Derek Neuland - 489 Reviews

The tagline on this bottle is: unique, subtle, refreshing, natural. I like making lists so I'm going to break down each bullet point.

1. Unique- This is not the first mint soda I have had. In 2003 I was at the Toronto zoo and came across Sprite Ice. I ended up drinking 3 bottles of it over the course of the day. It was great! Sadly it never was distributed in the US.

2. Subtle- This is the word I was looking for to describe the mint taste in this. It has a really subtle mint taste. I've had some mint drinks that taste like a blizzard in your mouth. Not this one. This is more like a cool breeze sneaking into a doorway as you close it.

3. Refreshing- It's rare that a soda is refreshing, but this one really is. There isn't much to it, but that makes it really light and delicious.

4. Natural- Carbonated water, cane sugar, peppermint (and other natural flavors), and malic acid are the only ingredients. I'd say that's pretty natural.

A little known fact about Franklin Mercer is he used to own a robot. He tends to buy into all the latest gadgets, which is how he came into owning cinTRON. You see, in the late 80's helper robots became all the rage. When Franklin found out there was a robot that could bring him drinks from the fridge, he imported one from Japan. It took almost 2 months to arrive at the doorstep of his rural Pennsylvania house. Judging by his reaction when the large crate was coming off the truck, you would have thought he was setting sight on his first child. In fact, he was more excited for the arrival of cinTRON than his first kid.

The first couple weeks with cinTRON were great. Franklin was happier than ever with his new robot helper around. That was until March 13th, 1991. That is the day that will live in infamy in the Mercer-Clarion house. It was a typical Wednesday and Franklin asked cinTRON to get him a bottle of root beer. His calibration must have been off because when he placed it on the table, the bottle shattered and a piece went into Franklin's arm. He got so mad that he picked up the once helpful robot and threw it through the living room window onto the front lawn. He later asked his wife to hire some neighborhood kids to take cinTRON away because he never wanted to see his once loyal robot again.

If Franklin ever saw the name of this drink, he would probably flip out. CinTRON is not a word that is allowed to be said around him. It's too bad he will never try this because it's a good energy drink. It has that usual energy drink "melted candy" taste, which happens to be sweet tarts in this can. As far as Red Bull-esque drinks, this one is one of the better ones out there.

There comes a time in a person's life where they taste a drink that really surprises them. Today is one of those days for me. I suspected this was going to taste like generic lemon lime pop with a horrible energy drink after taste. I was wrong on both counts. Sure this is a lemon lime energy drink, but it definitely doesn't taste like your usual 99 cent 2 liter store brand soda. I've never had Sprite sweetened with real sugar, but I'm guessing it would taste something like this. This is really tasty!

What about the horrible energy drink taste that usually comes with most energy drinks. Guess what? There is none! That's right, this is an energy drink that taste like Sprite sweetened with pure cane sugar and that's it. Pretty awesome in my book.

As Jay mentioned in his review of Blu Day, this is also one of the flavors not yet available in the US. Sadly this means I can't read the ingredients and figure out what this delicious energy drink is sweetened with.

I have a 500 button order due tomorrow so it looks like an all-nighter for me. Luckily I picked this energy shot up at Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago so I should be good to go. At first this wasn't that bad. I thought I had found yet another decent tasting energy shot. But then on the second sip the usual energy drink gross taste kicked in. Shortly after, it started tasting like a mix of cough syrup and melted popsicles. While I'm sure this is going to keep me awake, the taste is not great at all.

Since our newfound appreciation for coconut water (thanks to Zico), I was excited to try this. It's weird that it's sweetened with stevia but not an diet drink. Seeing that I'm not a huge fan of fake sugar, I wasn't looking forward to that part of this energy drink.

To my surprise, this is pretty good! The coconut gives it a really creamy taste. There's a little bit of the fake sugar and energy mixture in the aftertaste, but really not that bad. The mighty coconut flavor over powers most of the gross flavor, which is great news to me! I wish I could find more coconut flavored energy drinks. I think one sweetened with real sugar would probably be incredible.

A couple weeks ago was the annual Gathering of the Juggalos. Sadly I did not attend (nor have I ever), but I can still enjoy the festival from the comfort of my home thanks to blogs, digital cameras, and Youtube. My favorite article thus far is Buzz Feed's 89 Things I Learned at the Gathering of the Juggalos.

Every year, as I mull over the thousand's of photos of ICP fans camping in the middle of the woods, I always learn something. This year I learned that ICP prefers to use 2 liters of diet Faygo to drench the crowd during their set. Their reasoning apparently is because it's less sticky than the high fructose corn syrup bottles and they are also physically lighter so they are able to throw them much farther into the crowd. I can't really attest to either of those, but I'll take their word on it because they definitely have more experience with Faygo than I do.

The one thing I can comment on is the taste. This is a pretty standard cream soda, there's nothing special about it. It has a nice vanilla flavor, but the fake sugar aftertaste cuts right though it. While it's not the worst diet pop I've ever had, I've had much better. Maybe I should go to the mall and spray the rest of this on some juggalos. They'd probably give me a high five and start chanting "fam-il-y! fam-il-y! fam-il-y!"

Much like the other flavor of Tweaker I had, this is pretty damn good. I don't like it as much as the grape, but in the world of energy shots it's definitely in the top tier as far as taste goes. This has a mixed berry taste to it, but has a little bit more chemical aftertaste than the grape did. It definitely works in the energy department as well. I was feeling a little sleepy here at Spiral Scratch but now I'm chair dancing to Crystal Castles.

Grape Kool-Aid. That's EXACTLY what this tastes like. Sure there's an aftertaste of nasty energy stuff that lingers in your mouth for a few minutes. But as many know, in the world of energy drinks (especially energy shots), it's hard to find one that doesn't taste like chemicals. Sure grape Kool-Aid isn't the greatest flavor of all time, but it's much better and tolerable than liquid death. I picked up a few different flavors of these energy shots at Dollar Tree last weekend. I feared them because Dollar Tree is usually the place where drinks go to die. This has renewed my faith in them and I look forward to trying the other flavors now.

Sit down kids; I have a story to tell you. It's about Celon's Mythical Creme Soda. For hundreds of years people have thought it didn't exist. It was the holy grail of cream soda's to some people. But I'm here to tell you that it's real, and I've had it! It's a smooth cream soda with a really nice vanilla/almond taste to it. I know the rumors said it was a bitter cream soda but they were wrong. The other rumor about it being made of the blood of Celon is wrong too. What's that? No I can't divulge where I got the bottle. Let's just say I have a feeling the National Historical Society is going to be really mad in the morning and I might have to flee to Canada.

Dear Red Ribbon,
Where do you come off? Your name might as well have a self appointed crown on top of it. Also, on your label it says "The Taste Test Winner". What taste test? THE taste test? Were there any other entries in this taste test? I demand a recount! Don't get me wrong; your root beer is good. It has a great smell to it, but the taste isn't anything special. It is definitely nothing to write home about, let alone deserve to win a taste testing. The only taste test I can see this possibly winning is "The Annual Newbridge Mediocre Root Beer Competition".

Sincerely,
Derek


**********************EDIT**********************
We got an email from Vito who has recently taken over the Natrona Bottling Company which makes this soda. When he took over he revamped the companies labels and agreed that the taste test winner claim was well...dumb. I changed the picture to the new label. He also asked if we would have another go with the root beer. Here I am doing just that, and unfortunately I'm not too impressed. It's not bad by any means, but it doesn't stick out. Like Derek said, it has a nice strong smell, but the flavor isn't quite there. It reminds me of store brand root beer, except it's made with real sugar, so it's a bit better.
-Jason

My dad brought this back from a work trip he took to Taiwan. I was both excited and disgusted at the thought of drinking this. We decided to surprise Jay with the drink and filmed the results.



As you could see, the drink is really slimy and has little chunks of mushroom in it. Jay and Mike thought it had a barley taste to it, but I found it to be more of a mushroom soup taste. None of the ingredients are in English on the bottle but I was able to find a description of the drink on the manufactures website:
"Features Description:
Carefully selected organic cultivation of fresh white back black fungus, including iron, calcium, and glial-rich protein, known as plant called bird's nest, to prevent high blood pressure, have stomach scavenger reputation, high in fiber to help slimming thin"

I'm assuming "have stomach scavenger reputation" is mistranslated by Google. I thought about giving it another try while writing this review, but just the smell of it made my stomach turn.

Oh Powerade, you fall into a weird subsection of my desire for drinks. I have never gone out of my way to buy a bottle of Powerade. That being said, I have never been unsatisfied by any flavor. I know some people say it's a weak Gatorade rip off, but it's what Coca-Cola is to Pepsi: a similar tasting competitor.

I thought their coloring choice of this "mixed berry" drink was interesting. When I look at Windex I don't EVER think of any berry, let alone a mixture of different ones. This doesn't have much flavor to it though. There's a slight raspberry taste, but it truly just tastes like "mixed berry" as generic as that may be. The good thing about it is there is no gross diet taste at all. Now that I know that, I might actually go out of my way to find more flavors in the Powerade Zero line of drinks.

I have been waiting to try this bottle for a while now. I had heard good things about Capt'n Eli's soda so I was excited when I found this at Village Candy. The classic look of the label made me think this was going to be a premium ginger beer. Sadly, I was a bit let down. It's good, but not great in my opinion. It has a nice ginger flavor to it with a slight burn aftertaste. But it doesn't have the deep burn that I love with ginger beer. The kind of burn that makes my lips sting, and makes me wait minutes in-between sips.

So in a nutshell, good (not great) tasting ginger beer with a mild to slightly medium burn. I think the barrels that boy on the label is taking off with in the boat is the good stuff. Stupid kid.

This was suggested to me by our Thirsty Dudes ally Andy Czuba. He takes awesome photos and sings in a great band called Strangers. I respect Andy's taste in most things so when he texted me last night and told me to give this drink a try, I knew it must be good.

I've seen this brand a lot at the Lexington Co-op but usually pass them by due to the high price ($2.99 for a 16oz bottle oof!). I already had a good feeling on this when I saw the ingredients: water, limejuice, blackberry puree, sugar. Simple. Clean. Delicious. In a world where most food products have a paragraph of ingredients, it's nice and refreshing finding a drink that has a short list and it's all things that are easily recognizable.

So was Andy right? Indeed he was! The blackberry taste is juicy, thick, and deep. It lingers for a little bit after each sip, which is great. The lime aftertaste is super tart but I like it that way. I really like drinks like this that give you two distinct different tastes right after each other. It's like a one-two punch of sweet berry, and then BAM! sour lime in your face. I might have to splurge on the other flavors of Natalie's delicious drinks.

Many years ago, Franklin Mercer took a vacation by himself to Las Vegas. His wife Sharon wanted to come along, but he needed a break from her so he told her it was a business trip. So she stayed behind in their home of Zelienople, PA while he went to have fun in Sin City.

The problem is, Franklin Mercer doesn't really know how to interact with other humans well. And he doesn't really know how the world works sometimes. For instance, when he checked into his hotel room, he decided to go down and do some gambling because that's what he heard people do in Vegas. He always liked the way the ball rolled around the roulette wheel on television so that was his first stop. I think he must have seen some spy movie where the villain replaces the ball with one of his own. He couldn't find one of those white marbles so he brought a green bouncy ball. He walked right up to the wheel and in mid spin he put his ball in it.

Obviously, the ball went flying. The game had to be cancelled and since the money was on the table all the players lost their bets (some weird rule this casino had). This in turn made all the players really mad at Franklin so they chased him out. Even though Franklin has been getting chased his whole life, he's not a good runner. He could have really used this Vegas Fuel. He probably would have liked the fruit punch taste it has. He likes sweet things so this would have really made him happy.

Also it would have gave him the energy to avoid being beaten up in the back alley of a casino in Vegas. Oh Franklin Mercer... when will you learn?

I have never eaten guarana, but I think I would love it. Every drink I've ever had with guarana has been incredible. Take this wonderful bottle of Bawls Guarana Exxtra. It has the standard (but still awesome) bottle with little bumps all over it. I've had the original, and the G33K B33R, but this is my first time drinking the Exxtra. I didn't realize until I was half way through the bottle that it was a diet drink. It's really sweet and has a great guarana taste, but there is no diet taste at all. It tastes lighter than the original flavor of Bawls, but just as good.

Hats off to you Bawls for making the best tasting diet energy drink I've ever had. Good work!

I'm not a fan of V8 vegetable juice. I've tried it several times over the past 20 years and it never tasted good to me. When I saw this on the shelf at the co-op, that's what I instantly thought of. But then I remembered how delicious V8 Splash is. Plus, Alo has never failed us in the past so this couldn't be that bad, could it?

First, lets look at the list of fruits and vegetables that are in here:

• Broccoli


• Cabbage


• Celery


• Spinach


• Passion Fruit


• Carrot


• Grape


• Pineapple


• Lemon


• Apple


• Orange


• Strawberry

It's quite the assortment of fruits and veggies. Upon opening it, it smelled like soup, a vegetable or minestrone if you will. This both excited and scared me. Don't get me wrong, I love a good soup on a chilly autumn day, but I like to eat soup out of bowl with a spoon while it's still hot. I don't like cold soup (especially gazpacho).

So the question of the hour is, does it taste like soup? Indeed it does! It's like drinking a bottle of vegetable noodle soup, with the aloe chunks acting as the alphabet pasta. While it's not something I see myself drinking on a daily basis, it's actually not bad at all. If I was in the mood for soup on a hot day, I could totally see this being amazing. There's no distinct fruit or vegetable flavors to it. It's just a jumble of all the flavors. With the addition of the aloe, fruit, and cane sugar, it's slightly sweet but allows the flavors of the soup... I mean vegetable juice to stand out.

Urban Dictionary defines 'tweaker' as:
1. Person who constantly stays up cleaning, washing, organizing, power tooling, sorting or otherwise keeping them-self busy doing menial tasks.
2. Someone who constantly makes slight alterations on (usually a very specific) object, i.e. computer, software, automobile, etc.
3. A compulsive liar, thief, or both.
4. A methamphetamine ("tweak"), or other form of speed, addict (who displays all of the above in an obsessive-compulsive manner).

I could understand wanting to associate your energy drink with the first definition. Keeping busy/being active/etc... is usually an after effect of drinking one. Maybe even #2, though that sort of sounds like borderline OCD.

Three and four though... that's where the lose me. Why someone would want to associate their delicious drink with being a liar, thief, or meth-head is beyond my comprehension. And yes, this is a delicious energy shot. I was surprised due to the name, but it has a really good grape taste and only a slight energy drink aftertaste. Other than the usual energy drink taste, this has a good grape juice flavor. I've only been drinking it for a minute or two but I already feel more energized and ready to get stuff done on this Sunday afternoon.

Step 1: Take a delicious glass of lemonade
Step 2: Pour some seltzer water into it
Step 3: Squeeze a lime into the glass
Step 4: Add an energy mixture
Step 5: Grab a box of Stevia and shake it like a Polaroid picture into the glass

End result: A drink that is a delicious tart lemonade at first, but then has an awful fake sugar and energy drink aftertaste. I'm sure people who like Stevia will think this is great, but I personally can't get into it.

I've never had goji berry juice before. I've had things that have been flavored with goji, but nothing this strong. It was a really surprising upon first sip. It has a really rich flavor to it. Usually energy shots are kinda gross and it takes a lot to choke them down. While I'm not the biggest fan of goji berries, this is by far the best tasting energy shot I have ever had. On top of that, it's full of so much good stuff that I don't feel like I'm poisoning my body by drinking it. I think a less concentrated energy drink of this, with carbonated water added would taste amazing.