Organic Agave Nectar - 42 Reviews

I was worried about this. Vinegar? As a drink? That's a strange one, right? Who drinks vinegar? I do, apparently. How is this vinegar, though? It's good. The turmeric and lemon and ginger are a great trio. Good burn and the vinegar is there but mild. I was worried that it would be like drinking straight vinegar or better/worse fruit flavored pickle juice. It was not. You could taste a little lemon but the turmeric and ginger was prominent and a flavorful team.

I think I have another one of these in the basement, where vinegar/pickling belongs. I no longer worry about what they will taste like and welcome with open, pickle loving arms, vinegar drinks. I say that now until I buy something like a Bragg's and it's going blow the lid off my mouth like that one time I thought it would be a good idea to take a shot of chicken marinade not knowing it was mostly vinegar and my eyes watered up like that time that I saw Homeward Bound for the first time.

To my taste buds mint and tea generally do not mix. I know it's a classic flavor, and I admit it's okay with hot teas, but once they get iced I feel like I poured myself a nice glass of tea, got distracted by a phone call, or my cat throwing up, brushed my teeth, realized I had forgotten about my tea, and then drank it anyways. To me the mint never tastes like it's part of the drink, more like it's a foreign aspect that just happens to be in my mouth. With Goldenbrew it's a tad better. The mint still tastes a bit detached, but it's more like I'm chewing Doublemint gum and drinking green tea instead of having just brushed my teeth. I don't know why that is preferable, but it definitely is. The lime is also a nice touch. So many companies rely on lemons too heavily when this superior citrus cousin is just begging to be used. It makes things a bit more interesting. You add high quality tea, and a little agave to round it out with a touch of sweetness and you have a pretty good beverage on your hands. Now if someone could just figure out how to blend in mint with tea a bit better this would be fantastic.

The name and label on this bottle make it look like a supermarket's store brand. TK totally sounds like it could be a grocery store chain down in Florida, and why wouldn't a grocer in the Sunshine State have their own line of hibiscus teas? I really do like the simple clean look of the label, but I've been to too many grocery stores around the world and it has “that” look to it. I'll tell you what though; if this were a store brand I would be jealous that they didn't have any stores in or around Buffalo.

I don't think I've ever come across a hibiscus tea that I didn't love, and when you throw ginger into the mix, I don't know if there was any chance of this being bad. This is simply hibiscus flowers brewed in water with a little ginger added and then it's all (very) lightly sweetened with agave. There is no burn from the ginger, but the flavor is still very prevalent. Overall this just tastes natural with nothing hiding. All of the flavors are right out front where they should be, standing naked in front of your taste buds. It is delicious and it is refreshing.

Today I sighed before I walked into work. It's been a whirlwind of a place; lots of work and lots of switching projects. Not a lot of yelling which is good but at the end of the day, I really feel like I've got to wipe the sweat from my brow. I needed something to calm down with and lo and behold, there was a hibiscus tea in the fridge for me to enjoy.

This tea is better than the other one by a long shot. It's a little sweeter and has a real prominent hibiscus taste. Go figure, right? I think that this is a great base and don't really know how they could improve it. It's a lightly sweetened hibiscus tea. What a marvelous invention. They nailed it. Three friggin' ingredients. Three. One and a two and a one, two three. Water, hibiscus and agave. Done. Nailed it.

On a recent, and terrible, trip to Richmond, Virginia I was pleased as punch to find this little number hiding in a cooler. Without question I bought it and anxiously awaited the nearly ten hour trip home which would allow me to drink it. Obviously I forgot and was left with two bags of snacks and drinks that were virtually untouched.

Green jasmine?! Dude. Please. You have an open invitation to come with Jay and myself to PF Changs where we kill glass after glass of the green jasmine tea. Paired with hibiscus should be a match made in heaven but is it? That's my little click bait for you. Answer? Scroll down to find out. There's another.

No. It's good but it tastes a little like a hibiscus tea that someone left the bag in too long. It's the tiniest bit sweet which actually helps but at the end of it, it comes off a bit flat. There's a tiny bit of green jasmine tea but the hibiscus tea is really strong, almost overwhelming. All-in-all this kind of falls flat. It's really heavy like my heart while I have to write this honest review about a tea I really wanted to love but have to give a mediocre grade to. I could never be a teacher. Some kids show promise but end up disappointing you and you have to fail them. I'm not going as far as to fail this tea but saying that the name of a baby chicken is a pigeon is just wrong and they should know better.

Oh how I wanted this to burn. "Chili?" Yeah, there are chilis in it but it didn't deliver the punishment I so desperately wanted. I guess if someone told me this is a gateway between juice and Prometheus Springs, I would be more lenient but they didn't and when I read "chili," I was ready to accept the punishment.

Disappointment aside, I will not fault them for it. I cannot blame them for my ignorance. There is some spicy kick in there and you get it with every sip. The blood orange is fruity and the chili is a nice, sharp aftertaste that keeps you coming for more. It's a very small bottle but there is no doubt that if this came in a larger size; I would enjoy all of that, too. This is a nice drink through and through and will not disappoint anyone now that I've prepared you for what to expect.

Hey you. Yeah you, over there running on the corner. Why don't you come over here for a drink? I've got just the thing for you. Yeah. You'll love it. It's new. It's alkalinized or whatever. It's good for you. It's low in calories and is good for something I think you kids are talking about; paleo or whatever. It doesn't taste half bad either. What does it taste like? Why don't you just come into the shop and grab one. It's on me. You look thirsty and very attractive. What? Was that out of line? I thought you would think it was a compliment. Sorry, I guess. Sorry I find you attractive. No, I mean it. Take it. It's for you. We just got them in. It's supposed to be really good for you.

Do you like it? It's good, right? It's lightly sweetened and tastes like an aloe coconut water even though there is no coconut water in it. It's also the biggest carton of a sports drink I think I've ever seen. No, I'm not creeping on you. Jesus, lady. Calm down. You were running and were clearly sweating and I thought I would be nice and give you a drink. You've got me all wrong and I'd like you to kindly leave my store and take your drink with you.

This is a bit of a wild ride, but not really the thrill a minute I was hoping for. It has a sourness from the grapefruit, but not really in a way that makes your lips pucker up. The ginger is in a similar state. It has some burn to it, but it never reaches a level that hurts in a good way. Instead it leaves your throat with a mild annoyance as if you had been hanging out all night in a smoky bar. This beverage plays with your emotions, pulling you this way and that, but never fully takes you to the destination you want to go. Instead of walking you to your door, it drops you off at some seedy truck stop on a deserted highway whose only denizens are an army of lot lizards.

The only ingredients are water, grapefruit juice, agave nectar and ginger juice, so the problem comes from one or two locations. First off, it's a more water than juice (only 20%). I want that grapefruit to grab hold of my taste buds and squeeze them until they scream. What I am delivered couldn't even be described as a minor inconvenience. Secondly, this is something that I hardly ever say about drinks, it's not sweet enough. It's like the sugar is dipping it's toe into the pool and it can't decide whether it wants to take a swim, or not. Just jump in, you're annoying everyone around you with your indecision

After smack talking this product for two paragraphs, I would say that it's still decent, but it just has such unrealized potential. Either lowering the percentage of water or adding more sweetener would greatly improve this beverage and take it in the direction that I so desperately want it to go.

Root tea? I'd say. This drink tastes like a cornucopia of bark and herbs. It's very strange, very bold, and just alright. It is a sipping tea. No one is chugging this stuff and if you are, you're doing it wrong. This tea is made for...well I don't really know who or what scenario it's made for. If I had to pick a demographic, it would be mid-twenty year old hippies. They love the earth, dirt, and herbs. This seems like it was made for them. Like I said, it's not bad, but I don't know anyone who actually has a taste for it. It tastes like a dark root beer that was made without any carbonation that was filtered through a nice oak tree and the "scientist" who did that let their adorable eight year old daughter sprinkle some cinnamon in there. It's "woodsy" if you know what I mean. At lease when I drink something like a spruce beer I feel like I'm in the forest. This "root tea" tastes like I am foraging around on the ground for anything I can get nutrients from.

In closing: It's strange but it's alright in small sips and doses.

I am a simple man, and I enjoy the simple things in life. Logic dictates that since they contain very few ingredients and no attitudes that I should enjoy Blue Print's juice beverages, and I'm not one to argue with logic. This drink is wonderful is it's simplicity. Let me break this down for you. It's essentially lemonade that is made from filtered water with organic lemons squeezed into it. Since that would be a bit on the tart side, a healthy dose of agave nectar is added to the mix. I have no doubt that this would be a fine lemonade indeed, but Blue Print wanted to take things a bit further, so they also added in some limejuice. I've obviously had lemonade before, and I've even tried a few limeades, but I have never had them combined, and I must tell you they work much better in this fashion than when combined in a soda. The folks at Blue Print still weren't completely sold on their beverage. Sure it was delicious, and the marriage of the fruits made it stand out a bit, but what this drink needed was a bit of a kick. The only logical solution to this dilemma was to add our old friend ginger to the mix. That my friends is how Blue Print hit a home run with this beverage. The ginger is right up there with the lemon. It's got a little bit of a burn, but I don't believe it's enough to turn anyone off from the drink, it's just enough to make you go “OHHH!” and dive right back in for another sip.

My only complaint about this drink is the hefty price tag. It's $8 for a 16oz beverage with low cost ingredients. I know that their other beverages have a bunch of different fruits and vegetables in them, and that they are raw, and as fresh as prepackaged juice can be, but I could go to a juice bar and not spend that much on a drink that I watch them juice before my eyes. As much as I enjoy this I just can't justify paying that much, so there is very little chance that I will return to this flavored well.

Things are starting to warm up. The internet weathermen tell us that it's supposed to get up to 70 today. While I'm sure that won't stay consistent, theirs is no doubting that in the relatively near future lemonade season will once again be upon us. The weather may get hot, but the drink will help keep us cool. Now regular lemonade is great. It's simple and it gets the job done. Fruit flavored lemonades are even better. I was recently exposed to the Passion Lemonade at Starbucks and let me tell you it was a treat. Big Island Organics decided to go all the way to the top of the mountain and make a lemonade so great that they had to change its name as to not hurt the feelings of the lesser drinks.

They call it gingerade, but it is clearly flavored lemonade. The ingredients are water, lemon juice and agave nectar. That there are the makings of one hell of a lemonade, but why stop there when you can ad glorious Hawaiian yellow ginger. With it in the mix you get a great taste as well as a nice burn that is sure to turn a lot of people off, but those people aren't us are they? We love the burn, the more the better. Well, maybe not in this case, since this is a sippin' drink for a nice hot day in the sun. In that case, this has the absolutely perfect amount of burn to it.

I went to Hawaii for a friends wedding a few years ago. Before we left for the islands I had very little interest in our destination. Sure I knew I was going to have fun, but I'm not really a beach guy as the sun causes my skin to combust after a very short period of time. It's now two years later and I still talk about the trip all of the time. I'm a person who travels a decent amount, and I've seen a lot of places, but going to Kauai was one of the best experiences of my life. A couple of us have been talking about arranging another trip back, and as a result I have been selling a whole mess of junk I have around the house to raise money. I will surf. I will jump off waterfalls, and most importantly I will do it in exchange for records and such that I never listen to.

Drinking this lemonade, has given me another push to put a bunch of stuff up on eBay again this week so I can reach my goal of flight/hotel basically in trade. I drank a whole mess of lemonade over the week and half I spent on Kauai, and since my mind has been on it for the past few weeks, one sip of this brought be right back there. This is nicely tart, but with some agave sweetness to even it out. It's water, lemon juice and a sweetener. It's how lemonade should be. I'll never know why companies add a ton of extraneous ingredients to their lemonade. This is all there needs to be and it's wonderful.

Now I will go through my record collection again and thin it out for the cause.

Anyone who can get this drink at their leisure is a lucky person. This is a complete treat. Spicy, sweet, tart, and bitter all at the same time. You can't get this close to an even distribution of wonderfully blended flavors easily. You take a sip and it's sweet, fantastic lemonade. Then you get the burn of the ginger followed by a little bitterness of the mate. To make something like this you have to be a mastermind of flavors and concoctions. I think that this, if put in the hands of the masses, would blow up as a company. We've become too safe with our beverages and no one wants a little bit of bang. "Oh a spicy drink? Who wants that?" Oh, I don't know. The millions of people who purchase hot sauce, jalapenos, or put ginger on their sushi. It doesn't taste like chicken wings, you idiot. Things can be spicy and sweet. Have fun with your drinks. Don't be scared.

Day one in Brooklyn was a success. My flight was on time. I didn't get hassled at the gate. I took the right subway from the airport. I Google Map'd it successfully to my destination. I handled it like a pro. We went to dinner and got a fantastic pizza and then went to get dessert. They didn't have the cookies we were looking for so we got a berry pie, which was awesome. While we were in the store, I checked for drinks and there were a lot of them. I settled on this one, which might be my most expensive drink I have ever purchased to date at $7. My buddy put it into perspective by saying that is what regular people spend on drinks every time they drink so it all evened out.

When we got home, we talked about what we've been up to, ate pie, and I drank this and it was pretty fantastic. It was slightly spicy with the cayenne pepper and the lemon was like really sour lemonade so together it was a wonderful assault on my mouth. The agave…€¦whatever. It might have smoothed everything out and left less of a bite and perhaps less calories than with, say, cane sugar. I have no complaints. This drink was great, though, and I'm happy to have finally found one to review.

Tomorrow we have all sorts of activities planned so there should be more reviews of probably expensive city drinks. I said that like I live in Iowa on some farm and this is my first time in an urban environment.

I've got a special friend coming over later and I have everything just right to set the mood. I have dinner in the oven, I have the lights slightly dimmed, and I got a little boss nova beat playing in the background. I even went as far as to get this juice to accompany the music. Things need to be just right to make this a magical evening. I hope that this juice not being the greatest doesn't throw off the vibes I'm trying to throw out there. I was hoping for it to be heavier on the blueberry side than the acai, but we don't always get what we hope for. It certainly starts off with a nice strong blueberry taste, but then about a half a second late you are punched in the tongue by acai. No lie every single sip it happens. Acai is just such a strong taste that I know is hard to overcome. Using it is worth it though due to its health benefits. If you hate the flavor of said fruit, like I know a lot of people do, I would stay away from this juice. I mean what would you be doing buying an acai juice if you know you're going to hate it anyways.

Oh there's the doorbell. Mike is finally here. What? No I wasn't preparing for sexy times. Mike is bringing over his drum machine and new keyboard and we're going to write some songs. Why would I make tacos for sexy time? WE just decided we've already wrote enough songs about BBQs so it's about time we moved onto tacos…€¦and bossa nova beats.

ps. This is obviously a made up story because Mike would never use the doorbell. What isn't made up is that we have written probably over 100 songs about BBQs over the past 8 years. Sadly, none have used a crappy bossa nova beat.

Organic energy. What better way to do it, right? Anyone who drinks Red Bull or any of those types of energy drinks has to know that it's not at all healthy for them. You know that, right? Nothing that pungent and cringe-worthy can be natural. This is and because of it, it's a heck of a lot tamer. Perhaps less effective than the rocket fuel you are used to drinking, this is actually drinkable. It's a little bitter from the green tea and the coffee bean but it's actually considered a sparkling fruit drink. I can't actually taste anything in particular but here's the fruit roll call: lemon, pomegranate, and elderberry.

If you are sick of what extreme sports is telling you to drink and want to calm down and be a functioning adult for once in your life, drink this. You might not go back to "the other guys" unless we're talking about that Will Ferrel and Mark Wahlberg vehicle because I would love to watch that movie again.

As far as I'm concerned if you're not sweetening your beverage with real sugar, the only other option should be agave. Everything else is either gross of unnecessary. Everyone knows the joys of real sugar, well maybe not diabetics, but not everyone is familiar with agave. It comes from a cactus looking plant (the same one tequila is made from) and it's sweet, slightly syrupy and wonderful tasting. Oogave understands this and they created a brand specifically to showcase this wonderful sweetener. They have been making a nice array of unusual soda flavors and the results have been great. With their grapefruit they missed the mark a little. It's a pretty decent soda and for normal people this might be great, but I am a lover of grapefruit sodas and it doesn't have that quasi-sour kick that I like in this particular flavor. It tastes just like grapefruit minus the tartness. I imagine it was the agave that neutralized it and made it into a smooth grapefruit soda. I would drink it again, but I'm just not as excited about it as I was when I purchased it.

Do you love the taste of ginger beer, but have the sensitivity of an infant when it comes to the burn of it? If you answered yes to the above question than this ginger ale is for you. When you open it open it has the strong aroma of a quality ginger beer. I thought I was in for a treat, and that they “mislabeled” it ginger ale. I was still uncertain when I took a swig and the flavor equaled that of ginger beer as well, but was confused by the lack of the burn. From the scent and taste this should have been a 4 out of 5 on the burn-o-meter. Instead it's fairly smooth (well as far as ginger ales go). It's strange. For someone like myself who drinks ginger beer for the burn, it's a let down, but for those like my ladyfriend who can't handle the burn it's a nice little treat. I would say this is what pale ginger ale should taste like, not what you would normally associate it with.

The sun is glaring down at you. It's what they like to call "a scorcher" and you don't like it. You're a cool guy, so you never wear shorts and you only wear jeans, a white undershirt, and a denim vest. You're a cool guy, like I said. It's hard to still be so cool when you are drenched in your own sweat. You wish that you could just, for one day, be like everyone else and wear madras shorts, flip flops, and some dumb beer shirt with the sleeves ripped, not cut, off. Then you see your ticket to true coolness.

You open the cooler and pick out an Oogave watermelon cream pop. You would be willing to pay well over the price tag because you just know that this is going to be out of this world. You open the cap on the curb of a sidewalk for two reasons; because you don't have a bottle opener and it's cooler to do that. You've got to keep up your image, after all. You take the first sip and there it is, the epitome of cool. It's a candied watermelon taste that you expected since no one has ever done "real" watermelon correctly. The watermelon flavor lasts a while thanks to the agave but it's a welcomed occurrence. That mixed with the smoothness of cream soda and you've got one killer drink.

Just then, your friends walk by wearing black hoodies, sweating like they have some sort of body disorder that makes you sweat uncontrollably. You tell them to hold on while you get them each a bottle of this pop that you've been enjoying. You hand the bottles over, they break them on sidewalks and lamp posts because it's cool and instantly feel refreshed. They told you that they were about to go to the J. Crew across the street to buy some madras until they got this pop. You told them you understand and won't mention to anyone.

Tina had had enough of her restless nights. She was a busy woman and she needed to be at the top of her game. You see she was in the middle of a big job at work that required her to be at the lab at 6am and she was sometimes there as late as 11pm. Whenever her friends complained about working too much, or being tired, all she had to do was shoot them a look and they would shut up immediately. Originally she had drunk coffee to help her stay alert, but her body became accustomed to it, and it stopped working well. She then moved onto your everyday energy drinks, but she really was never comfortable with all of the artificial garbage in them. On top of that they gave her the jitters and they also kept her up during the few hours that she actually had for sleeping. She was a mess and her research was suffering because of it. Then one day on one of her brief and rare breaks she wandered into a health food store and saw this little bottle of Guayaki. The bold pink letters of “Yerba Mate” stood out to her like the bat signal in the night sky. An all natural, organic drink that would work the way an energy drink should without advertising as being one. On top of all of that it was grapefruit and ginger flavored. It tasted like a typical yerba mate tea, you know earthy and bitter with a coating of agave and Stevia laden grapefruit juice to mix things up a bit. It was a bit more diety than she had hoped, but for an all natural energy drink that wouldn't make her feel crazy, she was happy to deal with it. She had also hoped that there would be a little kick from the ginger, but alas there was not. It only appeared in the faintest form of flavor. That day the gods looked down upon Tina and bestowed their grace upon her for her excellent work in the field of hotdog milkshakes. Her research would soon propel the world into a utopia where hotdogs and ice cream were properly fused into one glorious dessert drink.