Agave Nectar - 10 Reviews

If you're going to add flowers to any beverage, the safe bet is to use jasmine. It's been a staple of Chinese tea for thousands of years. It's also lighter on the floral taste than some others. Jasmine tea is the gateway drug into other botanical beverages. While there is no tea contained in this bottle, the same logic stands. If you wanted to buy a Blossom Water for someone who was not familiar with floral drinks, this would be the one to start with. The taste of the jasmine is more in the after taste, and it's not as intense as the others are. Its taste is extremely pleasant.

The base of this drink is a plum flavored water that has been sweetened with agave and erythritol (even though you can't taste it at all). The fruit flavoring is stronger than normal flavored water, but it's not nearly strong enough to be considered any sort of juice. I would also like to clarify that the plum used in here is the type that you could find in any grocery store in America. That is an important note of distinction because I've had some drinks from the Asian market that say they are plum flavored and they taste like moldy meat. They are obviously the grossest things ever. I assure you that there was not one second while I was sipping on this beverage that the word “gross” crossed my mind.

Overall this is a near perfect drink that you can slowly sip as you sit back and relax, to contemplate your day. I know I have said similar things about their other flavors, but man, that is exactly how this drinks make me feel.

My ladyfriend works at Starbucks and come early fall the customers their lose their minds. People are constantly asking about their pumpkin spice lattes and then they will be available. It got so bad that I think it was actually released early this year. I've had them before and I think they taste decent enough, but I don't understand the power it has over people. It paints two images in my head; the first is that of zombies wanting nothing more out of life than sweet, sweet brains and the other is junkies wanting nothing more out of life than their sweet, sweet fix. All three things are sweet, sweet, so it's fitting.

This year Bolthouse Farms decided to release a limited edition seasonal line of beverages. The first one I saw hit the shelves was their take on the pumpkin spice latte. While I don't think this will have the same effect as the other does on the patrons of said coffee shop, it just may be enough to hold them over. I don't know why it would need to hold them over though, since they are both seasonal, and available at the same time.

In it's purest form this is a coffee beverage made with Arabica coffee. For me the problem is in the fact that there is way more milk in here than coffee. Yes, I know that's what a latte is, but I'm used to the soy variety, so this is a lot of milk for me to handle. So yeah, they take this coffee flavored milk and then add some spices and real pumpkin puree. I assure you that you can most definitely taste the pumpkin in this. There are a whole slew of pumpkin flavored products on the market these days, and most of them just taste like the spices that are used in a pumpkin pie. This taste more like the actual pumpkin, and it's interesting. As a side effect of that the amount of spices in here are lower than I would prefer, but you take what you can get in this crazy world of fancy beverages.

My final diagnosis is that if this contained more coffee, more spices and was soy based instead of primarily dairy based it would be one hell of a drink. Of course it would probably be a different drink entirely, but I know what the body wants and now so do you.

Pomegranates? Love them. I just found out that fifty percent of my boss' do not like pomegranates. What's not to like? Is it the work? There are a couple tricks but I think, like most things, if you put forth some time and effort, the reward, in this case little exploding balls of juice, they pay off. I don't know what his problem is about pomegranates.

Geraniums? I've had chrysanthemum tea before so what's a geranium got that's any different?

I thought this would be a light floral tea but I was a bit off. It's teetering on the fence between light flavored water and grandma bathwater. I am giving it the benefit of the doubt because I think this was a bit expensive. I don't want to spend like three dollars on a drink and be wishy-washy on it. Therefore, not bath water.

Tasting it with the grain of salt I have given it, it's not too bad. It tastes like a pomegranate flavored water with a hint of floral stuff mixed in for fun. It is as good as that can be. It's different and I feel like big companies don't play with flavors like this. Jay drank the grapefruit lilac and gave it a top rating. I wish I could have drunk it because I find this a bit lacking.

I'm not going to kid myself; the majority of the people in at the world are going to scoff at the idea of a beverage flavored to taste like flowers. Joe and Jill Everyman are going to have no interest in such a drink, and if it were to show up in convenient store all over the country, there would be a lot of dusty bottles laying around just waiting to spoil. I guess that would be true until the stores decided to mark them down to close to nothing and I would go and buy them up, because they are delicious. If people were willing to give it a try, chances are they would also love it.

The contents of this bottle mostly taste like an agave sweetened, very light grapefruit juice (there's erythritol in there as well, but try as I might I can't taste it). The main flavor of the grapefruit is there, but the tartness is nowhere to be found. Slightly below that is the floral taste of the lilac. It's not floral in a perfume or soap sort of way. It's there in its most calming form. If I sit with the aftertaste I get the taste of the smell of lilacs on my mind. To some that may sound absolutely horrible, but to me it is perfect.

This drink has a flavor that I associate with not having a care in the world. It makes me think about relaxing outside under the shade of a tree, perhaps reading a book. It gives the hope of warmer weather on a day that is blustery and cold. If you see this, don't be a prude. Give it a try and hopefully you'll fall in love.

We here at Thirsty Dudes have not been too stroked on the Suavva line. In fact both of the other flavors we have reviewed have gotten the lowest rating possible. As is to be expected, I have been very hesitant to try this third flavor, and it's been staring at me every time I open my fridge for the past month or so. Sometimes you need to just buckle down and power through an experience, and that is what I had prepared myself for today. I expected to make it 2-3 sips into this bottle, but to my surprise it actually tastes decent.

I guess cacao just needs a strong fruity flavor to combat its strong superfruit taste. I find it odd that most superfruits taste kind of similar. It's like they all use acai as a weird mutated grape tasting base. Due to that it's no surprise that this reminds me of mango and acai mixed, with a little something extra in there. Luckily that something extra is not the paint smell/taste that mike mentioned in his review of the original variety. The mango flavor takes center stage in this, and I am grateful because that means I will be able to make it through the entire bottle and gain the benefits of the antioxidants from the cacao.

Mike gave the original version of this beverage a less than stellar review. The one line of his review that stuck with me, and also made me fear drinking the other flavors was, “It also smells like paint.” Nothing could make me want to taste something less than the smell of paint. Lucky for me when I finally gathered the courage to try this, the scent of paint was nowhere near my nostrils. They were only filled with the rich smell of chocolate.

Actually, maybe I wasn't so lucky that the paint smell wasn't there. Had it been I would have been more prepared for the way this tasted. I have never had cacao juice before, but I never would have expected it to taste like this. I mean it's the base of chocolate for crying out loud. This tastes like it's bitter, bitter dark chocolate mixed with acai or some such harsh fruit. It's sweet, but in all the wrong ways. I wanted to like this because it has a lot of health benefits and I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate. I couldn't bring myself to get further into this than three sips. I was hoping it would get better if I drank more, but nope it was still grosser than gross.

I'm so glad that you could join me for lunch, Charles. It's been too long. I'm sorry we had to meet like this, at a shopping mall food court to eat Sbarro's but we are two busy men that rarely have time for leisure like this. Yes, you and I have made quite a name for ourselves, what with me owning a successful underwear line and you being the impresario of subway covers. We still manage to stay fit and trim and this is our treat to ourselves: A nice slice of pizza from Sbarro's.

Wait...what's this about? This doesn't taste like the Sbarro's that I used to know and love. Remember when we used to go to the mall as kids in Queens and eat Sbarro's and it was the best? This pizza tastes like the box it came in. So disappointing. Good thing we've got these garlic knots to cancel out that blem. I also bought us some smoothies from that New Age shop next to the pet store but before the RV dealership. I don't know what happened to this mall. There is like a Claire's in here and almost nothing else. I swear that at one point there was a Saturn car dealership in here. So, as I was saying I bought us some cacao smoothies. I've had cacao before and it's like a bean than makes chocolate.

Ugh. Now what the heck is this about? Charles, I'm sorry but this is turning out to be the worst lunch I've ever had. This too tastes like the bottle it came in. What is happening? Why does everything taste like the receptacle that it came in? It tastes nothing like chocolate and is like a smooth, gooey mess. It also smells like paint.

Charles, I cannot apologize to you enough. If we could do this again sometime, please, you pick the place. This was a disaster. I love seeing you, but not like this. I hope that the sewer cover business is going well for you. It has to be better than this lunch.

In the middle ages, times were tough. You had to raise your own fruits and vegetables, people got sick and died from things like a cough, and there weren't any Burger Kings. Not to mention, periodically, you had to be ready and the drop of a hat for a dragon invading your tiny town. On the plus side, you got to use your sword and were encouraged to at any given time. Throw it. Cut up fruit for dinner. Who cares? Every use is one step closer to being able to kill orcs and wild boars. For protein and energy, you have to eat mutton and probably nuts. I doubt that the meats are carefully marinated and are probably pretty bland. That's no good for anyone.

I would like to be the time traveler that brings a case of Bolthouse Farms to these people. I would be treated with so much respect. I am not going to go as far as being knighted, well maybe, but I would at least get a nice jacket or something. Perhaps I can have the local cobbler make me a nice pair of wingtips. That would be real nice of him. I would say to him, "Dear cobbler. I'm going to call you by your name, Mitch, because "cobbler" is your job and that's a jerk move. Mitch, I bequeath to you a case of Hazelnut Latte Bolthouse Farms drink. It tastes like a melted Arby's jamoca shake and is delicious. You don't know who Arby's is? It's a fast food restaurant that specialized in roast beef sandwiches. Roast beef, not roast beast. I don't know. It could be the same thing. Either way, this is delicious and will give you the botulism free energy you need to both make shoes and boots and shoot arrows at rabid animals. It is yours. Enjoy. Yes, they do make other flavors. What, is this not good enough for you? I come one thousand years back in time and you want variety? Mitch. Come on, dude."

Mitch is a good guy, he just doesn't have the manners one would expect from an adult man. He would take the drink, eventually love it, and be chocked full of energy. I wish him the best of luck with his footwear company and am anxiously awaiting my shoes. I told him to bury them in the ground at a specific location in a nice box so that I can dig them up. They'd better fit.

Here's what you do. Get yourself a couple of lemons. Cut them in half. Now pour yourself a decent sized glass of water. The next thing to do is to take those lemons you just cut up and squeeze the heck out of them into the water. Use a miniature pool skimmer to remove all pulp and seeds that have inevitably made their way into the water. Finally pull out that bottle of fancy agave syrup that you got at the health food stores. You thought you'd put it in your coffee, but you never did and it's just been sitting there. Dump a generous portion into the water and mix it all up. You now have lemon Twist. It's nothing spectacular, just lemon water with some sweetener in it. I don't know why you would put sweetener in lemon water, but they did. Enjoy, or not.

I'm always excited when I try something sweetened with something other than sugar. Oogave uses agave nectar to sweeten their sodas. While it's definitely preferred to HFCS, I wouldn't say it's better than cane sugar. This root beer was good, but not amazing. It had a very mild root beer flavor, one of the lightest root beer's I've ever had. So much so that it tasted like cola with a root beer after taste. I doubt I'll ever pick up this root beer again, but I'd like to try other sodas Oogave has to offer before I dismiss agave nectar in soda.