Cane Sugar - 601 Reviews

I actually had this a few weeks ago, but I was so disgusted by it that I left the bottle somewhere. Where to begin? How about by listing three things I love? Strawberries. Yogurt. Granola. One would think that by mixing them all together you would have awesomeness x's 3. One would also be wrong, just like this drink. It's a crime against nature that such great ingredients when mixed together would turn out so terribly. It tasted sour. I checked the expiration date and it had not passed. I also bought it from the grocery store, went home where I immediately put it in the fridge. No more than eight hours later I took it out and drank it. By drank it I mean took three sips before giving up. I shook it properly and everything. It's just not good. It's the only product Bolthouse has put out that I haven't loved. To add insult to injury there wasn't even chunks of granola in it like I had expected. It had all been blended together into a smooth liquid. Lame.

This conversation happened in real time just moments ago.

Me: Do you want to try a drink with chunks.
Jessica: Uhh.
Me: Sure you do. I have to take a picture of it. Come on in and have some. Here.
Jessica: What does it taste like? What are the chunks?
Me: It's aloe and it usually tastes like grapes.
Jessica: It's actually pretty good.
Me: Greg, try some.
Greg: I'm not trying anything with chunks in it.
Me: Sure you are. It's part of our agreement.
Greg: It's good.
Me: Zack, try this.
Zack: It's good but I can't get past the chunks. What are they?
Me: It's aloe. Aloe Vera. The plant.
Zack: You don't know that.
Me: Sure I do.
Zack: No, you don't.
Me: Oh, I mean it's head chunks. Chunks of a person's head.

See?! Three converts from having no aloe to actually liking it. Greg took one sip in a cup and now he's got a glass refilled. Zack won't touch it and Jessica had to go back to work. Sabila, you've earned three more friends.

I'm sorry sir but we won't be able to get you from your destination for two to three weeks. Sir, I understand that you are on an island because your dingy has crashed after you hit a whale. I cannot get to your destination, or get anyone to, your island because it's sweeps week. Sir, I can't hear you if you're yelling. Sweeps week is very important to us. "Criminal Intent" came back on the air and we are all very excited here at Rescue Squad as to what Vincent D'onofrio will do. I realize that you don't have any food or water. We're running low on chips here too, now that you mention it. You know what, sir? Tommy the intern just got us this great tea slash lemonade stuff. I'll see if he can get some for you. He doesn't make a lot of money so he might be able to get you like two or three bottles. Shipping is going to be astronomical so he might only be able to ship you one. You don't care? Dude, er, I mean sir, you haven't had this tea. If you like apricots and plums you will love this. It tastes like plums first, then you burp and it tastes like apricots. After every sip it tastes like lemonade. All the flavors are there. You won't even realize that you've missed the newest episodes of "Wipeout". We love that show over here.

Sir, if I could get your address we can have Tommy ship that bottle or two over to you. You don't know your address? How can Tommy send you this drink if you don't know your address? Sir, please calm down. I can't hear you. No, I can understand what you're talking about. Tommy just has "The Voice" too loud. What do you think of Cee-lo? I don't really understand why he's on this show. Sir? Sir. Huh, he hung up. Tommy, looks like we don't have anything to do this week. We can see what happens between Barney and his father on "How I Met Your Mother."

I went for a nice long bike ride today. When I got home I got a call from some friends inviting me over for an impromptu barbeque. Seeing as it was my first BBQ of the year I decided I needed to accompany it with some orange soda. I don't know when I started associating grilling with orange pop, but I feel like it had to have been in the last 10 years. I don't remember ever drinking it when I was a kid. It doesn't really matter because it accompanies it perfectly.

I stuffed myself with veggie dogs, fruit salad and asparagus then washed it all down with a. cold bottle of Olde Brooklyn. As far as orange sodas go it was fairly standard. Nothing stood out bad or great about it. The same company that makes Sioux City also makes this soda, so I always expect greatness from it. The three flavors I've had so far have been fairly average. There's nothing bad about that. They are doing exactly what they are supposed to do, just not going above and beyond.

I just went to the toity and the smell of my pee took me by surprise. You win this round asparagus.

What?! Bam! Explosion! Do me a favor...go to a fruit orchard, a place that I think I just invented. Place TNT on the fruit trees. It has to be the TNT that uses sticks of dynamite tied together and the box has to be red, have "TNT" spray-painted in white stencils, and have a plunger. Go to the center of the orchard, take a big gulp of sweet tea, hold it in your mouth with your mouth open, press the plunger, and wait for the fruit storm to arrive in your mouth.

This tea rules! Can I call it tea? Can I call you tea? It's a lemonade/tea hybrid, but don't get this confused with your standard, garbage Arnold Palmer. This tastes like mango, tangerine, tea, and lemonade. In that order. It's very good. It's not super sweet like you might expect from Calypso and they kind of toned down the uber-fruityness of a lot of their other ones.

I believe this is a new product so it might not be available everywhere. If you can find it, get it. Seriously, it's incredible. Calypso, thumbs up. Arnold Palmer, you would be lucky to have your name on this gem.

Hey bartender, serve me up a nice cold sarsaparilla. What, you don't have any? What kind of western bar is this? Okay, then fix me up something olde timey. Don't go slippin' no alcohol in there either. No I don't want a Shirley Temple! What do I look like a child to you? A non-alcoholic rickey you say? What on Earth is that? Oh a grown up version of a Shirley Temple. I guess I could try one of those. Let me get this right. This is half a lime squeezed into a glass of carbonated water? There normally is some sort of alcohol added, but you can replace that with any juice? Sir you have sold me on this drink. I will take one with raspberry juice. I do find it odd that of all the juices in the world you have some of the raspberry variety behind that rickety old bar.

This is outstanding. It definitely has an olde time feel to it. On my first couple of sips I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it reminded me of, but when it hit me there was no denying that it tasted like a fancier Shirley Temple. I believe I may be a fan for life.

If I were a vampire, by Mike Literman:

If I were a vampire, I would go a different route. I would make up an excuse to get blood from the local blood bank. I might even get a job there so that I can get free samples. "Woops, I spilled it." would be my excuse when I drank other people's blood. Way smarter than killing people left and right. I might be able to escape the cops a few times, but eventually it would catch up with me and they'd humiliate me at my place of employment.

I would probably go the "Groundhog Day" approach, too. Since I'm going to live forever I am going to learn a skill like guitar, painting, languages and build up the worlds most killer repertoire of skills. See, then I would be irresistible to women for a better reason than killer hair, which I would have, and chiseled abs, which I would also have.

I would have to keep my secret a secret and never commit to a long-term relationship with anyone. I can't marry anyone since in twenty years, they're going to look twenty years older and I am going to look the same. That's suspicious, isn't it? So none of that for me.

I don't know what else there is. I feel it would be a lonely life as a vampire unless I felt like making friends with other vampires. I guess they could be cool. I wouldn't partake in any of their killing sprees since I am a man of honor and respect versus an animal, like those turds.

One thing I wouldn't do is drink this drink. I really wanted it to be good, but it wasn't. You have no idea what we had to go through to get this. It's hella-expensive and only available in a 4-pack from Hot Topic or probably on HBO's site. It has all the makings of a great pop if you don't know how to read ingredients; natural flavors and cane sugar, but read a little bit further and you get sucralose which is way too apparent. I don't know why they ruined this with garbage if they were still going to charge $4 a bottle for it, which is still half what I paid for it. Jerks. It really doesn't taste much like anything. It is a little orange, but mostly tart and sugary, regardless of the bottle saying "slightly tart, lightly sweet". That couldn't be more wrong. If they made blood orange Smarties and you crushed them up into diet pop, you would have this drink.

I don't believe in or care about vampires. I don't ever want to hear anything about the Twilight saga, True Blood, Vampire Diaries or even Dracula 2000. That shouldn't surprise you, but I'm letting you know, just in case. I did need this drink because I have had good experience with blood orange drinks before but that sliding scale is tipping towards few and far between. I really wish that I liked this drink, but it looks like this gimmick beverage has failed me.

My girlfriend's mom got me a tea brewer for Christmas along with some select tea bags. I have been using the heck out of it at work. Yesterday I went for a walk and picked up this little dude at the local Co Op. I was tired and I had my choice of Awaken and whatever the other one was called. Obviously I got the Awaken variety.

The predominant flavors are Mate and citrus. Secondary flavors include cinnamon and ginseng. Primary flavors make up 90% of the taste at very least. It tastes like a bitter orange due to the Mate. You do get a little cinnamon. Reason I brought up the tea brewer is because one of the thousand teas I received was an orange spice tea that tastes very similar without the Mate. It was a bit rough and at times, I thought this small can would never end. I also didn't particularly enjoy it at any extent. It was more complex than flavorful.

Here we have Hawaiian Sun's take on the popular Hawaiian drink POG. Both drinks are comprised of passion fruit, orange and guava, hence the name POG. While the classic version is a pretty even blend that favors passion fruit a little more than the others this version is all about waves of flavor. The waves crash on the coast of your tongue in the following order; guava, passion fruit and finally a distinct orange flavor sneaks in the rear. I really enjoy when drinks attack you like that and each individual flavor can be made out.

First of all, "Squamscot" sounds disgusting. I don't want to say what it sounds like, but there's definitely an ointment or salve for it. Secondly, I had to get this pop. "Fruit Bowl?" What the heck is that? It's so generic and nondescript that it had to be purchased. Bowls of fruit, or fruit salad to layman, are not like BLT's. No, not the black kid from Degrassi, the sandwich, you dummy. What's in a BLT? There's bacon, Lettuce, and tomato. Done. No variation. What's in a fruit salad? Everyone's mom makes it differently. Apples, grapes, oranges, pineapples, gross pears, blueberries, and so on and so forth are merely some of the things you can put in there, but there is no law, like there is with BLT's. One thing that you don't put in fruit salad or fruit bowls are Sucrets. Yes. Sucrets, those little red lozenges that numb your throat that are ideal when you have a cough. This smells a little like watermelon, but it does not taste like it. It's a fun, red color, and kids would go wild, but as someone that should be an adult and clearly isn't, it's frightening.

Small sips are sharp, large sips are more subdued and the medicinal flavor comes in later. It's kind of a lose/lose scenario. It's like as if a cherry candy was crushed into powder and thrown into a cherry pop. Friends? Not for me.

One of the things that I love about the Aloha drinks is that the order they list the flavors on the can is the order that you taste them. In this drink you instantly get a very strong strawberry flavor that transfers into the tropical guava sweetness. I also appreciate that they use fruit purees instead of fruit juice from concentrate. Keeping it classy.

I always think I don't particularly like swimming. There were two instances in my childhood where I almost died. I rarely think about them, but water doesn't seem very inviting. I'm not afraid of it. Cliff jumping is high on my list of favorite things to do. It just normally seems boring. I think the fact that my skin instantly combusts in the sun probably factors in. Today I discovered a new thing I like to do in water; snorkeling. I was face down in the water for nearly two hours. I chased all sorts of fish all over the reef. I saw tons of crazy neon tropical fish, and even two creepy "sea spiders."

Do you know what the body needs after two hours of snorkeling in the ocean? Refreshment. For that I chose juice, specifically this tropical local juice. It was a wise decision on my part. It was nice and cold and quenched what I thought was an undying thirst. How was I thirsty? I was in the water for so long. My stupid body needs to learn to absorb fluids. I must evolve!

The juice was mostly passion fruit flavored with a slight orange undertone. I had expected the orange to be stronger, and was pleasantly surprised to find I was wrong. I'm really going to miss Aloha juices when I have to head home.

Man it's hot out. I'm sweating just sitting here. I think my skin is starting to stick to the chair. The only thing that is going to make this better is a trip to the beach. You know where there's no shade and ten million people in the water. The beach can be fun, but those good times are generally reserved for night visits and hidden beaches. Today I happened to go to the latter. On the way we stopped at a health food store where I picked up some chocolate covered ginger and this 16oz bottle of wonder.

Like the beach, lemonade is generally overrated. It's usually way too sweet, or too bland. Hubert's, which is a division of the wonderful Hansen company, knew they had to step up his game if they was to make a lemonade that would get people's attention. A feather should be stuck in the company's collective hats. They created lemonade that is sour, without making you pucker your face uncontrollably. The cane sugar is used sparingly in order to make that happen. If that wasn't enough they added some extract of raspberry to the mix in order to give it a slight hint of fruit.

This lemonade refreshed me better than most beverages could in my time of need this afternoon. I sipped the bottle, saw a sea turtle and then jumped out of some trees into the water that led to the ocean. Anything that happened after that today hardly matters.

I had a less than stellar experience with this companies mango soda, but I decided to give them another chance. It's locally made in Hawaii, and the label design is pretty great. We were driving around late last night with the windows down and the music up. Seeing as we have yet to have anything close to a warm night in Buffalo, it was pretty spectacular. The combination of the vegetation, ocean and the lack of industry makes the air smell amazing around here.

I twisted off the cap on the soda took a sniff, and it smelled like strong vanilla. Things were looking up. First sip, not so bad. The second sip is where things started to fall apart. I don't know what it is with this company, but both flavors I've tried have this weird undertone flavor. The main taste is a fairly decent vanilla, but then that other strange flavor creeps in and holds the soda hostage. I don't know what sort of ransom he's looking for but I think we should pay it. If it wasn't for that flavor terrorist this could be a great soda.

Well, well, well. What do we have here, a (semi) quenching drink from Prometheus Springs? Half of your mouth will love you. What is it about Gatorade that makes it so you can chug like 15 gallons before you need to breathe? Seriously, nothing goes down smoother than Gatorade and I don't know why. Don't give those electrolytes any more credit than they deserve. Man, I want a hot dog. So, look. I'm from Buffalo. We three Thirsty Dudes all are and soon we will be together again. I can speak from certainty when I say that I probably go through a gallon of Franks Hot Sauce annually. That's a lot. It might be more, I don't know. It's hard to be sure. Anyhow, once I heard that Prometheus Springs was releasing a cayenne pepper flavored drink, I knew I had to do it.

So I did it, and I was surprised. When I took my first sip, I was surprised at how "drinkable" it was. It was a really good orange taste. I don't know why they didn't call it "orange cayenne". I didn't get lemon or lime, but a lot of orange and it was good, truthful orange, like a mandarin orange or something. The orange flavor was easily drinkable, like Gatorade, hence my previous mentioning of said company. As anyone who has had a Prometheus drink before chugging is not only stupid, it is also dangerous. As expected, with any Prometheus Springs drink, there's going to be a burn somewhere along the lines, and at about 2 seconds it kicks in and you're hit with the pepper juice.

It's a great contrast and I would drink it again and again. It is not reminiscent of Franks Hot Sauce, but it may have been a bit gross if it was. I gave a sip to my girlfriend and told her to take a sip. She did, it burned her, she yelled at me, I called her a wimp, and we went to bed. That means it's a good drink and I'm a terrible boyfriend. The latter you already should know.

Monet's four-word review: dirt, leaves, metal, and banana.

This smells sweet, but as we know smells can be deceiving. I definitely get a strong banana flavor, which is weird because it's not marketed as a banana drink. I've never had basil seed before, so maybe that it the slight dirt/leaves taste I'm getting that Monet was referring to. This is alright, but nothing I really want to drink. I feel like this would be a good drink to give a kid who loved bananas but you didn't like. They would initially be excited about the banana flavor, but then the dirt aftertaste would kick in. Congratulations, you just made an enemy for life.

Today I went on a long horseback ride through mountains and beaches. If I had long hair it would have been flowing through the breeze. Since I do not, I instead got a dusting of red dry mud. That's dirt for you amateurs out there. After my ride I settled down with a couple of very dusty dogs and I downed a can of this local iced tea.

The can boasts proudly that there is no HFCS contained with in and that they use the finest natural cane sugar. This got me pumped. I love tea in cans. I have a ridiculous theory that the tea continuously brews in the can making it more potent. It's also rare to find a cane sugar tea in a can.

I cracked this baby open and took a huge chug in the blistering sunlight. Then I wiped the dribble from my mouth using the back of my hand, thus creating wet dirt. Did I enjoy the refreshment? You betcha. Was it special? Not really. It was reminiscent of Nestea. I had hoped for something a little better, but it got the job done.

This soda intrigued me because I had no idea what it was going to taste like. I have never drunk a soda with guarana in it before. I know it's a common ingredient in energy drinks, but I've never seen a guarana flavored drink before. Even though the good folks at Real Soda make this in the USA, they make it with the same ingredients as the traditional Brazil soda.

My thoughts? It's alright. I don't think it's anything special. It tastes like ginger ale without any ginger, or maybe a bland lemon-lime soda. It's not bad. It just has no personality to it at all. This is the Ann Veal of sodas. If I could add a caption under the photo, it would say, "not pictured".

Since Buffalo has apparently skipped three seasons and gone directly back into winter I thought it would be fitting to review a Xmas themed beverage. When I showed people this soda I was surprised that no one mentioned anything about it causing the drinker to go on a kissing spree. For that I'd like to thank my friends for not being as idiotic as myself, or at least to have the restraint to not say stupid things aloud.

Due to it being a season drink I expected this to have a bunch of spices in it, or to be minty for some reason (I blame the leaves on the label). Neither of those things were true at all. In fact it tastes more like it should be a summer beverage. It has a flavor that is similar to lemonade. It's like someone made a lemon lime soda but actually used lemonade and limeade. Then they decided to put in just a dash of berry for good measure. It's not bad by any means. In fact it's a damn good alternative to 7Up or Sprite. I just don't understand why it's marketed the way it is.

Oh Alo with your giant chunks of aloe. You treat me so well. Let me tell you all, y'all, a story about going to an Asian market. I went to an Asian market with Jay, Thirsty Dudes editor Dan, and some other friends and we came across an olive juice drink. I wanted to buy it so badly because of two reasons:
1. It would have been potentially gross.
2. It would have been potentially delicious.

I did not buy it because it was expired...by four years. As much as I like the idea of drinking milk that's two weeks old, I will not drink anything that's four years old. Why am I bringing this up? This has "olive leaf tea" in it and I hoped that it would taste like olives. Imagine my face when it didn't. It tastes like a sweet tea with chunks in it. Is that bad? Nope. Would I buy it again? No. Why? If I wanted a tea, I would buy a tea. If I wanted an aloe vera drink, I would buy one. I don't need two drinks in one. As novel it is, it's best not to mix something you're great at with something you aren't great at. I'm not belittling Alo, I'm giving them all the credit in the world for trying. Like I said, I'm not picking, I'm just stating an observation. This is a good drink, but it's like a hybrid car. I want all electric or all gas. I don't want to have to worry about plugging it in and filling it up with gas. I know that's not the same with all hybrids, but you know what I'm saying.

This is one of the better aloe vera companies and when it comes to bang for your buck, this company has some great and really different flavors.