Suja - 6 Reviews

Over the past two years or so, cold brewed coffee has been all the rage. From your local coffee shop, to overly priced bottle at the grocery store the young, disenfranchised, too cool for school youth has been keeping a handful of companies afloat. Being as that I am a coffee drinker I cannot vouch that this brewing method really tastes all that different or, if people have just been drinking it because it's what they are told they should like. This was my first encounter with a cold brewed tea, and I was excited to see what all the hubbub was about and taste the rainbow so to speak.

My first thought was that this doesn't really taste like jasmine tea. I got no floral after taste in it, which is a bummer, because that is a flavor I love. Perhaps the floral aspect was lost with the addition of lemon. It's not often that you see a lemon jasmine tea. Actually, I think this may be the only instance in the history of time, and space. You can't forget space. I can tell you why no one has done it before. The reason is that lemon flowers are weird and no one wants them. On the other side of the flavor coin, the pomegranate was very present, so at least they weren't too far off in their naming of the flavor.

The bottle tells me that the benefits of cold brewing tea are that it extends the shelf life and maintains vitamins, minerals, and enzimes. Those are all good things, but I have to be honest, I did not taste anything special in the flavor. If someone handed me a glass of this I would assume it was regularly brewed tea, and never in a million years question otherwise. That is perfectly fine. I love normal tea. Sure I wish the jasmine taste was stronger, but overall this is a decent tea that I would happily drink again.

It's not commonly known that Dr Dre not only has a successful headphones company to go alongside his rap career, but he also dabbles in farming, specifically beets. Yeah, there is really no reason behind it other than he thought it would be funny to have Beets by Dre as well as Beats by Dre. Of course all of this is only true in a fever dream in my brain, but man I really wish it were the case and that man had such a great sense of humor. Seriously think about it. His tagline could be “Straight Outta Compost.”

I would like to think that Suja would get their beets that they juice exclusively from Dre, because they have their finger on the pulse of what's cool from 15-25 years ago. I will only listen to The Chronic while I drink this juice. Okay, that's not true, I'm listening to Belle and Sebastian, because I am a tender, sensitive man, and not hard from the streets. I am drinking the juice though, and it pretty nice. It's a mixture of apple, carrot, orange, beet, banana, and pineapple juice with some turmeric thrown in. I could obviously do without the banana, because I have taste buds, but other than that this leaves a wonderful taste explosion in your mouth. It has that nice dirty, rooty flavor from the beets and carrots. It's a flavor that never sounds good when you describe it, but I personally really like it. The apple juice is there mainly as a base and sweetener while the orange and pineapple juice gives it a slight citrus edge. Overall it's mostly a sweet beet juice, as the name implies. It's not too shabby. It's also available in Target stores all around the US, which is nice to know I can get a quality juice wherever I end up waking in the morning.

I made plans for today. They were awesome plans. I was going to hang out with some old friends and we were going to catch up and talk about old times. You see those friends and I have a strong connection, and we don't get together as much as we'd like to anymore, but when we do it's magic.

We all met up at the arranged time and it looked like it was going to be a great day, and then out of nowhere this jerk we went to high school with showed up and just inserted himself into our group. We tried everything we could without being overly rude, but this guy just wouldn't leave. We even tried to ignore him; we would start up conversations that were just about us old friends, and he would constantly interject with tales from his own life that none of us were interested in. I wanted to throw in the towel on this whole day. This jerk had ruined everything, but for the sake of my friends I stuck it out until the end, and you know what? That guy really was a jerk, but the strength of my friendships persevered. Everything that I loved about my friends shined just a little bit brighter, and even though the day didn't end up how I had imagined, I still enjoyed it. If it was between being alone and spending time with these folks, even with that turd around, I would choose them every time.

Oh in case you were wondering my friends were apple, mango, orange, pineapple and ginger. That dumb jerk was of course banana. He always tries to ruin everything. Not this time though. I just wish ginger would have spoken up more. I didn't get as much one on one time with him as I would have wanted.

Suja has expanded their line of beverages past the world of juice cleanses. While I appreciate the juice cleanse, I have to admit that for a lot of people it's probably a fad, especially with the hefty price tag attached to it. There are also more and more companies popping up who are providing that service and sooner or later that bubble us bound to burst to some extent. Maybe it will blow up and some little bubbles will be left over, but one thing is for certain and that is that the market cannot sustain all of these companies. I'm glad Suja is spreading their wings into other avenues of juice.

With their Essentials line Suja is offering quality juices at a lower price point. I went for the Berry Goodness this time around, well because I'm a sucker berries. There's not big reveal. I just love the things. This is a mixture of blueberries, strawberries and blackberries amongst other fruits. Unfortunately for me, but probably welcomed by most is that one of the main ingredients in here is banana puree. Even though I have a complete disdain for bananas I did not let them ruin this smoothie for me. This has a wonderful mixed berry flavor that tastes like someone mushed up the fruit in front of your eyes. There is a banana aftertaste, but if I can look past it, anyone can. One good thing about that devil fruit is that it thickens up the beverage nicely (along with crushed up chia seeds). The apple juice that is the base of the drink sweetens up tings nicely, and naturally.

Once you get to the bottom portion of the bottle there is tartness from the orange and lemon juice involved. I shook this thing up pretty darn well, but it still just sat at the bottom. It was an interesting turn of flavor, but I strangely enjoyed it.

This is cold pressed and highly enjoyable for less than half of the price of their original line. Grab a hold people and don't let go. It would be a shame to see this company go down with the “juice cleanse” ship.

Ahh, the joys of simplicity for simplicities sake. It leads to a world where you get exactly what you expect, with no wildcards in the mix. Suja understand this, so for this juice the only ingredients are carrot, apple, celery, cucumber, beet and lemon. Six simple fruits and vegetables all juiced together into a whole that is as delicious as it is nutritious. I suppose that could mean that it tastes like dog food and isn't healthy at all, but I assure you this rides the other side of the spectrum.

All of the ingredients play a role in the flavor. The apples serve as a nice sweet base, the lemon adds a nice bit of tartness to the ending and it has a nice earthy flavor to it due to the carrots, cucumbers and beets. The celery rides the top of the flavor, but it's not nearly as strong as it is in other cold pressed juices I have tasted. I appreciate that they chose to dull it down, as it normally tends to be too intense and distracting.

Drinking healthy tastes and feels great. We should all really do it more often.

New juice cleanse companies are popping up all over the place. I for one love it and appreciate that people are taking the time to consider what they are putting into their bodies (I need to do the same). I would love to do one of these cleanses, but I simply cannot afford it. If I were to purchase the 5-day cleanse it would cost me $270. That is more than a months rent for me (Yes I live in Buffalo with one of the countries lowest average rent cost). Sure I could knock it down to a 3-day cleanse, but that is still going to put me back $162. Unfortunately it's just not in my budget.

The Vanilla Cloud beverage is the daily dessert for this cleanse. You're supposed to drink it last in the day (at least three hours before bed). I like that this exists. In recent years I have fallen victim to the practice of not thinking a meal is complete until I have dessert. Dessert for me just happens to be a square or two of dark chocolate, so it's not completely horrible, but it's a practice I should probably kick at some point.

What does a juice cleanse dessert consist of? Water, coconut, honey, almonds, acerola cherry, cinnamon, vanilla bean, nutmeg and camu camu. They are all healthy things that sound like they would be great together, and I assure you that they are. This tastes like almond milk with some cinnamon and nutmeg in the mix. A seasonal almond milk if you will. I would also explain it as a very subdued chai. I actually don't taste the coconut in here at all, which I'm okay with. There are also some light chunks in here, but they are small, and just make some sips a little gritty.

I really enjoyed this, and it makes me wish even more that this cleanse was something I could do. I'm sure after five days you would feel a vast improvement, but at the same time what income bracket do you need to be apart of to participate.