No Sugar Added - 718 Reviews

In honor of the name of this company I am going to make my ladyfriend drag out her old cheerleading outfit to celebrate. No you fools, she will not be donning the clothes. It will be this full-grown bearded man. I'll even get a wig with pigtails if it pleases the folks at Pom. You see, this juice is that good. I derived so much pleasure from drinking this that I will put on an ill fitting skirt and tank top type thing, grab some pom-poms and do a little chant dance to announce that it's glory has arrived on the beverage scene.

Pom is no stranger to having mango in their juice. A couple of years ago I reviewed their pomegranate mango. While that was a nice treat, they have done nothing but improve the recipe for this newer version. The old flavor was more pomegranate than mango and it was fairly harsh on the throat. In this bottle it's perfect splitsville. 40% pomegranate juice, 40% mango juice/puree, and the extra little bits are spread out between pear juice and natural flavoring. The flavors blend together in such a harmony that it's like an Oak Ridge Boys tune. They are singular and complementary at the same time.

I really couldn't ask for more from this. All I can do it give, and I shall do so in the form of a cheer. A cheer that you will never hear.

Dear Herbal Mist,
Do you know what yerba mate is? Are you adding so little that you know you can't taste it but you can still say that your tea is made with it? We've got a guy in this office called Dan and he read this, said Joe Nemechek's name and starting talking about some special NASCAR Language. Something about "Jumpin' Joe," and "Boogity, Boogity."

Look, this is a great iced tea but it's nothing that I haven't gotten at every restaurant I've ever been to. I thought that it would be a chance to really see what your yerba mate tea would have since there are no fruits or sugars getting in the way between me and m' tea. You know what? Since Dan had so much to say about Joe Nemechek, I'm going to let him close out this review but before I do, I would like to say that this is good as far as generic iced tea goes but nothing more. Joe, you may be a fantastic racecar driver but you might want to relay the message to Herbal Mist that you want more yerba mate in your tea. After all, your good name is on it. Alright, here's Dan to say a couple things.

Seriously, Joe? You're better than this. You are THE "Jumpin' Joe," or at least you were. You didn't just only turn left like the other dudes. You hopped and galloped your way around the bends of Daytona like a wild pony. This tea is probably more representative of you now: cruising the neighborhood in a Cadillac, judging your neighbors' unkempt lawns after a Sunday breakfast at Hardee's. Grow a pair, Joe. Get some. Act like it's you and The Intimidator (RIP Dale, Sr.) rounding turn three at Talladega, chasing the checkered. Bumpin' is racin'; Joe needs to get back to Jumpin'.

Memorial Day. Yes, it is a day to remember those who have served our country over the years. It's also a day, weather permitting, to do yard work. All day we weeded, mulched, dug, planted, cleaned, got dirty, and everything else. Days like this require you to keep hydrated. Water is great. One step better than water is water with "essence" in it that makes it taste like really wet fruit. I mean that in the best possible way. I love stuff like this. Flavored water can go one of two ways and there are a fair amount of both. Ayala and Hint are awesome because it just somehow infuses the flavor and no calories or anything. I don't know how they do it. The other ones, basically anything that adds any sort of sugar, sweetener whether it be natural or artificial, is grotesque.

This will not be the last of this I drink. I promise. It's somehow naturally sweet and tastes like blackberries and is fantastically delicious. It is lightly flavored but is somehow just flavored enough that I don't want it to change at all. Magic. If this came in a larger container, like those sixty ounce Ito En tea bottles, I would buy it in a heartbeat. They have many new flavors that just came out so stay tuned for passion fruit and the others.

For a good portion of my life I consumed far too much sugar, and the majority of that sugar came in the form of iced tea. I love the stuff. Can't get enough of it. With the advent of the iced tea tall boys and the expansion of the medium they are everywhere and generally only $1. That's a deal that was hard to pass up. Eventually I got to the age where what you eat/drink finally catches up to you, and it was quite a shock. For 30 years or so I ate and drank whatever fancied me and my weight never went under 170 and never above 175. They were the golden years. Then I started to notice a change and I decided I needed more exercise in my life and a change to my diet. I am happy to say that I have actually stuck with it, and things are looking good.

One of the steps I took was to start brewing my own tea at home. I would boil a huge pot of water, throw a couple of tea bags in and them transfer it to a growler after an hour or so. I learned to love unsweetened tea, and it help stave off the cravings I used to have for tallboys. I still drink more tea than is probably good for a human, but at least there is no sugar involved.

One of my go to teas to brew is “original” Runa guayusa tea. It has an earthy taste that is similar to yerba mate, but with it's own twist. Sometimes I drink it just like that; sometimes I throw in a different tea bag into the mix of flavored tea. Either way it's always delicious. I love that I have the option to get these teas in ready to drink form. I wish this were available at every gas station around the country, so I could easily find them when traveling. It is a perfect balance of earthy tea and limejuice. It's mostly tea, but the lime flavor is very obviously there.

These days “mixologists” are all the rage. It seems like just a fancy word for a bartender that knows how to do their job. If I were to use the term though, I would say that Runa has one of the best mixologists around, sure this is a simple beverage, but ratios are as crucial to a drink as the quality of the ingredients used, and they have it down to a science.

Oh I think I'll just take a little walk. I've got about five hours before I have to do anything. I'll take a walk, get something to eat, look for some cool cars, and look for some drinks. It will be fun. (opens door to go outside) Oh fantastic. It's windy, raining, and cold. One better is there are no sidewalks. I'll just walk on the side of the road like a bum.

Here I am at a Panera and I know what I want to eat. Clearly the cinnamon crunch bagel but what to drink? That giant sign advertising tropical hibiscus tea piques my interest. I'll have that. (sits down) There is a real lack of "cool" car's out. The weather sucks but still. No one wants to drive their Porsche 911 to get a bagel? This tea is worth the drive. It's got a great floral tea taste with just a touch of sweetness from, presumably, the tropics. I don't taste any pineapple or mango or passion fruit; just a nice hibiscus tea, which is fine by me. Sure, a pineapple hibiscus tea would probably reign supreme but I'm not working at the Panera Bread flavor center now, am I?

Now this bagel is done. Looks like I'll aimlessly walk around like a hooded creep who doesn't have a car and enjoys running into the end of sidewalks because Jersey doesn't care about tourists without cars.

There comes a time when mankind makes something that is not needed/wanted. Jones fulfilled this prophecy by creating this monster of a soda.

*Editors note: in the beginning of the video, Mike thinks I say it's in a can but I was trying to say that it was an exclusive to Canada but I don't know how to talk on video because I get nervous.

Without further adieu, here is a video of us drinking this collection of fries, gravy, and cheese curds in a bottle.



Jones Poutine soda was easily the worst soda I've ever had. It's been hours since I drank it and my stomach still hurts and I still feel like I'm going to throw up. I appreciate that Jones sent this to us, but on the other hand I feel like they played a huge elaborate prank on us.

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.

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.

The stories and teachings have it all wrong. The tree that Gautama sat under that led him to become the Buddha was not a Bodhi tree as it was taught. In fact, the fat man was sitting under a coconut tree when he reached enlightenment. It's a good thing too, since reaching enlightenment can be truly dehydrating. Lucky for him the most hydrating beverage in the world hung directly over his head. So there you go: from enlightened to shaking a tree and dodging the fruits that descended towards his head within a couple of moments.

Several thousand years have passed since the glorious event and a company called Thirsty Buddha has arisen for a grand celebration in liquid form. All that is contained in this can is 100% all natural coconut water. There are no added sweeteners or preservatives, simply because they are not needed. This is delicious and refreshing; everything the Buddha needed on the day of his enlightenment. There are a lot of companies out there nowadays selling their versions of this "holy" drink, but most of them add extraneous ingredients that take away from the purity of what they create. They made mistakes, Thirsty Buddha did not.

To further offend the followers of Buddhism I shall leave you with the following perversion of faith an pop culture. Imagine the chorus of Destiny's Child's hit single Bootylicious with the lyrics changed to, "I don't think you're ready for this belly, cause his body's too Buddhalicious for ya babe."

I have to bone to pick with the world, the universe, humanity, etc. For 30 some odd years I wandered through life thinking that I hated all things coconut and no one tried to tell me otherwise. You see all I had been exposed to was that toasted garbage that goes on desserts, which is some of the worse tasting trash that has ever graced my tongue. I never knew there was another side of coconut, a fresh side. Finally, for the sake of this website, I drank some coconut water. It wasn't bad at all. It wasn't my favorite thing in the world, but it was a whole new beast compared to what I was used to. I would occasionally drink them, and the world was an okay place to be. Then this bottle of coconut water showed up at my door looking for a stomach to call its own. For a week I ignored it, but today I was feeling a bit sluggish, so I gave it a go. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THAT THIS EXISTED?!?!?!?!

This is pure glory. It is 100% natural coconut water and juice. There are no concentrates involved. This essentially tastes like a giant ripped open a coconut with its giant strength, then it squeezed the hell out of a pineapple to extract its juice into the open coconut. Finally it took it easy and squeezed a little bit of lime juice in it. For that giant, that would probably be less than a shot of liquid, but for me it's perfect. It tastes ridiculously fresh like you wouldn't believe. It's a taste that I didn't know existed in the world. So I thank you dear giant and I say screw off to the rest of the world for not letting me know that such a delicious beverage could exist.

Super Juices might be the worst superhero troop of all time. Villains would essentially need to do nothing more than be bigger than the largest fruit so that they could squash it. A lemon can thwart all the criminals it wants but against, say, a sheep, it will get trampled. Sure, the lemon might try to squirt some stingy lemon juice in its eye but it's not going to stop the sheep when it's in some sort of sheep rage. Pigs are known terrors. You've seen Snatch, right? I mean come on. Do grapes really stand a chance? Nope. Even together, I welcome any animal that squashes them into a collective murder juice puddle so I can drink this juice.

Look, it's nothing exceptional but it does not go without mentioning that it is a good juice nonetheless. It's chocked full of all sorts of different fruits like plums, peaches, pineapple, black currant, elderberry and many more. It's actually kind of a waste that it's not more of a medley because it just tastes like a good pomegranate juice. Come on. If you're going to go through all the trouble to wrangle up camu camu, muscat grapes, and black raspberries, you shouldn't focus your efforts on just one dude. My two cents. This superhero isn't going to save me from anything other than if a banana shows up and wants to join in the festivities. If they do, super team, please save me.

Mike Thirsty Dude (or should it be Thirsty Dude Mike?) called me last night pleading with me to review this. Okay, maybe it was actually just asking me nicely. Mike was under the impression that this was going to be a coffee soda, but in actuality it's just cold pressed coffee. He admitted that he likes coffee drinks, but not straight coffee so knowing that I love coffee he thought it was best that I take a shot at this.

While I normally drink my coffee with a little soy/almond/rice/coconut milk and sugar, I know good coffee when I taste it. I lived in Portland for almost 3 years where it's mandatory that you fall in love with Stumptown Coffee. While normally I would add the aforementioned things into this, for science I will drink it without.

The awesome thing about cold brew coffee is that you get a richer coffee flavor from the beans. Because the beans are never subjected to hot water, it has a much lower acidity in the taste. Anyone who has had gas station coffee that's been sitting out for hours knows that taste. It's super easy to cold brew at home, especially if you have a french press. All you do is course grind the beans, put them in a mason jar and fill it with cold water. Mix it well and put the lid on it. Then place the jar in the fridge for 12 hours, take it out and press the coffee in the french press. Now this is coffee concentrate, so you can add milk or water to taste to dilute it. Or if you love REALLY strong coffee, you can just drink it straight.

Now back to La Colombe. I haven't had many bottled cold brew coffees before, but what I have had been nothing short of awesome. This was no exception and they definitely give cold brew/pressed coffee a good name. It has a really awesome and complex rich taste. Since I don't normally drink black coffee, this is a sipping coffee for me (much like espresso) and it's a great way to savor the flavor. (Note, that rhyme I just wrote was 100% unintentional and I'm kind of embarrassed by it but decided to leave it in for some unknown reason, then write this big long unnecessary apology that brings more attention to it).

Did you ever wonder why Gargamel was always trying to get at the Smurfs? Some theories are that he wanted to turn them into gold, he thought they would be a delicious treat or that he just hated them and wanted to destroy them. Truth is that good ole Gargy just needed their blood to power his doomsday machine. He was actually quite upset about their eventual destruction. He spent many a late nights sitting up with Azrael, crying about how such innocent creatures needed to die just so he could completely destroy the rest of the human race. You see at school everyone picked on him for being bald and ugly. Oh, you didn't know that Gargamel was actually a high school student? Well he was. The entire Smurf world was really just a school shooting about to happen. It was sad really to see a boy so confused.

Eventually Gargy grew up and started a Fortune 500 company. He invested a lot and created this juice in homage to the creatures he once thought he had to destroy. All proceeds go to Smurfs all around the world. It's like reparations: reparations that are a mixture of blueberries, blackberries, apples and a banana. It mostly just tastes like blueberries though with some other flavors around the edges. Gargamel tried to list them as Smurfberries on the label, but the FDA wouldn't hear a word of it. If he had just reversed the percentages of blackberries to blueberries this would perhaps be the world's finest drink, but alas he did not and what we are left with is still delicious.

I'm sorry this is not what you expected sir, but in all honesty did you really expect to be handed a scotch and soda or some such libation? I mean we are at an elementary school music recital. It would be more than a little irresponsible to serve alcohol at such an event. I'm actually shocked that these Hi Ball energy drinks were available in the vending machine. I mean why would kids grade K-6 have any need for energy drinks? Actually, why would kids so young have access to a vending machine? Shouldn't they be learning the basics of their educations, not chugging away at a soda?

Anyways, stop your complaining and try the drink. It's like tonic water with a splash of grapefruit flavoring in it. It's like a grapefruit seltzer, and it's not bad at all. It has organic caffeine, guarana and ginseng in it, and you would never be able to tell from the taste. I know you wanted to get drunk to make it through this night, but at least this will save you the embarrassment of your child seeing you fall asleep during his/her solo.

Sir I will not get you another. I'd like to point out for the third time that I'm not a waiter. I'm actually just another parent who's seat you have taken. Don't give me that garbage about not having assigned seats. You clearly moved my jacket that was on the chair when I went to the restroom. You also dumped my wife's purse out when she asked you to move. Now that I think about it, your trench coat leads me to believe that you're child isn't even in this production. Security!

It is a bit audacious to call your company "Fave." It's just presumptive. That's not to say that this isn't going to be someone's favorite because it's not too bad. There are fruits and vegetables inside this little number and for the most part, it's pretty good. This drink is mostly fruity with only a touch of...strangeness. I know that makes it sound bad but it really isn't. It's a tangy juice with a little bit of lies inside of it. It's a white lie, which is globally acceptable for some reason. It's like there is an unspoken asterisk next to the phrase that means people don't get offended when you flat out lie to their face. Adultery, murder, and speeding don't get you in trouble if you explicit say it as a white lie.

Silly Americans. You thought the cold war was over and that you had won. You believed the movie Clue when it told you that Communism was nothing but a red herring and that capitalism was the true motivator. You have been duped and now we have infiltrated your very culture. Who do you think own all the Red Robin restaurants? It is us, working on getting you fat and slovenly. Did you really think that Red Bull was there to just help you get through your day? We created the company in order to weaken your hearts for the battles to come.

We even have some products over there for the sole benefit of our agents who are stuck on your soil. With all the garbage that you produce and consume we needed to make sure there were some things that were healthy for our people to consume. We bribed some of the higher ups at Naked and they created a special blend for us that they call “Red Machine.” It is a mixture of all of the finest communist fruits to remind our people what they are fighting for. Each bottle contains 13 raspberries, 11 strawberries, 3 cranberries, ¼ of a pomegranate, 1 ½ of an apple and 7 red grapes. We also mixed in 1/3 of an orange and ½ of a banana, as well as a bunch of other vitamins and the like to ensure continued health. While you and your countrymen choke on their excessive calorie and sugar intake, the people's people will remain at the peak of their health drinking these wonderful prepackaged smoothies. They taste like nothing but wonderful red fruit. It has been formulated so that the other ingredients are not evident in the taste. What you get has a strong berry flavor with the slightest hints of the bitterness of cranberries and pomegranate.

America, you stand no chance. Our day will come soon, and on that day all class struggles will cease to be. You will be too bloated with weak hearts to stop us.

It's not often that you see concord and white grapes hanging out together. They're both grapes so you think they would be friends but no. I heard something happened at a family reunion where white grape brought a sexy banana to the barbecue and concord grape ended up making out with it behind the shed. Concord, you should never take you best friend's woman. Perry Farrell taught me that. White grape, you should be man enough to know that bananas will come and go and that that one was no good for you any way.

Maybe they made it up after a decade or so of a childish grudge and decided to collaborate again and come together on this little guy. The problem is that they wouldn't get out of the pool when they made this drink because it tastes watered down. The flavors are all there but it tastes weak. I like weak drinks but I think that with these two grapes together, a nice unaffected mix would have been nice since it is such a rarity.

These two are fine now but they lose a decade of their lives being angry at each other. We will ramp up to an uncut double grape juice but until then we have this, which is almost totally awesome.

One of my favorite things about traveling/touring is finding and trying regional beverages. Recently I found myself in a crappy little grocery store at 2am in Kansas looking for something to satisfy my hunger. There was no “natural” section to speak of, and hardly any vegetarian selections except for crappy chips and actual vegetables that I had no means to cook. Things were looking grim, and then I stumbled across a little display of these sparkling ciders. My night started to look up, but I left the store with a bag of flavored rice cakes and this bottle of cider. Sure I went to bed hungry that night, but I had a good taste on my tongue.

This is not a spiced cider, and I can only assume that they grow a different breed of apples in the Midwest than in Buffalo, so it ended up tasting more like a sparkling cran-apple juice than sparkling cider to me. I'm okay with that. It was still delicious. Basically if you give me a bottle of any juice that is carbonated with no added sugar, I am going to love it. The cranberry juice isn't very strong, so the apples do most of the work. Apples: The backbone of America.

Apparently the world has gotten a little lax on the meaning of the word “pure.” If someone were to offer me some pure juice, I would expect it to be straight up juice with nothing added to it at all. I would also expect it to have not gone through any sort of process. I'm looking in your direction concentration. Mr. Pure seems to think that juices from concentrate still count as being pure. I suppose they get some credit for not adding any sweetener to this juice. It's just orange and pineapple concentrate and water, which is better than most inexpensive juices. My issue with this drink is due to that they are a bit heavy handed with 1/3 of the ingredients aka water. The juice tastes watered down, which brings me back to my pure argument.
To sum this up it tastes like watered down orange juice with a slight nod to pineapple. I guess if you're looking for juice in a gas station like I was it could have been way worse, but I'm not sold.

Vegetable based juices can be fickle things. If they are made fresh it is wonderful. All of the subtle nuances of the vegetables pop out at you, and it just feels like you are doing something healthy and nothing can change that. On the other side of the coin, if they are prepackaged and mass produced to have a longer shelf life the glitter in their eyes fades away and you end up with something that tastes more like soup than juice.

With this product Odwalla is walking a tightrope between the two. It certainly doesn't taste like it was freshly juiced, but it's not quite in soup territory yet. It tastes mostly of carrots and beets, with the carrots giving it that slightly dirty taste, as they are prone to do. There is a slight hint of ginger flavoring, but there is no burn to speak of. Drinking juice that isn't very sweet will probably be a shock for a decent amount of people, and I can't really see this going over too well with the general populace, but there are people out there like myself who will enjoy it, and they should give it a chance.