Taiwan - 98 Reviews

This couldn't look more like chocolate milk. I knew it wasn't. I knew it. It just looked so much like it that I endlessly hoped that it did. So much. Then I took a sip and...bleh. It has a bit of an open, airy, slightly sweet, packing peanut taste. But it looks so much like chocolate milk. I gave it to my boss, because I'm a fantastic employee, and told him it was chocolate milk. Because of who I am and the fact that we've been working together for like five years, he knew I was up to something. Then he smelled it, confirmed I was up to something, drank it anyway, and for a minute, made that "ugh" sound.

Different tastes for different countries, I guess. If it was my job to sell this drink I might quit my job because I don't know anyone who would desire this drink, but I'm sure it's huge in Taiwan and I'm going to get a lot of foreign flack for this review. It is sweetened so I assume this is a casual drink, like pop would be to us. Taiwan? Anyone? I know there are a couple of you over there that can answer me.

I'm glad I cornered you here in this elevator. I bet if we weren't both professionals this would seem really creepy. You know, a guy chasing another guy from the parking lot into a building, and then just narrowly making it into the elevator before the doors closed. If this was a movie I bet I would kill you shortly. Oh don't worry, this isn't a movie and I'm not going to kill you. Or am I? No I'm just joshin' ya.

The reason I wanted to talk to you was because I have a great idea for an episode of your show. No, no please let me finish before you say a word. Okay I know you go into a lot more technical stuff on the show, but I have an idea to do a show about a drink. A specific drink at that: Ichitan's Double Drink. I know you've heard of it because it's one of the most popular drinks in Taiwan and I know you're a worldly man. Here's the breakdown. First you take some nice pale dry ginger ale and shake the crap out of it for a good twenty minutes. Then you open it over a barrel and let the now uncarbonated soda pour in. Secondly, you take a container of plain aloe juice and filter out all of the chunks. The liquid gets poured into the barrel, and I don't care what you do with the chunks. Maybe play pranks with them. Finally you take the contents that are in the barrel and add a buttload of electrolytes so that it has that specific aftertaste that the Rain line of Gatorade has. Shake it all up and put in a bottle to be sold. It's delicious I tell you. I know they throw some berries on the label, but that's just for show.

Oh, I don't work for the company. I just love the drink, and this is how I've recreated it at home. Wait…€¦.what? You don't work for How Stuff Works? You're actually just a janitor? Well why did you let me waste my time you jerk. I'm getting you fired and possibly arrested for impersonating an executive. Prepare to meet your cell you worthless liar!

In the limited amount of time that I have spent in the UK in my life there is one thing that I have learned above all else; the fine folks there sure know how to make a great cup of tea. I have been a fan of herbal teas since my teenage years, but it wasn't until I toured the United Kingdom for my first time that I could honestly say that I was a fan of straight up black tea. Every night after we would play a show we would head back to someone's house to stay for the night. Without fail, as soon as we settled in, our host would as us if anyone would like a cup of tea. For the first couple of days I experimented with different variations. I started off drinking it black, but it was too bitter. Then I tried it with just sugar. It was still not quite right. By day three I had resigned to drinking my tea with both cream (soy if they had it) and sugar. It was incredibly relaxing, and enjoyable to the taste buds. Every night that I have spent in those countries since has been accompanied with a nice cup of tea.

A company from Taiwan may make this, but it really reminds me of the tea I had in the UK. Well a cold version with a bit more creamer in it. I have to be honest here. It has a lot more creamer in it. It's a bit too much, but it's still enjoyable. I feel like the fine folks abroad would enjoy this as a to-go drink on a hot summer day. Then as the day cools down and the night sets in they would enjoy a nice cup of their classic hot tea.

Plums = Prunes. Like the Alamo, never forget. Also never forget that in the East, their prunes are smoked or something because everything plum/prune flavored tastes like you are eating their Western equivalent at a bonfire. Smokes. It's like chipotle fruit. Now allow me to read the ingredients to this drink because it should be the best drink I've ever had:
Water. Sugar. Hawthorn berry. Plum. Hibiscus flower. Licorice.

Could this drink sound any better? I mean, I don't know what hawthorn berry tastes like, but it's a berry. I get it. The plum/prune, I can say with most certainty, ruined this drink. I cannot taste anything but that. I love hibiscus drinks and love licorice and those are non-existent and that blows. It smells and to a lesser extent tastes like fruity beef jerky. Man. Editor Dan, the bequeather of this drink, was right. It sucks and should be better. If I could dissect this drink, I would do it in a heartbeat. Take all the plum/prune DNA out of it, add some water to put it back together, drink it again and love it.

Drats. This sucked.

I've been fooled for the last time. First it was soursop, then white gourd and now it's green pumpkin. Let me tell you a secret I'm pretty sure they are all exactly the same thing. The sure as hell all taste exactly the same. It tastes like your drinking the milk leftover after eating a bowl of the strongest grain cereal you've ever tasted. I bet this is exactly what horse food tastes like. I had such high hopes for a pumpkin drink. You've beaten me again Taiwan.

I knew that soursop had another name, and I like soursop. It's nice and fruity. I had it in my mind grapes that white gourd was soursop under a different name. I sat down ready to enjoy a nice fruit blast. I didn't get that. I didn't get that at all. Instead I got a mouthful of "cereal tea." My ladyfriend says it tastes like the Japanese dessert mochi. She's right it does, and I don't like those either.

You can take a sip of this and hold it in your mouth for as long as you can hold your breath, and all you will taste is a weak sweet tea. The moment you swallow and breathe it's all cereal and rice. The fact that this comes in a juice box is mind bottling. Maybe children in Taiwan are just accustomed to this flavor. If you gave this to Joe-Schmoe elementary school student I bet they would slap you in your face. I wouldn't blame them. Now I really wish I had some soursop.

Come on baby. Let's just get down tonight. I know we come from different sides of the tracks, you being fruit punch and me being a vegetable juice. It's about time that we knock boots, right? We've been together for three weeks and I've been good not to ask you for it. You know, it. Let's just pour our juices together. This is an old car, we can go in the back, put down a tarp, and get our juices all over the place. Mix 'em up. You know you want to, girl. Yeah girl. Unscrew that cap. Yeah, just throw it in the front seat. Come on, girl. I drink my vegetable juice all the time. It's about time that I drank some fruit juice. Daddy needs his vitamin C. I've had my cap off for ten minutes now. I was born ready. Just splash some stuff over there. Yeah, that's the stuff.

Hey, would you mind doing something for me? Would your pour some of your delicious fruit juice in my head? I just want to try it out. I want to taste what our juices together taste like. Yeah, just pour it right on in there. Don't worry about getting some on me. I love it. Now let me take a sip here. Ugh, are you feeling alright? Ugh, this is gross. What am I going to do now? It's all mixed in and I'm going to have to drink fifty-five gallons of it. This was a terrible idea. Maybe they were right. Maybe this is why you're not supposed to mix your side of the tracks with my side. Vegetable juice and fruit juice just don't mix. Oh, sure, girl, it's fun to make, but to drink...it's like fruit but then carrot flavored fruit, then just strange cabbage or spinach. I'm sorry, Daphne, you've got to go. I've got to clean this up and I might throw up and you don't want to see that. I'm sorry, baby. It's not you. It's me.

Job was a sad man. Generally sad. Depressed sad. It's nothing that he could do or change. It was a chemical imbalance that, through no fault of his own, caused him to cry constantly. The only thing that would make him happy was to eat edamame by the barrel. He would go to sushi restaurants and order three servings of it himself before he had the money to buy a steamer of his own. He would always have some dessert, too. He loved his sweets.

One day, Job had just drank a glass of water and eaten his sixth serving of edamame. He didn't have any money to keep the soybeans a-flowin' so, naturally he began to cry. He cried harder than he had ever cried before. While he was crying, the waitress brought him over the check and a piece of candy to cleanse the palate a little bit. He sadly ate the candy, which, by the way, is the worst way to eat sweets. He cried so hard that a constant stream of tears rushed down his cheeks and into his cup of water. He got up and paid the bill and went home to continue on his sad day.

The waitress, who was a bit off in the head, saw what had happened and saw where the liquid in the glass came from. She looked at it, saw that it was a little thick, and a little milky, and she did the unthinkable and drank some of Job's tears. While she didn't hate it, she thought that it was good enough to market. She called Job in as she had been in there enough times that they were on a first name basis. She told him to make more because she was going to bottle it and sell it. He thought it was gross that she drank it but he was happy that he made something that someone enjoyed so he ate soybeans on the house and cried into multiple open containers. The waitress bottled them and sold them at the restaurant. They didn't sell many because they were labeled as "Job's tears" but the ones that were sold, we enjoyed. People said that the drink tasted like watery, slightly sweetened, soybean juice.

Job was happy that all of his sadness made some people happy and he could at least make money crying all day. The waitress made a new friend, Job, who ended up being her business partner for a long time. The people who frequented the restaurant were deranged because they literally and voluntarily drank someone's sorrow.

You've had it before, you have forgotten about it, and for that, you should kick yourself because Vanilla Coke is as good as it ever was. The same as it ever was. The same as it ever was. This can, unlike cans that Americans buy, is from Thailand. Derek's daddy got it for us. Sure, on one side it says "Coca-Cola" in English, and "vanilla" in a sweet, 80's font, but everyone knows what that looks like. The other side is the money shot.

Flavor? I have always loved vanilla coke. I will admit that I haven't bought it in a while, but that's because I find it hard to find in a single can or bottle. I don't need a twelve pack of anything so I just skip right on by that purchase without taking a second glance. I don't know what this is sweetened with, whether it's real sugar or corn syrup, but this can't didn't really stand a chance once I took a drink.

Coke, you are great in many languages. For that, America, Taiwan, and other countries that decided to remain anonymous when I took the poll thank you for your years of dedicated service.

When I first saw this I got really excited because I was under the impression that it was ginger flavored aloe juice. The packaging really looks like it should be aloe. The four people I offered this two all asked if it was aloe when I handed it to them. When I realized it was a ginger green tea I was slightly bummed, but it still sounded great. I had no idea how great it actually would be. This is my new favorite drink. It's jasmine green tea (it tastes extra floral, but in the best way possible) with real ginger juice in it. On top of that the main sweetener in it is honey. There isn't a burn from the ginger, but the flavor of it is very strong.

I was halfway through the bottle before I was able to place what this reminded me of. It has the aftertaste, and the after swallow feeling, of bubble tea. It's like the faint film that the tapioca balls leave in your mouth. It's strange but incredible. This is seriously my new favorite drink. I need to make a trip back up to Toronto (where I found it) and buy a case. I want everyone I know to try it and fall in love with it like I have.

Derek's daddy went back to Taiwan and brought back more goodies. This is, apparently, a hot ticket item. Does "hot ticket" mean that it's hard to come by or that it sells like hotcakes? Let's assume that it means the latter and continue.

I didn't know what to expect, you know, because most of the can is not in English. I knew it was carbonated and that's about it. When translating the site from Chinese to English, the product title actually came through as "Victoria vigorously soda". I can only assume that it's a bit of Engrish but it could also mean that it's an energy drink. "vigorously", and adjective which seems like a strange word to use in that context, would, to me at least, mean energy.

It tastes a bit energy and a bit cola and a bit citrus and a way bit sweet. It's not bad, just very candied. If you could carbonate a sugar stick, this is what it would taste like.

For your viewing pleasure and enjoyment. I have drank and video'd my review for 7 Eleven's very own "Essence of Chicken." Watch the video and let me drink this for you.

Hey guys we have a great juice here. In reality it was sweet enough on it's own, but Johnson really upped his game when he added sucrose to the mix to make it sweeter. I know this might sound crazy but what if we also added high fructose corn syrup into the mix? Sweet is good. The kids love sweet! Sure it takes away from the flavor a bit and it really is overly sweet with it in it, but it will cut down overhead because we can use more sweetener and less juice. Who cares if it makes an otherwise great juice a bit syrupy? It worked for Coke, so it can work for us!

They promise. They deliver. Or I can only assume, since I can't read the packaging. This is a guava juice box. When I was a kid I always got Ssips juice boxes. While those were all well and good, if I had gotten a guava flavored one I would have been one ecstatic kid. I'm pretty sure this is only 15% juice, but it's still enjoyable. Do you have a kid in elementary school? Treat them well. Get them some fancy juice boxes.

This is my last coffee drink for a while. Three of them were given to me by my one handed boss and I got my fix and they were all good but I don't drink them often and I have a lot of self-conscience issues with my breath smelling. I don't think that it does but I've had a boss that drank a lot of coffee and their breath smelled like they ate a crap sandwich. I can't have that happen to me. I'm charming and I don't want to be charming and have pooh breath.

When I was a lad, I used to take tae-kwon-do. I may have mentioned it before but I don't care. I'll say it again. I used to take tae-kwon-do. We used to make coffee with the complimentary coffee the main dude put in the waiting room for parents who were waiting for their kids to be done punching, kicking, and to a way lesser extent, breaking boards. We would make an eight-ounce cup and put about eleven sugars in it. It really smoothed it out, and for a kid, it was drinkable because no thirteen-year-old kid should be drinking coffee. This drink tastes like that. There is a real, roasted coffee undertone and it's smoothed out with milk and sugar. I don't know how cappuccino it tastes, but it's a pretty standard coffee taste to me. Nothing special.

I honestly craved some cocoa in here. That might make it awesome. Maybe I'll look for a mocha version of this. For now, I'll give it an "eh" rating. Nothing says "Hey, how's that drink you've got? It looks good." like "Eh." Flattering.

As much as I would like to make up a story, this drink deserves a legitimate review. I don't know what a pomelo is but I know what green tea tastes like and subtracting that out pomelo is something else. Think of green tea and then think of adding both oranges and cantaloupe and some sort of floral essence to this drink and there you have it. It's all-natural and it is actually a wonderful drink.

I got this in a tiny Asian market 'round the corner from my house and I have never seen it anywhere else. I guess that's handy for me, but for you, it might be tricky to track down. If you find it, I think it was a dollar and it was a dollar well spent.

It's everything you love about green tea and everything you would love about a citric juice combined into a simple and delicious drink. I wish I hadn't waited this long to drink it because I have unknowingly been holding back on myself.

My dad brought this back from a work trip he took to Taiwan. I was both excited and disgusted at the thought of drinking this. We decided to surprise Jay with the drink and filmed the results.



As you could see, the drink is really slimy and has little chunks of mushroom in it. Jay and Mike thought it had a barley taste to it, but I found it to be more of a mushroom soup taste. None of the ingredients are in English on the bottle but I was able to find a description of the drink on the manufactures website:
"Features Description:
Carefully selected organic cultivation of fresh white back black fungus, including iron, calcium, and glial-rich protein, known as plant called bird's nest, to prevent high blood pressure, have stomach scavenger reputation, high in fiber to help slimming thin"

I'm assuming "have stomach scavenger reputation" is mistranslated by Google. I thought about giving it another try while writing this review, but just the smell of it made my stomach turn.

I'm not a fan of V8 vegetable juice. I've tried it several times over the past 20 years and it never tasted good to me. When I saw this on the shelf at the co-op, that's what I instantly thought of. But then I remembered how delicious V8 Splash is. Plus, Alo has never failed us in the past so this couldn't be that bad, could it?

First, lets look at the list of fruits and vegetables that are in here:

• Broccoli


• Cabbage


• Celery


• Spinach


• Passion Fruit


• Carrot


• Grape


• Pineapple


• Lemon


• Apple


• Orange


• Strawberry

It's quite the assortment of fruits and veggies. Upon opening it, it smelled like soup, a vegetable or minestrone if you will. This both excited and scared me. Don't get me wrong, I love a good soup on a chilly autumn day, but I like to eat soup out of bowl with a spoon while it's still hot. I don't like cold soup (especially gazpacho).

So the question of the hour is, does it taste like soup? Indeed it does! It's like drinking a bottle of vegetable noodle soup, with the aloe chunks acting as the alphabet pasta. While it's not something I see myself drinking on a daily basis, it's actually not bad at all. If I was in the mood for soup on a hot day, I could totally see this being amazing. There's no distinct fruit or vegetable flavors to it. It's just a jumble of all the flavors. With the addition of the aloe, fruit, and cane sugar, it's slightly sweet but allows the flavors of the soup... I mean vegetable juice to stand out.

On the front of this juice-box, which doesn't contain juice, there are the following items that scared the heck out of me:

• Eggs


• Bananas

There were also soybeans on the box, but that didn't scare me, you know, 'cause I'm tough.

I brought this to my brother and he jumped right in. He said, and I later concurred, that it tastes like the milk after you eat a bowl of Honey Comb. Initially, it's very sweet but once it's in your mouth, it's fine, so stop crying about it.

Derek's daddy brought this over from his work trip to Taiwan and I bet he tried to gross us out but surprise, Derek's daddy, it's not half bad. Anyone who has drank the milk for any particular corn based honey cereal has had this drink before.

Dear TropiKing,
I found your aloe drink in a small Asian market near my house and was excited to try you. I love aloe and pomegranate so I thought this would be a winning combo. Man was I disappointed. For one, it barely tastes like pomegranate. Instead it tastes like a mediocre grape/apple juice. Secondly, the aloe chunks are way too small. As Jay said when I told him this, "go big or go home."