Sparkling - 501 Reviews

I should start by saying that what I wanted to drink today and review was a milk tea that Jay and I picked up with Editor Dan on some random trip to Toronto. What in the world were we doing there? Nothing? Just getting drinks? There had to be a reason why we went. Well anyway, that was last year and that milk tea expired in January of this year. Yes, January. We are now in September and this drink, containing milk, expired eight months ago. I thought it best to play it save, chalk it up as a loss, and drink something a little safer.

Which brings us to this drink. Once again, the lovable and beardable Editor Dan bought us a handful of drinks, this being one. I am an enormous fan of the Hint, Ayala, and infused waters. This, though, was different. What was different? Well, if you couldn't guess, it was carbonated. If you have ever drank a sparkling water, AKA "seltzer" you know that there is a strange almost bitterness to it. This contained that oddity. It's strange that if you add carbonation to regular water it tastes like you've carbonated water that has been sitting in a cup for a week at room temperature. This tastes like regular old seltzer water with watermelon flavoring. It's not as strong as say a Polar or Seagram's seltzer, which makes it "worse." "Worse" is a relative term but it's simply not as good.

If you're going to want infused water, get a regular Hint because they are pretty wonderful. If you want a sparkling Hint, stop wanting that and just get real seltzer water.

I like sparkling beverages and I love green tea. I also prefer lower calorie beverages when it's due to less sugar instead of zero calorie sweeteners. That is where Steaz went wrong. This would have been great with just a pinch of sugar, or better off no sweeteners at all. A sparkling unsweetened tea would be wonderful. Instead they used Erythritol, which is normally an okay choice for zero calorie sweeteners, but they seemed to have used ten times the recommended amount. The fluid in this can tastes more like sweetener than it does blood orange or tea for that matter. It would be bad enough, but still somehow acceptable if the diet taste was only there when you sipped it, but it leaves a long lasting diet aftertaste that lingers for minutes after each sip.

Steaz took a swing for the stars, and they unfortunately struck out. Actually the more I think about it I can hardly taste the blood orange at all. It's truly a shame.

Mike's son, Max, refers to carbonated drinks as spicy water. That boy has apparently never had a bottle of Buchulife before. If he had he would know that this is the true spicy water. It's not spicy in a heat sort of way, but in a way that it smells as tastes of spice.

Out of everyone I had try this, I am the only one who actually enjoyed it. Friend of the site Dave said that it taste like carbonated anise water. While I don't agree, I can see where he's coming from. Mike says that it tastes like trees, and I can also see where he is getting that. This is herbal infused seltzer water, and the herbs give it a very specific taste that I simply can't place. It is also unsweetened, which lets all the weird flavors shine even more. It has a little bit of an anise flavor, but then again it also has the coolness of mint without any actual mint flavor. It's an odd taste for sure, but it's something that I enjoy more and more with every sip.

I don't know about lime but I do know that this might taste like the leaves of the tree a lime came off of. Those South African's must have an odd palate because this tastes like it most certainly comes from the earth and not much else. It's not bad but it most certainly has to have a specific set of people that either like it or hate it. I drink it because I "have" to. That's not to insult the company because this drink may not be bad but I know that they are not catering to the masses with this one. It tastes like your drinking juiced leaves. Some people who read that might think that appeals to them when the rest, most of the population I presume, think that is gross.

For what it's worth, this cannot be that bad since I've finished the whole bottle and fans of the site know that I don't care if I have to stop drinking something that is not good. Why torture myself? It's not needed if it's not needed, you know? I didn't need to drink this entire bottle but I kept coming back for more. I don't know if it was the strange nature of the drink but as I progressed through the bottle, I became more immune to it's nature-nature and started enjoying it for what it was; a quasi-lime flavored seltzer water.

If you don't want to try something new, that's fine but if you are a [wo]man of adventure, try this out. Try it when you are hiking because you will certainly be welcomed with open arms by Mother Nature and her tree trunk arms. That's not a fat joke. I feel like Mother Nature's figure is much like those scrawny women who hula hoop in your local park at dusk.

Part of being a Thirsty Dude is having a beard. It's a light pre-requisite and since we're currently not looking to fill any slots, you can stop filling out that resume. Thirsty Dudes aside, I would still have a beard unless I want to look ten years younger. Since I don't care as much as I probably should about my physical appearance, I have a beard. I grow it out and shave it down and grow it out and shave it down. When it is long, you have to take care of it or you look like a regular old scumbag. I have a medicine cabinet filled with oils, pomades, and waxes to help my hairy buddy look his best.

Now why did I just spend the last couple minutes talking about beards? It's simple, actually. It is because this drink tastes a little bit like a tea tree oil that I use in m' beard. It's very peculiar. It's got a little bit of a mintiness that tastes like when you were a kid and thought that Huck Finn looked cool while he had that wheat in his mouth so you put it in your mouth and it tasted like fresh cut, minty grass. Yes, there is cranberry in there but you are distracted by the other stuff that is going on in there.

I am not well read. I will admit it. I feel like I can grow a wonderful beard. Whether or not I look good with it is a totally different issue that we will undoubtedly handle in another, if not many other reviews. I urge you to try this because it's so strange, so very strange.

"Well this is something," says someone who drank this. I, professional drinker and skeptic of most things, agreed. This is a tangy, sweet drink. Tangy. Jesus Christmas. Limes and grapefruit? You needed to put the two tartest fruits imaginable together in one drink? Are you trying to turn me into a reverse Dizzy Gillespie? Suck in my cheeks to look like a malnourished, third world child? Who can drink this for pleasure? You want to know what Kiwi is doing while those other two are stealing the show? Well I'll tell you that he is not carrying his weight. That or between the lime and the grapefruit he simply compete.


This isn't bad. If you like Squirt and Limca, put them together into a container that is too large for one or even two servings and call it a day.

Sparkling waters are generally not my thing. The carbon dioxide in the bubbles does something to the flavor that does not work well with my palate. It just makes the water dry and I want to say bitter, even though I know that is not the right word.

Knowing what my body does and does not like I went into this expecting to drink a few sips and then discarding the rest. The actuality of it is that I ended up drinking the entire bottle and really enjoying it. This is not your normal sparkling water. It has a nice light black currant flavor that is a little more than a hint, but nothing close to overbearing. I've had flavored sparkling water before and it still always has that distinct flavor that I can't get down with. Since that flavor is very underplayed in this beverage I have to attribute it to the Buchu Oil. Of course you've never heard of it before, neither had I. It's an extract from a South African Herb that is packed with antioxidants. It works wonders.

For those of you out there like myself who's body craves carbonation to scratch their throat at times, and don't want all of the sugar from soda, yet have a distaste for seltzer and tonic waters, this is the solution you've been looking for.

Yesterday, after many months of looking, I got myself a spinning bike. I love riding bikes and in the time I can't go out and ride for one reason or another, I always wanted to ride in the privacy of my own house. I hauled that thing in the basement, put on a record, turned on the fan, and started pedaling away. I put in a good half hour before I started to get uncomfortable for I am not as fit as I once was. I watch what I eat but I still eat things I shouldn't, which brings us to today.

On this fitness thing, I've got to watch what I eat so I thought what better way to watch my caloric intake than to intake no calories? Queue Fruit Water. It's fruit punch and watermelon, sparkling, and zero calories. Win? Well, almost. Initially it tastes like a good gum but soon thereafter comes the rush of "the catch."

What catch? Well with anything diet, you're almost certain to get something disappointing. As the years go on, science is catching up and making good diet drinks. This one just went on it's own and did things the old fashioned way, with a terrible artificial sweetener. Sucralose is awful in every way, shape, and form. It kills a lot of otherwise good drinks. This initially had the promise of being good but, once again, sucralose killed it. Sucralose, you are the Hitler of artificial sweeteners.

Little. Yellow. Different.
…€¦or is it Wet. Bubbly. Standard.
I'm not exactly sure.
This was sent to us, and as I'm not a connoisseur of sparkling mineral water, it tastes like every other one that I've ever had. This really isn't our forte, but it seemed decent enough. I don't know what else to say about this.

It would be unfair to call this soda, because it really isn't. I could see how someone could mistake it for soda, but in reality it's a sparkling juice; the juice being grapefruit juice in this case. Now me and grapefruit juice have an on-again/off-again type of relationship, I like grapefruit flavored things, but in moderation. I can't really stomach a full glass of the juice, but a little bit here and there or mixed with something I can handle.

Which is why I love this drink. It's only 16% grapefruit juice but in my eyes it's the perfect mixture. It's just the right amount of sour without destroying my taste buds for weeks. San Pellegrino is good like that, knowing the perfect mix of things for their drinks.

Glaceau has somehow figured out a way to make sucralose sweetened beverages not taste like the third circle of Dante's diet hell. This still tastes a bit off, but it doesn't have that gross chemical taste to it. Perhaps it's all the added vitamins and the like that do a nice job covering it up.

This does not contain a single drop of actual juice, but they did a decent job replicating the flavors in their laboratory. Even though this beverage isn't syrupy at all the flavor tastes like a syrup. If that made any sense to you then we are on the same wavelength and I think I may feel sorry for you. It's the kind of drink that helps wean people onto diet drinks. I could see myself drinking this a bunch and slowly becoming desensitized to that gross diet flavor. This could help a lot of people, well they may get cancer or something from artificial sweeteners, but at least they won't be obese.

First of all, good one Motto. You got me. I knew this was sparkling and I saw some stuff at the bottom. Let's call it "sludge" for the sake of conversation. I turned the bottle upside down and moved it around and that sludge wasn't going anywhere. I looked at the bottle and it said, "Please shake well and open carefully" so I did. I don't know how carefully you can open a pop top bottle but as expected, it fizzed up over the top. I let that guy do his business in the sink. I'm no dumb idiot. I'm not getting all sticky and green teaful. That's for the birds.

After that debacle, I drank it. First sip I was turned off. Second sip through the end kept pulling me in. I "got" it. It's a lightly sweetened, super bitter Matcha tea. It tastes like a really bitter green tea if you've never had matcha before. It has vinegar in it, which seems odd, and you could taste it but it wasn't offensive. I don't really know what that guy was doing in there but he's in there, doing his thing. This drink was sweetened with honey, which achieves such high marks in my book. I'm going to say that to all Thirsty Dudes, something sweetened with honey gets a big thumbs up. The sparkling just makes the drink a little different and might actually cut the flavor down a little bit. Between everything going on in this bottle, the reprieve is nice.

I hope they come out with some different flavors. Maybe different strands of tea or some fruit tea? I'm giving you some gold here, Motto. Use it.

You've got Grapeheads, Lemonheads, Cherryheads formerly known as the racist Cherry Chan, and Melonheads and Appleheads, which I have never seen and Orangeheads. This drink, as you could probably guess, tasted like Lemonheads if you dipped them in limejuice. It was almost hard to convince myself this wasn't just 7-Up or other comparable lemon-lime drink. It's not bad and it might be more real lemon and lime flavored than "those other guys."

If you like your Sierra Mist, 7-Up, Sprite, and the like, this is a nice, cleaner tallboy of that group that you might like to sink your teeth into. That's figuratively speaking. Please don't bite into this can. Just the thought of you doing that makes me cringe. Who bites cans? What are you? A goat?

I just had a four-day escape to the woods. My friend Kevyn and I rented a cabin in the mountains and had a glorious long weekend of hiking, kayaking and heading to beaver dams at dusk to watch them work on their dams. It was exactly what I needed to just decompress. At one point we took a trip into town to get a couple of provisions and I saw this bottle of Bing. I had had the cherry version before, but blackberry was totally new to me. I was in the market for some juice, and I thought this would do just fine. It wasn't until after I started drinking it and started reading the packaging did I realize that it was actually a natural energy drink. It took me reading it to realize it was an energy drink, as it tasted nothing like one. I believe that is because it doesn't have taurine or any other chemicals in it to give you a boost. It's all B vitamins, caffeine, ginko biloba and ginseng. It really just tastes like sparkling juice.

Okay, to be fair the sugar in it makes it taste more like a soda than sparkling juice, even though there are only 8g of sugar in this can. It's a mixture of blackberry and cherry juice, and each sip is heavier on one over the other. It's a crapshoot for which one you're gonna get, but both are great, so it doesn't matter.

Unfortunately they felt the need to add sucralose right at the end of the ingredient list. Even though there is such low amounts you can still taste it a bit, and it distracts you from the flavor. Other than that this is great, and if you want a natural energy drink this is the way to go.

When I hear the phrase “fruit water” I immediately think of a giant glass water cooler in the foyer of a hotel in a tropical area. The water cooler is filled with…€¦well water of course, but floating in that water is a delicious medley of tropical fruits that give the water a hint of the glory of your surroundings. Of course as you drink it a toucan flies over and lands on your shoulder and someone says to you, “Hey let's go surfing!”

I obviously knew that this beverage was going to be nothing like that, but that is the vision in my head, and I would like to submit that idea to the development departments of all the major beverage companies. Water that has had fruit soaked in it. No sweeteners or anything else added. It's what the world craves.

While Glaceau did not look into my hopes and dreams they did create a sparkling fruit drink that actually contains no juice. I don't want to be all picky here, but folks, let's face it this is a diet soda. It's water, it's carbonated, it has a sweetener added and it has a flavor. That's soda pop in my world folks. I actually think that is the textbook definition.

When you look at it that way, this is one of the best diet sodas I have ever tasted. I find it straight up enjoyable. There is something about the orange/mango flavor that combats the taste of the sucralose and makes it taste more natural. I know the flavors are fake, but it really does taste like mangos and oranges were used to make this drink, and I can down a bottle without feeling shame about it. You're onto something with this Glaceau, now just take some of those vats of Smart Water and dump a mess of fruit into them before you bottle it. You can thank me later.

I am in Jersey for a wedding. I was just at an Italian restaurant for three hours. Do you know how long that is? It's a long time. It's a long time to sit there. Three courses. That's an hour per course. One hour dedicated to a Caesar salad. One hour dedicated to a small amount of pasta. The food was fine at best but the dessert was a wonderful chocolate mousse cake. Don't tell anyone, but I ate some of the cake from the girl that sat next to me because she wasn't as crazy about it as I was. She got up and left and I ate some of her cake. I talked to her. She's in the wedding party. It's fine. Well, the girl who sat across from me needed some medicine so I walked out to a 7-11 and got some. Being who I am, I also stopped at the drink cooler and checked it out and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw and basically had to buy.

I had to wait for another hour and a half to drink this, and I offered it to a nice girl in the elevator who politely declined, but here I am, sitting on my hotel bed watching an awesome episode of Seinfeld, drinking this rather awkward drink. Awkward? Yes. I said awkward. It's got chocolate, that for truth. Bosco, another Seinfeld reference, is chocolate syrup they used. The fudge I think they might be grouping into the chocolate. I don't know if there is an additional ingredient. The float? There might be an element of cream in there. It's got an almost sparkling chocolate seltzer taste to it. It's not bad.

I like that this is another Brooklyn treat and I am so close to enjoy it. Now if only that nice elevator girl would have enjoyed it, too. She missed out. Not on much, but she missed out regardless. I take a little offense that people don't drink my drinks when I offer them up. Don't you people know who I am?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have been wrong for far too long. As we have recently learned the song should actually go, “You put the lime in the mango and you drink it all up.” You see mangos and limes go together far better than coconut could ever dream. We have sent a cease and desist to the Harry Nilsson estate and we have been assured that with the magic of technology his song will be digitally altered so that he sings mango instead of coconut at every instance. It's was really shocking how quickly the executar of his estate agreed to it. I guess she must be a huge mango supporter, but who wouldn't be?

To celebrate the change in the song Arizona has released this version of their Rickey line. It is some version of mango and lime juice mixed together and injected into carbonated water. In any world this is really just an interesting flavor of soda that comes in an oversized can, but we'll play the game and refer to it as a sparkling beverage.

Mangos and limes work so well together that I can't believe it's not a more common experience. This actually tastes more of lime than mango, and that might be the secret right there. Lime is normally a secondary character in the beverage world, but it has a co-starring role with Arizona, and the reviews all say that it performed amazingly. Now if only it came in smaller cans and with less sugar it and I could be BFFs.

Follow this path of information. Arizona is from Long Island, and they are co-opting a beverage from Brooklyn. Okay, that wasn't too bad was it? They started at the end of last summer when they released their Cherry Lime Rickey, which I believe was their first trek into the world of carbonation. It was a drink I enjoyed. It was pretty crazy, and ridiculously sweet, but on a nice hot day, it was enjoyable. Recently they have released three new flavors into their Rickey line, and they are what they are.

While it may only constitute 10% of the beverage these Rickeys are flavored with real juice. I don't believe there was ever a time in nature when grapes and limes commingled. They certainly are a strange pair when put together, but it's kind of enjoyable. I started drinking this last night at band practice, and it was a bit much to handle. Upon taking one sip I knew there was no way I was going to drink this entire can in one sitting. The label says it's three servings, but Arizona knows as well as we do that we are a country of gluttons and 99% of their customers drink them don't divvy up the portions. They separated the sweetener into HFCS and sucralose to keep the calories down, but it still makes it way sweeter than it needs to be. It is also harshly carbonated, so be aware of that when you go into one of these. Sometimes I really like that kind of carbonation, but last night was not one of them. The grape lime flavor was very interesting though, so it helped me get through half the can. The rest I put in my fridge so that I could review it later.

Here I am, the next afternoon, and now the beverage is lightly carbonated. Without the harsh bubbles, the flavor shines through a lot more. You can definitely taste the grape and lime juices, of course it's through a haze of sweetener, but that is what the majority of the Arizona customer base wants. Unless the temperature is over 85 degrees I probably will not purchase another one of these, but I am still excited to try the other two new flavors.

I'm sorry, sir. Did you give my son a lime with a razor blade in it for Halloween? I swear to God that if you did I am going to take the razor out of the lime and slice your throat. No, you listen to me. I thought that was just a scary thing we told kids to not take things from strangers but now that it's out in the open and people are doing it, I don't know what to do as a parent. I tried to move to a nice part of town and into a place where I my kids are safe, or at least I thought my kids would be safe. No, I'm not done talking. You come into this town thinking you can get away with this stuff. Don't you know there is a block club where we talk about stuff like this? Fine. What do you have to say for yourself, you scum?

You what? Don't you lie to me! I'm a very powerful mother with four kids and will not take any of your garbage. You gave them what? A drink? My son Danny told me you gave him a lime with a razor blade in it. Danny, you told me. No. I explicitly heard...Oh it was like a lime with a razor blade in it. Do you have any more? Jesus, you're right. It tastes like lemon lime pop but the carbonation is actually sharp. You said this is diet, too? Eh, it's not too bad and I'm always drinking diet stuff.

Mister. I'm very sorry. You have to see it from my point of view, though. If you heard that your kid had gotten something with a razor blade in it, you would freak out, too, and rightfully so. I'm sorry. Please come to our next block club meeting and I'll bake you some cookies. Have a good night and I hope I didn't scare away your trick or treaters. Then again, that's the point of Halloween, right? Ha. Could I have another bottle of that, please? It's pretty good. I'll toss in another dozen cookies. Thank you. Hey! There is a razor blade floating in this drink! Eh, I guess I deserved it. I was a real jerk to him, Danny.

Pomegranate Lychee, huh? Yeah, I'll take it. Deliver it to my mouth; right in there. Wait...I asked for pomegranate lychee but you just gave me pomegranate. Sir? I'm sorry, sir? I asked for pomegranate lychee and you just gave me pomegranate. You're saying it is in there? Well I don't really taste it. I guess if I give you the benefit of the doubt and said that I might taste it at the very end but not so much as to call it out on the bottle. I will say, that is a fine bottle you've got there, sir. It's a shame that most people will throw it out and most of those people will not recycle it. Aforementioned issues aside, this is a good, sparkling drink. It's fruity and the fizziness gives it a nice touch. You've done a wonderful job even though you mislead me a tad with the whole "there is lychee in here" thing. We're over that now, though. We're bros again.