United States - 4098 Reviews

Quote direct from the can: "Ultra Blue is a little less sweet and lighter tasting with zero calories..."

They had me at less sweet. I love Monster energy drinks, but some are ridiculously sugary to the point that I feel like I'm developing a new cavity with every sip. Every word in their quote rings true. Well I can't scientifically prove that there are no calories in this, it tastes like a non-gross diet drink. My guess is due to them using erythritol to sweeten it. Not only does it taste good for a zero calorie sweetener, it's actually good for your teeth!

"Erythritol has been certified as tooth-friendly. The sugar alcohol cannot be metabolized by oral bacteria, so does not contribute to tooth decay. Interestingly, erythritol exhibits some, but not all, of xylitol's tendency to "starve" harmful bacteria."

So next time your mom or dad tells you energy drinks are rotting your teeth, as long as it's sweetened with erythritol you have a great argument.

Overall this is a great energy drink, it is delicious and light and the perfect amount of sweetness. The flavor is hard to pin point, it has a grapefruit taste to it but also has that classic "Monster" taste to it as well. The can is textured like they have been doing with their recent releases and I like it.

post script: Due to the name of this drink, "Ultra Blue", I thought it was beer at first and got really confused when it was next to the other Monster drinks.

The coffee machine at your office has been on the fritz all week, which means that you have had to bring your own caffeinated beverage into work. The thing is that today your alarm didn't go off for some reason. Luckily your internal clock woke you up, but with only 20 minutes to get to the office. So it was get up, brush your teeth, drag a comb through your hair, put on a suit and you're out the door. You didn't even have time to stop at a gas station for the sludge that they deem fit to call coffee. As a result of all of this you have been a wreck all day. You're sluggish and you can't concentrate because you haven't eaten since you grabbed Taco Bell on the way home from work the day before. You're a mess.

You know it's not something that any human should do, but you still go into the break room and look for some food to steal out of the communal fridge. Sure, it's not the most moral thing to do, but the GM is coming in shortly and if she sees you like this, it probably wouldn't bode well for your career. The fridge is full of Tupperware containers full of moldy leftovers. Doesn't anyone ever clean this thing out? Things are looking grim. You're about to give up when you move a container of soup that is dated seven months ago and behind it is this bottle of Havana diet vanilla cappuccino. You find yourself thinking that you should probably rethink your stance on the existence of god as you look around and grab the bottle. You scurry away to your cubicle and crack the seal. After a gulp you think that it isn't half bad. Sure the milk to coffee ratio seems about even, which is more than you usually like, but it has a nice vanilla flavor to it, so you feel a little fancy. After that each sip gets harder and harder to get down. The taste of the Splenda is getting stronger by the second. Diet coffee; is there anything worse for someone who normally drinks it black? By the time you finished the bottle you're feeling more normal. You're stomach has a little something in it, and you've got a little caffeine buzz going on. The only downfall is you can taste the Splenda seeping out of your gums, and that is something you never want to experience again. What do you expect from a drink that was abandoned at least seven months ago?

Glaceau, home of Vitamin Water and Smart Water, has decided to try its hand at sparkling beverages. When the dealer passed out the cards things we're looking good for them, but their hand just wasn't strong enough to make something spectacular. On first sip I thought this had the potential to be something like a Clearly Canadian, but then the sucralose kicked in and everything went downhill. Does anyone on this planet actually think that sucralose is acceptable? I mean I know people deal with it, but with stevia hitting the market, why would a company that uses real sugar in one of its other product lines use such a low level zero calorie sweetener? Next thing I know they'll be using aspartame. Ick.

Okay, so the base of this tastes like a nice light, non-syrupy raspberry soda (if such a thing exists). It's quite pleasant until the sweetener kicks in. With a different sweetener this could have been all the rage in my world. As it stands I didn't' finish the bottle.

If you are one of those imaginary people that actually like sucralose, I highly suggest you check this out. If not, stay away.

Concentrated cold brew coffee like this is perfect for people who like REALLY strong coffee. I'm sure there are some people that go against the suggestions on the bottle and don't dilute it with any water and milk. I think those people are called men, or dads. Well except for Mike. One might go as far as saying that he's not a real dad because he doesn't like coffee.

For science, I first tried this without diluting it at all. Now I have never drank motor oil, but I'm guessing it's not far from this as far as potency goes. It would make a great coffee energy shot, rough to drink but would immediately energize you. There you go Kohana, I just gave you some free marketing advice.

Once I decided to not be an idiot and drink this like a normal person would, it was fantastic! Great flavor, great taste, I couldn't ask for more of a cold brew coffee. I often forget to cold-brew coffee the night before (I don't drink a lot so I do it in 1 mason jar batches) so it was nice having this bottle for a few days and not having to worry about it. Also not having to deal with stray coffee grounds was also a plus. No matter how hard I try and how many times I filter my cold-brew, I still find little granules every once in a while.

There are times when we here at Thirsty Dudes get a lot of different flavors of the same product. At first we get really excited, and have fun with the reviews. Obviously we drink the flavors we are the most excited about early on, which leaves us with the flavors we couldn't care less about, or those that we actually fear drinking. These tend to be our shorter reviews that are straight forward and boring to write and to read.

This is the last bottle of Spartos that I have left. I'm not sure if the other guys have any other flavors to review, but this depletes my stock. I was not looking forward to this at all. While I like natural coconut water, when the flavor is mixed into other drinks it usually spells bad news for me. Add to that some zero calorie sweetener and whey protein and to me, that is a disaster waiting to happen.

It's nice to be wrong sometimes. This ended up being my favorite of the Spartos line. The strawberry and the whey protein mixed together nicely like a fancy dessert. Well, it's not as sweet as all that, but the stevia does do a nice job without tasting too off. You can tell it's there, but it's not running the show. That's all strawberries and cream. If I didn't know it was in here, I would never even think there was coconut in here, but as a child I learned that knowing is half the bottle, and I can taste it a bit. Luckily it's like a nice faint coconut water, and not some toasted garbage.

With this I bid you adieu Spartos. Maybe I'll see you again someday if you expand your line. I wish you the best, as you've made a handful of protein drinks that are interesting, and not chalky as all hell.

I have drank too much garbage whilst doing Thirsty Dudes to really be "nice" anymore. I see companies, typically small, doing really good things but then there are larger companies probably making just absolute garbage. This is candy. Kids will love this. It's almost completely devoid of anything fruit related and completely candy-esque. That being said, if they had a black cherry candy that tasted like this I would like it. As a pop it's simply too much. It's super dark, which is a selling point in root beer but not in something that's just too syrupy. No rewards given for a bad mix. That goes for live music as much as it goes for drinks. A bad mix kills everything.

So you've gone and done it. You've made a kid. Actually you made him/her a couple of years ago. The first couple of months were a living hell of crying and pooping. Finally the little tike started to recognize your face. Things were starting to look up. Then they started walking and everything got awesome. You could do all the cool stuff that you always wanted to do with kids and it was fun as all hell. I mean sure the tears came back out when they got tired, but it wasn't anything you couldn't handle. Suddenly that all changed. Around the 2-3 year mark your kid just became a flat out jerk. They became demanding, thinking everything was put on this planet for their amusement. You know, just a brat.

You find yourself at a point where you will do just about anything for a little peace and quiet away from this monster you created. You find yourself thinking back to the part in the Twilight Zone where the kid can do whatever it wants with it's mind, and changes someone into a Jack in the Box, and it dawns on you that the whole thing was a giant metaphor for the turds that kids can be at this age.

You always swore that you wouldn't let TV raise your kids, but you now understand the allure. It's a distraction, and you need all of those that you can get. You only let your child watch educational TV, you still have some standards. The problem is that it doesn't fully captivate them, so you need to give them some snacks as well. Included in that is a "juice box." Kids love juice. It's sweet and delicious, and they think it's a treat even though when done properly it's healthy for them. Like most parents you find yourself buying a box of Carpri Sun. It's juice in a single serving pouch, which is also fun for the kids. You don't realize until you get home that there is no actual juice in the pouches, that instead it is a "flavored water beverage," and it's sweetened with HFCS. There is essentially nothing healthy about this drink, but at this point you decide, "Screw it." You put the straw in the pouch, and hand it and the remote to your toddler. Let them watch what they want, who cares if it's Godzilla or American Horror Story? You just need some downtime for yourself. You drag yourself back into the kitchen, pop a Capri for yourself and notice that even though there is no juice in it, it still tastes strongly like a nice medley berries and it's got a decent sweetness. You go to the bedroom to read a little bit, but you only make it a couple of paragraphs in before you hear something come crashing down and you have to get up to see what your dumb kid has done now.

I've had chai lattes. I've had yerba mate latte. I've even had a straight up black tea latte, but never in my days have I had, or even thought about a green tea latte. The idea of adding a cream substance to green tea just seems completely foreign to me. The taste of green tea is so specific in my mind that I couldn't fathom it being creamy. I just looked it up and apparently this is a normal thing in coffee shops. Guess I've just been unobservant as always.

This is basically just soy milk, matcha green tea and cane sugar, and it's wonderful. It tastes like what I would imagine vegan green tea ice cream would taste like. Now that I think of it, I have had green tea ice cream in the past, so I guess I have had creamy matcha. It definitely tastes like a culmination of its ingredients and it's wonderful. This was my first time seeing this in a store, and I hope it becomes available in the big bottles, because I love it and it makes me feel sophisticated for some reason. Looks like I'll have to break on the monocle and spats.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I will say it again; guavas have never let me down. From juices, to teas, to the actual fruit I like everything I have ever tried that it was involved with. I even like the Ween album “Pure Guava.” It's the magical fruit that can do no wrong.

In that same regard it seems that Runa is a tea company that can also do no harm. I've tried a couple of the products and have been impressed by all of them. I want more companies to use guayusa as their tea of choice. It has a more interesting flavor, and as much as I don't want to admit it, I've grown bored of black tea. Yerba mate and guayusa are now my teas of choice. It also helps that they have a decent amount of caffeine in them, as I never want to drink coffee, unless it's made up all nice and fancy, and I try to drink energy drinks very sparingly, as I don't want to have heart problems in the future, and there's a lot of unnatural chemical junk in them.

The thing I love the most about Runa and this tea is that they weren't afraid to forgo a sweetener. The tea alone would be great unsweetened, but adding the guava makes this perfect. It's fruity enough that it has it's own quasi sweetness. It also perfectly balances with the guayusa, so neither flavor overpowers the other. There is a Ying and Yang thing going on with this tea of two great flavors that can also live in perfect harmony together.

So you're having a backyard party and you want to make sure that you get the proper beverages for just such an occasion. It's not really your friends coming over; it's mostly family, so there's no need to splurge on any fancy sodas. Everyone knows that all backyard parties must have both orange and grape pop available by law. You recently took a trip up to Canada and brought back some C Plus, so you have the orange pop scene on lockdown. Now you just need to get some grape. Why spend the money on Crush, Faygo, Sunkist or Fanta. Sure they aren't really that much, but with Push available you get to save even more loot, and they all taste the same. Seriously, it has been scientifically proven that all grape soda that comes in a plastic bottle tastes the same. Use the extra money you saved to buy some nicer salsa for the adult table. They will be sure to thank you.

I love coffee, there's no hiding it. I don't know why it's taken me this long to have a drink made from the fruit of a coffee bean. Verdict? I love it! This lemonade is really delicious, especially for a diet lemonade. I opted to drink this instead of coffee this morning after only a couple hours of sleep and it definitely did the trick. Granted it doesn't have as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, but it has enough to wake me up this morning so I didn't pass out on the bus to work.

Did you know that Poland Spring is from an actual town in Maine, and obviously not from the country of Poland? I really hope you didn't think it was from Poland, because I'm sure it would cost more than $.30 per bottle if it were, you know with duties and taxes and all. Now don't you feel stupid?

Did you also know that Poland Spring is owned by Nestle? On top of that they own a buttload of other bottled water brands, which include Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Ozarka and Zephyrhills. It's all crazy go nuts university in here.

Since these are all regional brands I wonder if any of the other brands are also releasing a "Nature's Blends" line? I'd be okay with that. This is a fairly simple beverage. It's water, cane sugar and white grape/raspberry juice concentrate. It has a decent fruit flavor, but I could do with even less sugar in it. I am a crotchety old man after all. There is only 5% juice in here, but they label it as spring water with real juice beverage, so it's okay. Basically it tastes like Vitamin Water without all the vitamins. It's really ridiculous that Vitamin Water has become my basis for comparison for so many drinks, but it's out there and everyone knows it. So there you have it.

Bigelow is basically Arizona's wiser, older brother. Actually Bigelow started in the late 40's and Arizona first burst onto the beverage scene in 1992, so does that make Bigelow the distinguished grandfather in this game? Whatever the genealogy is they decided to have a family outing in 2008, and it's still going to this day.

Bigelow is older, thus they are wiser and always use cane sugar in their ready to drink teas. It's a little thing that I love and respect them for. They also like to take chances with weird flavors, like this mango lychee. I guess Bigelow does come out as the grandfather in this little family tree, as we all know lychee tastes like old lady perfume smells, so perhaps he used it in homage to his late wife. Now let's take a moment of silence for the dearly departed.

This plays out like an Arizona green tea, with cane sugar instead of HFCS. It's uncanny how similar it tastes. You even get the same taste when you inhale after swallowing. I really with Arizona had a green tea tall boy with real sugar. The world would be a better place if that existed. It doesn't so I'll just default to grandpa B.

The mango and lychee flavors aren't overpowering at all. This is firstly a green tea, and secondly a fruit tea. I love it and wish it were more readily available, but you know those darn kids today.

As Mike loves to point out, I am not the largest supporter of lemons. When I get water in a restaurant, I never ask for them. If they get put in anyways I always take them out without giving them a squeeze. This makes my ladyfriend happy, as she loves them and doubles up in her drink. I also prefer my iced teas sans lemon, which according to “big tea” is unheard of. They are always putting lemon juice in their teas, and I think a lot of the time it is distracting, and I would just rather taste the tea.

Even though I have a general disinterest in lemons, I will always have a soft spot for decent lemonade. I think my problem is that in most drinks there is either just a little bit of lemon that makes it annoying (I would rather have the flavor be strong) or they use some weird lemon that makes the beverage taste like cleaner. Lemonade suffers from neither of those things. When done properly it is tart/sour with a nice pleasant sweetness to it. It sounds like those are conflicting things, but I'm sure you all know what I mean.

Calypso makes lemonade the way I like it. They concentrate on a great tasting base that could stand on it's own as a quality lemonade. That is a very important concept that many companies overlook. They cheap out on their lemonade or tea, and just expect the extraneous flavor to work overtime. Calypso starts with a great lemonade and adds great flavoring on top of that. In this specific flavor they add mango puree concentrate, so it actually tastes like mangos and not fake.

As your drink doctor I must insist that if they temperate is ever over 90 degrees that you drinks lemonade, and specifically Calypso when it is available.

There is a certain specialness that comes along with yerba mate tea. It has its very own earthy flavor that you just don't get with normal tea. When you get a drink that tastes this way, and you know exactly what the flavor is, you feel like you're in the inner circle, and all the dullards are on the outside looking at you slack jawed. In that moment, you know tea and you understand it completely.

Unfortunately you don't get to be in that moment with this iced tea. It is made yerba mate, but it's blended with black tea and 55g of cane sugar. The glorious taste of mate is nowhere to be found. It tastes like a slightly upscale, regular raspberry iced tea. There is nothing wrong with the flavor per say, I just feel a little disappointed that I didn't get to be all snooty while drinking mate.

Did you see that? You didn't? Oh man. You missed it! You didn't see who that was? Oh man. It was Vincent D'onofrio; the greatest actor of our time. Uh, yes I do mean that. You know what...I'm going back. He deserves to hear about how awesome he is and how I was truly sad about Criminal Intent being off the air. I don't care that him and Eames didn't get together. They are a great team. I've got this bottle of Celebri Tea and since he is a celebrity...see what I'm doing here? I'm going to give it to him. Stay here.

Mr. D'onofrio. I've got this bottle of tea for you and I wanted to say thank you for your years of hard work on Law & Order. I really think you are a fantastic actor and although I know you were great in Adventures in Babysitting and Full Metal Jacket, I really think you came into your own on Criminal Intent. I just wanted to come over here to give you this bottle of tea as a thank you for your years of service to television. Why yes, sir. There is a sip taken out of it. It's like ninety degrees out here and I didn't plan on seeing you. This is all I have on me. A drink with a couple sips taken out of it. I'm giving the rest to you. I'm not sick or anything and look, it's still cold. Come on, Vince. It's really good. It's really bitter like a green tea should be and for the first time in a long time the Stevia isn't overpowering and lets the flavors really do their thing. It's fruity and is overall a pretty fantastic tea.

I'm just going to leave it here on this bench and leave you with this; you are a wonderful man and I'm happy to have met you. Please tell the rest of the cast that they were all spectacular and I was sad to see them go. Seriously, dude. Drink that tea. I don't want it to go to waste. If you...Vincent. If you are not going to drink it...fine. You know what? I'm taking it. It's so hot here. Jesus. What is this place? The center of the sun? Vinnie, you're great but I can't stand this heat. Take care of yourself.

In the burned out city of Detroit it's good to know they still have a couple of things going for them. Okay, all I can really think of is the Motown museum, and tons of rad abandoned places to explore, if you are in to that sort of thing. I guess they also have this somewhat decent line of sodas that is made right in the 48234. (Oh yeah, they also have Faygo, which to paraphrase 7 Seconds is "Not just clowns fun.")

If this came in a can or plastic bottle it would be nothing but a generic, run of the mill cream soda. There is really nothing remarkable about it at all, but something about it coming in a glass bottle that makes it seem a little more special. It's pretty syrupy and has a fairly strong vanilla flavor, but it's pretty much what you would expect. The picture of a float on the label really makes me wish I had some vanilla ice cream, as I bet this would make one hell of a dessert beverage.

Don't tell Jay, but I'm just drinking this now. It's been over a year since we've had it and I've been saving it for, well, now I guess. Was it worth it? Not really. No. It's not bad but I wanted this to blow my socks off. I've got this strange idea of what hibiscus should taste like and it rarely does. I've had a couple drinks that are absolutely stellar but I really think that I, me, myself, know what hibiscus really is supposed to taste like.

That aside, here is this drink. For those that know what things are supposed to taste like, this is a good drink. It's right on the fence between an iced tea and a juice. It's not bad at all. We've got hibiscus and then a strawberry aftertaste and then a moderately sweetened black tea sitting in the middle like the cream in an Oreo. I would love to have a strawberry hibiscus Oreos. I'm going to imagine that as I take my final sip of this long awaited bottle of iced tea. Sorry it's taken me so long, Jay.

Zero calories, zero sugar and very little diet flavor. How do they do it? Science, that's how. Or should I say Xyience? Non-carbonated energy drinks always throw me for a loop, but this one really works. It tastes like light lemonade, with just a touch of raspberry in it. If this were served to me on a hot summer day from a pitcher into a glass full of ice, I might think there was something a little weird about it, but I would never expect it to be an energy drink, and that is something that companies strive for, but rarely achieve. Leave it Xyience to come through.

Oh and by the way, it's April in Buffalo and I already have my second sunburn of the year. There is going to be an epic battle this summer.

Lightly sweetened? Yes sir. Mint? Yeah, sure. Whatever the heck guayusa is? Throw it in. Together you have created something that I think you might be able to get at the side of the road from a Mayan. Do Mayans still exist? Did Mayans use guayusa? For some reason, this feels like something that happens in antique times. Olden times. Classic times. Dusty times.

This is a nice traditional tea taste with a very light, good, non-toothpasty, mint flavor. It's a bit earthier than a black or a green tea. It's drier and maybe more bitter, almost like a mate. It's good. I like this and it is both refreshing and not terrible for you.

I know nothing about the Mayans and for that I am sorry but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt of being historically awesome at making tea. Do not take this as an insult. You are or were truly great at it.