it. Mark would never be able to escape his unfortunately uber-successful past.

Hey dad. Thanks for making me this peppermint hot cocoa. I really needed it after shoveling the driveway this morning. It's good. Are you using that syrup that you put in your coffee? Oh, you use it for mom's coffee? Why is that? Really? She burns it? You know, I have noticed lately that she has gotten really lazy and leaves it on the warmer for too long. It smells like a roastery in here sometimes. I don't know why they smell so bad. The smell of coffee is pretty good but the smell of making coffee is terrible. It smells like somewhere a coffee shop is on fire. Oh, shh. Dad. She's coming. Hey mom. Yeah, I did shovel the driveway. I got up about six this morning. I knew you guys had to go to work and I was already up for some reason. I am tired. No...Mom...I am not drinking coffee...this is...cocoa...mom...no. Oh, man. You got coffee in my hot cocoa and, yep, it's burnt. Ugh. No, mom. I'm not insulting you. I'm just saying that this coffee is burnt and now this drink tastes like mint hot cocoa with burnt coffee in it. No mom. I'm not saying that I can make a better cup myself. I'm just saying. Mom, don't get upset. I just said that this pot of coffee was burnt. I'm not disrespecting you. Oh, come on...jeez. Dad. She just stormed out. I think she just did a burnout in the driveway. Well, hopefully she won't burn the coffee any more, right dad? Grounded? What a jip.

I must implore everyone who tries this beverage to not give up after one sip. I completely understand why you would want to. Something about that first sip seems like the drink had gone bad. It tastes like the beginning stages of fermentation, and it's not very pleasant. The thing is that if you can make it past the first introduction of tea to tongue, you will be rewarded. With each sip this drink gets better and better until you get to the last drop and you are completely bummed out that it is gone. That's right, this went from gross to “when can I get another bottle?” in 12 small ounces.

With a name like Classic Gold I expected this to be straight up yerba mate and carbonated water, with a little sugar mixed in. To be fair, that was delivered but along with it came some spice as well as prune, lime, tamarind and ginger juice (I don't know how you juice ginger). The culmination of all of this is extremely interesting on ones taste buds. You can swish it around your mouth and actually make out the different flavors. That's exactly how I like my beverages. It has the classic yerba mate flavor, with just the right amount of sweetness and additional flavors.

I'm telling you, work past that first sip and you will find that you are in for a true treat.

Harmony is an important thing in all aspects of the word. Living in peace and harmony with other human beings and animals is a great way to live, and you will ultimately end up living a happy life. It's also the vocal harmonies in your favorite songs that are probably the reason you like them so much. I know that's the case for me most of the time.

There is no negative connotation to the word harmony. That is the reason I think this company either needs to be renamed, or delete this flavor from their catalog. This soda was most certainly not in harmony with my taste buds. Harmony Springs makes a great sarsaparilla, so I was excited to try their ginger ale, another favorite flavor of mine. This pales in comparison to the nice dark pop that I had on my last go round. This tastes like a generic sugar soda with a little bit of ginger ale flavoring added to it. The ratio of flavoring to soda base seems way off and the flavor suffers because of it.

When you're making your next batch, think more Boys to Men and less The Shaggs.

If I had endless amounts of money, or even a handful of expendable income, I would try to recreate this drink using some classic science. Here is what I would do:

Step 1: Get a dozen oranges and a dozen mangoes.
Step 2: Court a lovely chemist.
Step 3: Gain the chemist's trust.
Step 4: Convince the gorgeous chemist to let me have a bucket of liquid nitrogen, "You know. For science."
Step 5: Put all the oranges and mangoes in a bowl.
Step 6: Pour the liquid nitrogen into the bowl to instantly freeze the fruit.
Step 7: Smash up the fruit using something like a hammer or a clean shoe.
Step 8: Put the fruit dust into a bottle with water.
Step 9: Put a pack or two of Stevia into the bottle.
Step 10: Stir and drink.
Step 11: Get broken up with because that was not "for science" and I am a "liar."
Step 12: Shrug it off.

Until then, I will have to just buy this like some sort of civilian. I have no problem with that since this isn't half bad. It's a Stevia sweetened mango and orange juice. It cannot be reviewed any differently than that. It is pretty truthful to it's fruit roots. Fruit root. That's fun. This, science aside, is a good drink. I've had two or three of them myself and might be slightly disappointed when they are all gone. That might be the most significant part of the review. It's that good. Fruity and not overwhelmingly Stevia'd. Fruity rooted.

Now this could be trouble. Here's what happens; I drink countless drinks per week, between ten and fifteen new drinks per week. That's a lot, right? Not many of them grab me but in the case that I do find one that grabs a hold of you like some sort of starving hawk in the middle of a desert, I crave it. A lot. I think about the next time I will be in the area and I can get some. Currently, I'm riding the proverbial horse of Panera's Tropical Hibiscus. I Just Can't Get Enough.

I bought this and didn't think much of it other than I was thirsty but a couple hours later and three quarters of a thirty three ounce bottle later, here I am trying to wonder when the next time myself or someone I can will be out at our new Trader Joe's to get me like four bottles of "the stuff."

Now this is not perfect but it's darn close. It's got the smell and the taste. The only thing it's missing is that little thing in green tea that people that like green tea like and people who claim they don't like green tea don't like. That strange, back of your tongue bitterness that makes your mouth water and crave more. It doesn't have that but it does have a very good taste and just tastes like an honest, home brewed green tea.

At two dollars, you have no reason not to at least try it. They have a fruit one, too that I will get next time I'm there stocking up on this habit. Darn it, Joe. You've caught me like a fish at some sort of fishing derby. A little secret about me, though? I'll get hooked so hard that when you stop selling it, you will miss me like the deserts miss the rain.

Cranberry sodas have existed before this. Companies were content with just adding some cranberry juice (or more likely a mixture that tasted vaguely like cranberry juice) to some carbonated water and sweeter. I've never had one that I disliked, but also never one that I would ever describe as great. Taylor's Tonics are never ones to shy away from a challenge, and they set out to create a cranberry soda that is made from the stuff of dreams.

Why keep a soda simple, when there are so many ingredients out there to make it pop? There are things in the world like balsam fir needles, ginger, allspice, coconut water, cherry juice, extract of orange and a combination of Douglas fir and French vanilla flavors. These are the things that keep the beverage world interesting. When combined all of these things with the original three that other companies used created a beverage that I would most certainly describe as great, and perhaps even stupendous. The only problem is that somewhere along the way the drink started tasted more of a culmination of the extra ingredients (mostly allspice) and the flavor of the cranberry base got lost. While I do love the way this tastes, the boldness that is normally present when cranberry juice is in the mix is all but nonexistent. A simple name chance would lift all of that concern off of my shoulders, but Taylor does what Taylor wants.

I know what you're thinking. No, this does not taste like you're eating a Christmas tree. Actually it kind of does, but not in the way you're thinking. It doesn't taste like cleaner or pine. It does taste like the essence of Christmas though. If you took all of the good things about the holiday and threw them all in a blender, this is what it would taste like. This company has hit the nail on the head with their holiday four pack.

Were there teas made to accompany a science fiction movie based in the desert? No one knows for sure, but I would like to start off those rumors that have not previously exists, right now. There it is. I am now claiming this tea was made as a marketing aid for a fake movie to get US soldiers out of Iran. No one told the tea company that the movie was a fake. They were just about to launch a line of teas and they didn't have a name, and tying it in with what would obviously be a popular movie seemed like a nice cash grab. Too bad for them it never came to be. Also, too bad for them that Ben Affleck decided to make a movie based on said fake movie and draw attention back to the name. Did any of this really happen? No one knows. The answers have all been lost in the sands of time. Maybe the truth will come out under a cowl with a gruff voice in the near future.

Whatever its origins may be Argo makes one heck of a tea. They have messed around with various incarnations, and I am pleased that they keep coming back to using hibiscus as their tea base. If you don't like hibiscus you are a fool, plain and simple. This beverage is simply hibiscus tea, cane sugar and lemon juice. The last ingredient is what makes it part of their “squeeze” line, which is their fancy versions of the half and half, or Arnold Palmer game. I am a fan. It tastes like real lemon and not some gross cleaner. I don't understand how so many companies get the lemon flavor wrong, but Argo is right on the money.

This is a “no way to lose” beverage. It's a quality lemonade mixed with hibiscus tea, with no extraneous ingredients. I love it and so should you, unless you want your taste buds to be wrong. I don't mean to be a jerk, but if you don't like this you should go see your physician, because something has gone wonky inside your mouth.

Popeye and the crew from Sweet Haven are back with their first foray into diet energy drinks. You see everyone thought that Wimpy had put on a bit too much weight with all his cheeseburger conniving ways. Seriously, how long does one man expect to live when all he consumes in beef patties smothered in cheese? Since his blood work came back last month he's been on a kale diet. He claims that it doesn't give him enough energy to make it through all of the whining he has to do on a daily basis, so they formulated him this lemon mint beverage. Being the health conscious team that they are, they help back on using taurine and it's friends and stuck to vitamins and caffeine. Also knowing that their friend was doomed to some burger related cancer they didn't want to speed on they also chose to sweeten the drink with erythritol/stevia.

The results of it all are a nice lemony beverage with notes of mint in it that aren't over powering. It has the stevia coolness to it, but with the lemon and the mint it's not bad at all. In fact it's fairly enjoyable, even for those of us who don't like diet drinks. Calories to flavor this can't be beat.

For those non-teetotalers out there, when my friend Steve tried this he instantly proclaimed that it would taste amazing as a mixer with vodka. This is a win-win-win for everyone right here.

Look America, some things just aren't for you and your palate of hamburgers. There is an ever-growing population of people that aren't from "these here parts" and they are integrating into our great country because of the opportunities and potential for greater thing. In doing so, they are bringing their food and culture to our doorstep and although we might not fully understand it, we should embrace it and give it a try. For the most part, we are welcomed with open arms if we're not going to be ignorant about it. Sure, at first glance, some of the clothes, accessories, customs, and beliefs might seem strange, but I'm sure that ours seem that way to them.

No I did not grow up on rice and rose water. I don't have a taste for it, but this site has allows me to try out things that are normal in other cultures. This, for instance, is one of those things.

Given to me by a girl who grew up surrounded by ex-pats of India. She said that she drank this all the time and when she found out about the site, she generously brought this for me. I have sat on it for a long time but I quite literally dusted it off and made a glass tonight to ponder over while listening to Incognito's "Beneath The Surface" which is a work of art in itself.

I've had rose lassi and that simply is not for me. Oh I "get" it but it's just not for me. This, though...this I could get used to. Sipping in those hot summer months while mulling over different fruits and botanicals. It's lightly sweetened and highly concentrated. It has a bit of "rose" to it but there is more going on in this little glass of mine. It's rose, it's fruity, and although it doesn't have any in it, it almost has a taste of cinnamon or something. It is a very complex taste that is rose first but complex if you try to figure out what else is in there.

Now I just made this with water but there are plenty of other applications for this including mixing it with milk to make a creamier drink or put it on ice cream as a topping. I don't know if I would do that here in the States but if I was ever lucky enough to take a trip to India or date an Indian woman who's family made good Indian food, I would try it there all day long.

It's no secret that us here at Thirsty Dudes are very large fans of root beer. I was going to say junkies, but then I realized that we're not guzzling any version of the stuff we can find to get that sweet, sweet (literally) fix that we need. We have a bit of a refined palate when it comes to this particular beverage. Sure, if we're at a party and someone offers us store brand, we will drink it, but we search out those sodas whose companies have spent some time perfecting their brew. With all of that in mind, I would like to inform you that diet root beer is the devil. It is the liquid form that the dark lord takes to steal souls from the living on this planet we call Earth. It is always the lowest grade of root beer that has had its sweetener swapped out for something zero calorie; usually aspartame or sucralose. It's blasphemy and I want nothing to do with it.

All of the above is what I would have said to you until I tried this can of Honest Fizz. This product went up against all of the odds and came out victorious. First off, it's in a can and not a glass bottle, which does not bode well for it. Properly brewed root beer simply does not come in cans. Yes, that is the snob in me coming out. Of course it's also fighting again being the most unholy force in the universe. The thing is Honest did the unthinkable and they made a zero calorie root beer, that I not only could stand drinking, but that I down right enjoyed. I think the secret is that they started with a quality product before adding the sweetener (erythritol). This doesn't taste like an everyman root beer. This tastes like something that was microbrewed. It has a darker taste than something your local supermarket would produce. Sure, once they added the erythritol there is a bit of diet flavor in the aftertaste, but the superb quality of the root beer does a nice job of covering it up, unlike all of the rest whose products taste more like diet than root beer.

I liked this so much that I could see myself drinking it on a semi regular basis. With zero calories and no sugar, my body will be sure to thank me for that.

It's Thanksgiving and the holiday season is officially upon us. Celebrate this dreary time of your with us and a bottle of carbonated eggnog. You know you want to. If it helps any it's not thick and gross like real eggnog, it's more like a spicy cream soda.

The weather has turned to turd soup, but you aren't going to let that down. You gather up some provisions, and your significant other and head out to the local botanical gardens for a mid winter picnic. Sure, the gardens look down upon people taking their meals at their establishment, but that's nothing that a twenty slipped to the security guard can't take care of.

Everything is going perfectly. You're surrounded by wonderful green foliage, and the temperature is in the mid 80's inside the dome. No, not “Under the Dome.” I don't know how Brian K Vaughn got mixed up in that train wreck. He's better than that, and his comic writing proves it. Speaking of along with some sandwiches, veggies and hummus you also brought along the last few issues of Saga, for your lover to catch up on as you just sit back and enjoy the escape from winter as you sip on the tea you brought along. You spent a little time making it at home. You brewed it in this big kettle over the fireplace. You wanted to be romantic, and why waste the energy from the stove when you have a perfectly good fire roaring? You brewed some nice green tea in that kettle and added a little honey to sweeten it up. Okay you added a decent amount of honey, and it is very obvious when you taste it. It has the heaviest honey taste out of any tea you've ever made. Apparently at some point during your outing a single hibiscus leaf fell into the tea. It's weird because it gave it a bit of flavoring, but since it doesn't' have cinnamon or other spices in it, it tastes different to other hibiscus teas you've tasted. It's a great tea though to go along with a great outing to make you forget about the weather outside.

That is exactly what will run through your mind grapes as you drink a bottle of this tea. Either that or I am just a true weirdo who envisioned that while driving through the Canadian countryside on a blustery night.