United States - 4098 Reviews

Just as these were popping up on shelves around Buffalo, they were already on their way out. I was able to get these in my hometown for less than a week before they disappeared from the shelves of my local Wegmans. To be fair, that may have been for the best. While I've enjoyed all four of the Seltzer Jr flavors, I couldn't see myself continuously buying them. They are a nice fun treat, but not something that I need all the time (my vanilla and cranberry lime still reign supreme).

What does it taste like when a yeti gets itself in some troubled fun? Well, it kind of tastes like fruit punch flavored Sprite with the sugar left out, at least to me. If you read other reviews on the internet people seem to be all over the place with what they think this tastes like. It would be interesting to see what Polar had intended the flavor to be.

What do you think the world would have been like if at the height of the Chicago Gangsters energy drinks were available? Do you think they would have been included in prohibition? Would barrels of Red Bull and the like have been smuggled across the Great Lakes from Canada? If not would everyone just have overdone it with them because they didn't have access to alcohol and wanted to get “messed up” in some way, even if that way was just a little jittery? Perhaps some business minded person would have bottled it and given it the name Hi-Ball in order to have people pretend that they were still drinking alcohol. One thing that is for certain is that the amount of sleep had in the 1920s would have severely decreased. Perhaps it would have caused them to become sloppier in their organized crime and things would have fallen apart sooner. Who knows? Let's time machine this thing and give a bunch of companies the recipes and see how it plays out?

If it did happen, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that no one would be drinking a blood orange energy drink. I doubt more than .5% of the population of Chicago at the time had ever even heard of such a fruit. I wonder if “normal” oranges were even around the city in abundance at that point. They certainly would be /were missing out. This is delicious, but isn't anything blood orange flavored? It tastes like a light soda and nothing like an energy drink, because it is all organic and doesn't rely on the chemicals that produce that classic flavor. This is all caffeine (from guarana and ginseng), niacin and B vitamins. You know, ingredients that won't affect the flavor all that much. It's just wonderful sparkling blood orange juice. I could ask for nothing more and gangsters could only dream of such a gem.

I was really excited about this. Guava flavored ginger ale sounds like a dream come true. I also knew going into it that it was sweetened with stevia, but I was hoping/expecting the guava to overpower it. My hoping was in vain.

For a split second, when it first hits your tongue this is absolutely incredible. It's everything that I wanted it to be unfortunately that only lasts a fraction of a moment before the stevia hits you. At that point it tastes like neither guava nor ginger. It just becomes a diet fruity flavor.

It's obvious that a lot of care goes into making this, and I understand the health conscious aspect of the zero calorie sweetener, but as soon as that stevia hits me it could be bottom of the barrel soda and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. If I were someone who couldn't drink real sugar and had to rely on zero calorie alternatives, I'm sure this would be absolutely wonderful. As a consumer of actual sugar it doesn't do anything for me. If only a sugared version of this existed I would be in heaven.

I am a big fan of Joe Tea, but unfortunately it's not available around Buffalo, or at least so I thought. Out of all of the places I would find this product at an antique mall was pretty low on my list. Yet, there it was amongst the overpriced porcelain and the furniture I generally like, but can't justify paying so much for. Why was I at said antique mall you might ask? Well, let me tell you I was there to look for a cabinet to put the taxidermy coyote I recently bought on. Yes, I am a 20+ year vegetarian and yes I have a bunch of taxidermy. It's all older than I am and I really want my house to look like the grandfather's from Lost Boys. Either that or a museum.

So there I am, wondering why a toy from a cereal box is marked $60 that I had about a dozen of when I was a kid when I glance up and see the cooler filled with Joe Tea. It was a glorious site, especially when I noticed this new flavor.

This is basically their great half and half with more caffeine added. It's the Jolt of iced tea. I can't complain. I haven't tasted them back to back, but in my memory it tastes the same as the regular version, which I love. It tastes like tea. It tastes like lemonade. It tastes like playing golf. Wait, no. That's just a name. It's just delicious and it's sweet without being overwhelming. It's what I want and it's what I got and I'm a happy shopper besides going home empty handed otherwise.

I'm pretty sure that as I was going to take my first sip of this I fell asleep, because surely this must be a dream. This is absolutely wonderful. The only ingredients are blackberry puree and chia seeds. I couldn't ask for anything more. Blackberries are one of, if not my favorite fruit and chia seeds just make drinks fun. This is 95% juice. That means that blackberries make up 95% of what is contained in this bottle. I wish I could have this flow out of my sink as water currently does. I want a never ending stream of it at the ready. I could drink an Olympic size swimming pool full of this and it still wouldn't be enough. Are you getting the picture yet? This is perfection.

So, I just did some research I should have done years ago. I always kind of assumed sweet tea was just iced tea with a lot of sugar in it, so to make it overly sweet. When I was looking at this bottle I was a bit shocked that it has significantly less sugar than a bottle of Brisk. Sure, Brisk is super sweet, but it's in a different way. A quick trip to the internet told me that sweet tea is actually made by adding the sugar to it while the water is still hot and the tea bags are brewing. Huh, I guess that makes total sense. So I guess it is that process that gives sweet tea is very specific sweetness that makes you think you can actually taste the individual granules of sugar, and not just a general sweetness.

30g of sugar in a bottle is a decent amount, but it's still a lot lower than a lot of beverages out there these days (a 16oz coke would have 52g). the thing is this tastes like there is so much more actual sugar in it that has not been fully dissolved. In fact this tastes more like sugar than tea. The mango flavor kind of sits on top, and it is definitely more of a flavoring than actual mango juice. Overall this could be quite enjoyable on a blazing hot summer day, but I couldn't see myself drinking it on the regular. Of course, I don't drink many sweetened drinks on the regular anymore.

After drinking over 4,000 beverages to review, things can get boring. There is only so much one can say about the same old drinks day in and day out. Sure, I still really enjoy a lot of them, but my inspiration is running dry and that means Thirsty Dudes has slowed down a lot from when we first started seven years ago. I wasn't even looking for something new to review in the grocery store when I found this. I just really wanted some juice. While I'm in this frame of mind I almost always go for a 100% juice, but when you have a bottle of jalapeno watermelon juice staring you down, you settle for the 20% in order to experience the wild ride it's inevitably going to take you on. So, sit down, strap yourself in, crack open the bottle and let the adventure begin.

First off, when I opened this up, I hated the way it smelled. It doesn't smell unpleasant, but it also does not smell how I want a juice to smell. It smells like a liquefied, fruity salad. Lucky for all of us involved it tastes much better than that. The makeup of this juice includes apple, lemon, watermelon, raspberry and jalapeno. The watermelon actually makes up a very small portion of the ingredients, but I'll give it to them for leaning on it to have a great name for the juice. Instead of tasting just like a spicy watermelon juice, this is more of a spicy fruit punch. It is a great fruit punch though, where you can make out the individual fruits used and not just a general hodgepodge of sweetness. I'd also like to note that the spiciness of it is not overwhelming either. The pepper is there as more of a flavor than a heat factor. The more you drink the hotter it gets, but it never gets to a critical level.

This is now someone's favorite drink. It's not mine, but I certainly appreciate it for being something new and unusual. It's not the type of thing that I would drink the entire 15oz bottle of in one sitting, but I have found myself continuously going back to it throughout the day to take a sip here or there. There are different kinds of beverages in the world and this is the kind you sip and ponder.

Round two of the Polar Seltzer Jr line. I had heard that one of these was supposed to taste like Swedish Fish and as soon as I popped this open I knew I had struck gold. The scent is an exact match for one of my favorite candies. The idea that I could have that in liquid form, minus all the sugar had me drooling like my cat when I pick him up and he goes limp. I guess I should have known this would be the one by the name and that the mermaid's tails on the can definitely resemble Swedish Fish.

Upon taking a sip, I realized that the sought after flavor could not be really achieved without sugar. It kind of tastes like the candy, but all of the boldness is lost. It is still very good, but it is certainly not liquid Swedish Fish. The more I hold it in my mouth and swish it around the more I can taste it, but if you weren't thinking that it would probably just have a fruity berry flavor to it.

I spend far too much time reflecting back on my trip to Mexico last winter. I didn't go to any resorts, or the coast. I toured with friends' band and we hit the major cities and were in the real deal heart of the country. I even had an interaction with a member of a cartel, who happened to be at a show and really liked the band. I only knew because he was bragging to me about his custom made suit that was bullet and stab proof. What a life. I actually never think much about those things, but I always find my mind wandering to the food and drinks I consumed there. My outlook on tacos has forever been changed. I'm glad to have experienced them in their true form, but now the ones back home are lacking and leave me wanting. Another thing I had a lot of was juice, which was obscenely cheap for fresh squeezed varieties. My favorites were the orange/carrot juice that I had with my morning tacos every day and what I believe was hibiscus beet juice that I would buy in the markets. They were both incredible in their own ways, and this juice is like a combination of them both (minus a few ingredients). It's simply oranges and beets juiced with nothing else added and it is completely fantastic, to an extent that it is kind of dangerous. I feel like I could consume mass amounts of this if I wasn't paying attention. Would that really be such a bad thing though? It's just juice and it tastes so fresh and healthy. I already want another bottle. So long savings account.

Does water not have to be put on ingredients lists anymore? The reason I ask is that it is nowhere to be found on this bottle and the first two things listed are organic maple sap concentrate and organic maple syrup. I know that when maple is tapped from a tree it is very liquidy and only acquires its sticky, syrupy state when cooked, but I didn't realize you could use it as the base for a beverage on its own. I would have assumed you needed to mix it with water. If you were to ask me I would say that I would think this would be a very viscous beverage but it really has the consistency of water.

What we have here is essentially Vitamin Water made with maple. It doesn't taste like maple syrup at all, it's just there as that watery base. It really tastes like a cranberry pomegranate Vitamin Water. It's full of antioxidants, electrolytes, and vitamins. Not what I expected, but enjoyable enough.

When I first saw this I thought it was going to be tangerine juice with honey in it. I salivated at the thought. When I looked at it I realized that it's just a type of tangerine. I was a little disappointed until I took as sip and I realized that it didn't need the honey, not at all. This is nothing but juice of the previously mentioned fruit, and it needs nothing else. Sure it's a little acidic, but what do you expect? I think I might get a stomach ache if I drank too much, but this bottle is the perfect size for such a wonderful juice.

Yes, I know that caffeine is a source of energy, but when it's the only source of energy in a beverage I don't really think of it as an energy drink. X2 has, as the name suggests, two sources of caffeine; black and green tea. Even with that combo the 106mg of caffeine isn't much more than the 95mg that one would find in a cup of coffee. It still does give you a little boost though, especially if you are like me and are sensitive to caffeine.

Not only are their two types of tea in here, but there are also two different sweeteners; cane sugar and clover honey. The result is 33g of sugar per can. So with a ton of tea and sugar you would expect ot know what you are getting yourself into, but the truth is it doesn't taste much like tea. In fact, it tastes more like a kiwi strawberry tea Gatorade type drink. It's like a flavored water and not tea. I actually like the taste, but at first I expected it to be carbonated, because I expect all energy drink to be so, until proven wrong. Then I expected it to be tea heavy, and it was not. This is nothing what I thought at all. It still is a little bit of okay though.

Last year, for an extremely limited time, Polar released the flavor Unicorn Kisses. We weren't as vigilant as we should have been and it passed right by us. Even our clot (which, you know…€¦we have very little) could get us some from Polar direct; they were plum out. This year Unicorn Kisses is back and it brought three other friends with it. This year we were also more on top of things and Polar sent us some samples. Not only do they make wonderful product, but they are also great humans, who understand my needs for weird seltzer and are kind enough to accommodate me (minus the fact that vanilla is still not available in cans).

The first of these four magical flavors, which I believe are aimed towards kids because of their names and the line being called “Seltzer Jr,” is Dragon Whispers. I would expect such a thing to taste of smoke and cinders, but I don't think children, nor would anyone enjoy a liquid smoke seltzer. I suppose it's lucky for us all that Polar decided to go in a different direction.
Smell wise this reminds me of something like Pixie Stix or Sweetarts. That is very strange because a sweetener-less beverage smells like products that are mostly sugar. It's also odd because that is what Red Bull style energy drinks smell like to me. SO yeah, it smells like them, minus the chemical undertones. From the smell I really didn't know what to expect. My taste buds were awaiting an overload of sweetness, but my mind knew that wouldn't be the case. The reality is that it tastes like an unsweetened tropical fruit punch. I was hoping for something a little stranger, but it was quite pleasant and I could see myself drinking a bunch of this

I feel like there are going to be a lot of people who taste different things in this beverage. It's a social experiment that I enjoy.

I've spied this little fella right here for quite a while at my local Target when scoping out other drinks. I will admit that I am cheap and the $5-6 price tag on it always left me picking it up, looking at it for far longer than I needed to, realizing that I look like an idiot, and then putting it back on the shelf after a quick glance left and right. Sure it looked great, but I couldn't bring myself to pay that much for a juice that wasn't perishable. Is there a difference? Probably, but it's also just a mental thing for me. When something needs to be refrigerated I just assume that it is fresher than something that sits on the shelf. Well cut to a few days ago when I'm at Aldi to pick up some carrots to feed the ponies. Yeah I hang out with ponies on a somewhat regular basis. What can I say I live a charmed life. Anyway, at Aldi I see a bunch of these and they are two for $5. Now that is a price I can accept, so I picked this and a bottle of the blackberry chia up.

So now that my penny pinching has been explained away, let's actually talk about this beverage. It is a cold pressed juice that is composed of spinach, apples, kale, lettuce, cucumber, celery, green tea leaves, and a bunch of mint thrown in to make the whole thing weird, but also wonderful. There is both spearmint and peppermint in here and they make up at least half of the flavor. It truly is strange. I've never had minty vegetables before, and you know what? I don't hate it.

Once you make your way past the tidal wave of mint you get to a juice that tastes very much like the vegetables that make it up. It definitely tastes like I'm drinking a minty salad, but somehow I mean that in a good way. I wish they would have held off on the celery, because it's one of those foods that always taste far too strong for me. I love celery on its own, but mixed in with other vegetables it's so overpowering.

This is way different from what I anticipated it to be, but I will definitely be purchasing some more of it if I can continue purchasing it at this price.

My life runs on Polar. I'm pretty sure that by my life running on it, it by default means that the (assumingly) homeless women, who I leave my cans and bottles for, also has her life run by it. Okay, not run, but she probably makes enough from me in a week to get a sandwich or two. I drink far too much of the stuff, well if that were possible. I went from cans, to liters, and have graduated to two liters, because there just that much more for me to consume.

When I saw this in the store, I really thought it was a repackaging of their bottles blueberry lemonade. I bought a box anyway, because I like to have some cans for when I'm out and about. People look at you weird when you're in public drinking directly from a big bottle, yet they walk around with gigantic fountain sodas and think nothing off it. Whatever. So I bought it, cooled them down and then drank one on my way to band practice. Now I love Polar, but they are not the most flavorful seltzer out there. Either La Croix or Spindrift probably has that honor. They all have their place; sometimes you want more, sometimes less. This though, this has a punch to it. The flavor in here is probably the strongest out of the Polar flavors I have tried, which is all of them, minus some seasonal ones I missed. It's wonderful and bold. It's to an extent that you forget that there is no sweetener involved. I need to back and try the bottled version again. I'm pretty sure this is reformulated, but I hope I'm wrong and it's as glorious in a bottle as it is in these cans.

I can't decide if I think that this drink is good for me or trying to punish me. I have drunk Ginger drinks and I have drunk vinegar drinks and this is a marriage between the two. It is not gross but I feel like you have to be an adult to understand what is going on within the confines of this glass bottle. If you take a big enough sip it is very strong, not very sweet and potentially life-saving. I say that because anytime I am drinking a vinegar drink I feel like I am trying to purge whatever disgusting nonsense is in my body. That nonsense of course being my fault to begin with and I ignorantly think that these vinegar drinks are a reset button on the mistakes that I have made in my dining past.

If I have to think of this as a health drink I might think that it is on the better side. It is a little bit sweet and is not as punishing as a straight vinegar drink. If I have to think of this as a casual Tuesday night drink then it probably isn't going to be something I am going to be seeking out. As I previously said it is only slightly punishing and if you are a fan of ginger beer you might be able to make the leap to something like a vinegar drink. It also helps that there is actual ginger root in this drink. As far as it being sparkling, it is only slightly carbonated. It is well shy of a soda pop.

I feel like on a better day I could finish the whole bottle, but on a day where I have kids screaming at me and 15 minutes to dress up for a show and load a car full of gear I don't think that I could be bothered to finish this entire bottle. I really don't want that to diminish the quality of the drink but the amount of effort I find that it is taking me to drink it is not worth it right now. If you have time to sit and sip this it would probably be very good. I am taking big gulps like an absolute idiot in hopes that I can gain as much of its healing qualities as one can when he makes as many poor decisions as I do.

I want to be up front with you, I'm not a coffee connoisseur. I don't drink it all that often and I don't know what makes certain coffees great. I do know a terrible coffee when I taste it and I can happily announce that this does not fall in that category. I couldn't say if an avid coffee drinker would think this is wonderful, but I can assure you it is not horrible.

For the record, I drank this cold. The instructions say you can make it with either hot or cold water, but since I'm sweating just sitting here, I went with the cold. I'm not sure how that affects the flavor, but here is my experience.

This coffee is bitter (as all black coffee is), but it is in no way harsh. It lacks an acidity I have found in other coffees and that results in a certain smoothness to it. It's not smooth to the extent cold brew is, but I doubt that level can be achieved with an instant coffee. It also has slight fruity undertones that give it a slight sweetness. This brew is a blend of two coffees (from Colombia's Narino region and San Jose Poaquil). That means pretty much nothing to me, but I'm sure it's important to some people. I don't know a thing about different beans and different blends. Why am I writing this review, I am completely unknowledgeable about coffee? The answer is that Mike may know even less than I do, and we need to review everything. We have a problem. Perhaps an outsider's view on this will be deemed helpful.

I expected this to taste like cold trash juice. I have only had instant coffee once and it was wretched. As it turns out I enjoyed this a decent amount. If it wasn't for the fact that caffeine drives me bonkers I might even drink it on a semi regular basis. It certainly is convenient and from my brief history with coffee it tasted better than some actual brews I've had. I hope I did you well Sudden.

Well well. Look at this little guy. Sitting here all full of cucumber. What a nice surprise to see something Arizona put out that I was unaware of. Sure, I might not have my ear as close to the ground as I used to but I was caught off guard and didn't think for a second that I wasn't going to get it.

Let's get down to brass tacks. How is she? She's a lot less sweet than Arizona tried and true green tea. That's for truth. There is a very strong scent of cucumber and an equally strong taste. I'm not going to say overpowering but if you're on the fence about cucumbers, this is not the drink for you. There is a commitment issueless amount of cucumber flavor going on within the confides of this can and I know something about commitment issues. I dated my live-in girlfriend for eight years before I ask her to marry me.

I might have drank half of this can. The whole thing is far too much for me. There isn't anything wrong with it but the whole can I feel is a bit gluttonous. You've done a fine thing here, Arizona. Don't take the half I'm going to dump into the sink as an insult. I'm a little under the weather and cannot share the remainder of this.

I know it is summer, but this recent heat humidity combo has been too much. Maybe I'm just getting old, or perhaps it's because I spend my time standing next to a 1,000 degree dryer printing shirts all day. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's the latter. I feel like I'm sweating out more than I can imbibe. All of the water in the world's oceans doesn't feel like it would make a difference. You know if it were desalinated. I'm drinking gallons upon gallons of water every day and it's not enough. Then I drank this bottle of Alpha Wolf and for a brief moment I felt a difference. I felt the will to live return to me. I no longer wanted to lay down on that conveyor belt into the dryer and let the heat finally take me. This is certainly not a cure all. Nor is it some magic potion. It is simply formulated to give you temporary relief when you feel beaten down and dehydrated. In reality the effects didn't last all that long, but for a half hour or so I did feel revitalized as the bottle boasts. Can I really ask for more?

As it turns out, I can in fact ask for more. This could have tasted like old hose water and if it had these results I would have been happy with it, but as it turns out it is quite delicious. It's no secret that most fruit flavored drinks taste little to nothing like the produce they are impersonating. This tastes very much like passion fruit, with a little bit of pineapple thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately erythritol and stevia are in the mix as well. That is fine for some and a complete deal breaker for others. It's very specific taste that shows itself more as the drink warms up. Ice cold it is hardly noticeable. When paired with the passion fruit it didn't bother me nearly as much as it has in other beverages. I guess it's all a part of keep calories low and not poisoning yourself in the process.

Green tea and mint is a nice match but something...something about mint is strange. We brush our teeth with mint and chew mint gum and eat mint candy. Mint is synonymous with dental hygiene and it's sometimes tough to disassociate it and enjoy it in a nice drink.

Bad breath aside, this is good. It's a very subtle mint and if it was more overpowering, I couldn't get past it. The green tea isn't bitter at all and it's lightly sweetened. The illustrious Maple Guild does a good job of sweetened but not over-sweetening these drinks and for that I am appreciative. Personally I don't know if I would be a repeat customer for this but the dude I split it with said it was better than the lemon. Different strokes, I guess.