United States - 4098 Reviews

I don't know what I expected. "Rock & Rye" doesn't describe anything to me, but it's something and I had to drink it. Editor Dan went to Detroit for a photo excursion and generously brought us back a plethora of drinks, this being one of them. "It's original" they say. "It's with cane sugar" they exclaim. You know what I say? It's not great. It's cream soda as a base, and then something...something bitter, something...cherry?

Not for me. I am sure that some people like it, and more power to them, but if I want a bitter, I'll drink a bitter. This probably has a niche market that loves it and drinks cases of it a day and weighs 353 pounds and eats double Whoppers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when they should only have a regular, mom and pop Whopper for lunch. Not for me.

Mike's baby mama has gotten into "extreme couponing." Okay, she's more than just his baby-mama; she's his "live in girlfriend." Okay, they own a house together, have a kid and are as happy as two people who have a screaming five-month-old baby can be. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that she used her newfound magic to get like 30 bottles of these for free. The thing is that Mike never let me know, so I went out and bought a few bottles like a chump.

I know everyone is complaining about it, but it is obscenely hot out. It got up to 91 degrees in Buffalo today. I know to a lot of other areas that probably sounds like a joke, but I am in no way accustomed to the heat and the humidity is the worst. I also spent way too long in an attic today that easily broke 100. I really need to put a thermometer up there to find out for sure. Due to this heat/humidity my normally obscene beverage intake is even higher.

I opened this bottle to have just a glass to cool my down. Now it's all but gone. It's spectacular. The lemonade is tart without having too much of a cheek pinch to it. It would be top grade lemonade to begin with, but the mango is the real gem in here. The flavor is so strong and wonderful. It tastes like I mixed a glass of outstanding lemonade with a glass of
Looza mango juice. It definitely helped cool me down. I think I may need another bottle though. I'm sweating just typing this.sweating just typing this.

Yesterday I went on a boat. I am not good at boats. I took some Dramamine in hopes that it would eliminate my sickness but the seas were rough that day, my friend. Up and down and up and down. I tried that trick where you look at the horizon but it was to no avail. I was feeling ill and no amount of worthless medicine could help. If anything, the Dramamine made me nothing but tired and antisocial. In retrospect, I would have rather not taken the medicine, thrown up, and been done with it. Atop of that, we decided to bring Max, my ever pleasant/jerk son who decided to cry half the time.

Here we are, post boat, and I feel awful. My head is spinning and I can't do anything about it, but I hate taking medicine and refuse. I really don't know why I took that Dramamine. I need something to fix me. I reached for some Body Armor in hope that it can truly "prevent and protect" me from any further feelings of disgust.

I was surprised to see that coconut worked his pasty white face into this drink. I couldn't taste him (gross) but he was in the mix. There are also a handful of vitamins and minerals to keep you "right" but I didn't get a lot of either cranberry or citrus. Maybe a little of each, but not enough to really call it "Cranberry Citrus". Had they just called "Prevent + Protect" that would have been different because I wouldn't go in expecting anything.

The taste isn't bad but you know that there is something in there that is good for you because the flavor isn't that of a juice. Maybe that's coconut man rearing his head, blending with tasty things and mixing them all up. It a bold, fruity flavor but don't expect a juice because you couldn't be more wrong.

My headache is still here and this drink didn't do anything except quench my thirst. You know what cures headaches? Sleep. You know what doesn't cure headaches? Blaring SikTh's "Death of a Dead Day", which is what I'm doing now.

When I was a young kid one of my favorite summer activities was to go to amusement parks. That really shouldn't be a shock because what kid doesn't love rides, games and awesome junk food? There were three different parks within an hour from Buffalo; Darien Lake (later became a six flags), Fantasy Island (always seemed smaller and kind of run down) and my favorite, Crystal Beach.

Crystal Beach was a twenty-minute ride across the border into Canada right on Lake Erie. I think it was always my favorite because it had everything that normal amusement parks had, plus it had it's own awesome beach with a rad pier. It also had one of the greatest roller coasters I have ever ridden, The Comet. You could ride it forwards or backwards. It was sheer magic to a little kid.

The other great thing to come from Crystal Beach is the regional drink Loganberry. It is a very thick juice that is a mixture of blackberries and red raspberries. It's so thick that it's almost like an uncarbonated soda. As a kid I absolutely loved the stuff. It was typically sold in glasses that were dispensed from those giant clear machines that constantly mixed the drinks. If I had any idea what they were called I would post a picture.

As an adult it's a bit thick to drink on any sort of regularity. Drinking it every once and a while definitely brings back fond memories. Like the time I won a giant stuffed Nerd (you know the guys on the candy box). Unfortunately the park closed down in 1989. I can't believe it was that long ago. Now it is just condos. I still go to that beach sometimes. The dilapidated boardwalk is sitting there in pieces waiting for kids to jump off the end into the deep water. I think I need to do that soon.

Dad, can you hand me a root beer? What, how are you out of root beer? I guess you got a point there. It's kind of hard not to drink Dad's Root Beer when you are the dad. You made something besides root beer? A cream soda? I wasn't expecting that. I could see Dad's Birch Beer or Dad's Sarsaparilla, but I never thought you'd make Dad's Cream Soda. Sure, I'll try one.

Wait, why is this blue? Who ever heard of Blue Cream Soda? It looks like windshield washer fluid. Hmmm, it doesn't smell like chemicals. Bottoms up! Oooh, that's a nice smooth cream soda. Good work Dad! It reminds me a lot of the Crush Soda Mousse. It has a nice cotton candy and vanilla taste to it.

This goes to show you just because a company is known for one kind of pop, doesn't mean they can't make other quality flavors/varieties.

Welcome back to the World Series of Soda Pop. We've had an exciting game thus far and we're now in the bottom of the ninth and team Ginger Beer winning against Root Beer 14 to 11.

First up to bat we have Stewarts. Oh he just barely makes it to first on a bunt. Who on Earth bunts when no one is on base? I guess that's Stewarts. Now approaching the plate is Virgils. It's a fly ball out into left field! Virgils brings it in with a double. We now have Stewarts on third and Virgils on second and Barqs is up to bat. Strike One! He seems a little rattled, but let's see how he does on this next pitch. Oh it's a ground ball right to the third baseman. Virgil's not going anywhere, but at least the bases are now loaded. Cooperstown is stepping up to the plate and he's pointing to the stands. This is a root beer that talks a big game and he's looking for a grand slam to win this game for Root Beer. Here's the first pitch. Strike One! Oh man he didn't even swing at it. He's literally shrugging it off. He looks totally bored out there. The pitcher is winding up. Strike Two! Cooperstown was actually leaning back on his bat for that one. The nerve of this guy! It all boils down to this pitch. The runners seem pretty confident and are taking fairly decent leads off the bases. The pitch is thrown and Cooperstown makes contact, although the ball looked like it got hit by a 6 year old. It was a fly ball that went directly into the second baseman's mitt. He then tagged Virgil's out at third. It seems like Stewarts didn't realize that the ball was caught and before he could get back to third the ball was thrown to Goya and that's three outs ladies and gentleman. Ginger Beer Wins the Pennant! Ginger Beer Wins the Pennant! Cooperstown really screwed the pooch on this one ladies and gentleman. He was cocky because he was named after the baseball hall of fame. The thing he didn't realize was that he actually tastes like watered down store brand root beer. Acidic and lacking much flavor. Ladies and gentleman not only did he cause Root Beer to lose the World Series, but he also may be the worst root beer I have ever tasted.

In recent news, the unsweetened tea world has been turned on its ear recently by newcomer Sokenbicha. When Sokenbicha first arrived on the tea scene no one took much notice. It sat on the shelves in its quasi-fancy bottle gathering dust as it was overlooked for Teas Tea. Then one daring individual took a chance during a sale and the tea world has never been the same. Never has such a richly flavored unsweetened iced tea made so many moves in such a short time.

The company knows that flavor is just as important as no sugar, and they make their ingredients count. Most companies treat their unsweetened teas as bare bones. Water and tealeaves with nothing else added. Sokenbicha sees the folly in that and in this particular flavor they add barley, rice, cinnamon and ginger. The result is truly phenomenal. The taste is primarily a nice smooth tea mixed with what tastes like puffed rice. Added to that are the slightest aftertastes of ginger and cinnamon. It is truly a drink to write back to the small town you grew up in and brag about to those who are destined to die never leave.

This drink is so good and natural tasting that I feel like there should be halved guavas floating in it. It basically tastes like someone walked out into the jungle, collected a bushel of guavas, returned home, got their blender out from the bottom cupboard, put a little water in it, added the 467 guavas they picked and drizzled in a dash of agave nectar and pureed the hell out of it. Then because they aren't the world's greatest roommate they left the blender on the counter unwashed for a couple of days and let the fruit flies build up in numbers until their forces were strong enough to conquer the entire house, which then had to be evacuated and fumigated. Was that delicious guava drink really worth all of the trouble? Yes it was, but since you can get basically the same thing in a bottle of Coba, why don't you take it easy on your roommates?

I had high hopes for this drink. Zico has had a good track record so far and made us Thirsty Dudes give coconut water another shot. On top of that, pomegranate is one of my favorite fruits. Both are fairly tropical so I figured this would be a good combo, right?

Meh. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a bad combo, but it's not amazing. This has more of a coconut water flavor, but not a whole lot pomegranate (or berry) flavor to it. There is a slight fruit after taste, but not as much as I would have hoped. This is still one of the best coconut waters I've had, but when something is flavored I assume it's going to be a strong flavor and not just a hint.

When I told Mike and Jay I found this can for 60 cents at Big Lots, they wished me lucked. Unbeknownst to me, Jay had previously reviewed a mango drink from the same company and it wasn't anything to write home about. I was hoping since this was an iced tea it might be better, but nope, not at all. This is pretty generic tasting lemon iced tea. There is nothing special about this except for the can. For cheap iced tea, I'll be sticking with Arizona tall boys.

Editor Dan sends me messages all the time like, "Have you ever tried _______?" and I will refer to the list and let him know if we have or not. He goes on more little trips than anyone I know. Dude will just up and leave and I'll call him and he'll say "Oh, I'd love to get tacos but I'm in Nebraska" or "I'd love to get pizza but I'm in Albuquerque". One thing that Dan excels at is thinking of Thirsty Dudes and always bringing us stuff back.

Well on this occasion, he brought us stuff back from a store that is two miles away that carries this drink that I've never seen, Jay's never seen, and Derek's never seen. That's strange as we typically scour stores we've been to hundreds of times. You know, just in case.

So he brought us back every flavor they had and I paid him in a burrito. Fair trade? I think so. He wanted me to wait for him to try this, but since he's not here, I'm thirsty, and this guy was cold, I had to go in without him. He would and should be upset.

This tea rules. It's got all the inherent bitterness you would expect from a white tea but a killer, natural strawberry flavor through and through. It contains "strawberry flavoring" which is a bit ominous but it also contains Poteet strawberry puree although there isn't any seeds or strawberry remnants. Poteet is a city in Texas known for its strawberry festival, and dude, if this is what they come up with, I might have to schedule a trip. This tea is wonderful. It's strong, sweet, and it tastes as natural as it says it is. I believe them. Texas is known for being big, not liars.

Wait, so you're telling me that the entire island is populated and subsequently run by geese? I mean I knew it was called Goose Island, but I thought that was just a random name. I had no idea it was so literal. Just to clarify this situation, geese made this soda we're enjoying. If that's true they did a mighty good job. This is one of the finest cream sodas I have ever consumed. It has a very, very heavy vanilla flavor, but not in that way that can be off-putting. I don't feel like I'm downing a bottle of vanilla extract. It's definitely a high quality soda. It's very creamy as well, like a good cream soda should be.

I do have one question though. How come there aren't feathers and feces all over/in the bottles? Oh yes that makes sense, a strict health code. The geese of course have to wear full body goose shaped haz-mat suits. That makes perfect sense as well as provides a hysterical visual in my head. Silly Geese.

Rough days count for strong, unsweetened tea. Nothing calms me down like an unsweetened tea that's bursting with infused with flavors. I've been having a rough time at work. Things are going down, you know. It's one of those things where I just wish someone could punch me in the face and it would all be over? You've never had that? Come on. You've never wanted to get punched in the face and wake up and "it's all over"? You live an easy life, my friend.

Before someone punches me in the face, I would like to finish this bottle of tea. It's good. It's that nice bitterness that is accompanied with an uber-intense chamomile flavor that, I'm hoping, doesn't knock me out. I hope it just chills me out to the point where I don't care if someone runs up the back of my legs with a bike because no one in this city knows you're supposed to ride your bike on the street. Sidewalks are for walking. Streets are for bikes. So there aren't any bike lanes. Who cares? Deal with it.

I could easily make this tea a nice standby and if you are a non-sweetened tea lover, and you've never tried it, you can't go wrong. Drop a small amount of dough and relax. That punch is coming.

Last night was a celebration of nerds. I started off the evening by going to see comedian Todd Barry do his thing. It was a lesson in the hysterical and a good time was had by all present. After that is when my nerd-ish tendencies really kicked it up as I went to the opening night 12:30 showing of the last Harry Potter movie. I don't feel the need to ever talk about Harry Potter, but I definitely enjoyed the books and the movies. I was exhausted before I even went to the comedy show, so I knew I was going to need a little liquid help to get me through the night. Good thing for me we've recently acquired an obscene amount of energy drinks that will probably take me the rest of my life to get through.

I chose the Go Fast Berry drink for tonight. Mainly because it was a decent size and I was also thirsty (I mean I AM a Thirsty Dude). Don't worry, it's a larger size can, but it has approximately the same "energy mix" content as your regular sized Red Bull. It's just more fluid so they can work on taste. One thing I can say about Go Fast is that they do work on their flavors. They also take pride in the fact that there are no artificial flavors or preservatives in their drinks. This has blueberry, blackberry and raspberry extract in it. You have to appreciate an energy drink that has some real juice in it. Especially when you can actually taste it like this one. They use Stevia as a sweetener and it's also unfortunately obvious in the taste. It is way better than other "lo-cal" sweeteners, but it still has a distinctive taste that I believe takes away from the flavor. If you are looking to drink healthier, you probably shouldn't be drinking energy drinks, but if you need to this would be the way to go.

PS. Voldemort dies.

I must be weird. Okay, I know I'm weird for a lot of reasons. I more meant in reference to the face that I love sodas that taste like bubble gum. I handed this can to 3 other people and all of them thought it was disgusting. While it's not the best bubble gum soda I've had, it still tasted good to me. I don't think it's an acquired taste because I liked cola champagne the first time I tried it. I guess it just goes back to the fact that I'm weird. Oh well.

Thanks goes to Jessica Pizza for being my lovely hand model for this drink. I was having the hardest time finding a good place in the sunlight to take a picture of the can and she stepped up and helped me out.

Up until this point nearly all of the Rob's Really Good Flavors have been discontinued. It's funny because I had stated before that I always expected more from this company with the exception of the blueberry tea, which is the only flavor that made the cut in the switch to their new line. I'm glad that the company held the same opinion as us.

This is my first go with the new line, and I have to say after my first sip I already knew it was far superior to their old flavors. If a sweetened tea company wants to win me over with their products the best course of action is to use a decent sweetener and actual fruit juice for flavors. Rob's Really Good has done both of those things. I also want to applaud them for their use of oolong tea instead of the classic black variety. It adds just a little bit of kick that makes it stand out. In essence this is a southern sweet tea made with oolong with some real peach juice mixed in. I can't wait to try the other new flavors.

Call it a hunch, but I'm pretty sure this is a completely different company than the Texas Tea we reviewed in the past. That stuff was cheap gas station swill that was passable only because it was so cheap. This on the other hand is a high quality organic tea. This one is also actually made in Texas instead of New Jersey. Can we just strike the other country from our collective memories and pretend that this was the only Texas Tea that we've known?

This tea is wonderful. You can tell from the taste that actual blueberries were used in the creation of it. The sweetness of it is also very obviously pure cane sugar. It's almost gritty and I mean that in the best possible way. It's sweet and refreshing. I can imagine myself slowly sipping on a bottle while I sit on a back porch of a century house somewhere in the backwoods of the south. It's a relaxing and slightly terrifying thought.

The bottle was also informative as I learned that Nacogdoches is the oldest town in Texas and it also has the highest production of blueberries out of anywhere in the U.S. Who would have thought that? I never expect much to be in Texas. With the exception of Austin my experiences in that state have been less than stellar. Since starting this site I've learned that there is an unusually high concentration of quality tea companies that reside in that state and I'm glad that I've found another in Texas Tea. The next time I'm down there the amount of iced tea I will consume may be setting a record for the books.

Dude Mikey you're totally getting slaughtered in your D&D campaign. Every hit you take is nearly killing you. You really need to step up your defense. That elf just slapped you and it took away half of your remaining hit points. That is no way to live my friend. You should probably down this Body Armor drink. It says right on the bottle that it's made to “prevent and protect.” I imagine that it will turn your game right around and you can crush that backhanding elf. What do you mean that's not the way the game works? This stuff is chock full of ingredients that will protect you. There's even a little chart on the label that tells you what's in it to help you recover and it also will keep you hydrated because of the coconut water and various other things it contains. I mean sure the goji berry overpowers any other flavor that is supposed to be contained within and makes you think that oxidants are running away in fear, but isn't that what you wanted; to be safe and to recover? What do you mean that you appreciate the drink, but that's not how the game works? What are you talking about dice for? Wait, you have to roll dice to decide on your levels. Well that just seems boring. I just wanted to deal with some sweet dragons. Apparently that's never going to happen here because you're now deceased due to a slight breeze. Learn to roll your dice better next time.

Let's kick this thing in to high gear! I wish we had a commemorative drink to...commemorate this occasion. What do you have there? HyDrive? What's that, an energy drink? I don't like energy drinks. They taste like someone put fake sugar and a case of Smarties in a can and called it "energy". Fine, I'll try it. Because this is such a momentous occasion, I will try it. Because you are the best man in my wedding, I will try it.

It's not bad. Is that strawberry? Kiwi strawberry, huh? Cool. Got to say, I don't get any kiwi but the strawberry is pretty good. It's got the smallest bit of a diet sting to it, but it's so light that it's not hard to convince myself it's the strawberry.

I don't feel energized but it's only been three minutes. It's pretty good and at only thirty calories per bottle, I'm sure to still fit in this cummerbund. Now where were we? Right. The momentous occasion that is buying a killer 1988 Ford Taurus sedan. Let's kick this thing in to high gear!

Hey kid, get over here. Drink this. Don't worry. Don't worry. It's not poison. My name is Mike. I'm a writer for Thirsty Dudes. Now that I'm no longer a stranger, drink this. It's strange right? Did you drink it? Come on, dude, it's not like I'm forcing you to drink it. Just take a sip. I need an objective opinion. My mouth tastes like it. What did you think? Strange right? It's like nothing at first and then it gets...odd. Nutty. Look, you've just held it for thirty seconds and you need to shake it again. It's like oil and water in there. Alright, it's a matter of having stuff in there and there is no oil in it. It smells alright, like a light fruity drink. Initial taste isn't bad either, but after a while, it tastes like you drank peanut flavored water. That's not right, right? I don't know.

You like it? To each his own I suppose but it's not for me. You know what, you can have it. What? You don't want it? You and I are the only people who have drunk it. Oh, it's not good enough for you? Well you're a little bit of a brat now aren't you?

Note: I make people drink everything I drink but I treat them a lot better than this made up scenario