Jason Draper - 2709 Reviews

I just got home from spending over two weeks in Australia. The only thing I want to talk about are the animal sanctuaries. We went to one in Perth and I spent hours there hanging out with all of the weirdest critters. I held a koala, for an unusually long time as the attendant just walked into a building. No complaints there. I also hung out with what I can only assume equaled a million kangaroos and wallabies. They are so damn docile there and just want to hang out and eat the food you give them all day. I was more than happy to comply. There were also so many rad birds. I booped a dingo on the nose and he loved it. It was all so great that two days later I dished out the money to go to another one and repeat my experience. Life was great. I would have gone every day if I had the chance. I would have also followed up each trip with a bottle of this amazing juice.

This was probably mostly apple juice, but the guava tastes so strong that it took over the beverage. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if it was fresh squeezed. If that was an option I never would have flown home. I would have lived a homeless existence in a foreign country just to be able to get that juice on a regular basis.

Why hasn't guava been the hot fruit of the season yet in the States? It's a superior fruit, but it's not commonly used to flavor things. I don't think I've ever seen a fresh one in a store. America rectify this mistake and make my taste buds as happy as Australia did.

I keep hearing how great Nudie juices are. the thing is that every time I pick one up I see that it has banana in it, which means I might as well put my money directly in the trash because that is where that juice belongs. Man, bananas are one of the worst.
Luckily I stumbled upon this one which is trash free. People were right, it's completely delicious. It's mostly carrot and orange, which sounds odd when you first think about it, but it's one hell of a combo. Add a little apple juice to it for sweetness and a dash of ginger for a kick and you have a juice to write home about. This is 100% pure juice with no added sweeteners and I could drink it all day long, or at least until I got a gnarly stomach ache. It would be such a tasty pain though.

Sometimes you find yourself in Australia and you don't want to sit around the house you're staying at, so you go for a walk. After a bit you look at a map on your phone and discover you're near the beach, so you decide to walk there. After awhile you realize it's a lot further than you thought, but you've already gone so far that you simply can't turn back. Man are you thirsty though, so you stop at the only open gas station that you pass and all drinks are like $4 each. You curse Australia for being great, but so expensive (except cake for some reason). You end up with a hole in your wallet and a can of creaming soda in your hand.

This is something different than red cream soda or soda mouse as it is known in Canada. It's fruitier with a little something extra. In fact creaming soda doesn't taste like cream soda much at all. It's still good, but it's a different beast. It also gives you the boost you need to make it to the beach and back, completing your 20km+ walk like the dummy you are.

Australia is a strangely biased place. Everywhere I go cans of coke are $3.50 or more. While Pepsi products range from the $1.50 to $3 range. I mean I'm not going to argue with them Coke products are generally better, but it still seems crazy that there is such a price difference. I kept seeing this along with the Pepsi products in gas stations and meant to pick it up since we don't have it back home. I'm not a huge fan of 7Up so I continuously skipped it (mostly for water in an attempt to pretend-consume healthy foods).

Suddenly I have found myself with one being placed in my hands at a show. It is much better than I anticipated. It's straight up carbonated lemonade, including 5% lemon juice. Sure it's overly sweet and sodalike but it's better than any lemon lime I've ever had.

To be fair if this was in the US it would be garbage because instead of bring sweetened by real sugar there would be high fructose corn syrup in it and it would be a thick, syrupy mess.

PSA: Do not be concerned when you drink an entire carton of this some evening, and then wake up groggy in the middle of the night to have to go to the bathroom. The discoloration that you see in the toilet is not blood, just beet juice. There is no need to be thrown into a panic for two seconds before you remember that you consumed an unnatural amount of this juice and that it's a perfectly normal response from your body.

This is nothing but apple juice and beet juice and it's wonderful. I know beets aren't for everyone, but I love their earthiness in juice form. The apple juice cuts that a bit, but it's still there enough to remind you that what you're consuming most certainly must be extremely healthy. You also probably shouldn't consume as much as I did, but you know what? Live your life. Make your own choices.

I've been in Australia for about two weeks now. Let me tell you, eating vegetarian and avoiding eggs and cheese is not an easy task here. As a result I've spent my fair share of time at grocery stores cobbling together meals that I don't need to cook. I kept seeing 4-packs of this ginger beer, but I've been trying to limit my soda intake so I was hoping I would come across single cans in a gas station. It didn't happen, but I did find a 4-packs today on sale for less than a single bottle of Bundaberg is, so I grabbed it to share.

This is fantastic. I wasn't quite sure how the guarana would mingle with the ginger, but they got "right chatty" as I'm sure someone around here would say. As it turns out they combine into something great. The result really reminds me of Skeleteens sodas from the 90s (Brain Wash/Love Potion 69).
The ginger doesn't have a typical burn. It's transformed into something new. It tastes intense and almost hurts your throat to drink it. I mean that in a very positive way. So much for limiting my soda and sharing. My mom is going to be so disappointed in me.

I'm in Australia. I really have no idea what I did right in my life to get here. I've spent more than 20 years playing in bands and making friends through music. Now people who live 7 hours away from me have dragged me halfway across the globe to the place that is the furthest away from home I could possibly be and still be on Earth. Sometimes life is pretty great.

My main objectives for this trip were to hang out with koalas/ kangaroos and drink a buttload of ginger beer. The second half of my plans started earlier than I expected when my 30+ hours of travel was filled with flight attendants serving me as much Bundaberg as I could fit into my digestive system. Now I'm at a house show in Perth (because where else would I be?) And a new friend handed me this unfamiliar can of ginger beer. My friends know what I like.

This is made by the Coca-Cola company and it tastes like it. It's quite good, but it feels like a safe version of ginger beer. The kind an older relative would keep in the fridge and serve to the kids. It's ginger beer with training wheels. It's a bit lighter tasting than what I'm used to, with a more subdued burn. It's a bit smooth and tastes like a strong ginger beer was mixed with plain soda water. I would say it lives in the gaps between ginger ale and beer. It's also pretty sweet, coming in at 47g of sugar pee serving.

Like I said it is enjoyable, but in a country where Bundaberg is king and can be found all over the place, I doubt I will pick up another can.

Since the ingredients are listed as “Tea(water, tea)” I don't believe this is the case, but this really tastes like a kettle of coconut water was boiled and then some tea bags were steeped in it and finally a healthy squirt (or two or five) of lemon was shot into it. The flavors are so seamless that it doesn't feel like the finished products could have just been mixed together. It's certainly an interesting flavor that I could see myself enjoying on all of those trips I take to tropical locations, where I do nothing but lounge in the sun staring out in to the ocean, but since I don't ever do those things, I don't know when I would drink this. It's really good, but it also feels like it has a very specific purpose. It's the kind of beverage that it just feels wrong sipping it while just sitting around your house. It needs to be enjoyed in the blistering heat of a summer sun. I'm sure many people will enjoy it in such a manner, but since that ball of gas in the sky and I are sworn enemies, I'm afraid I will never truly enjoy this in its intended manner.

I started off thinking these Mati drinks weren't very good. I blamed it on thinking that it was going to be a yerba mate base and not guayusa. Then, knowing what I was getting into better, I thought I enjoyed them a decent amount. Now, after drinking 5 or 6 cans of various flavors with some repeating, I really don't know what I think. I really want to like it, because it's different and healthier, but at the same time there is something a little off with the flavor. Not like spoiled “off,” but just strange that I can't seem to acclimate myself to. As soon as I take my first sip of any can, I'm not really a fan, but then about halfway through I start to “get it” and the enjoyment begins. The problem is that if I were to drink another can the next day it would be the same situation and not instant gratification. I know there are certain consumables that you need to grow into. They are things that you completely dislike when you first try them, but eventually they can become your favorites. People say that about beer, but I don't think that flavor could ever be something I would intentionally want in my mouth. You get the idea though. Will that happen with Mati drinks? Is it something that no matter how many times I drink it I will always have to “work” for the pleasure with each can? I don't know if that is something I want. Definitely not on a regular basis.

I would say this is 60% guayusa 20% orange and 20% lime. At least half of the citrus aspect of this tastes like it comes from the rind. That's not a terrible thing, but something I feel is worth noting. The more I think about the citrus, the more it seems to come through. Maybe it's because I'm nearing the end of the can. Maybe it's there because I'm looking for it. These drinks will remain a mystery.

You know in the Declaration of Independence where it says “We hold these truths to be self-evident?” Well, all seltzers being created equal was most definitely not one of those truths that our Founding Fathers were referring to. It's probably because it's not a truth at all. It's a flat out lie. Sure 90% of the seltzer waters out there are created equally, but then there is the other 10% who rise above and boy do they shine. I've drunk a lot of grapefruit seltzer over the past few years and I have to tell you, this is #1 with a bullet. The secret to its success is really no secret at all; there is 8% juice in this can, which equates to 3g of sugar. I'll take that tradeoff for a far superior beverage. It's like your dear grandmamma squeezed her morning grapefruit into a glass of sparkling water. Juice is the key to a lot of things in this life. I've never been in a situation where real juice has made anything taste worse. Take note…€¦.well…€¦everyone.

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.

Back in the 30's bartenders on the movie lot would mix up some ginger ale (or lemon lime if it was all they had) with some grenadine and throw in a cherry to make it seem special. These drinks had a singular use; they were used to bride a child actress into giving some good takes for the “talkies.” They would pretend they were grown up drinks and only girls who performed well earned their grown up drink. Mix up one of these cocktails and those little feet would be dancing up a storm, never missing a step. If she messed up though, she was given straight sour mix.

Is any of this true? I have no idea. As far as I know this beverage was created by a bartender at bowling alley who was trying to appease the kids on a Saturday afternoon. That, at least, is my history with it. Whatever its origin story it's a great little drink. This Batch version of the classic drink doesn't quite capture the essence of the bowling alley version that I love from my youth, but it is a cleaner, more distinguished version. I mean it's not coming out of a soda gun, so chances are it's going to be of better quality. Whether you're trying to get kids to dance, or to bowl there really isn't a better beverage for the job.

Hydrive has updated their formulas as well as their look and both are for the better. The bottles now look less street corner bodega and more co-op market. I'm not talking trash on the bodegas of the world. I spend way too much time in them and love them. Their coolers just always look like a hodgepodge mess of bottles who themselves have a hodgepodge mess of design work. The new Hydrive designs are very clean looking and I find them more visually appealing. A twelve year old may not.

As for the new reformulation of the flavor it no longer tastes like melted down sugar free candy. In fact, even though it is sweetened with sucralose it doesn't taste overly diet at all. Like the new design work the new taste is also very crisp and clean. It kind of just tastes like flavored water with a hint of sweetness. Well that might be an exaggeration, but you get the idea. It doesn't taste like a diet mess. It's not something I would normally drink, but I enjoyed it enough for what it is; a non-carbonated energy drink that doesn't taste like chemicals, or like an energy drink at all.

When you see a beverage that is called Fire, you expect some heat behind it. The first thought in my head was that this was going to be Pepsi with capsaicin (aka what makes peppers burn your guts). Half of a second of reading told me that it was really just Pepsi with cinnamon in it. Why the masochist in me was hoping for a drink that would cause me to sweat and leak tears everywhere, I was actually intrigued by the idea of cinnamon cola. I mean sure, I'd rather have the option to have a drink on hand that I could use to play pranks on friends and watch their mouths burn off, but I mean I guess I'll take this.

To be honest, as I took my first sip, I thought that it really didn't taste all that different from regular Pepsi and I thought I had bought myself a one way ticket to bummer city. Then the after taste kicked in. Oh what a wonderful aftertaste it is. It's all cinnamon and spice and even a little heat. I can thankfully say that the soda lived up to its name.
With subsequent sips I learned that if you swished it around your mouth a bit, it opened up the flavor of the cinnamon. It makes you feel like a wine aficionado, except without all of the…€¦you know…€¦.taste of rot and decay.
I surprisingly really enjoyed this. I do have to mention that after drinking an entire bottle over about a half hour I did get quite the stomach ache and by ache I mean burn. I guess it really does meet its nomenclature. I would also like to point out that if this would have been part of the 1893 line and made with that base, it would have been through the roof fantastic. I'm talking like life changing good.

This is…€¦weird. By this point I know what I'm getting into with Mati, but this time around, it's still weird. It is still mostly has the guayusa flavor, but the peach mango aspect of it is what makes it so strange. Both fruits are very present, but even though everything about this is natural, they certainly don't taste that way. This is what I would expect sentient robots from the future to think these fruits taste like. Can fruit taste digital? I don't want to say they taste like peach and mango flavored chemicals, more like microchips are telling my android brain that it tastes these flavors. I don't know how it happened since there is no garbage in here. It's not a particularly unpleasant, it's just unusual, you know like pop stars in the 80s.

I shouldn't like this. Cracking open this can should be a one way ticket to Boringville, USA. In my world lemon is overrated and unnecessary. I would rather drink plain water than with a slice of lemon in it. Somehow I find this quite refreshing though. Perhaps it's because the lemon taste it more upfront. Sure, it only has 5% lemon juice, but I assure you that lemon water you get at a restaurant probably have less than .5% juice. If there were sugar in this I would even call it a lemonade. It's simple. It's clean. It's a little bit of alright. It may not take you to Flavortown, but it would take less time to get there than to Boringville.

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.

A large part of me wants to dedicate my life to science in order to create/discover a zero calorie sweetener that has no real taste, other than that of real sugar. I completely applaud people for watching their calories and realizing that there is far too much sugar in most mass marketed consumables. On the whole we are not a healthy country and I appreciate when companies and consumers step up to try to do something about it. The problem is that the healthier sweeteners that sugar and corn syrup are swapped out for have specific tastes of their own, which just also happen to be very strong. I will happily admit that erythritol and stevia are preferable to other garbage zero calorie sweeteners out there, but they are still overpowering. If they were not included in this beverage it would taste wonderfully like raspberries. You can tell that this is a beverage that would actually taste like raspberries and not some generic fake berry flavor. Unfortunately it is buried under the flavor of the sweeteners.

This could have been incredible tasting, and still healthy if only another sweetener option existed. I'm going to don my lab coat, get out some beakers and get to work. I will not rest until I have an answer that will let this beverage be what it so desperately wants to, and deserves to be! Either that or until it's lunchtime. I'm actually kind of hungry not. I'm going to make a PB sandwich.

It's the time of year again when the sun is finally starting to shine in Buffalo and the temperatures are on the rise. That also means that it's time for Polar to release their Summer line and this year it's a doozy. Some old favorites like Mango Berry are back, but more importantly are the new flavors like this little guy right here. I don't know who the genius is that thought this up, but I would certainly like to shake their hand, scratch that…€¦give them a huge hug of thanks.

I never knew that pineapple was a flavor that I was missing from seltzer, but now that I have it I don't think I'll ever be able to look back. This is really 85% pineapple 15% grapefruit. I'm completely fine with that ratio. It could have been 100% pineapple and I wouldn't have complained, but as it is the grapefruit rounds out the edges a bit. The amount of this I will be drinking this summer is out of control. If Polar really wants all of my money they will make a pineapple vanilla. I would pre-order case upon case of it.

Why is it that a combination of salt and lime sounds enticing (and Mexican, but switch out that citrus fruit for another and it sounds off? The thought of it certainly had me putting off drinking this. I knew it wouldn't be horrible, but it just didn't sound like something I wanted. When I finally got around to it I was pleasantly surprised. Sure it doesn't make me think of the millions of tacos I would like to consume, but who is eating tacos while playing sports? Geniuses maybe?

The salt in here is noticeable, but Kra did not go overboard with it. It really just tastes like a more natural lemon sports drink. You score all the points, you make all the goals and then you rehydrate with one of these. You won't be sorry. It's a better version of what you are used to, and what more could you ask for?

Now I'm going to go run a marathon and down a taco at every quarter mile.