Sweet 'tauk - 4 Reviews

Jim doesn't get sick often but when he does, he gets really sick. He can stay healthy during multiple cold and flu seasons but out of the blue, he'll get it and it hits him hard with all of the symptoms of a cold or flu to the fullest extent. It usually puts him out for two or three days. People call him a wimp about it but truth is, Jim has a far better immune system than them because he's only sick one time for every three times they're sick.

One of those seasons was upon us and Jim caught it and caught it badly. He had a head cold and couldn't breathe and was blowing his nose every twenty minutes. He just wanted to sleep. He thought about how he usually felt better when he drank orange juice but didn't have any. He went to a corner store by his house and bought a lemonade. He thought that if Vitamin C came from oranges it would come from lemons, too. He brought home a new type of lemonade that he had never tried before because of the nice packaging and the fact that there were no preservatives and he had to shake it before he drank it.

In all his sickness, he took a big sip and loved it. Everything tasted like styrofoam until now. He could taste the lemonade and the lemons and the sugar. It was like he woke up from a deep sleep to be in a technicolor dream world. He could taste the lemons and they were both bitter and sour just like a fresh lemon is.

Although still sick, Jim felt better for a limited time. He knew that all the soup wouldn't make him feel as good as a nice, fresh glass of that lemonade would.

Everyone knows about the crunchy, organic hippies. The new ones are just jealous that they missed the entirety of the sixties and all the movements and music and drugs so they think that by juggling in public parks, not showering and putting "Ithaca Is Gorges" stickers on their Prius that they can feel the same thing. Those are the same people that sell Ziplok bags of organic granola for like twelve dollars a bag and won't make eye contact when you ask what's in it. Then there is the other kind.

The other kind made this drink. They are smart scientists and experimentalists that use science and logic to make things smarter, better and better for you. This drink is clearly a pride project and you can taste it with every sip. There are not many ingredients in there and every ingredient you would feel just fine giving to a child. It's some of the strongest, most sour and tart lemonade I have ever drank. There is stuff on the bottom with a nice strawberry taste. I didn't get a lot of mint but the competition is fierce in that little bottle. The lemons are just teaming up and destroying everything. It might have made alright with the strawberry and let him hang out for a bit but not without putting up a fight. Make no mistake; this is lemonade first and foremost. It's just lightly flavored with strawberry and even lighter with mint. Someone with a finer palate than I might be able to make it out more. It's definitely a "grandma's backyard mint" and not an "off the shelf" mint.

Everything was done right in this drink and if I had one complaint, it would be that they told me to "shake well" which I did. Upon opening I was greeted by a geyser similar so something you would see and an ICP show. Out of habit I would give it a little jostle every now and then and would be punished time and time again by doing so. I don't know what's going on in that bottle behind the scenes but I think that it rhymes with "witchcraft."

It saddens me to say that I don't see this company lasting very long. I wish them nothing but a bright future, but I don't think America is ready for semi-sweet lemonade. Even health conscious people I know prefer their lemonade with a nice serving of sugar in it. This line of lemonades just doesn't meet the acceptable minimum sweetener that people are likely to embrace. Personally I enjoy it; it's nothing but water, lemon juice, Meyer lemon juice (a cross between a lemon and a mandarin), and evaporated cane juice, but it doesn't quite get me to where I want to go. I do appreciate the ever so faint orange taste from the Meyer lemon, but it's just not enough. As I have written about before I have preconceived notions when it comes to lemonade, and as much as I wish I could be satisfied with a lower sugar content, the junkie in me needs its fix.

Sometimes your preconceived notions on how something should be are not always the best. In the world I have embraced lemonade is a beverage that is overly sweet and at the same time also tart. It's the child in me that craves this as a refreshing summer beverage. The thing is who decided that is what lemonade should be? We've been conditioned to expect that, the same with the sweetness of soda. If from a young age we were given versions of these beverage with little to no sugar, that is what we would see as the norm, and I'm sure it's what we would crave.

This bottle of Sweet'tauk is how I wish lemonade was introduced to me. If you take out the added blackberry and ginger flavors, all that is in this bottle is water, lemon juice and evaporated cane juice. The results are very different than what you are used to. There is more of a tartness to it, but it's not even close to an extent that would make it hard to drink. It tastes like lemonade with less sugar, because that it what it is. I'd be lying if I said my body didn't wish there was more sugar in here, but my brain, who runs the show, knows that I don't need all that excess sweetener and it's happy for the lack of it. I want to have grown up on this. I want this to be what my body expects when it wants lemonade. I certainly have a sweet tooth that I'm working on kicking, and this would fit right into my ideal sugar-intake world.

A downfall of their being less sugar is that the berry flavor is not as exaggerated. Again this is something I could get used to, and there is enough berry in there for me not to question its naming. I do wish the ginger was more present in burn as it is in flavor, but you can't always get what you want. I understand that the majority of people out there don't want their beverages to hurt them when they drink them, so I can accept it for what it is and what is it is what our past should have been.