Pure Cane Sugar - 220 Reviews

Oh boy, this one is a doozy! We don't review many non-ready-to-drink beverages, but when a company contacts us about sending samples for review we aren't going to say no. I mean, they are still things you drink, it just takes a little more work on your end. I was really expecting to be sent a one serving sample of this, but Naked were very nice and sent a full sized 1lb container. It is much appreciated.

So it's been a slow Sunday in mid-April and the weather is pure garbage. I had no plans this afternoon, so I decided to go to the gym and take this for a test drive. The directions say to mix one of two scoops into 8oz of water (or your favorite beverage and mix it thoroughly. The nutritional facts say that one serving is two scoops so I did just that. Unfortunately I have to say that it did not taste all that pleasant. The fruit punch flavor was very much overshadowed by the taste of supplements. It's a bit chemically. I would advise someone to mix it into something other than water to avoid that. If I use it again I'm going to try mixing it into some vanilla seltzer, which seems weird to drink before working out. I'm gonna be all burps.

Okay, so the flavor is not all that great. That can be acceptable, as it is a functional product and not meant for the pleasure of one's taste buds. This is some strong stuff though. It's meant to help push you in your workouts and give you “clean” energy. I can attest that it does that very much. I also had some side effects though. Now, it's happened very rarely, but it has happened that I have gotten the “Niacin Flush” from certain strong energy drinks. For those who don't' know what that is, it is when you take too much vitamin B3 and you get warm, look like you have a sunburn, and experience a tingly/burning /itchy sensation. In the past when it has happened It was in my face and top of my head. With this product my whole body felt insane. If I didn't know what it was I would have been highly concerned, searched Wed MD and convinced myself I was dying from some exotic disease. Being in the know, I just went on with my workout and this product definitely pushed me more than I normally would have. I did feel completely crazy the entire time and was just aware of my entire body. Then when I toweled off sweat my body just wanted to be touched more (not like that you creep). I've never taken Ecstasy, but from how I've seen it portrayed in movies and tv, I'm guessing it feels like this to a way crazier extent. Keep in mind I'm not saying this will happen to everyone, but I would suggest starting off with only one scoop and see how that works out for you. I'm going to try again in a few days on my next gym outing and lower my dose and see how that treats me. Hopefully not feeling like a maniac.

Is it just me or does Earl Grey sound like it should be the name of a sheriff from back in the Wild West? You know a grizzled man who will do whatever it takes to bring justice to a small town, even if it means leaving the life he loved behind? Perhaps in the movie that I am apparently pitching his love interest would be a woman from England and he has to choose between being with her and protecting the town. In a scene she will get him to bring some tea she has brought from home and he will pretend he doesn't like it, even though the truth is he finds it very soothing. In the end he will sacrifice himself in order to save the town from a band of outlaws that are causing a commotion. In the final scene his would be love interest will place a cup of tea upon his grave. Come on Hollywood, why aren't you knocking on my door? The movie could be called Teatime in Sundown or some such silly thing.

Oh, once I get this running I'll approach Brooklyn Crafted to do a dual promotion with this soda. Perhaps you are like me and never realized that you wanted an Earl Grey ginger beer. I dare you to take one sip and still be able to honestly make that claim. This is just plain delicious. The essence of the tea is perfectly captured and somehow works great with a very flavorful ginger beer. I bet with the burn this soda has our hero wouldn't have to pretend he didn't like the tea anymore. He could make an offhanded comment about how it felt like a cousin of whiskey or something. You know so he can keep his completely unnecessary forced masculinity. Look I know this movie I thought up in 30 seconds is never going to get made, but this soda is real and you should really get your hands on some.

This is my new favorite soda, that I didn't even know I wanted to exist. I love ginger beer. I really love pineapple ginger beer, but I never really thought of it being mixed with other fruit juices, except for lime (also delicious). This is one of those things that once you know it exists you feel like a big dummy for not thinking about how awesome of an idea it would be. Like how long were people drinking Coke before someone was like, “Hey, let's put a little cherry in there and shake the whole thing up.” It's a game changer, well at least for me. I don't know if I will ever be able to drink regular ginger beer now without thinking to myself, “man, I wish there was a splash of mango in here.” I'm doomed.

Brooklyn Crafted took their already great ginger beer as a base and added some mango juice concentrate. It completely changes the experience. The burn at the end is sticky sweet in a whole new way. Brooklyn Crafted you have bestowed upon me a blessing, and a curse.

Does the label on this look familiar to you? If you are an avid ginger beer drinker you may have noticed that this label is pretty much the same as those on Bruce Cost labels. It turns out that they both have the same parent company (along with Brooklyn Organics). At first I thought that perhaps the two other companies had merged into one, and then I realized that Bruce Cost is a ginger ale (even though it's loaded with ginger that it's cloudy with sediment) and this is a ginger beer. This company knows what they are doing when it comes to ginger, even when stevia is involved. This is fantastic. It's got a decent burn, but the flavor doesn't suffer for it. It tastes like a perfect ginger ale with the heat turned way up. This is what I want from a ginger beer. In my younger years I just wanted heat and burn, now I still want that, but more so I want flavor, and this performs perfectly in both categories. The tiny bottle is a nice touch for those of us who are getting older and shouldn't drink nearly as much soda as we once did.

It's been a while since I've had some Ski. This tastes almost like a cherry limeade but without the "fancy" title. It has a decent cherry taste and then there is the mystery "citrus" flavor that twists it a little bit. I let a dude at work try it and he liked it so by all means that means that it can't be that bad.

There is not much to say. Honestly it's just a cherry pop. I wish I could make up a whimsical story about a dog saving a bird from a shark but I don't have it in me.

So, I just did some research I should have done years ago. I always kind of assumed sweet tea was just iced tea with a lot of sugar in it, so to make it overly sweet. When I was looking at this bottle I was a bit shocked that it has significantly less sugar than a bottle of Brisk. Sure, Brisk is super sweet, but it's in a different way. A quick trip to the internet told me that sweet tea is actually made by adding the sugar to it while the water is still hot and the tea bags are brewing. Huh, I guess that makes total sense. So I guess it is that process that gives sweet tea is very specific sweetness that makes you think you can actually taste the individual granules of sugar, and not just a general sweetness.

30g of sugar in a bottle is a decent amount, but it's still a lot lower than a lot of beverages out there these days (a 16oz coke would have 52g). the thing is this tastes like there is so much more actual sugar in it that has not been fully dissolved. In fact this tastes more like sugar than tea. The mango flavor kind of sits on top, and it is definitely more of a flavoring than actual mango juice. Overall this could be quite enjoyable on a blazing hot summer day, but I couldn't see myself drinking it on the regular. Of course, I don't drink many sweetened drinks on the regular anymore.

Batch, I'm sorry okay? I know you tried really hard and you like to make things a little quirky, but in this instance it didn't really do it for me. Root beer is an exceptional flavor, and I don't know if I've ever had one that I didn't enjoy to some extent, but this tastes like it was half root beer and half…€¦I guess it would be brown sugar soda. The second soda detracts from all of the things that would normally make soda one so great. It's like the Nothing and it just gobbles up everything in its path, including tasty root beer.

Batch, don't get me wrong this isn't terrible. I finished the whole bottle and everything. It's just that I have such a high standard when it comes to root beer, and you did not live up to it. Perhaps if it were names Brown Sugar Soda with Root Beer Flavoring I would be able to get behind it a bit more for being the uncommon soda that it is. Unfortunately it is named the opposite and it leaves me wanting.

Busy Bee is batting 1,000. That's sports talk for rating perfectly, correct? If not, then whatever the analogy would be to say that they have achieved perfect marks is the one we will go with. I mean I guess it was no shock that if you mix yerba mate, ginger and lime you're going to have a winner on your hands. Actually for most people that might be something new and unheard of. To me it's a delicious dream.

Like all of their beverages the yerba mate is the driving force. The other flavors are just an added bonus. You can taste the ginger a decent amount, but it does not give you any burn. Normally that would equate to a complaint from me, but this drink doesn't need the burn to carry it. It is perfect just the way it is. The lime is there in a limeade fashion, as the label suggests. This is almost like the mate/limeade version of an Arnold Palmer, but with the mix 75/25 in favor of the tea.
I really can't get enough of these drinks. They are my favorite beverage that I have come across in quite some time.

There is magic in that mate. It has to be as simple as that. I don't know if it technically is classified as a tea, but for my purposes I will chose to call it that. To that end yerba mate is my tea of choice when it is in its iced form. Guayaki is the company that turned me on to this wonder, but busy Bee may be the ones who perfected it. The quantities I could drink of this are absolutely ridiculous. I don't know when the last time I was this excited about a tea was, and to that end I believe magic is involved. Now I'm not saying there are dark arts involved. It may just be some guy in the bottling plant that pulls rabbits out of hats to assume the other employees (you know the ones who look at him with disdain) breaking health code violations all day long. I believe that that enough could somehow force a little something extra into this product to make it the wonder that sits in front of me, or rather the wonder that once filled the empty bottle that sits in front of me. Is it really gone so fast?

The base of this is clearly the earthy flavor of yerba mate. It apparently is unsmoked. I didn't know that was a thing because I am a yerba mate-dummy. They are apparently doing things right though because it tastes wonderful. On top of that is a wonderful combination of orange and wildflower honey. It all melds together into greatness. Nothing is overpowering the other flavors and that is the way things should be. It tastes like it was made by someone's zany grandmother who doesn't believe in black tea and only drinks mate. She's a wise old lady with a tale for every wrinkle on her body.

Busy Bee is somehow connected to Texas Tea, which I can find around Buffalo. I can only hope this new brand/flavors make their way this far north so I can guzzle them all day long.

I know what you're thinking. Do you think I didn't think it? I'm going to guess that the majority of people whose eyes scan this bottle are thinking the same thing, “Do the snozzberries taste like snozzberries?” I'm going to go out on a limb and say yes. I have no idea what a snozzberry actually is, but after tasting this soda I will say that yes this should be the definitive definition for the fictional fruit. Unless you are talking about the crude joke that Roald Dahl actually meant by the word, then I will say no, this probably does not taste like that.

The is a little known fact that I hum/sing two bars of the Wonka song all the damn time, but no one ever realizes it. I normally don't even know I'm doing it until I reach the end of the second bar. It's a good melody, and this is an exceptional soda. I'm not exactly sure what berries they have combined to make this new variety, but gun to head I would say boysenberry and raspberry. It's extremely good, and that is hard for a fruit flavored soda to achieve. I bet if they opened up a Wonka amusement park (far from timely) this would be a huge seller at the gift shop and they would never get a single complaint about it. Even bitter folks, who are dead inside would love it. I mean I did.

This, my friends, is no joke. You see little old me had a sore tummy like the big baby that I am, but I really, really couldn't pass this up. I figured it was going to be extremely strong/sour and that it would upset my stomach even more. As it turns out it was completely perfect. For the most part this is a mate tea, where the lavender and the lemon are more just a flavoring than leading roles. You may find yourself asking, “What is the point? The flavor should be up front!” For some beverages you may be right, but for this everything sat just where it needed to be. This is nice and earthy with a sweetness that doesn't get too crazy. I love it. It is a bit strange to have a flavor that is known for its calming effect mixed with a stimulant. I will say that it does give it a nice flavor though.

I'm complained on here, a stupid amount of times, that companies should just lower the amount of sugar they use instead of using zero calorie sweeteners. Sure, they save you calories, but it's at the cost of the taste of the beverage. Dry does exactly what I have suggested. To be fair they have been doing it since before I vocalized my thoughts. This can of soda has less than half the sugar that a “normal” soda would. For a lot of their flavors this practice really works wonderfully. Unfortunately this one just does not taste right to me. There is a natural sweetness in cherries, and it's lost in tis translation. It's one of the few soda flavors that I like being really sweet. Actually a middle ground would be perfect. This tastes more like actual cherries than most sodas, but I could use more of the sweetness from a typical cherry pop. Taking all of that into consideration if I had a six pack of these I'm pretty sure by the end I would become acclimated with it and would have no issues once my brain/taste buds adjusted.

Did you know that Alley Cat Tea is a Southern original? No? Well, don't feel too bad because I don't think that most southerners know it either. It is a probably that surely needs to be sorted out though because they should all know and love this wonderful beverage.

Whenever anyone thinks about the South and tea they more than likely think of sweet tea. Now take that delicious treat and improve on it by mixing in a bunch of fruit juice. The label has pictures of pineapples, oranges, lemons and strawberries, although the latter is not listed in the ingredients. It tastes like it's 50% pineapple, 25% tea, 10% orange, 10% lemon and 5% strawberry. It's one of those wonderful concoctions where you can pinpoint each of the flavors or enjoy it as a whole. The whole thing is dark and so very cloudy that it looks like it could be cider. I wish I had picked up more than one bottle on my dumb drive from FL to MI.

They may have dropped the “passion fruit” from the name, but I'm pretty sure this is the same formula as the old Black Tea, Peach, Raspberry and Passion Fruit bottles that I used to drink more often than I probably should have. If it is different it not by much and it's still wonderfully delicious.

It's always a shock when a functional beverage can not only taste like the beverage it's masquerading as, but also be an exceptional version of that style of beverage. If this were a regular iced tea that wouldn't make me sleepy I would drink it all of the time. It tastes fantastic and fruity, without being overly sweet. As it is I drink it sparingly when I need to chill out a bit. I do miss it in resealable bottle form though. A full can might just knock me right out.

"I wish they would bottle the flavor of vanilla cupcakes so I could drink it all day." Yeah? I dare you to drink this for a whole day, dude. Two sips and I'm tapping out. It smells like a sixth grade girl, also. You remember when they all wore that temporarily good smelling cotton candy perfume? I liked it but for a limited time. This...I could be surrounded by six girls talking about Taylor Swift, Shopkins, One Direction, lip gloss, Gary from third period and Snapchat at the same time and take that longer than I could deal with the immense flavor of this.

Smell? Spot on. It's a cupcake. Taste? Sugar flavored sugar. It's so sweet and completely distracts from the flavor. The kid that you remember that used to sneak and eat sugar cubes from the coffee table wouldn't be able to drink this. This is turning into quite a "dare drink." Have at it, friends. Don't send me the doctor's bill, though.

Sometimes man, cherry cola is a perfect drink. When I would go to Mighty Taco, a local chain/franchise after a punk show, I would always get a cherry cola. I don't know why. It's one of the only times I drink the stuff. I like to keep it minimal because it makes me appreciate it more.

I thought this was "just" cola but oh no. Lucky cherry indeed. This is cherry cola and it's very good. It's very sweet and has a decent, candy-like cherry cola taste. It's a lot. I bet a lot of people would think this is too sweet and they most certainly would not be wrong. I probably couldn't and won't today finish this bottle myself. Twenty ounces is masochistic. It is good, though. I don't want my inability to drink so much cola to count against this otherwise delicious treat.

When Mellow Mood first came out there were insane. I almost died because I didn't know how strong they were and I drank one before a twenty minute drive home. Shortly thereafter they apparently changed the formula and lowered the effective dosage. I no longer feared going from completely awake to asleep in a few short minutes, but they definitely relaxed me and helped me to get to sleep on many a restless night. My brain tends to go into overdrive sometimes and when that happens my chances of organically falling asleep are slim. Mellow Mood allowed me to have following days that weren't completely miserable due to lack of sleep. It was a lifesaver.

Now there's a new can, and kind of new flavors (there was a light version of this available in the past), but this can did not have the same effect on me as they have in recent times. I'm afraid they changed the formulation again and it no longer works the way I want it to. I blame the lack of melatonin. I ended up lying in bed all night and I remember light creeping around my curtains before I finally fell asleep. I really hope this is still available in the old formula because this simply won't do. I mean this is really delicious, but that was never a problem with these drinks. It tastes like a perfect Arnold Palmer with a little bit of raspberry mixed in. I still don't know what that has to do with Bob Marley, but I love the way it tastes. I just wish it still helped me get to sleep.

As I've said a million times, I'm not a huge coffee fan. I do like coffee ice cream though. It's toned down and it is delicious most of the time. When I saw that Marley now made a vanilla chocolate swirl coffee drink my first thought was “Well there goes keeping up a brand image.” What on earth did Bob Marley have to do with ice cream? Did he ever sing about it? Not that I know of, but I've never really delved into his catalog. My second thought was “Is this really a necessary flavor?” It's like they are marketing coffee to kids. Being a big dumb kid myself I obviously picked up a can. You know what? It actually tastes like someone made a cup of coffee and then cooled it down by letting a soft serve twist melt in it. It has a very accurate flavor, but unfortunately who actually wants that flavor once they try it? It was good for about two sips and then it got to be a bit too much. Also, there is a weird almost banana taste to this. There is no banana in it, unless that's where they got the potassium, but it has this weird underflavor that isn't quite the fruit, but close. With each sip the mystery flavor got stronger and my enjoyment decreased. This just seems unnecessary and only well executed for a short period of time. No banana no cry.

Look at that little lemon guy on the label. There's something I just don't trust about that fella. He's hiding something behind that smile and sunglasses. I mean he's under an umbrella and I think he's slyly trying to tell us he's a shady guy. You know what I was right. He was hiding something and that secret is that this is carbonated. Nowhere on the label, except in the ingredients list, does it give any indication that what you're about to imbibe is a sparkling lemonade. I expected this to be a dull “classic” lemonade with far too many added ingredients. The fact is if the bubbles weren't present this would be a fairly piss poor lemonade. The bubbles transform it into an interesting lemon soda. Make no mistake it tastes like soda and not just sparkling lemonade, but it is still pleasant. It's sweet (they use cane sugar, which is always a shocker in plastic bottles) and it has a lemon flavor that tastes quasi accurate. This could have gone horribly wrong put the pieces fell into place well enough. That little guy is a trickster, but at least his trick led to a more enjoyable beverage.

I can't believe that the big day is finally here. All of our closest friends are here; Dr. Frankenstein, his wife Elizabeth…€¦well that's it. Everyone else wants us dead. They are all we need though. Oh there is the caterer with the grape soda. It's weird that it is the only thing my bride to be requested. Oh no, my lovely is coming out, I'm not supposed to see her before the ceremony, I need to hide! Ahhh! Oh crap. I scared the caterer and he has spilled the soda everywhere. Oh no, it's all over my bride. Hey wait, it has stained the white streaks in her hair purple. That looks kind of cool and modern. Hmm, I'll play it off like I didn't see it and pretend I think she dyed her hair. “Honey! You look beautiful. I love what you've done to your hair, very chic. Are you wearing grape perfume? It smells wonderful . it reminds me of this grape soda I had once. It fell somewhere between a generic grape soda and a sparkling grape juice. It really was the best of both worlds. I bet you would have loved it honey. Now, let's get married!” Phew, I narrowly escaped catastrophe there.