Made - 14 Reviews

It's mid May and I think it's finally safe to say that winter is officially over. I know it should have been over for a long time, but it snowed here in late April. Something it wrong with Mother Nature. She needs to go see a doctor STAT because up is down, left is right, cats and dogs…€¦. You get the drift. It's finally sunny and warm (if not downright hot at times) and that means bust out your lemonades and teas because we need refreshment.

For the most part Made has treated us well in the past. They have provided us with some spectacular beverages as well as some average ones. Only once have they steered us wrong, and that just happened to be with another drink that was composed of lemons and green tea (also strawberry). The problem with that was that the lemon was too strong, and it had a weird plastic taste to it. From the taste I will safely say that this is that self same drink, before they added the strawberries to the mix. It just doesn't taste right.

Maybe this combination was doomed from the start. It is more than likely that green tea and lemonade just weren't meant to co-mingle. I wanted to like this, but I just can't. It doesn't sit right. Also, going back and reading my old review put dumb Robert Palmer songs in my head and I am holding Made accountable for that terror.

Made, well Made makes things simple. Unlike a lot of companies they know that people don't need/want a lot of extraneous garbage in their beverages. When someone orders flavored lemonade they want water, lemon juice, sugar and whatever fruit juice is flavoring it. Anything else is just unnecessary. Little kids on the side of the road don't even give you that much. To be fair this is way better than any roadside lemonade I've ever tasted, so that little bit extra is well played.

The way the levels are in these ingredients leaves it more mango than lemonade. I'm okay with that. It is a bit sweeter than I would like it to be, as you lost all but the faintest tinge of the sourness of the lemon. For prepackaged lemonade it's AOK though.

Did Made start off as a little roadside stand run by a couple of youngsters? As they grew older did they start buying out other kids stands? Do they represent the interests of Big Lemonade? I have no idea, and I honestly don't care. It's a drink that I enjoy that doesn't have weird artificial ingredients in it. It also has a nice “retro” look to its label. Get into it.

Ahh, Christmas Eve. 'Tis the time for me to wrap all the presents I bought in one day while the little buddy is away. Did I succeed? Ha! No. I am actually writing a review instead of wrapping presents. Will I catch gruff for it? Probably. Will this review write itself? Nope. You see the priority of things in my life. Review, then joy.

It's snowing here and this is a summer drink. Pomegranate lemon green tea: Summer drink. It might just be the lemon but if we're talking about season fruit, isn't pomegranate a fall fruit? I've got one in the kitchen but I bet it's going to be alright. Why? Because I'm no fruit connoisseur, that's why.

This is a good drink, even if I have to go out after the review and shovel. It, as most Made drinks do, have a good green tea bitterness. The pomegranate is there and just a titch of lemon that you can actually taste. I really have enjoyed Made and this is no different. Their green tea line is good because they've got a good base and everything else is just icing.

I am currently a denim demon which means...well it means a few things. Thing one is that I side with Canadians in their outfit of choice. Two is that I have a poor sense of fashion. Third and the most related to my point is that fall is upon us. Sure this is my "go to" outfit for Spring, too, but we're not talking about Spring now, are we? We're talking about Fall so pay attention and stop thinking about Spring. They're like the same season. One is getting warmer while raining all the time and the other is getting colder while raining all the time. There, I put it into perspective.

Since fall is clearly upon us, I thought that a good way to go would be the "I'm not done with Summer" route with a lemonade. There are certain things I like about lemonade and one of those things is pulp. I enjoy nice, pulpy lemonade. It makes me feel like a kid and their mom's dirty hands were crushing lemons to make an enjoyable drink. This does not have pulp and although I cannot really penalize them for it, I can still want it in there for cripes sake. There is a good sour taste to it and, as mentioned on the bottle, there is real blackberry juice in it, which you can taste, and tastes good. Made really makes good lemonade. No, this is not as good as the blueberry one, but it doesn't mean that it's not good. It's a great, sweet lemonade that I have unfortunately never seen outside of a discount store which means that either people never "got" Made or that they made too much. I hope it's the latter and not the former because they made a consistently good product.

So a lemon, blueberry, and bag of green tea walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What will you have?" And they say, "We'll just have each other." and proceed to get really handsy on the bar. The patrons of the bar collectively agree that they have no time for that public display of affection and since they weren't buying anything, the doorman threw them out of the bar.

Green tea is wonderful. Blueberries, eh, fine. They're good. Lemons, good in things. No one really eats lemons. Together they are a pretty good team. I will say that the green tea lets it's stronger friends take the helm because you cannot really taste it too much. It might be a little bitter at the end but it could be the Stevia deceiving you. The blueberry and lemon work together more as a juice than...well I guess what else would it be? It's two fruits coming together. It has to be a juice. Sorry for the black or white guys, but you're a juice.

You know how mob guys always have names like “Fat Tony” and are always overweight from living a life of excess, or so television and movies always tell us? Well some of the higher ups in the “family” got together and started a drink company a few years back. They decided to call it Made, because they thought they were clever. Okay I'll give it to them, that's a good name. Well after a bunch of people starting having heart attacks from each a case of cannolis a day they decided to make a low calorie version, to help prolong the lives near and dear to them so that they may continue of causing “boaking accidents.”

As I said these guys were used to a certain standard of living, and just any diet drink wasn't going to cut it. They needed to make it just right so that the family would enjoy it and want to drink it. The only way they could make this work was to use real juice in their beverages, even if it was from concentrate. Artificial flavor has no place in the mob. They also decided erythritol was the sweetener to go with, as to avoid the stereotypical chemical diet taste. The result was a blueberry green tea that hardly tasted diet at all. There was so much flavor from the juice that it covered up any hint of the erythritol. They added pomegranate juice as well for added antioxidants, but it doesn't show up much in the flavor. It is blueberry through and through.

You know what this drink would go great with? Soft pretzels. It's a good thing that the mob is involved with a vender.

“I'm afraid I must insist. You see, my wife, she has been most vocal on the subject of the pretzel monies. …€˜Where's the money?' …€˜When are you going to get the money?' …€˜Why aren't you getting the money now?' And so on.”

Jay and I are like brothers. Here are some little known facts about us:

1. We moved in together on someone else's suggestion after about two days of really knowing each other.


2. We wrote a ton of songs about barbecues.


3. We lived together without having a single fight.


4. We've seen each other's girlfriend's naked. Not current ones, but one girlfriend back each.

That's a close list of stuff, right? What more do you need to know you are compatible? Nothing. Jay knows what I like and he saw this Made and knew that it was a drink for me.

The cranberry of this drink is the number one flavor. It's prevalent and very strong and bites you the whole way through this euphonious ride. The lemon comes and goes. It's there but it goes and you don't miss it. The green tea does the same, but the cranberry easily trumps the bitterness of it. There is an odd but very Made flavor and it might be the final ingredient, Sucralose. It's not a deal breaker, ladies. It's fine. If I saw this again, I would drink it. I would recommend it to a friend. That means a lot because I drink a lot.

Jay and I like Made. Jay and I like each other. Jay and I like cooking on a grill with friends. We're great to be around. Find us. We'll entertain you.

Arnold Palmer has a lawyer, right? I would hope he does for being a famous golfer and all, but more than that I hope he has a team of crack lawyers to make sure he gets his fair share of every lemonade/ice tea hybrid that is on the market. Everyone knows the combo as being an “Arnold Palmer” so I hope the man gets his cut. I hope his legal team is also good enough to get him “royalties” from all of the fringe flavors. Traditionally the drink is lemonade mixed with black tea, but in reality it could be any type of tea. By switching the tea type, does that make it not an Arnold Palmer anymore? Would say mixing it with a green tea make it a Robert Palmer? I hope not, because that guy is terrible. His cover of “Bang a Gong” is one of the worst things I have ever heard. For the sake of this review I will say yes. I will also say that this drink is in essence a Robert Palmer with some strawberry added. I wish this wasn't a Robert Palmer, because besides hating the man I think the lemon juice in this is too distracting. The ratio is completely off and it overpowers the tea flavor, not to mention the strawberry. The first sip I took of this had a great strawberry taste to it, but the more I drank the less berry I got and the more the lemon Gestapo took over. There is also something very plastic tasting about this. I think it's the combination of the bottle and the lemon juice. It just doesn't taste right.

Oh! I got it! Let's make an Arnold Palmer with white tea and we can call it the Leiland Palmer. Also, if you take that and add some blueberry to it, it becomes a Laura Palmer. You know…€¦because she's dead…€¦wrapped in plastic.

Not what I was expecting but not something that my palate didn't like. Unlike the other Made drinks, this was a bit more indistinguishable. As one might guess if you're not some stupid idiot, strawberry is the star player, or as designers like to say but no one actually likes, the hero. The lemonade goes a bit unnoticed. It is in there but more of a miscellaneous, anonymous bitterness. There is no real taste of any lemon but the mix is still good, regardless.

This is my friend Dan's favorite Made drink, so for old Dan try a bottle. You won't be disappointed. Scouts honor. Does that matter if you were never in the scouts? Probably doesn't hold as much weight. Whatever, any member of the Thirsty Dudes could beat up a boy scout.

Not as good as the blueberry but good nonetheless. Right on the first sip you get a strong sting from the lemonade. Right in the cheeks, which is right where it should be. Then it's followed up by "a fruit" flavor. It's got the tartness of a pomegranate, but doesn't really have the flavor of one. Even still, the flavor is good.

It kind of reminds me if you ate some canned/jellied cranberries like you would (hopefully) have on Thanksgiving and then wash it down with some cool, refreshing lemonade. It's something to think about trying. Could be good. Probably is good.

Made really makes some great drinks. This may be my favorite one yet, a nice fruity tea. In this one the tea flavor isn't lost in the fruit, which is an improvement in my book. It still has some of the bitterness of green tea. This would be extremely refreshing on a hot summer day. Unfortunately it's snowing in Buffalo. I'll have to revisit it in six months.

After Mike's review of the Made Blueberry Lemonade, I couldn't wait to try this. Do I like it as much as he liked his? No. Do I still think it's very good? Yes. My only real complaint is that the tea flavor gets lost in all of the fruit juice. It has a very strong fruit flavor, with a slight tea aftertaste. It's pretty sweet, but not to an overbearing extent. If I were in the mood for an iced tea, this would not be my first choice. It is something that I will definitely be enjoying again when I just want a nice fruity drink.

Good, very good. I will say exceptional. It's so sincere and without covers. Naked, if you will. You can taste everything just the way that it was intended. The blueberries are bitter but sweet. The lemonade is bitter but sweet. All together, you want to guess how it tastes? Answer? Fantastic.

This, I will append, is an adult drink. I feel that it's bitter in the beginning so much that kids might not like it because they love sweet all the way through. It's 50% bitter in the beginning and smoothes out at the end and leaves you with the memory of a good drink. No bad aftertaste and no strange flavors.

Made, thank you for making this and making it available at a reasonable price (Big Lots for less than $1 USD) and making pomegranate lemonade, which I will review next week. If you can get your hands on this, do it and thank me in the comment section. If you don't like it, curse me in the comment section.

This was a very strange drink. The aftertaste was better than when you were drinking it. You would drink more just to get to the aftertaste. The mint was very strong and I would say that it made up 75% of the flavor. That's not to say that you couldn't taste the pomegranate. After a while you would get use to it and it wasn't that bad but that initial sip was a strange sensation. Think of it like a very bittersweet pomegranate lemonade aftertaste.

I know that Made has other drinks and we will get them soon because Jay told me that he bought more when he went to the store.