High Fructose Corn Syrup - 485 Reviews

I could go for some nice tropical rhythms. It's getting cold here in Buffalo and I started to get ready for the inevitable winter. I put away all of the lawn furniture and I started putting plastic up on the windows I live in an old apartment and the windows don't do much for keeping out the cold drafts). I could use a nice little island retreat before I get into the icy slump of winter.

Unfortunately this drink didn't give me the feeling of hanging out in the sun with the waves crashing and some weird birds cawing. The title would leave one to believe that this is a nice mango juice from concentrate. One sip and I knew that there was some carrot in the mix. It's not strong, but it's a flavor that I have grown to notice in drinks. I have no problem with carrots being added to beverages, as the health boost is appreciated. I just like knowing that it's in there beforehand. I do dislike the use of HFCS. All of the other Grace products I've tried have used real sugar, and that is always preferred. The sweetener in this gives it a weird syrupy taste that I could do without. I understand high fructose corn syrup in soda to an extent, but adding it to juice just seems completely unnecessary.

Had this been sweetened with sugar, or had no added sweeteners, and been labeled mango carrot I can guarantee I would have had a more pleasant ride with it. Now someone bring me more blankets. I refuse to turn my heat on before Thanksgiving.

If such a thing as a old timey pop shop existed in my town, would anyone actually visit it on the regular? I don't even know if I would and I am a Thirsty Dude. Sure I would go on grand opening and have a nice root beer or some such thing, but I think it would have to offer me something more. You know what I just had a great idea. “Barcades” are all the rage these days. What if we took that a step further? Why not have an arcade that is also a pop shop during the day and then at 9 or 10PM all the youngin's get ushered out and the alcohol can flow for the older crowd? Seems like you're doubling your market with little extra work. (Mike, if you're reading this, you're welcome.)

During the day I would hope that they would serve some nice high quality fountain drinks as well as a nice array of bottled fares. I would be remiss if Pop Shoppe was not served at my local pop shop. Their soda is always on the better side of normal/average. They aren't going out of their way to recreate the wheel, but they aren't cheaping out either. Well, I guess they are a little since they use high fructose corn syrup. This cola is fairly standard. I would say flavorwise it falls somewhere in between Coke and Pepsi, but it is light years better than generic brand. Also, the bottle would work well for a retro feel. If this idea doesn't come into fruition in Buffalo in the next two years…€¦well…€¦I'll be pretty bummed. I need somewhere to play Galaga and drink soda. It would also be the reason I need to go out to bars to hang out with friends.

I cannot express my excitement when I came across this in a gas station in Richmond, VA. Actually that is a lie, I can very much express it by saying that I was slightly more than mildly interested. You see, I saw Canada Dry and my mind instantly went to thoughts of ginger ale. When I read pineapple, I assumed this was a pineapple ginger ale. As you can probably guess, this was no such thing. It is simply a pineapple soda. How great would pineapple ginger ale be though? I think I might just dump some pineapple juice in a bottle of regular Canada Dry and see how it turns out.

If there ever was a standard for pineapple pop, I assume this would be it. It has a general sparkling sugar water flavor with a mild taste of candied pineapple to it. I've had other sodas this flavor that the pineapple flavor is much stronger, and I have to admit, I prefer them. This is perfectly fine though, although while I was drinking it I proclaimed that I always feel trashy drinking pop from a plastic bottle. That's on me though.

I like that Arizona has been associating their new products with various “celebrities.” I have to be honest, I'm not a big art guy by any means, and I had no idea who Richard Prince was. The can (and Wikipedia) inform me that he was a photographer and painter who created pop culture-inspired art for decades. Apparently he is mostly known for “rephotographing.” If you want to know what that is; you're on a computer and Google is but a click away.

Prince also did a series of nurse paintings, which used the covers of pulp romance novels. This is where I tie in with the artist. Sonic Youth used one of these paintings for the cover of their Sonic Nurse album. It's ridiculous that learning that fact made me feel like I had a connection with the artist. It's not even a record that I like terribly much, but it is from a band that I once held very dearly.

Whatever. This isn't about an artist this is about a beverage. Apparently Prince approached Arizona with a soda he wanted to collaborate with them on, and ended up being apart of the Lemon Fizz release. The artist designed the can himself, so you're essentially buying a Richard Prince print for only 99 cents. What a steal.

Back to the beverage: This is carbonated lemonade, and it is great. I had such low expectations for this, as I expected a lemon lime soda (the most boring of all the pops) minus the lime (making it infinitely more boring). Arizona succeeded in creating a soda that actually tastes like lemonade with bubbles, and what harsh bubbles they are. It's very strong, so unlike most Arizona drinks it's a sipping drink and not a gulper. I don't think it really needs to be in such a large can, but hey that's Arizona's thing, so I'll let them have it.

Canada Dry, makers of the top-secret model of a ginger ale, now makes regular pop. That's pretty great, right? Sure. They're going against the "big guys" and making pop. Do they do it well? Meh. Yeah, you heard me. I gave it a "shaky hand" review. Black cherry is a rough pop and it is a lot harder to have a great black cherry than it is, say, a cola. This has a bit of a numbing feeling behind it like you would get from a cough drop. Is it bad? No, not really, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Is that harsh? Possibly. Probably. Actually. It's sweet and tastes like an average pop. Nothing mind blowing here. Just a black cherry pop to sit around on the shelf until you meet a person that has either never had black cherry pop or someone who forgot what it tasted like. You're alright to let this one get dusty. Don't worry. Someone will drink it.

I lived in an apartment with my girlfriend and we had downstairs neighbors. We lived adjacent each other for about a year before we said as much as one word to each other. Why? Well I can't tell you for sure but it didn't hurt that the dude downstairs always went to work wearing a nice shirt, slacks, and was always smiling. That in itself is enough to turn me off because, as you might guess, I am a salty jerk off.

One day I helped the girl downstairs get a mouse out of her bathroom and we made friends. Later that week was Halloween and we were outside with our dog dressed up as a lobster and they came out and sat on the porch. We instantly hit it off. I judged a book by its cover and missed out on a solid year of potential friendship. This drink is much like my relationship with my neighbors. I thought this was going to suck because it's in a tall can, has corn syrup, and just looks like it's going to suck. It is quite the opposite. It is a very good juice that doesn't at all reflect its outsides. It's sweet, not oversweet, and tastes like a good strawberry kiwi juice. Yeah, it's got a little bit of an aftertaste of something but it's easily masked by another sip.

No I am only on the surface comparing this can of juice to the solid friendship that I didn't know I had one story below me but now I've got a juice that I've judged wrongly and a friend that I have scammed, schemed and hinted at having sexuals with each other's partners for the past five years that I wouldn't trade for the world. I would push this can into a bus to save him and I would not do the opposite. This drink is better than I thought. I could have started and ended with that but now you learned a valuable lesson about life and friendship. Make a friend and share a tallboy with them. You won't regret it.

Tiny jugs: my least favorite in both sexual and beverage terms. Sure, they're adorable, but sometimes it just doesn't cut it. In beverage terms, which I will speak of from here on out, jugs of any kind rarely imply a quality beverage. Glass is king. Plastic jugs both large and small often contain milk, orange juice, or borderline swill. This is a step above the latter but nothing you should drink more than once a month.

This is pure sugar and you can taste it. Append that to the fact that it's not real sugar and is corn syrup and has that sting that crap juice carries along with it. Flavor wise it is that of a tropical Starburst but in liquid form so you get too much of what you love. Yes, it is true. If you ate ten strawberry banana Starbursts, you might get the sensation of each sip of this drink; highly concentrated fruit juice.

If you drink this on the regular, expect a knock on the door after the large population of the CPS reads this post. I don't know why, but those guys love this website. Probably because it's a simple way to track the sales of specific drinks to bad parents. I like to think I'm helping some people out there. In this case, it's CPS and the kids who have teeth hanging on by a theoretical thread.

Sammy was planning a party in his backyard. He had burgers and hot dogs. He had chips and potato salad. He had beer and pop. He was missing something though. He could feel it. He looked through his stash. Burgers and dogs both vegetarian and non; check. Chips; two bags. Potato salad; German; check. Beer; domestic and international. Pop; cola, diet cola...uh oh. He was missing the most important ingredient of the party. He was missing grape pop. Oh no. People were going to be here any minute. There was not a lot of time. He needed to run across the street to the only place close enough to get there and back; the bodega.

Sammy ran in and yelled, "Where is the grape pop!?" The associate said that it was in the second aisle. He saw that they only had it in small glass bottles. He thought that it was the best he was going to get so he grabbed ten bottles, put them in a handcart, paid, and ran back home to put them in the fridge.

The party started and people were having a great time. They were talking and playing games and telling jokes. It was a great time for all. Sammy looked in the fridge and noticed there was only one bottle left. He grabbed it and took a bit sip. He knew why there were no bottles left. It was a great grape pop. It was sweet and had a good candy taste and even though it was made with corn syrup, it was done well. Fruit should be sweet and taste like candy.

After everyone left, some of the people came up to ask him where he got that pop. He told them across the street and actually watched people leave his house and go right to the store. Success.

I equate NOS with everyday cars that kids soup up with kits and parts to make them faster and look cooler, mainly so they can hang out in local parking lots at night and show off what they have done. These cars, such as a Ford Focus, never were meant to be fast cars, but these kids dump all their money into putting parts in to make them that way. They would even go as far as to swap out engines and put in NOS systems for a little extra boost. In reality they could have just used all of the money they have spent making a “crappy” car “fancy” on a car that was that way to begin with, but I guess the process is part of the enjoyment. I mean everyone needs a hobby.

Now NOS energy drink takes a normal person's fairly unhealthy body and gives it a little shot, so that they can feel what it would be like to be a little healthier and to have more energy. It has mplx6 for enhanced mental focus and high performance energy, what ever that is.

I have always had a disinterest in all things car related, so by default I have also stayed away from this brand of energy drinks. In fact this is the first one I have ever drunk. You know what? I was correct to stay away. This tastes like a bad Mountain Dew rip off, which isn't anything great to begin with. It doesn't have much of a traditional energy drink taste to it, which I generally applaud, but the base flavor is just something I have no taste for. I'll stick to my little Chevy hatchback that gets good gas mileage, and can be parked anywhere.

Does anyone in the world actually like cheap blue raspberry pop? I think not. As a result they open it, take a few sips and then leave it out to lose its carbonation. That is what this tastes like a crappy soda that no longer has bubbles and vaguely tastes like a melted Freezepop. It's candy in fake juice form. I can't even imagine that children would truly like this. What can you expect for $.50 though?

Further adventures in the world of Pennsylvanian iced tea lead us to the wild world of Turkey Hill. Grab your gizzards and let's go. First though, let's discuss what came first the gas station or the tea? According to Wikipedia the tea came before the stores, but it was also preceded by ice cream and milk that was originally sold from the back of a car, creep style in the 30's. Now that that is covered, let's talk some mango green tea.

This has a good generic green tea taste to it. It does have a nice smooth mango flavor as well. Overall it is not of the same quality as high-end teas, but you know what? Sometimes you just want the taste of a cheaper tea. Speaking of cheap, at the Turkey Hill store I purchased this from they were four for $5. That's a whole mess of tea for very little money. It's a deal that can't be beat. They sweeten it with both corn syrup and real sugar, which is a decision I don't understand. Are they really saving that much money by splitting it up?

As far as tea of the Keystone state go Turkey Hill is on the top of the heap. They make a great mid level tea, that you don't get sick of, even when sipping on a half gallon all day.

Arizona just keeps expanding their beverage lines. They have come out with at least a dozen new flavors this summer alone. I have a feeling that they may have more drinks available for purchase in the United States than any other company. Okay, I'm sure Coke or Pepsi has more if you count all their subsidiaries, but each of these proudly states that it is an Arizona product. Sure a decent amount of these drinks leave something to be desired, but a good portion of them are straight up pleasant.

After some success with their Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear line of lemonades they decided to expand a little and released this mint lemonade. Mint is a hard game to play. It's so easy to get overzealous and leave the consumer feeling like they are drinking something whilst chewing gum, or shortly after brushing their teeth. No one wants that, especially not the Golden Bear himself. In this formula Arizona decided to take it easy on the mint, so that there is just a hint in each sip. The lemonade itself isn't all that bitter, due to the use of HFCS, but it's something I can get around a lot of the time and in this instance, I can even thoroughly enjoy. This is a nice treat that would cool anyone down on a hot summer day on the greens.

New Orleans, I would one day like to be inside of you. The love for Cajun spiced food runs deep in my veins. I also hear that you make fantastic sweet tea. You know what you don't make well? Pineapple pop. This, without any sort of hesitation, is the worst pineapple pop I have ever had. I think I know why you don't make good pineapple pop. It's because you don't know anything about pineapples.

Look, I'm from New York. What do we know about pineapple? Nothing. You can say that right back at me and I have to agree with you. We are in this together, The South.

Now that you know that we know about each other's strong suits, I'm really going to hammer it home. This is awful. It is a dense, thick, syrupy abomination of a drink. I don't know how this left the test bed. It's so bad. Maybe it's the tester's fault. Perhaps all that Cajun spice has dulled your taste buds like when you stupidly use a knife to cut things like rocks and stuff. Dull. Flat. Terrible. Your spices and your crawdads? You've got that nailed, buddy. This though, leave it in the dust. It blows.

I am currently on tour in California and found this at a cafe in Goleta. I love grapefruit soda so I jump at the opportunity to try new kinds anytime I can. The more sour the better. If a soda can make my mouth pucker, it's an almost guaranteed 4-bottle rating.

Is this a mouth puckering soda? Sadly no. It's moderately sour, but nothing too special. It's a decent grapefruit soda, definitely better than most.

You know that I drink a lot of stuff, right people? A lot. I would say that we drink more drinks that 99% of the rest of the world which, finally, puts us into that equal parts idolized and hated 1%. Ahh, the one percent. The air up here is just nicer to breathe. Filled with the scents of the most exotic of woods and scented oils. The people are all very easy to look at and their clothes are made from materials so soft that if the rest of you heathens as much as touched them, you would never be able to touch anything else because your fingertips would quite literally revolt from your hands. You will have to wait for eye scanning because your fingertips will be blank and you will never be able to use a biometric scanner ever again. Our hair is styled from both the greatest living hairstylists for free as our shoes are shined by perfect robotic representations of the world's finest dead shoe shiners.

We are also provided, at gratis, the finest drinks. We receive soda pop with all natural flavors and just the right amount of fizz. What do you get? You get drinks like this that could be personified as boring, tired, and characterless. While I am drinking something that was made from fresh fruit, you are drinking something that in every sense of the word is artificial. I am drinking something carbonated to my liking and you are drinking this drink that might as well be a juice due to the lack of fizz.

In order to get where we have gotten you will have to work very hard, know the right people, and do some schmoozing. It's all part of a days work and since none of us have to work any more, it does leave time to clean up at the back nine, polish off a case or two of the finest cigars, once again, for free, and shop for things we don't need like chrome shoes, personal elephant groomers, diamond Montblanc pencils, and heated cat hats. Which reminds me, I've got to pay my tie repairman and personal closet organizer before the end of the week or my life will just be the pits.

There is both something about Mary and something about peaches. Mary had a certain "cuteness" and liked the "underachiever" a bit. That made her approachable but still frightening because there was no telling why she didn't like "normal" guys. Peaches are a bit more complex. It might be due to my hatred of using napkins and my simultaneous hatred towards leaky fruit but I don't like 'em. This, though, I wish it had some sort of nutritional value because it's good.

Yeah, I know. Us drink elitists should have higher standards when it comes to what we like but this, HFCS and all, is pretty good and at the top of the charts when it comes to peach pop, not that there is a lot of competition. What do I like about it? It's adequate sweetness and the fact that it doesn't linger like that friend from high school that wants to catch up with you when you're carrying two gallons of milk and a handful of groceries and are on the phone with your mom.

Even with that glowing recommendation, I cannot finish a simple coffee cup full of it, let alone the generous portion inside of the bottle itself. Fruit pop does that to me.

Here I am stuck out in the middle of nowhere. I decided to rent this cabin for a week because I ran across an ad that had a picture of the most wondrous looking cabin with flowers everywhere in the yard. Apparently that picture was taken in 1972 because this place is a dump. There are mice turds everywhere and the ceiling is caving in on one of the rooms. I guess I should have known better as it was only $100 for the week. Ugh. The ad boasted that you would have the cleanest mountain water to drink from the well on the property. I wanted to get back to nature, so I packed light…€¦I mean real light. I brought one change of clothes, a knife, a flashlight and some beans and rice to cook over a fire. The problem is that since this ad has been running since before I was a fetus, it didn't take into consideration that the well has run dry. Here I am in a dilapidated cabin…€¦okay, let's be fair this is a shack at best and I have no water and no means to cook the limited food that I brought.

I found a hatch in the floor of the shed that led to some sort of makeshift basement pantry. There were a bunch of canned fruits and vegetables down there. I thought I was saved, but upon opening them most were completely spoiled. The only thing that I could find to eat was a jar of mandarin oranges. Those lasted me all of two minutes. I have been nursing the syrupy juice that was keeping them fresh though. It's like drinking a mandarin orange juice, with a decent helping of sugar added to it. It's not that bad, and sometimes I get a little strand of orange in the juice. Finding this cellar and it's contents gave me a little hope, but I am now certain that I will die in these woods. If only I could survive I might try to market this juice. I would call it Sac Sac. Don't ask why, I am delirious in a state of hunger. What do you mean, “Why don't I just drive back to civilization?” I'll tell you why, I am in touch with the Earth and I'll be damned if I can't survive off of the land for a week. One measly week! Why am I talking to a jar of spoiled pickled eggs? More importantly why is it asking me questions. All hops is truly lost.

Like sands through the hourglass, these are the Day's soda lines. Here we have the pride of Pennsylvania since 1946. That's 19 years previous to the release of Days of our Lives. It's rumored around the hills of Eastern PA that the show was created for a medium to run ads for the soda. Those people also think that a 14.4 dial up modem is modern technology, so I wouldn't put much stake to their claim.

Day's soda runs on the higher side of average sodas. They are similar to store brands, but they have a little extra something to them that make them a smidge better. For example, this bottle of cream soda is a bit smoother, and creamier than “generic” versions. It's obscenely sweet (90g of sugar in this bottle), but it's still very enjoyable. This is a soda that would be amazing in an ice cream float. Oh man, I wish I would have thought of that earlier when I had enough left in this bottle to make it a reality.

This falls under the category of iced tea that doesn't taste like tea. It's sugar water with flavoring that is similar to tea. There is no way that “tea powder” could result in a beverage that actually tastes like real tea. This falls in the same category as Nestea and Brisk. Actually it tastes like someone made some tea at home from a powder mix and combined it with some Brisk. I'm sure that a majority of the consumers out there will like this just fine, but over the years of writing for Thirsty Dudes I've become a low level tea snob, and this really just doesn't cut it. I mean it's perfectly drinkable, but it's nothing like what I want an iced tea to be.

Supervillianry is a disease. It is not something that you can ever rid your life of. Once a supervillian, always a supervillian. The best one can hope is to be a supervillian in recovery. That is where Moloch the Mystic found himself in the early 80s; a supervillian in recovery. One important part of recovery is to keep oneself busy. Moloch did so by working on comparing lines of code for Adrian Veidt. When they proved to be not enough for his idle hands he created a beverage company, which he named after himself: Mistic.

In the beginning it was a huge deal. It was essentially wine coolers for kids ( you know non-alcoholic). Yes things were going well for Moloch, until that pesky cancer showed up and killed him dead. After that things kind of fell apart at the plant, but eventually they got their act together and production started anew. This time minus the bubbles.

Obviously the drinks aren't as good as they were in their heyday, but there is still a certain charm to them. Take this bottle of Tropical Fruit Punch for example. Sure they could have cheaped out and gone the Hawiian Punch route, but the folks at Mistic knew that their former president and CEO would never allow that. Instead they created a fruit punch that was a bit on the citrus side of things. It's a mixture of all things that would normally be thrown into a punch with slightly elevated levels of pineapple and orange. It really makes all the difference. Even though this is sweetened with HFCS, it is not too thick and syrupy.

It is a nice little treat that honors the legacy of a once terrible, then reformed man. Let us now bow our heads in remembrance of Moloch the Mystic, not for what he once was, but for the company he later created.