Derek Neuland - 489 Reviews

When you have an association with a drink, it's hard to get rid of it. Turkey Hill Raspberry iced tea reminds me of summer time in Buffalo, NY. I have drunk countless jugs of the sugary tea over the past 5 years. Naturally, this has given me a good perception of it.

Now I haven't lived in Buffalo for almost 2 years now. I also haven't had this flavor of Turkey Hill iced tea in over 2 years. I think my tolerance for very sugary iced tea is gone. This is just a sugar overload with a slight raspberry taste. As far as non-fancy iced teas go, this is decent. But in the grand scheme of the world of iced tea, this isn't that great and no bit of nostalgia will fix that.

In the past, I have not been the biggest fan of coconut water. It just tasted too plain to me, and wasn't as refreshing as others thought it was. I was just introduced to the world of aloe drinks, so I've been trying to explore them more. When I came across this drink today, I thought it would be a great way to give coconut water a second chance.

Well, I still don't like coconut water. Which really sucks because it's good for you and tastes really refreshing. But there's something about the taste that I can't enjoy. The good news is that I enjoy coconut water much more with chunks of aloe vera in it. I'd probably like this drink more if it was flavored.

I am a big fan of drinks that have very little ingredients, and this definitely meets that criteria: coconut water, aloe vera, and fiber.

I've heard lots of good things Evolution's drinks, and I don't know why it has taken me this long to try one. I wish limeade were as prevalent as lemonade, because it's so much better in my eyes. This limeade is so refreshing, which is shocking given that it has ginger juice in it. Unlike other drinks featuring ginger, the ginger is a supporting flavor instead of the headliner. You get really nice tart limeade, and then just as the sip is going down your throat the ginger kicks in really nice.

I can't wait to try more by Evolution. I love that it's organic and has 4 ingredients: filtered water, organic lime juice, organic cane sugar, and organic ginger juice. More companies need to make simple yet delicious drinks.

Just like Mike, I had written off Snapple in favor of Arizona a long time ago. You just can't beat 99-cent tall boys of iced tea in the summer. But after getting wind that Snapple started using sugar instead of HFCS, I had to pick up a bottle.

While this is obviously not the best iced tea I've ever had, it's a step in the right direction for one of the biggest companies making iced tea. Once again I will echo Mike in saying that it tastes really clean. I didn't get that heavy aftertaste that comes with high fructose corn syrup, which was nice. The peach flavor is strong, but not too strong. I don't usually like eating peaches, but drinking this is making me crave one.

You know when you drink something and it feels like it's good for you? That is the feeling I get when I drink this. I'm not usually a big fan of smoothies, but this is really good. Even though it's supposed to be a berry drink, there is a strong pear taste to it after the initial strawberry/blackberry taste.

If I saw this at the store, I probably wouldn't have bought it because I'm don't have a strong taste for berry drinks. My friend Mary Liz came over to work on zines and surprised me with this delicious drink. I'm glad she did because it was really good and energized me though hours of cutting (but sadly no pasting yet).

This is an orange cream that does it right. It tastes exactly like mixing orange and cream soda. Far too many times, companies just take orange soda and throw a splash of vanilla in it and call it orange cream soda. Not Crater Lake, they have yet to disappoint me.

Upon drinking this more, it tastes a lot like an orange creamsicle. In other words, really delicious!

A part of me wants to hate this out of principle for putting caffeine in root beer. But then, every time I drink it I'm reminded of how good this is. Bawls is known for their energy drinks, so it's no surprise that this is basically a root beer energy drink. As far as energy drinks go, it's really good! It doesn't have that acidic taste that most have. On the root beer side, it's a decent root beer. It's a light root beer taste with a very nice "froth" to it. I also love the bottles Bawls uses. The raised bumps seem weird at first when you're holding the bottle, but I've come to really appreciate them for doing something different. More companies should get creative with bottles like this.

Oh Mexican Pepsi, how I wish your American brother/sister was just like you. While there is nothing special about the taste of this cola, it's classic! And the use of sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup makes it so much better. While it's nice that Pepsi Throwback is fairly easy to find, there's no doubt that this is much better. I have never met anyone who prefers Pepsi with HFCS over real sugar. Plus, drinking Pepsi out of a glass bottle reminds me of my childhood when my grandparents used to buy the tall glass bottles of Pepsi.

According to the label, there is "passion in every bottle". This, and the name of the drink intrigued me. It also is supposed to promote healthy circulation and enhance the pleasure response. While I don't know if drinking this gives me the proper side effects, I can comment on the taste of this.

Carbonated Flintstones vitamins. That is what it tastes like. I used to enjoy Flintstones vitamins, but i don't enjoy this. It's not the worst thing ever, but it's not good at all. Maybe they decided they didn't need to make this taste good because people will drink it in hopes to make sex better. Personally, it's not worth it to me.

After having this tangerine juice, I could never go back to drinking orange juice. Although, this isn't just tangerine despite the front label. It's actually a blend of tangerine, mandarins, and tangelos. I'm not complaining though. I don't know how Columbia Gorge does it, but their juices are so tasty! Somehow this manages to be really refreshing and filling at the same time. If I drank a bottle of this every morning, I'd be set until lunchtime. This has a really nice tart flavor to it, which I really enjoy. Normally I hate pulp in juice, but there's only a slight amount in here and it's really small pieces so it doesn't bother me too much.

I am enjoying this root beer by Thomas Kemper much more than the one with high fructose corn syrup in it. It goes down really smooth and has a very traditional root beer taste. This also has honey in it, but it's not as prominent as it's HFCS counterpart. So my advice to Thomas Kemper: ditch the original line of root beer and just make this version of it. It's so much better.

*Note: Just like the other Thomas Kemper root beer, I'm giving this three bottles even though this one is much better. The reason being is that in the grand scheme of root beer's, there's nothing special about this. It's a very average tasting root beer.

When I lived in Buffalo, Turkey Hill was by far my favorite iced tea. It was cheap, came in lots of great flavors, and was always sweet and delicious. When I moved to Portland a couple years ago, I stopped seeing it in stores. The company is based out of Pennsylvania so this probably had something to do with it.

Last night I was at a Fred Meyer (a store I rarely go to) in Vancouver, WA and came across several jugs in different flavors. My face lit up like a kid in a candy store. While instinct wanted to purchase the raspberry tea, as I knew it was delicious, I felt the need to try the Black Tea Cherry Pomegranate. I'm so glad I did because this tea is delicious! The cherry compliments the pomegranate so well, without either overpowering the other. The flavors mix really well with the tea to make a great iced tea. My only complaint is that they use HFCS, which leaves a slight syrupy aftertaste.

This has to be one of the most complex root beers I've ever tasted. At first it tastes like any other root beer, but then a wave of flavors hit you. Some of the ingredients include: bourbon vanilla extract, anise, sarsaparilla, licorice root, birch oil, and wintergreen oil. There is a slight hint of the anise, but I wish it were more prominent. Natural Brew really knows how to make an interesting soda.

Thomas Kemper really likes to put honey in their sodas apparently. I woke up with a sore throat today and bought this at a cafe in hopes it had real ginger in it. Sadly, it does not. As far as ginger ale's go, this is very mild. The honey gives it a nice sweet after taste. If you're looking for a decent alternative to ginger ale with HFCS, then this is a good stop. As for me, I'm still looking.

This is another local soda from Portland, OR. I had tried this when I first moved here but Thirsty Dudes was just an idea in my head at that point. Maybe it's because I'm drinking this on an empty stomach, but this is one of the heaviest root beer's I've ever drank. It has a really rich flavor. There is a hint of a honey aftertaste (one of the ingredients), but besides that it's a fairly run of the mill root beer.

First off, no I can't read Korean. I purchased this at an Asian market and they put a sticker with the English nutritional facts and ingredients on the English side of the can, covering up most of the artwork.
This comes in a small can, the size of red bull/other energy drinks. I have energy drinks associated with this size of can so I thought this was going to be one as well. To my surprise, it's actually a pineapple soda. And a good one too! Even though it has high fructose corn syrup in it, it doesn't taste as heavy as other HFCS sodas. It's a good pineapple taste too. It's sweet but not too sweet. This is probably due to the fact that it contains pineapple juice concentrate instead of "pineapple flavor" like some sodas do.

Amazing. That's the first word that comes to mind when I try this soda. This is one of the creamiest cream soda's I've ever tasted. I've never had a soda with honey in it, and it adds a really nice flavor to the mix. There's a really unique aftertaste that I can't quite identify. It might be due to the fact that the soda is "fire-brewed". Whatever it is, it's delicious and I can't wait to try other sodas by Sprecher.

This is easily the most flavorful cherry soda I've ever had. It tastes like someone carbonated a bottle of grenadine and added some sugar. It's not as heavy tasting as you might think, but unless you LOVE cherry flavor this might be too much for you. My mouth is going to taste like cherry all day now.

Much like Jay's fears over the red cream, the large plastic bottle this came in also turned me off. It screams "cheap soda for under a dollar". Sadly, my instincts were right. There is barely any cream flavor so I would hardly call this an orange cream. As far as orange soda goes, it has a good smell and tastes better than big name orange sodas like Sunkist. But that's as far as it goes. There's nothing special about this pop.

Whenever I see the word "cream" in a soda, the vegan instincts in me kick in and I have to check to make sure it's safe to drink. The fine folks at Sioux City decided to add "non-dairy" to the label, which is much appreciated.

This is a damn good bottle of orange cream soda. As I proclaimed this, my friends Adam and Cory were intrigued so i passed the bottle around. They agreed with my sentiment. It's not as creamy as other orange cream soda's I've had. It has a mild cream after taste. The cane sugar lets the orange flavor flourish without the sharp after taste HFCS gives you.