Derek Neuland - 489 Reviews

When I was working at Fun Fun Fun Fest, someone came up to me and asked if I wanted a B12 shot. I said sure and followed them to the production trailer. When we got inside, I saw a doctor pulling needles out of a bag. When they said B12 shot, I thought they meant a drink like this. I hate needles so I opted out and went back to work.

Going in, I wasn't crazy about this flavor. I love pomegranate but HATE acai with a passion. I think it's one of the grossest tastes ever. That being said, this isn't as bad as I feared. It still has that gross flavor, but the pomegranate helps. It's not the most intense energy shot I've ever had, but that's probably because it's meant to be a vitamin shot, and the energy is just a secondary feature.

I can safely say this is the first energy drink from Austria I've ever had. My friend Rita brought it back from her travels and gifted it to me. I could tell before I even opened it that it was going to be a Red Bull clone. Was I right? Of course! As far as Red Bull wannabe's, this one leans on the better side, but still not as good as Red Bull.

I expected more from you Austria.

At first glance I thought this was a weight loss drink. Then I read the bottle and realize that it was a focus drink. Speaking of the bottle, I love this bottle. It's one of those aluminum bottles and it has a nice matte finish to it. It makes holding it quite enjoyable.

Okay enough nerdy bottle talk, let's get into the guts of this. I love focus drinks, my favorite being Brain Toniq. I am a soda/coffee/energy drink fiend so it's nice to find alternative ways to stay focused and awake during the day. I'm half way through this bottle and I can already tell this works. I feel much more alert and awake, and ready to continue building this website as soon as I'm done writing this review.

As far as taste goes, it's good but not mind blowing. It's a lightly carbonated orange/tangerine drink. It's not as thick as orange soda, but kind of reminds me of a light Italian soda. I'd be really interested in trying other flavors they have available.

Jimmy was a huge Rage Against The Machine fan. He got into them when he was in high school. Right around the time Evil Empire came out. He thought every other band paled in comparison. He loved them so much; he got "Bombtrack" tattooed in old English on his stomach. All of his friends tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen.

When RATM reunited last year, he booked the first ticket to LA he could. There was no way he was going to miss this show. He also brought along a case of these Rage energy shots. He thought the band secretly endorsed it. The company even sent them a copy of their masthead to prove Zach De La Rocha didn't have a hand in their product, but he still thought it was true. He thought this all the way until he met Zach before the concert.

Being the crafty person he is, Jimmy found out where the band was eating before the show and introduced himself to them mid burrito. He told them how big of a fan he was, showed them his tattoo, and then asked if they would sign his box of energy shots. Zach laughed and told him, just like everyone else, that they had nothing to do with the company and refused to sign it. He then went on some diatribe about the indigenous people of Canada (where the drink is made), but Jimmy was in tears and ran out. His dreams had been shattered.

What better way to drown those tears than to drink the entire case of Rage energy shots. One after another, he drank them. Each one tasting just like the last did, fruit punch Kool Aid energy drink. The taste never changed, and never left his mouth for months after that night. He also had a heart attack from all that caffeine.

So let that be a lesson for everyone. Rage Against The Machine would never own an energy drink company, and don't ever interrupt Zach De La Rocha when he's eating a burrito.

Deep within the jungles of South America, there is a town called Gazzu. Not many people know about it because it's really hard to get to. One must row down a river for 2 days, and then hike through the rainforest forest for another day. Only then do you come to Gazzu, the town so small it's not on any map. The reason why it's not on any map is because once people go there they never leave.

No, it's not because they get killed. Why would you jump to that conclusion? It's because of the Gazzu energy spring. While most places in the world have water springs, the spring here gives you life and energy. Okay, so maybe it doesn't give you life per se, but it definitely fills you with energy. Unlike other springs, it's carbonated and sweet. It almost tastes like melted candy.

Now you may ask yourself, how do you know about this spring? Well I live here in Gazzu. This has been one long infomercial on the merits of moving here. Don't you feel more informed now?

Everyone has that relative that they sometimes wish would stop coming around. Unfortunately, Mr. Cola is that person in his family. You see, his last name used to be Pepper. He lived a glorious life as Mr. Pepper. This all came to an end when he failed out of medical school. He was promptly kicked out of the house, told to change his name, and to never return. He was never the same after that.

He could have been anything, become anyone. He thought long and hard about what his name was going to be and he decided on Cola. He never had the bite his Pepper relatives were known for so he went with the nice and simple name of Cola. He lived a happy life as Mr. Cola, but never got the fame and fortune that his old family did. He didn't care. He was a sweet and simple man. He liked being nothing special, just another person walking down the street.

I'm slowly beginning to really enjoy sodas that have honey in them. The first one I ever had was Thomas Kemper and I didn't like it at first. Over time, it grew on me. This is another example of a decent root beer with honey in it. It has a nice classic root beer taste with not a whole lot of bite. But then the honey kicks in and it's a smooth and sweet aftertaste. I'd classify this as "good, but not great". Sorry Dominion, I love the label art though. The deer is very noble.

Happy Boxing Day! No I'm not Canadian, but sometimes I feel like we (Buffalo residents) should be granted dual citizenship due to our close proximity. We get Canadian TV and radio, most businesses accept Canadian coins, and we recognize Boxing Day (sort of). I'm sure my pleas are falling upon deaf ears, but at least I have this soy nog.

When I told people I found soynog made by Earth Balance, most people were disgusted. I'm guessing they pictured a glass of eggnog with a stick of butter in it. I question people's logic sometimes, isn't a company allowed to make other products that are not derivatives of what they're most famous for? I love Earth Balance margarine and think it's the best tasting stuff out there. Even when I wasn't vegan I thought so. I didn't think this was going to have a buttery taste, but I had a feeling that it was going to be delicious.

And I was right! This is great soynog. It was the perfect beverage to drink yesterday at my grandma's Christmas gathering. This is my favorite soy based nog I've had so far. While it's been over 5 years since I've had the real thing, this reminds me the most of what eggnog was like. Nice smooth and slightly thick consistency, with a great nutmeg taste. The only thing that makes me sad is knowing that in a month I won't be able to find it in stores again until next holiday season. Oh well, it will give me something to look forward to.

The lemonade + iced tea Monster Rehab has been my favorite energy drink ever since Jay wrote this review. While I tour I came across three new Monster Rehab flavors. I was so excited that I almost forgot to pay for them.

Even though green tea isn't my favorite tea, I decided to try this one first. To my surprise, it doesn't have a strong green tea taste. It's slight, but not prominent. Much like the original Rehab, this is not carbonated and tastes delicious. I'm still partial to the half and half flavor, but this is still worlds better than most energy drinks on the market.

I got made fun of for buying this drink. I gave the excuse that "I had to review it", but my friends didn't care. They argued that there were plenty of other drinks in the gas station that I hadn't reviewed yet. The real reason why I picked this up is because I was hoping it actually was "wicked sour". I love sour things and have been searching for a good sour drink. Seeing as this is marketed toward kids, I thought it might actually be sour.

Once again I was let down. Squirt is sourer than this "juice". I use juice in quotes because there is no juice in this at all. It's just sugar water. I love sweet things, but I could only get a couple sips of this in before I had to dump the rest. If I had a kid, I would never give them one of these.

This is Harry Potter. No, I did not cast a spell on him and turn him into a bottle of root beer. This is the soda that lived. Allow me to start my story from the beginning.

I was just on tour with my friends' band and we stopped at Galco's Soda Pop Stop in Los Angeles, CA. I had wanted to go there for quite some time so I was very excited to be there. I hand picked a lot of sodas we hadn't reviewed and safely put them in a box in the van. I didn't have as much time on the road to review them as I thought I would, so my plan was to bring them all back to Buffalo. They were traveling great, until we got to Saskatoon.

Saskatoon is a small city in the province of Saskatchewan in the middle of Canada. When we got there, it was zero degrees outside (around -18 Celsius) in early December. The locals told us this was mild for that time of year. Immediately, Saskatoon became a place I will never visit again in the winter. We played the show, and then went to a friend's house to sleep. No one told us of the dangers of leaving a dozen glass soda bottles in the van overnight.

The next morning, we found all of my sodas frozen and the bottles shattered. Obviously, I was really bummed. We drove to a gas station to sadly throw them out. As we were doing so, we found one that wasn't frozen: this bottle of Bedford's Root Beer. I don't know what prevented it from freezing, but I was happy to see at least one survived.

I was expecting it to taste like the best root beer ever. I figured any drink that can withstand those extreme temperatures must be magical. Sadly, it wasn't that awesome. It was a good middle of the road root beer. But if you want a root beer that can withstand freezing temperatures, this is the one.

Flagstaff is an interesting town. I would have never guessed it was in Arizona if I woke up there one day. It feels more like a small town in the mountains of Colorado. It's cold and the streets are lined with little shops. In a word, it's 'quaint'. It reminded me of that TV show Everwood. I don't think many people have ever watched it because no one ever gets my references to it.

I found this root beer in one of said shops. I probably would have never gone in if I didn't see the display of root beer bottles in the window. They had a decent selection, including this fine bottle. As I expected, it was a delicious root beer. Creamy with a nice classic taste to it. Not much bite to it, but it complimented the cool air of Flagstaff really well.

I know some people who absolutely love Dr. Pepper. I'm not one of them, but I don't hate it either. I'll drink it if there isn't cola available, but it's no substitute for cola. I went to a vegan restaurant in Phoenix called Green today and they had this bottle in their cooler. Even though they had Virgil's cola, I felt the need to try this at least once.

The thing I love most about Dr. Pepper clones is the names. Dr. Thunder, Dr. Radical, and now there's Dr. Better. If it was any other company with that name, I'd highly doubt them. But Virgil's makes an amazing soda and definitely knows what they're doing. After drinking this, I totally agree with the name. This is so much better than Dr. Pepper. It has that usual bite, but the cane juice makes it really light. I love this.

Ever since I went vegan and no longer could drink eggnog, I have been searching for a good vegan substitute. I have finally found it! This is seriously better than I remember regular eggnog being. The coconut milk makes this drink so creamy and thick. And it has the perfect amount of nutmeg. My holiday season just got so much better!

As you may or may not have noticed, I haven't reviewed a single drink in the past week. This is because I have been working at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas. I worked 80 hours in 6 days and it was insane. But it was well worth the long hours and dust storms. I got to meet Henry Rollins, Brian Posehn, Donald Glover. I saw first hand how insane Odd Future are when I did security for their set when they instructed the crowd to disregard security and rush the barricade/stage. I was several feet away from Ryan Gosling on several occasions. I met lots of amazing people, made some new friends, and have stories about Danzig, Slayer, and many other experiences to share and remember for years.

The reason I'm mentioning all this is because this is the only water I drank for 6 days. If it wasn't for these bottles of water all over the fest, I probably would have died. So in a sense, this water saved my life and sanity. It's not special water; it tastes just like any other water. Unlike most bottle water, it will hold a special place in my heart.

People rave about Sippin Syrup. Which is weird because Jay reviewed the purple kind and thought it was bad. It's impossible to find in Buffalo, so friends of mine have asked me where to find it. I didn't know what to tell them. As soon as we entered Texas I started to see it in every gas station. I can't distinguish the flavor of this drink for the life of me. "Griptonite" is not a real flavor. It tastes decent though. One thing I do know is this relaxation drink does work. I'm feeling pretty spacey as I type this.

I'm weird because I actually like Big Red. A lot of people give me crap about it, but I don't care. I think it's a decent cream soda. This diet version on the other hand is pretty gross. At first it tasted just like normal Big Red but then has the usual gross diet fake sugar aftertaste. I started to get used to it the more I drank, but it's still not as good as the original.

Seeing as Barq's root beer is famous for untraditionally having caffeine in it, I was half expecting this also to have it. Sadly my hopes of finding a cream soda with caffeine in it will have to wait another day. This definitely lives up to having a French vanilla flavor. I gave Sheena a sip and she said it was "really sweet, and kinda salty." It's weird but she's right. It does sort of have a salty aftertaste, but it is really awesome. I found this in a gas station in the middle of Louisiana but have never seen it around Buffalo before. Hopefully i will come across it again because it is great.

We're on our way to Austin, Texas for Fun Fun Fun Fest and decided to break up the driving today by stopping in Pensacola, Florida to get something to eat. A friend suggested we check out Sluggos so that is where we went. I ordered this with my meal and the only thing exciting about it was that we hadn't reviewed it on the site yet. As you can guess from the can, it is a very generic diet cola. It was pretty gross actually as far as diet sodas go. Luckily the food was incredible and got the awful diet cola taste out of my mouth. Next time I'll get the Abita Root Beer that they have on tap there.

When I saw this Wawa half and half/Arnold Palmer, I couldn't say no. Two things I love in one little bottle. Plus I knew Wawa would do it right, and they sure did. I always complain about lemonade's not being tart enough, but this needs none of that. This was so lip puckering, it make the back of my throat hurt (in a good way). This is exactly what I look for in a lemonade iced tea hybrid, the deliciousness of iced tea with the sour taste of lemonade.