Pure Cane Sugar - 220 Reviews

I'm a stupid idiot. I don't like painted wood. Why did you install wood with it's nice grains if you were just going to paint it. I can't imagine how awesome my house would look if all the wood was stained instead of lazily painted white. So, since I don't like painted wood, and I own my own house, I took all of the doors off the hinges to strip them. Here's a question for the general public; Did you know that stripping wood is exhausting and tedious work and nothing about it is easy? I tried using stripping chemicals and they just kind of melted the paint. I am currently using a heat gun and it's working, but about two inches at a time. It's tiring and when I got done today, I looked through my stock of drinks and knew that I needed something refreshing. Water? Or juice? I saw that red bottle looking at me and I grabbed it. It was nice. A little sweet and a little flavored. More than a lot of the Hint stuff but still less than a juice that would be too sweet. This was good. It's super low in calories and you can slam it until your heart is content, or until it's time to go back out and scrape more wood. Me? I've got three full doors and one half of another one. I'm closer to starting than to finishing and that blows. Once again, I'm an idiot, but a quenched idiot.

In about 14 hours I will be boarding a plane for a trip to Hawaii. Do you think I'm going to shut up about it in my reviews for the next week? I wouldn't hold your breath. In order to prepare myself for my adventures in the sun I'm drinking some nice lemonade (I really should have drank the pineapple one, but I think I'm going to be overdosing on that fruit very shortly).
The first thing I'm doing when I get to the island is to go hang out at the waterfall that is featured in Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's right I'm starting a bitchin' vacation with some Indiana Jones action.
As I drink this I'm closing my eyes and envisioning standing at the foot of the waterfall snapping a revolver out of someone's hand with a whip. Much like the lemonade itself, it's a pretty amazing vision. This is lemonade that tastes homemade. It's insanely tart almost to the point of drinking straight lemon juice. Luckily there's a decent amount of natural sugar in it to even that out. I never would have considered mixing orange juice in with lemonade, but luckily the fine folks at Calypso have a more open mind. The orange creates a nice accent. They were smart enough to put just a little in so that lemon is still the main flavor, with just a hint of its citrus brethren.

Yes I did just put the movie on after I wrote this. I'm getting way to excited. If there is really a cave by the falls my head is going to explode, and I will probably only be in Hawaii for an hour before I die from spiders, spike, pits or a giant boulder.

When I was a young man, my family used to go to my grandma and grandpa's house all the time. Sometimes for dinner, but more commonly for no reason other than to just see them. They didn't live that far away, maybe 10 - 15 minutes, so we were there quite frequently. They worked very hard on their back garden and it showed. They had beautiful flowers and an array of vegetables that would make your local supermarket produce-man smile. One thing they grew was rhubarb. I remember being younger eating it all the time. We would get a little dish and put sugar in it and go out to the back garden, grab some stalks of it, and just dip and munch away. The inherit taste of rhubarb is sweet but very bitter. The sugar calmed it down. Think of it as a quasi-healthy Lik-M-Aid.

I really wanted to do this review with my grandma but for the life of me, every time I went to visit I forgot to drink my bottle of it. So last night when I decided that it was finally time to start watching Twin Peaks, I would give it a try. It was very good, too. Very refreshing and very true to just plain ol' rhubarb. I loved this stuff and it was just the right amount of sweet and bitter that it brought me back twenty years with every sip.

I'll see if I can remember to bring the other bottle I think I have downstairs to my grandma and made an edit to this review.

Grapes rule: plain and simple. They're easy to eat, they're super delicious, and it's such a common fruit. I normally don't like grape juice because it's too rich and heavy. I never thought grape juice represented grapes very well because they are a very light and hydrating fruit.

I love this soda because it tastes like you're eating grapes. Most grape soda's I've had before are heavy and too sweet. This is the most refreshing grape soda I've ever had. Thank you Gamer soda for renewing my interest in grape sodas!

Granny Squibb's has done it again. She's now 3/3 with great tasting teas, all of which for four bottle ratings. This one here is definitely something special. It's pretty much their mojito tea with raspberry juice added to it. Can you really ever go wrong with adding raspberry? Okay, you can really mess up cakes with fruit, especially wedding cakes. I love fruit, but it has no place in a cake. It always ends up tasting like someone spread some jelly on your wonderful piece of cake and ruined it. Friends take note. I want no fruit in my cake (unless it's whole strawberries on top). Luckily there is no cake involved in this tea, so added the raspberry was a great idea. I hope that Granny Squibb continues to expand their line of outstanding iced teas.

If it wasn't for stores like TJ Maxx or Marshalls, Jay and I might have not found ourselves loving drinks as much as we do. Some places just don't get some drink companies, and some do. It's unfortunate that every company can't be as widely distributed as Pepsi and Coke. I don't think that the TJX chain of stores cares, as long as they're getting large quantities of stuff cheap, and for that reason, neither do I. I got a four pack of this for $3. Yeah, less than one dollar (USD) per can. In addition, it's pretty good. Not too sweet, rightfully fruity and it actually does justice to blueberries everywhere. I like this because there are antioxidant properties, it's all natural, and they have other flavors.

What I thought was strange about this drink is that it didn't have a scent. I didn't care because it could have gone the other way and smelled grozz.

So, as I sit here writing this review while listening to Sneaker Pimps, I wish that I hadn't just brushed my teeth and that I could have another one. Maybe if I'm good today I'll have another one.

I've had clear cream soda. I've had brownish cream soda. I've had pink cream soda. Until now, I had never had a blue cream soda. This reminds me a lot of soda mousse. It is almost like a cream soda candy, I love it. The blue color is making me think it tastes like the blue bubblegum, but it really doesn't. I really hope there are other blue cream sodas out there, because just like white birch beer, it's a great version of a classic drink.

Tommyknocker soda has no affiliation with the Stephen King novel/movie of the same name. The bottle tells us that Tommyknockers are mischievous elves that came to Colorado in 1859 for the gold rush. They apparently guided miners to the "motherlode." The bearded fellow on the label doesn't look like any elf I've ever seen in the moving pictures or storybooks. He looks more like a dwarf. I expect that just out of view of the picture there is a giant hammer laying around. I mean how else is he going to break all of those giant rocks to find gold. I wonder how much wax from that candle on his helmet he has to pick out of his beard. It's a pretty glorious beard and it would be hella annoying to have to pick wax out of something so majestic.

This is a dessert soda if I've ever had one. You have yourself a nice big meal and then you sit out on your porch as dusk sets in taking sips off of a bottle. That's exactly how I spent my evening. Porch sitting with my cats and a bottle of almond creme. I bet it wouldn't go very well with a meal, but after dinner is done it's just wonderful. It's slightly heavier on the vanilla than the almond, but I think straight up almond might have been too much. These so called elves have gotten the proper proportion down.

Tonight, I was accompanied by a tickle in my throat. It was an unwelcome guest that I couldn't get rid of fast enough. I didn't ask for it, and it's not like I didn't drink anything all day. I drank many glasses of tea and no water. I know, I should drink more water, but it's hard when there is tea in the fridge. It's unsweetened tea, so I don't want to hear anything from dentists, dentist apprentices which just occurred to me is a pretty killer rhyme but I don't know where I would use it in a rap lyric, or any other profession that cares about teeth. I don't need you professionals or 2-week course takers telling me what to do. I know what's going on in my mouth and although I don't floss as much as I would like/need, I eventually get around to it and if you accompany me on the bus in the morning, you will rate me in the high percentile of dental hygiene. Seriously, there was a dude on the train last month in 20-degree weather sweating profusely in only an unzipped hoodie. So don't tell me.

While you're not telling me anything, don't tell me that I should have had a key lime pie by now because some people just don't have time to experiment with new pie flavors when there are apple and pumpkin pie lying around to be eaten. That being said, I have had key lime jellybeans and although they're not my favorite, they're not terrible and I feel, a fair representation of the general idea behind key lime. This drink was pretty good. It was lighter than the
grape Bot drink, but this was more quenching and less juice. It was good. Light on the flavor, lighter on the sweetness, and quite fulfilling for what I needed it for, the aforementioned throat tickler.

My throat is now fine and I owe it all to you, Bot. Thanks.

Way back when we restarted this wonderful, award winning website, I found a plethora of Xing Tea at a bodega in a multi-floor mall in Baltimore. I wanted two, but had to buy three since they had some stupid/ridiculous/unlawful minimum credit card rate. My girlfriend went to my parent's house and came back with a bag full of Xing and I was clearly excited. I wanted to start with blueberry and since I do what I want because I'm a man, I did just that. I've also had dreadlocks for a week and a half, got a Smith's chest tattoo, bought two corgi's, and filled a hole in my basement foundation with "Great Stuff" rather than becoming a professional mason and fixing it the right way. These are all examples of things I've done because I can do what I want.

This tea, a newcomer to my list of fallback delicious drinks, is simple magnificent. It's got a great blueberry taste. It's sweet, but it's a great, pure cane sugar taste. Not a whole lot of green tea flavor, but I don't miss it, honestly. If it was swapped with a black tea, I could probably tell, but since the sugar and the blueberry is so sweet, it's overpowered.

If this was on a shelf and I didn't see anything else that I haven't drank, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. I often feel guilty for buying "old" drinks when I've got shelves of "new" drinks at home that need to be reviewed, but if I find myself riding my bike this summer, come across a store that sells this drink, it will be in my hand as quickly as can be. You have my word, son.

When Dan and I purchased a four pack of this drink the cashier tried to have an intellectual conversation with us. She began by inquiring "Aren't all beverages three dimensional? What makes this drink special?" She was trying so hard to be witty. I humored her by stating that I was only interested in four-dimensional drinks. If a beverage did not span time as well as space, then it need not apply. That resulted in a fairly blank look with a forced smile that accompanied an "Enjoy your day." Oh well I tried. Maybe I should have made a Back to the Future reference. She may have been too young to get it though.

3D lists their three dimensions as super fruits, essential vitamins, and healthy white tea. That's a bit of a stretch as far an dimensions go. I think Stephen Hawking may take issue with it, but who knows maybe that's what all his research has been working towards.

As promised this is a white tea with a nice tart pomegranate flavoring. It had a weird smell when I first opened it, but it tasted pretty great. I don't think it's anything great enough for Marty McFly to go back in time for, but I could see Doc Brown downing a four pack working on the flux capacitor.

Dad, I've got a question about something.

Oh, man. Here it comes. I knew it was going to happen some day. I should have prepared for this. Don't they teach you this stuff in school? Why did I stay home from work today? Today of all days! Now I've got this to deal with. I would have been better off with the Johnson report. Alright, here goes...Son, what you saw was not what you think. You see...your mother and I...

Where do blue raspberries come from?

Your mother and I...wait what?

Where do blue raspberries come from? I bought this Calypso lemonade and it's really good, but I don't know where blue raspberries come from. I've seen red raspberries and I think I've seen black raspberries, but I've never seen blue raspberries. I don't think that I've ever seen a blue fruit at all.

Son, that is a very good question. Can I see that drink of yours? Say, this is pretty good. It's lemonade with a little bit of a berry taste to it. It says there are real lemon bits in here, but I don't see any. It's got a nice sting and rounds out nicely on the tongue. This is good stuff. To answer your question, I have no idea what a blue raspberry is or where it comes from. Why don't you ask your mother?

Mom? I've got a question to ask you.

Oh, man. Here it comes. I knew it was going to happen some day...

Darling, I'm feeling a bit fatigued. Do you see bags under my eyes? Oh, how dreadful. Sweetie, could you fetch me some cucumber slices for my eyes so that I can look my best for the gala tonight? What do you mean that we don't have any sliced cucumbers prepared? Don't you think we should, in case, oh I don't know, I have bags under my eyes? Please, slice up some and fetch me a sparkling water, too, while you're at it. I'm feeling a bit parched.

Oh, thank you very much. Although, next time, slice the cucumbers a bit thicker. It's not like you're paying for them. Actually, it's not like I am either. Husband is. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Now go tend to the laundry. Husband was complaining about not having any socks that matched.

Now that I'm alone, I'll just grab this sliced cucumber and put it on my...oh drats. I've dropped my cucumber into my water. No worries. I have more. I like cucumber in regular water, let's try this. Well, this is something special. It's bubbly, and we all know how I love the bubbly. Ha ha ha ha ha. It gets the sweetness from the cucumber as well as the crisp, clean taste. I might be on to something. Oh help. Help, come here please. Could we patent this as a drink? We can't? Why is that? You mean there is a company called Dry that already makes this drink? Well, I applaud their efforts. Now fetch me my black dress. It's time for that gala.

This is on par with the other Mary Anna's teas. It's a pretty sweet black tea with peaches mixed in. The ingredients actually say "peach pieces", but there are unfortunately no chunks in this bottle. I'm assuming they cut up peaches and let them soak in the tea. Then, before bottling, they strained out the chunks. I would have really enjoyed it if they had been kept in there. I don't believe I've ever had a tea with that sort of extra fun added to it.

One thing I don't understand about the Mary Anna's brand is that they love to add lemon juice to all of their teas. I think it's completely unnecessary. I think it even detracts from the great natural taste of the tea and the fruit flavoring. Peach and lemon are just two flavors that fight too much when mixed together.

Ah. What a lovely day out today. It seems like just yesterday I was wondering when I could stop wearing two coats and it seems as though today is the day. Today I ate two hot dogs (a summertime treat) and took a walk with my hoodie open. What a day. The sun wasn't out and I didn't have to squint. The bus was packed to the gills (even though a bus isn't a fish) with stupid teenage kids kissing each other for some reason, but I didn't care. I knew that at the end of it all, I was going to go home and get a cool bottle of root beer. I went through my pop, juice, "other", and found just what I was looking for. Just what was going to top it off? I felt like a dude who hates his job and just wants to come home and drink a low quality beer. But instead of hating his job, he's merely aggravated with it and instead of drinking a low quality beer; it's a medium to high quality root beer. Aside from those two minor details, it's basically the same thing.

This was good and it hit the spot. As advertised, it was creamy. Not too sharp and not too bold. This root beer is a safe bet with any root beer connoisseur. You can taste all of the flavors as intended and I actually thought that it got better as I got towards the bottom of the bottle.

That being said, I had to get ketchup across the street...and when I was gone, my girlfriend, soon to be ex-girlfriend, decided that she would finish my root beer. I got home disappointed to see that what I anticipated to be the best part of the root beer, much like the bottom is the best part of a sundae cone was gone. So it is.

I usually avoid drinks marketed to little kids. They are usually full of artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, and involve a straw or a spout to limit the amount of juice spilled onto Sponge Bob shirts. I found this drink at a store that specialized in interesting sodas. Normally I would have passed over the bottle in the corner store, but since it was among bottles of soda's not found in a normal store I decided to give it a try. Plus, I got a deal if I bought 24 drinks.

First surprising thing about this drink (besides the awesome shade of green): it has pure cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. But further down the list there's also aspartame in it, which confuses me.

Second surprising thing: it actually tastes like lime. It's a tart lime. But in the end, it still tastes like a drink for kids. And I hate drinking out of spouts.

Poor Dan. Dan, for one reason or another can't taste this drink. It's like his mouth just can't process the flavors. It's very strange. I gave him a taste of mine and he said he couldn't do it. I do feel bad for him. What could one do to themselves to justify not being able to enjoy something as nice as a clean tasting vanilla cola? Remember when Coke and Pepsi (nearly) simultaneously came out with vanilla pops? I do. I liked them. Coke Vanilla (once again) trumped Pepsi Vanilla, but guess what friends? Hansen's, the little guy, just beat both two of those guys.

It's a clean taste. Real smooth. As anticipated, the vanilla rounds out the inherit sharpness of the cola. Since it's a cane sugar drink, the flavor come and goes quickly leaving you with just the aftertaste of a nice vanilla. I'm lucky to have found a place around me that sells Hansen's because before this, the closest place was a state or two over. Lame? You know that's right. Jerk chicken? You know that's right.

I've never been to Old Faithful. I wonder what it's like. Probably boring for like 90% of the time and then, and only one and a half times, it's awesome when "Old Faithful" spits up water. Can you get the water on you? Does it smell? Is it sulfur water? When I was in college, I dated a girl called Becky and she lived in Clifton Park, a suburb of Albany. We took a "day trip" to Saratoga Springs, home of the racetrack and sulfur springs. In the center of the town they have a record store which I bought my first Boards Of Canada EP which I think was called "Music Has the Right To Children" which I just discovered is one of my two misplaces/stolen/lost Boards Of Canada record along with "Geogaddi" and a drinking fountain. I thought to myself, "Look at all those other people drinking out of that fountain. I think I'm thirsty enough to drink out of it myself." So I wander over there, wait in the queue and take a bit sip and...gross. What Becky failed to tell me is that it was a sulfur spring and that's why it both smelled and tasted like farts.

Old Faithful root beer does not smell, or taste, like a fart. It tastes gosh darn delicious. This is one of the best root beers that I have ever had. My girlfriend said that it was too spicy, but I didn't think so. It was very "homemade" tasting. Very bold flavors and a very strong root beer taste. I liked that it wasn't at all weak, probably much like the pressure that builds up inside Old Faithful every whatever duration she so faithfully spits up at. It had an excellent bite and it invited you back for more with every sip. I liked it. Saratoga Springs on the other hand, if it wasn't for that record store and that wonderful hole in the wall called "Esperantos", I would have written you off years ago.

What can be said about orange cream soda that we haven't said before? We all know it tastes like a carbonated melted creamsicle. But wait. What is this? This has actual orange juice in it. That is something new. It still has the insane amount of creaminess of the previously mentioned creamsicles, but the orange juice adds a new dimension. It's as if Orangina was mixed in with the creamiest off cream sodas. A pleasant surprise indeed.

Last spring I was on tour in the UK. After our show in Manchester some friends took me out to a couple of clubs. Even though I don't drink alcohol I've been to a decent amount of bars in my time. Most of the time they can be pretty depressing places in a sober state, but every once in awhile things just fall in line and it's a lot of fun. This was one of those nights. You may be asking yourself what someone like myself has for a beverage of choice in a bar. Is it water? Coke? No my friends. When I go out I ask the bartender for a mix of cranberry juice and 7Up. A lot of the time this is either followed by a strange look and some smart-ass comment. I don't care the drink is delicious. So back to Manchester. We get to our first bar of the night and I head up to order my trusty beverage when I notice there is a list of non-alcoholic mixed drinks they serve. Suddenly this night became even better. The first thing on the list was a Mojito. I was floored.

Now time for a back-story inside of a back-story. The year before this event we were down in Athens, GA. Walking around town. Checking it all out. We're walking by the outside patio of a bar and sitting there is Mike Mills from R.E.M. (my favorite band of all time, I don't care if that makes me a nerd). Guess what he's drinking? If you said a Mojito give yourself a fist bump. I'm not one to get all fan boy, but I did engage in a quick, slightly embarrassing conversation with him.

Back to the first back-story. So yeah I had never had a Mojito. Mike Mills was drinking one. I decided that is what I would choose from the list. I made a wise choice. It was delicious. Mint and Lime are a great combination.

This is a different sort of drink. It's Mojito mixed with tea. That means it's instantly improved. Mint in tea tastes like you're chewing gum while drinking tea. It's a sad fact the world needs to accept. When you add lime to the mix, it's a whole new player. The gum factor is out the window and you're on a sailboat to the Isle of Refreshment. This time that boat just happens to be captained by Granny Squibb. She definitely knows how to handle that vessel.