United States - 4098 Reviews

I'm happy to announce that Bhakti Chai has made its way to Buffalo, NY and I can now purchase it whenever I want to have an intense experience. If you think you know what chai is all about because you've ordered it from Starbucks before you are in for a wild ride with this company. The spices and ginger used in these teas are much more pronounced in order to try and recreate the traditional chai of India and not the watered down American version. I understand that this is not a drink for everyone, but I certainly love it. It borderline hurts to drink this, and I love Bhakti for it.

This is the Semi Sweet version of the beverage, and as you would expect it tastes exactly like the original, only not as sweet. I prefer this version, because who needs that much sugar?

Also, in a moment of brilliance I decided to add some of this to the pancake batter I was making and bam chaicakes, your new favorite breakfast food. I know I will be making them again soon.

If there was a meme about this beverage that featured a certain dog it would say something along the lines of “Such coffee. Much chocolate.” Actually, that is not true. I just thought it up and kept saying those phrases in my head until I felt like I needed to write it here. In truth this tastes like a really nice chocolate milk that has a bit of coffee in it. It's definitely more chocolate than coffee and that is a win in my book, although it probably would be a bummer for the coffee purists out there. Oh well. Much drink. Such flavor.

Quite the Indian summer we're having, isn't it. Last year we couldn't drink frozen, frosty drinks with open hoodies in November. That's for truth. We couldn't drive down the street with our windows down listening to "Indian Summer" by Go West last year. No sir. This year is the friggin' tropics compared to last year. This time last year, Buffalo got seven feet of snow in a day. Look it up if you don't believe me. This winter has been a breeze comparatively, so nice that I ordered the previously mentioned frosty drink. A frozen Dunkacchino brought to me by my hard work and Dunkin' Donuts ability to put chocolate in everything. I don't know the difference between this and a mocha. It might be milk. This tasted creamier than that of a frozen mocha. I think I'm right attributing it to the milk. It didn't taste as much like coffee as I would have liked but it certainly wasn't bad at all. It was pretty good but it was like a nice, frozen dessert than a coffee related beverage. Fault? Eh, who needs it? They know what they're making and if it should have "coffee" in quotes then so be it. It's a beautiful day outside and I'm in no position to be judgmental over petty things like "not enough" this and "not enough" that. This is fine if you just want a frozen drink that almost doesn't taste like coffee.

Today on “Great Moments When Your Friends Thought They Were Hysterical” we will explore the time in the late 90's during a moment of silence, on a long drive when someone felt the need to proclaim, “Ford Aspire, I bet it aspires to be a better car.” For the record the silence was apparently only uncomfortable for this would be comedian. The silence that followed the joke was uncomfortable for everyone.

That dumb joke would never apply to this beverage, because in the world of sports drinks where else is there to go? This is delicious, it is functional, and it is low in calories without tasting like diet death. This has the most accurate cherry flavor that I have ever come across outside of straight cherry juice. It doesn't taste like syrup, medicine or candy. It tastes like cherry juice with a few assorted berries thrown in for good measure.

If you've gone through life thinking that Gatorade was the pinnacle of sports drinks, and why bother with other brands, then you are in for a wild ride. This is the same basic concept as those beverages, but presented in a natural healthier way. It's chock full of electrolytes as well as antioxidants, B vitamins and minerals. Suck on that status quo of sports drinks.

For those of you too young to remember this company was everywhere in the late 80's/early 90's. Back when corner stores and bodegas did not have a large selection of beverages this was always right alongside the Coke and Pepsi. I don't know if this was the case all around the country, but in Western New York, we loved our New York Seltzer. Now I have to be honest with you, I don't know if I ever actually tried one of these back in the day. By the time I was of age to be purchasing my own beverages I was far more interested in straight up soda and Mistic (they looked like wine coolers and made you feel cooler than you were, because you know wine coolers were always the thing the cool kids drank). Perhaps it's because of similar choices made by the youth of the 80's that caused this beverage to disappear from the shelves and production to grind to a halt. I will choose to believe that because who doesn't want to think that they had that sort of power as a pre-teen?

Here we are over twenty years later and New York Seltzer is back in business and cranking out six of their classic flavors. We really should have gotten to this earlier, as we like to review the classic drinks when they come back, but for some reason I hadn't been able to find it until I was in Michigan of all places. Strange times.

My first thought as I took a sip of this was, “What the hell there is sugar in here!” I had always thought that seltzer was just (possibly flavored) carbonated water with no added sweeteners. A quick look online informed me that any carbonated water beverage is considered a seltzer and even soda falls under that umbrella. In fact in my world this is just a soda. There is 31g of sugar in this 10oz bottle, and well it tastes like a raspberry soda. It's a little on the light side, but it's a fruity soda through and through. To be honest, I feel a bit cheated, but it's solely because I was uninformed. It's a decent soda and I just need to get in the headspace for that kind of beverage.

A vast majority of the people in the United States, let alone the world know of the wonder that is the state of Wisconsin. It's famous for cheese and beer, two things that I couldn't care less about, yet it may be my favorite state. I know it's probably all in my mind, but it feels like a simpler place where everyone is friendly (Well, except Milwaukee. I've almost gotten into a fight with Nazis there, have witnessed a drug deal gone wrong, and played a house that had a drive by a few weeks prior). I have had conversations with people about how a band could do a two week tour of just the state playing all of the wonderfully named towns. I also played my best game of Galaga ever in a laundromat in Appleton. If all of this isn't enough for you, they also have the grocery store chain Woodmans, which comes in second after Wegmans in my world.

Another thing that Wisconsin has is a decent amount of breweries that make sodas. I came across Point in a cheese shop that my traveling companions wanted to stop at, and was excited to pick up a few flavors. Later that night I decided to enjoy this root beer while I ate one of the most disappointing calzones of my life (not in Wisconsin). On paper this should be a wonderful soda. It's small batch brewed, it's sweetened with Wisconsin honey and it has real vanilla in it. Unfortunately all of these great things somehow couldn't save this root beer. Things started pleasantly enough it's nice and creamy but then there was something lingering underneath. It wasn't anything that made me dump out the bottle, but it tasted off, almost burnt. I checked some other review sites and everyone else seems to love this root beer, so I'm left wondering if I got a bad batch, or if the bottle was old. If I ever come across it again I will pick up another bottle and give it a second chance, because it's from Wisconsin, and it has premium ingredients. I just don't want to accept that this isn't good.

As a child one of the most annoying things that could happen on a hot summer day was when someone would bring a huge bowl of watermelon to an outing. I believe it has been scientifically proven that all kids love watermelon, and at these moments without fail as I reached for the refreshing fruit, someone would stop me and tell me that it was a treats for adults only. I was always so bummed that adults for treats when I didn't and it took me a while to realize that it meant some turd had dumped a bottle of vodka or something like that into my glorious fruit, hence ruining it. Actually as a non-drinking adult I have had the same experiences with the same results. The amount of times in my life that I've had to speak the phrase “Is this safe for me?” are more than I'd care to think about.

The bottom line is that everyone loves watermelon in the summer, so don't make it an exclusive thing with your dumb booze. If you do make sure you keep some separate for those who don't want the alcohol, or grab a couple of bottles of H2Melon. It is a cold pressed juice with watermelon being the only ingredient. It's just the fruit juiced and nothing else, and that is wonderful. I really wish that it was blazing hot out while I sit here drinking this, but sometimes timing doesn't work out and it's mid-November in Buffalo. I'm certainly not going to wait eight months to let this juice pour over my taste buds, just for a proper experience. I'm going to drink it now and use its glory to transport me back to a relaxing summer day instead of trying to stay warm without turning the heat on (it's a little game I play).

This tastes exactly like what it is, watermelon. I do have to say that it tastes a bit like the rind was juiced with the pulp of the melon. I personally don't mind that and I think it's actually essential for a proper watermelon experience. You always get a little bit of rind in your bites when eating the fruit, so they are just keeping things authentic. If you are someone who hates summer and refreshment stay away from this juice, but if you crave summer sip away. You might not actually feel the warm sun on your face, but this makes it easier to pretend.

These “Ten” sodas are a game changer for those watching their calorie intake without going overboard. They are a middle ground between diet and regular soda; meaning that there is a mixture of HFCS and sucralose used to sweeten them. This tastes like someone took a can of regular RC and a can of diet RC and mixed half of each together in a separate can. There are hints of a diet flavor, but it's not as overpowering as most diet sodas. I hate sucralose sweetened diet pop, but this is something that I did not mind at all. Sure it lost a bit of the bite of the regular cola, but tradeoffs must be made for the sake of lower calories.

Section one: The False Apology
Sorry (not sorry) this is the third coffee drink in a row.

Section two: The Review
Editor Dan and I went to Toronto to see Zombi, a prog/synth band from Pittsburgh that we hadn't seen in over a decade. The show didn't start until 9:30 and it was a two-ish hour drive home. It was a late night and only got later. What do you do? Coffee, right? That's the right thing to do. I thought that coffee plus additional energy would do the trick, which I did since I'm alive to write this review and now sitting in a ditch upside down off the QEW.

Was it an enjoyable experiment? It was "fine." It was strangely smooth. It seems that all of the sweetened coffee drinks from the United States lost all the edge or the bitterness of coffee, lately. Maybe it's canned, sweetened coffee. It all is starting to taste like thinner, melted, coffee iced cream. I don't want that. I don't think that I expected a high quality roast since Rockstar is not a coffee company first, but this seems like they cut a lot of corners and just bought "coffee flavor." This did not taste like an energy drink which I appreciate.

It did its job and that's what's important. I suppose that it was just "OK" was secondary. Strange, but secondary.

For someone who is fairly indifferent about coffee, I really, really enjoyed this. I know, I'm as shocked as anyone. Obviously it's the mocha that pulled me in, but it also has a nice coffee flavor that I think I would enjoy even without the added chocolate. Maybe I just need to try more high end coffee beverages. Perhaps I just don't like the cheap garbage served at most places. More than likely this was a right place at the right time scenario and it just hit the spot. Regardless as to why I enjoyed this coffee, I think it's safe to say that if it works for me than those of you who truly enjoy a beverage of this sort will really love it.

Did I mention the chocolate? The mocha in here makes it insanely good. This is the first coffee beverage I have ever drank that tastes like they used nice dark chocolate and not just some Hershey powder, or some garbage like that. If this were hot and served at a coffee shop I would assume that they took a high end chocolate bar and shaved some of it off and let it melt in the coffee. I don't know how it works with this being cold brewed, but I am expecting to never find an iced mocha as good as this again.

Caffeine energy in coffee just wasn't enough. Now we need to pump up the jams by adding more vitamins. One more thing is that we have to add vitamins that no one has ever heard of and are unpronounceable to the human tongue. I don't know about you, friend, but I don't go around saying to myself, "I certainly feel like I need more cyanocobalamin and pyridoxine hydrochloride in my diet."

Vitamins and minerals aside, this is a pretty basic drink. It's really smooth. Like really smooth. It tastes vaguely like coffee and more like a cream you might put in your coffee. It's not bitter like coffee and tastes more like coffee ice cream due to its smoothness. Look, it's not bad but it's no, say, Mr. Brown but what is, right?

Everyone knows that wolves howl at the moon. What we don't know is why they do it. Sure there's some magic with a full moon that transforms human into beast and inspires wonderful movies, such as Ginger Snaps, but what else is there. I submit is that while in the moonlight (were)wolves can get a clear view of their paws and are reminded that they simply do not have any ginger beer to drink and they howl out of frustration. I know I would do the same in that situation. The bottle also tells me of a legend that an elixir brewed with ginger and steeped for a fortnight can bring on the change from man to wolf. I don't know if ginger has the same effect as a full moon, but it is certainly delicious. Actually I'm going to say it doesn't work. I've drunk enough ginger brews in my life and have never changed form. Maybe the steeping time was off, but yeah I'm calling poppycock.

This ginger beer may not cause a change, but it does make my taste buds happy. It's made with natural ginger flavor and hot pepper extracts so it has a nice burn to it. It's not too out of control, but it's more than I had expected from a beverage made by Orca. Along with that burn is also a nice sweetened ginger flavor. This is actually what I look for in a ginger beer. It walks the line between burn and taste without falling off of the tightrope. I wonder is being part wolf helped with that balance.

Welp. For us so far, that's zero for three. I feel like Jay Street did not sign off on this and might have just let this slide out of the door. It's boring and chalky. I am not a connoisseur of coffee, let it be known, but if I gave this to someone who more avidly drinks coffee, I think they would agree. I enjoyed the initial two sips and then it was just like drinking the equivalent of watching paint dry. I'll leave it at that.

Since I have not been presented with evidence to tell me otherwise I am forced to believe that bears are used to harvest the berries that are used to flavor this soda. From what I have seen, the animals are not harmed, or even caged. They roam free through the Rocky Mountains and just return to the bottling plant with their huge paws just full of blackberries. I have no idea how the folks at this company worked this deal out, but perhaps they have been in touch with the folks at Sprecher, who also employ several species of animals. Just imagine bears coming up to the back door of the factory, dropping their days gatherings and receiving a nice chin scratch in return…€¦adorable.

The bears gather only the ripest berries and the result is a soda that has a fantastic, light berry flavor that tastes nothing short of authentic. The use of beet sugar as a sweetener makes sure that it doesn't; taste overly sugary, but it also doesn't give it that generic soda flavor, since the berry taste isn't overpowering. It's one of the best berry sodas I have ever tasted, and that is a flavor that I am very particular about.

I will say that you folks are playing with fire though. Statistically there simply must be at least one mauling per year. I guess the math must just work out to make it cost effective. I guess I would also take my chances though because I totally want to just hang out with that bear, lounging around and eating excess berries.

Hey folks, I'm here to dismiss the myth that cowboys are all whiskey and sarsaparilla. They are not two dimensional beings; they have more depth than that. One top of those two classic beverages cowboys also love lemonade. Actually that's it. Cowboys only drink whiskey, sarsaparilla and lemonade. They just don't have a taste for anything else, well of course they do love beans cooked on an open fire, but we're talking beverages here folks. Does the banner at the top of this page read “Hungry Dudes?” I think not.

Jackson Hole makes some very special sodas and I can now report to you that they also make some kinda great lemonades. This beverage is very tart, but at the same time it's very sweet, like proper lemonade should be. There is 42g of sugar in this bottle, which I wish I didn't know, but I'll force myself to forget that fact. The lemon juice used to make this is from concentrate, but the huckleberry juice is not. That leads to a nice tartness, as lemon juice concentrate can be very strong, and for a great berry taste. One thing that is for certain is that this is not a beverage for gulping, but instead it was formulated for sipping on horseback out of the range. That is on the extremely rare occasions that cowboys had access to ice.

A real conversation that I had with Jay:


Mike: I bought a Jay Street Coffee from Big Lots and it's made by Ito En. That's strange.
Jason: I reviewed on of them awhile back and it was kinda grozzzz.
Me: Welp, let's see if caramel macchiato is any better.
Jason: Here's to hoping!
Me: Too late. It's kind of grozz.
Jason: Bummer. I've eaten 6 soft pretzels so far today. I think that makes me invincible
Me: I think that's the recipe.
Jason: I will continue to ingest a steady stream of them

Real talk between two grown adults.

Yeah, it's gross, though. It tastes dusty. It tastes like the powdered condensed milk is still partially powdered and chalky. The flavor is...fine...at best. It's just so overwhelmed with that faux milk that it doesn't really taste like coffee. It doesn't taste awful but it does stick with you too long like that girl you date in high school that just can't take the hint that you're trying to break up with her. She'll get it, but you're not getting out easy.

Enjoy your pretzels, Jay. Enjoy your pretzels, everyone.

I love Polar. I should say that I have learned to love Polar. My mom has drunk it for years and for all of those years I thought it was gross. Since then, I have learned to love it. With the excess of sugar on my plate at any given time, it's so nice to calm down for once and just drink something with unaltered, unadulterated flavor.

This one falls a little flat for me, though. Normally the flavors are a bit bolder and cherry and lime is a wonderful combination but this was a bit too subtle for me. Subtle might be a secret way of saying "I wish the flavors were stronger" but I can't be sure. Since it's sugarless, flavor and carbonation is really all it has going for it and it was plenty carbonated. I don't want to say it was flavorless because it did taste like both lime and cherry but...more. I just want more. Now I sound like my girlfriend. More more more. Greed has become of me. I have become greed. Together we are one and our name is "more." Alas, it is my destiny. I must accumulate.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I miss a time when soda brands all had their own individual nuances. Every cola had its own little quirk and that is what made them special. For the most part these days there is just a general cola flavor that a majority of the companies have adopted. Perhaps corn syrup is to blame. I'm not really sure, but it's a total bummer. With the resurgence of cane sugar and “throwback” Coke and Pepsi the differences seem to be more noticeable, but it's treated like a novelty. Foxon Park treats their sodas differently. They want them to be special and classic, which is exactly how this bottle of Kola tastes. Don't be thrown off by the switching of letters this most definitely is a cola, but it tastes the way sodas would back in the day. It has its own specifics even though it is part of a crowd. It doesn't taste like a Coke, a Pepsi, or even an RC. It tastes like Foxon and I am a fan. I hope to come across their other flavors in the near future.

I have never had a diet beverage that was passion fruit flavored before. The entire concept seems like an oxymoron since it's such a sweet fruit. It feels like the amount of sugar naturally contained in a single passionfruit would be more than the allotted amount in a drink labeled as diet, or low calorie. I guess this has no real juice in it, so that makes sense. I don't know what dastardly lab tech created an artificial passionfruit flavoring. It seems like something science should not tamper with. It's a perfect fruit and if life were a movie tampering in it would bring upon the end times. I think we are probably safe though as it doesn't have a very strong passionfruit taste. It is also not very diet tasting. I will accept the one if it keeps the other at bay. It's not the best. It's also not the worst. It's just sort of there and it gives you a decent energy burst. A portion of each sale goes to the breast cancer research, so I feel perfectly fine about purchasing this.

I have experienced very few things that were more miserable than being extremely sick while being on tour. Once it hits you're done for. The chances of getting a good night's sleep are few and far between, you're stuck in a germ cave of a van for a good portion of the day, and a good deal of the time finding/having time for healthy food is a dream. When I was out recently I felt a little worn down and that familiar tickle was in my throat, so I did my best (and succeeded) in keeping that sickness at bay. I doubled up on vitamins (including far too many Emergen C packets), I took it easy and slept whenever it was an option, and I drank a whole mess of juice. We had a six hour drive to Phoenix from El Paso so when we stopped for gas I ran into the grocery store across of the street and picked this little guy up.

The three main flavors in here are all antioxidant heavy, so I thought it would be a good choice. These are juices that are normally on the harsher side of things, but in this beverage that were shockingly smooth. Maybe it's because the cranberry and blueberry juice came from reconstituted concentrate, or maybe it was the base of apple juice that did it. Either way, it wasn't rough on my throat, which was a little sore and it tasted just fine. Overall it tastes like a nice amalgamation of all three of the juices mentioned in the flavor, without any of them particularly sticking out.

My only qualm is that it boasts to have no sugar added, but there is stevia extract in it (in my book a sweetener) and to be fair it was pretty sweet from the apple juice. Sure there was no “actual” sugar added, but there were definitely some sweeteners involved in its creation. Oh well I still enjoyed it, and thank the company for their participation in keeping me healthy.