United States - 4098 Reviews

Rarely on the side of never do I drink "meal replacement" drinks as such but today I did not eat breakfast, the most important meal of the day, so I did not have a choice. First thing I noticed, and this could just be me, is that this was a leaky drink. So leaky. The package was constantly leaking from the cap. Don't let that sway you from getting it. Let my review sway you from buying it.

This was completely laced with Stevia. It was so sharp. Calming down on that and letting some of the chocolate shine through would probably do wonders to this drink. It was thin, so do not expect a shake. It was closer to a thin chocolate milk. Or if you made chocolate milk with skim milk or some other poor life choice.

What would I do to fix this? Number one? Real sugar. I know it would increase the calorie count but it wouldn't leave me with a taste on the tip of my tongue. Look, I drank the whole thing. It wasn't terrible but it was kind of thin and overly fake.

Folks, a miracle was truly performed by this beverage. They used lemongrass tea and I didn't find it to be gross. In fact, I actually really enjoyed it. Unlike most miracles this is a divine interaction that I can deconstruct. The secret here is that the lemongrass tea isn't the base of the drink; it is merely an added flavor. The heart of this beverage is a mixture of water, apple juice and agave syrup. It's one of those drinks that you don't really taste the apple juice until you read that it is in the mix, and then its inclusion becomes very apparent and you can't believe you didn't realize it before. Now add a bit of orange juice to the mix and things really start coming into form. Throw in a few miscellaneous ingredients such as lemon juice, ginseng, orange extract, oolong, and that pesky lemongrass. Things are almost ready for the public, but that lemongrass is just sticking out too much in the flavor. Whatever should we do? Oh how about tossing in some ginger which will compete for one of the strongest flavors in the drink, but with not even a hint of a burn.

In the end this is really more juice than tea, but the effects are the same; it gives you a sweet, delicious organic energy, that might not be as intense as the chemical, artificial ones on the market, but it works enough.

Look at that I have explained a miracle. Perhaps the Catholic Church should hire me when they need to investigate such matters. I mean I don't have to be a believer to disprove things, right?

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

Honey versus lemon, fighting in your mouth. Fighting over something dumb like the hand of a princess who is filled to the brim with the profits of gems and jewels. Fighting over the bathroom like a male in a house full of older sisters. Fighting like seagulls when you throw a french fry in a Burger King parking lot.

In the skirmish, this drink is lacking in a good flavor. It kind of tastes like a lemon and honey tea is being strained through cereal but you have to kind of remind yourself that it's just the wildly pungent flavor of honey. Lemon and honey sounds good in a cough drop. Heck, it does sound good in an iced tea but the blend is off and I was left with a bottle of tea that seemed more like a home remedy than an over the counter drink.

If Old Faithful spewed something other than water, it would be more amazing than it already is, right? If it spewed something like pastrami sandwiches, that would be awesome. Legos? Wicked. Pez? Even better. If it spit this out, though...not so fantastic. It would be cool at first but then people would say things like, "What is this? Diet?" to which the manager of the park would say, "No, sir or madame. It is not diet. Sorry for the ambiguity but I can't tell which sex you are with that giant hat on."

This would decrease the attendance at the park since it would be spewing not-fantastic ginger ale. I mean, it's not every day that a geyser spews out something other than water but the argument would always be, "Yeah, but it's not good ginger ale." It's got a decent ginger taste and a light burn which is on the better side of ginger ales but something in it tastes diet-y and that's not good. It was was diet, it would be fine. It's not but it tastes like it is which unfortunately loses points.

Old Faithful, sir, I will see you someday perhaps. When I come, I will let you know that I'm coming so you can prepare your finest Gak or Floam or other 90's Nickelodeon kids product.

Every time I drink one of these alertness beverages, Nawgan or other, I find myself wondering if there would be a time in my life when I would actually need one. I am long done with school; where this would have been greatly welcomed for late night study sessions. Okay who am I kidding I very rarely did school work outside of school, but I can see where kids would want this beverage for that. I have an accountant that does my taxes, due to my business, so I'm not going to be annoyingly trying to figure out what form mean. As much as I would like to pretend that I am at times, I'm certainly not an intellectual; logic rules my life. So where do such beverages fit into my life? The closest I can come to is when I'm figuring out how to play a bass line for a song, and that doesn't take too much concentration.

It looks like these drinks were not made for me in at current station in life. I do know many people who would benefit from them though. I wish I had something that I needed to concentrate on so I could have tested the true functionality of this, but as much as I think I felt more alert, it could have all been placebo.

I can write about the flavor though. This has a light strawberry kiwi flavor to it, and that is due to the fact that they thankfully did not go overboard with the sweetener. So many drinks of this flavor are so full of sugar that they taste like candy. This at least tastes minimally like fruit. The use of erythritol/stevia along with the cane sugar gives it a bit of that natural diet taste, but it's not very strong. The thing that will always through me for a loop with drinks in skinny cans is when they are not carbonated. I believe I've said that with each flavor of this I have tried, but I always expect bubbles, and when you don't get them it takes a bit to adjust. Flex your head.

I believe there is a point in every person who has somewhat working taste buds when milk chocolate loses its allure. Something about it isn't as magical as when you were younger. You don't exactly know what it is that has changed, but something is different and you are none too pleased. Then after decades of thinking it was gross and inferior you find yourself eating some dark chocolate and your love affair begins anew. You realize that this bitter, semi-sweet snack is what chocolate was meant to taste like and anything else is just a perversion of perfection. Christ, that sounds like some garbage white power rant there, but I assure you people and chocolate are two very different things.

After this metamorphosis in life whenever you see the words dark chocolate on a product and excitement builds. The thing is that the process of making dark chocolate into a liquid fit for drinking isn't quite the same as a version whose main ingredient is milk. It's very easy to lose the certain pizzazz that gives dark chocolate its allure, and I'm afraid Harvest Bay didn't quite capture it. There is still enjoyment to be had with this beverage, but it falls in a grey area where it doesn't quite taste like coconut water nor does it full taste like a chocolate drink. It's floating in an in-between realm where chocolate has a slightly fruity taste to it. I've been here before and I can tell you it's not where I want to be. For me it's either go heavy on the chocolate, or leave it out altogether.

When a beverage has pictures of honey combs all over it, as this one does, and it boasts to include organic honey, I expect a very, very strong honey flavoring to it. Actually I would be fine with a plain old very strong honey flavor to it. Unfortunately Purity Organic did not deliver. I went in expecting a thick, sticky tea and what I received was a pretty standard green tea with just a touch of honey added. I wanted them to go overboard with that particular ingredient, and it ended up being something that you could miss if you weren't looking for it. I still enjoyed the beverage, but I had high hopes that were not met. It tastes like a natural version of Arizona's green tea. We here at Thirsty Dudes will always have a soft spot for that particular beverage, so that is nothing but an improvement on a classic to us. Just up the honey, will ya?

How exactly does one get an essence of something, specifically fruit in this situation? The way I see it either it's with magic, or a lot of beakers and Bunsen burners are involved. I'm not sure which route Cascade Ice chose to go, but the results are right her in this bottle. This is nothing but water, carbonation, and organic essences from fruit oils and extracts. It doesn't taste like an entire grapefruit was scaled down to fit in this bottle, but the flavor of it is there lightly. The majority of the flavor in this bottle is just bubbly water and there is a hint of grapefruit flavor. I personally like more flavor in my drinks, but as I get older I see the appeal of lighter drinks more and more. Guys, I think I'm finally growing up.

Son, sit down, there is something that I need to say to you. Your mother and I wanted to apologize to you for an injustice that occurred many years ago. We didn't realize what we were doing, it just sort of happened. We didn't even know that what we were doing was wrong, until years later. Son, it was wrong of us to introduce you to the world of hibiscus through True Brew's hibiscus tea. You see they added a bunch of spices to their tea, much like a spiced apple cider, and it distorted your idea of what hibiscus should be. You see True Brew was the exception and not the rule, but the rule is also a very delicious place to be, you just can't expect the exception. Well, that just got confusing. See you need to learn to forget the spices and embrace the hibiscus for what it is, a fruity, lightly floral, slightly tart beverage that can almost always hit the spot when it is properly sweetened.

Take this bottle of Zone 8 and you'll see what I mean. It's not spiced at all, but it's still wonderful isn't it? It's just hibiscus, water, sugar and a bit of lime juice. Okay, the lime juice distracts from the taste of the hibiscus a bit, but it works great in tandem with it. Those spices you were used to are nice, but just look at these as two different flavored beverages that both have their merits. This version tastes like something you would be sipping on a tropical beach vacation. On top of that it is all natural, so what else could you ask for? If you say spices then you are grounded, and just wrong.

Hey you. Yeah you, over there running on the corner. Why don't you come over here for a drink? I've got just the thing for you. Yeah. You'll love it. It's new. It's alkalinized or whatever. It's good for you. It's low in calories and is good for something I think you kids are talking about; paleo or whatever. It doesn't taste half bad either. What does it taste like? Why don't you just come into the shop and grab one. It's on me. You look thirsty and very attractive. What? Was that out of line? I thought you would think it was a compliment. Sorry, I guess. Sorry I find you attractive. No, I mean it. Take it. It's for you. We just got them in. It's supposed to be really good for you.

Do you like it? It's good, right? It's lightly sweetened and tastes like an aloe coconut water even though there is no coconut water in it. It's also the biggest carton of a sports drink I think I've ever seen. No, I'm not creeping on you. Jesus, lady. Calm down. You were running and were clearly sweating and I thought I would be nice and give you a drink. You've got me all wrong and I'd like you to kindly leave my store and take your drink with you.

Sometimes I wish that nutritional/protein drinks came in a wider range of flavors. There are many fruits that would pair well with whey protein/milk type drinks. There is a whole world of flavors out there that are being neglected, but when a company comes along that is fruity in the back of my mind I'm always thinking, man I wish this were chocolate or vanilla. It's been programmed into my being that those are the only true satiating flavors that can be nutritional. It's dumb, but that's how I work.

Iconic has mixed protein, fiber, B12 (for energy) as well as choline and amino acids (to keep you focused) into a nice non-chalky vanilla beverage. It's like thick vanilla milk. The vanilla isn't too overwhelming, but it's there enough for you to say, “Hey, this is a decent vanilla drink.” I would have preferred it to be dairy free, but they went the whole soy, gluten and lactose free route, which I can respect. There are people out there who need their diets to be free of these things, while I just find dairy gross in theory (although I still eat far too much ice cream).

It seems like we've been reviewing a decent amount of beverages of this type lately and they each have their own specific attributes. Iconic is more milk-like than the others. There is no grit to it at all, and the use of agave as a sweetener was a great choice. Sure they use stevia as well, but it's nice and hidden.

Sometimes there just isn't much to say about a drink. I feel bad saying that because it makes it seems like the drink is bad or uninspiring. The thing is that this is just black tea, and what can you say about that other than it tastes like black tea. It's exactly what it should be, and I really enjoy it. It doesn't taste like cheap tea, and it doesn't taste like it's been steeped for too long. When I want an unsweetened black tea, this is exactly what I would hope I'd get. So there you go. It was a boring review for a product that may sound boring, but is just right.

Pink lemonade on a day like today would make a normal man jump with glee. Me? No. This lemonade is not at all fantastic. It tastes fake and although it did taste like pink lemonade, pink lemonade it was not.

So what do we like. Let's make a compliment sandwich out of it. We like that it smells like pink lemonade. We do not like the way that the Stevia cuts through the one time fantastic flavor with a super sweet knife made of super sweet sugar. We do like that, for a limited time, you can treat your taste buds to a decent pink lemonade any time you want before the lies rush over your tongue like a tidal wave of garbage. It's not that bad, but it's not great.

One of my favorite Simpson's moments is when they can't afford to pay their bill at a Mexican restaurant and are forced to perform as the band to work off their debt. The entire reason why I find this hilarious is that the restaurant owner says, “Your playing, while technically proficient, lacks passion.” That makes me lose it every time. This drink? This drink certainly does not lack passion (fruit), even though this is mostly apple juice and water. Even as a minority the passion fruit truly shines as the major player in this juice. At first I was shocked that I couldn't even taste the apple juice, as it normally jumps out at me when it's used as a filler, but the more I drank the more I became aware of it. It really tastes like an infinitely better version of cran-apple, you know with passion fruit instead of cranberries. I know that's dumb, but it has the same ratio of flavors and I love it.


It's crazy that with no added sweetener there is still 46g of sugar in here that are due to the fruit. That is so much natural sugar, but you know what? You're worth it.

I can't bring myself to give a juice that is not 100%...well juice a 5 bottle review, but this is right on that line.

Look at us, Arizona. We are growing up and we are doing it together. When I was a kid, you and I shared lemon tea and green tea outside of gas stations. Now I've got a career, kid, dog, mortgage and I'm drinking oak steeped tea. We are classy individuals. We went from a time of immaturity including but not limited to:

• lighting tennis balls on fire and playing street hockey
• Throwing cans of Raid into bonfires and having them explode.
• Making multi-floor treehouses in a friend's backyard
• Following friends down hills in cars while they rode street luges made out of old street signs

Together, we have turned into quasi-functional "adults" with responsibilities. Your responsibility was to make a calm, nice tasting tea and you did it, buddy. This tea is slightly lemony, slightly sweetened and has all the nice, woody qualities that would make a whisky drinker blush. Way to go. Now let's go be creepy dudes at the mall.

I'm just going to go ahead and say what I can only assume everyone is thinking; 10 hours is one heck of a long time. That's longer than a typical work day. It's so long that you have to plan out when you are going to drink this shot, or else you can say goodbye to you regularly scheduled sleep. Personally, if I drink any sort of energy drink past 5 or 6pm I'm not falling asleep until somewhere in the range of 3-5 in the morning. I'm an extreme case because I apparently have sensitivity to uppers. Seriously though, if you're driving late at night and you just need a push to make it through, this is probably not the product for you. The only uses I can think for this would be if you wanted to stay up all night having adventures, or if you were looking for a push to help you through the work day. Okay, I'm an idiot and didn't reads the blub on the bottle until now, and this was in fact developed to help people get through a full work day. This whole thing makes sense now. People now have the ability to down one shot instead of drinking more than a handful of overly sugared energy drinks to push them through the work they hate.

This certainly has the same concentrated chemical taste that all energy shots seem to have. No one said the basis of energy tasted good. Eternal Energy did do a good job covering it up with a berry flavor and a whole mess of fake sugar, actually the fake sugar may have made it worse, but so long empty calories. As far as I can remember I've never enjoyed the taste of an energy shot, but at lease this one is somewhat palatable. Oh yeah, I also literally climbed a mountain after I drank this, and even though my body was aching an extreme amount I was still focused and the energy this shot gave me kept me moving, so I'll say it works just fine.

I will say this for the hundredth time. Deep breath. Here we go:

If you are going to flavor your drink, just commit to it.

Don't say that it tastes like ginger if it's not going to taste like ginger or burn like ginger. It's just kind of annoying. This drink tasted like hibiscus which was good but only tasted very, very slightly like ginger. No burn. So sad. I saved this one for last because it should have been a treat and a half.

It's not a total loss. Like I said, it's a fine hibiscus drink but if I told anyone else that this was ginger hibiscus they would call me a liar. I can't have that on my conscience.

Two kids in the office didn't ask for the punishment I gave them but oh did they enjoy it. One dude was sitting there and the other just walked in with a drink in his hands. Guess what? I don't give a rip. Everyone will enjoy this and there is nothing you can do about it. You know why? Because I'm older, that's why. I'm their mean older brother who bought them beer but instead of beer it was a spicy lemonade type drink.

We've all got glasses of our drinks and we take our first sips. Ahhhh, we all say. Ahhhh. That there was a sipping drink, one to mull over whilst looking across the water as the sun sets on yet another beautiful day at the cabin. Fish are jumping out of the water. Birds are chirping all around. Bears aren't murdering you but instead sitting beside you on the dock with their bear feat danglin' in the water.

What's so G.D. great about it? It's like lemonade with bits and grits in it. Accompanying that would be a strong, strong ginger taste that is something to call your mama about. Everything is alright. The burn. The lemon.

The folks at Arizona are preparing for the worst. No, they are not in financial straights (at least as far as I know), they are simply doing what every smart company does, and that is prepare for the worst and come up with an exit strategy. Some companies figure out how they could sell all of their assets, and what they could get for everything if the worst finally hit. Others, more likely in less legal pursuits, bury bags of money random places so that they have something to fall back on in case they need to go fast. Arizona has forgone all of the traditional routes and has purchased a surplus of oaken barrels. They have chosen to ride the iced tea wave until the end, and if that leaves them homeless and penniless, at least they won't be naked and will show their sense of humor, by going the classic editorial cartoon route of wearing nothing but a barrel with shoulder straps.

While these barrels were originally bought as a joke, some quick thinker on the R&D team realized that until the day came when their last tea leaf was brewed and all of their clothing was sold off to the Richie Richs of the world, these barrels could serve another purpose; they could be used to brew a special blend of tea. You see if you brew the tea in the barrels some of the oak's flavor is absorbed into the tea giving it a more refined taste. The same method is often used in making wine, except with the tea it doesn't taste like death and rot, it tastes sophisticated. Add a little honey and maple syrup to that brew and you're good to go. Make sure you don't add too much though. Those are strong flavors that could easily distract one's taste buds from the oak notes. Luckily Arizona got it right on the nose. You can taste the tea, the oak, the honey and the maple and none of the flavors are fighting for dominance. This lightly sweetened version of this tea has a little sugar added as well (8g per serving, 20g per bottle). There's more sugar in here than I would expect in something that is lightly sweet, but to me it does have the perfect amount of sweetness for when I'm not looking for a straight tea, no sugar.

Unfortunately for the future of Arizona, some rookie, smashed up the barrels and brewed the chunks in the tea. Sure it has the same results on the flavor, but what about when the market falls out? What will the employees wear?