Jason Draper - 2709 Reviews

This soda has put me to taste philosophically. Is it a great cola whose quality has been lessened by the use of stevia as a sweetener, or is it a mediocre soda and the only reason I think it's good is because it is better than most diet sodas. What came first the stevia or the egg?

After far too much pondering I am going to go with a little of both. I think that without the added stevia this could have been an exceptional cola. It has some complexities in the flavor that make it stand out from your Coke and Pepsis of the world. At the same time, the stevia brings it down a couple of pegs, but it still is my favorite diet cola I've ever had. To be fair it does combine cane sugar with stevia, and has 15g of sugar, but that's less than half of a normal can of pop.

Whatever science proclaims to be the true answer, I enjoyed whatever it was in this can and I had no guilt while doing so. That's gotta mean something in life.

What do you mean you are exhausted? It's only noon, and you are a 12-year-old on summer vacation; you're not allowed to be tired. I understand it's hot and humid, but back in my day we didn't let a second of this glorious freedom go to waste. Even when it was pouring rain we were out sliding in the mud. Now don't get any muddy ideas, I've already done the laundry and I don't want to have to do another load for your gunky summer clothes. You know what I blame TV and those video games you're always playing. I might just make a house rule that video games can only be played during the winter months in the house; maybe it will be when it's below a certain temperature. I know what you're thinking turning the air conditioner up all the way won't help your cause. We're going by the temperature on the news.

Seriously though, go outside, have adventures, maybe get into a little trouble (a very little trouble). You should be living for these 2.5 months every year. Fine you're tired I get it. You know what, if you mention this to your mother you're grounded for a month, and by that I mean you will be doing all the gardening this summer with no TV, no video games and no cell phone. I know you kids play games on your phones. Okay here it is. I picked a couple of these up at 711. They are a limited edition summer version of Red Bull. I know kids shouldn't be drinking these, but you know what, the memories of an exciting childhood summer are more important than any negative effects this could have.

You know how normal Red Bull tastes like liquid Wonka candy? Well this is a grapefruit version of that. It's like someone took a bottle of Squirt and added that candy element to it. I know that as an adult I'm not supposed to like super sweet things like this, but I absolutely love it. To be honest I have a case of the stuff hidden in the fridge in the garage behind that beer your uncle brought over for the Christmas party that I will never drink, but you probably will sneak when you get a little older. The joke will be on you though, because by then they will be old and gross. Seriously though, son this stuff is great. After you drink this one, ignore everything I said, and never drink another one until you're away at college. For now chug-a-lug apple of my eye and get out there and explore the woods a couple streets over. I heard some kids found an ear over there last week. Think how cool the kids at school would think you were if you found an ear over summer vacation! If they only found one that means there's it's pair just waiting to be found.

Yeah yeah yeah, raspberry tea I get it. The stuff is everywhere. It's possibly more prevalent than unflavored tea in most gas stations/convenient stores. Why should we care about yet another raspberry tea that's available? Oh, maybe because Joe Tea is a hell of a company who not only uses cane sugar to sweeten their beverages, but who also uses real tea and actual fruit? I think that is more than enough reason in this age of garbage drinks in which we life.

This is great. Period. End of story. Everything that you liked about raspberry tea just got better. It's like someone took a tall boy of Arizona and switched out the ingredients with superior ones. First of all it actually tastes like raspberries and not a proximity that is just flavored syrup. Secondly you can still taste the tea underneath the fruit. That is something that doesn't happen often these days. I do wish the tea taste was a bit stronger here, but I don't have a huge problem with it. This is nothing like the sugar water you have been told was tea your whole life. This is real, or at least a lot closer to reality.

If us here at Thirsty Dudes are anything we are men of the sea. The crashing waves and the salty air are all we know of life. With the ocean breeze in our hair we point our bow towards whatever fancy we have at the time. Wait no, that's not us at all. The ocean is a terrifying place that holds many creatures that mankind will probably never know of. I'm actually shocked that I even knew what a bow was. Mike and I are content to sit on the shoreline, stare out at the ships on the horizon and sip on some root beer. I mean I do have an anchor tattoo, but I never claimed that I wasn't a hypocrite. I also never complained about double negatives.

While we may be full of lies, one thing that is a truth is that we have dreams of creating (more like having someone make for us) a hybrid of root beer and ginger beer. We've proposed it to several companies, but they didn't seem very interested. They are all fools. How perfect would a nice dark, woody root beer be with the kick of some hot ginger beer? I'm sure ratios would have to be very specific to keep the flavors in line, but that is what folks in lab coats are for.

When I came across this Anchor Ginger Root Beer, I thought that perhaps my prayers had been answered. The sea is an unknown place (for the most part) and so is this beverage. It could hold wonderful secrets or disastrous monsters. You have no idea how many creatures I find in bottles of sodas; at least most of them are vaguely indifferent to me.

While this was not the soda of my dreams, it is almost there. Really the only thing that is missing is the heat. There is no burn at all in this bottle. It's more of a ginger ale root beer instead of the ginger beer root beer that I so desperately wanted. I will happily take what I am given though. This really tastes like someone made a batch of ginger ale the correct way, with real ginger, and mixed it with a creamy root beer. It has a nice classic root beer taste that is on the darker side of the spectrum that ends with a strong vanilla after taste. The ginger is the majority shareholder in the beginning of each sip, but the vanilla in the root beer is all you are left with seconds after you swallow.

I am a big fan of this, and I hope to come across it again in my travels. I can use it to help me get by until I can talk a company into perfecting my vision. Maybe I should just try combining sodas myself to see how it turns out. I mean that has to end well…€¦right?

Children, as lovable as they are, can be some of the most annoying creatures to ever crawl across this planet. To begin with, as soon as you pop one out you have given up most of your personal freedoms for at least 15 or so years. The nights out that you took for granted when you were younger are a thing of the past, unless you want to shell out some cash for a babysitter, which in my social circle is rare. On top of that are the messes and constant fear that they will do something dumb and badly hurt themselves. Even beyond all of that is the never ending curiosity. I'm all for learning and growth, but when kids get to the age where they respond to every explanation with, “Why?” I was to punt them off of a bridge. If you were to feed those same curious little ones a bunch of coffee and their questioning became somehow even more frequent, I can assure you that would start asking you, “Whynatte?” Then even the most loving parent would be drop kicking their children into ravines all over the US.

The thing is that if children were to like coffee, this would probably be what they would enjoy the most. It's milky and even though there are only 9g of sugar in it, it's pretty sweet (without being a cavity factory) due to the combination of sugar and sucralose. It still has a coffee flavor in it, but in the way that coffee iced cream does. It's become a treat instead of just a way to kick start your morning. To be honest I'm right there with the kids. If I were to drink coffee this is the kind of thing I would want. The unsweetened, black stuff is just not for me. This transforms that flavor into something that I find enjoyable, but it doesn't taste cheap like a lot of canned coffee.

I still don't advise giving into the constant Whynattes. Those rug rats really don't need this coffee, and neither does your sanity.

There are many shades in the energy drink spectrum, but no matter how much you nitpick, 90% of them can simply be described as, “Tastes like Red Bull.” This drink specifically tastes like sugar free Red Bull. They even went against the trends and used aspartame as their sweetener, just as the original did.

XL is not in the game to revolutionize anything with their flagship drinks. They seem to be happy to give you what you know at a lower price. That's not a bad place to be. Undercut the competition and watch the sales pour in. I hope it works out for them.

I wouldn't quite say that people live most of their lives in the “off” position, but if they aren't “on” until they drink this beverage then they must be in some sort of stasis. Perhaps normal life for humans is like when a computer goes into sleep mode, it's ready to jump into action at any moment, but it needs motivating to do so aka moving the mouse, tapping the space bar, downing a lightly sweetened, low calorie energy beverage. That doesn't sound quite right, but it's been a long day and my comparisons are not hitting their mark in my current state.

This is a lighter sweetened beverage, but I wouldn't exactly call it lightly sweetened. It's not a full mouth full of peach mango flavor, but it's stronger than stuff like Hint or Ayala Herbal Water. It's a lighter Vitamin Water or Gatorade with a small amount of stevia in the mix. It's not enough to fully distract from the light flavor, but it's enough that it's noticeable.

This obviously doesn't have the same impact as “classic” energy drinks, but it's enough to give you a little boost. It has caffeine from tea leaf extract, the amino acid ornithine and B vitamins to increase stamina, boost brainpower and enhance focus (or so the label tells me). It may not keep you up all night, but it's not supposed to. It's meant to keep you on and focused and not just in a blind rage of energy.

Many times in my life I have forgotten how much I love grapes. It's a well-known fact that most things that are grape flavored resemble the fruit about as much as infants love chewing tobacco. Is that the most random comparison of all time? I think it just might be. The thing is that the trouble with grape doesn't end there. On top of being defamed by impersonators, there is a decent chance that when you eat a grape you're going to get a crappy soggy one; such a disappointing treat. When you get a good one though, life is good. A nice firm, juicy grape can go a long way with one's taste buds.

This here drink is a good middle ground between juice and drink. It's what all grape flavored things should aspire to be. Sure it would be much better if it was just grape juice with chunks of grape “meat” in it, but we all know that would be expensive, and also probably too tart for most consumers. To solve this conundrum Wei Chuan watered it down a bit, and then added a healthy dose of sugar. The result is a candied grape flavor, which isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. If were carbonated it would be the best grape soda I've ever tasted. Instead it winds up being a better than average grape drink. To be fair if it didn't have the chunks of grape in it, I probably would have only awarded it a three out of five bottle rating, but the meat is great. It's very similar in texture, size and flavor to aloe drinks. Everyone knows I can't get enough of those.

Between Filberts and Green River one would be led to believe that Chicago has it rough when it comes to sodas. Those are two companies that are as bland as bland can be. Don't feel bad for the windy city though, as it is a large place and there is more than enough room for a plethora of different soda companies. For every Filbert there is a Berghoff. For every Green River there is a Capone Family Secret. For every…€¦actually I only know of two bad soda companies from Chicago, so I'm stuck with nothing to counter the greatness of Cicero with.

Let's start by saying that this is not your typical cherry cola. I know you've all had a Cherry Coke or Pepsi before, and they are a nice change of pace. This is a different beast though. It has a nice classic cola flavor to it, but the cherry is something out of the ordinary. It must be a Midwest thing because it reminds me a lot of the Sprecher Cherry Cola. The cherry is very strong and leaves you with a slightly weird aftertaste that I always associated with the Sprecher being fire roasted. I have no idea if Cicero prepares their sodas the same way, but they taste great, and you'll hear no complaints from this side of the table.

Ladies, Gentlemen, Beloved Stockholders,
I've gathered you all here today to tell you what our numbers have been saying for years. The zero-calorie beverage game is a losing one. As much as Americans would like to ditch those empty calories and lose some weight, they are also a lazy lot, who also do not want to give up flavor. While we've come leaps and bounds in that department with stevia and its cohorts, it's still not enough. Those natural sweeteners still have a very specific taste to them. This meeting is to let you know that we are giving up. No we are not folding the company; we are simply going another route. Instead of aiming for zero-calories we have decided to shoot for low-calorie. We have discovered that if we mix up cane sugar with stevia, we can keep the sugar/calorie levels on the lower side and maintain some of the flavor from the premium ingredients we use.

You are all familiar with our ginger ale soda. We used real ginger and lemon juice in it. It should have been a masterpiece, but then we added a whole bunch of stevia and people complained that it was the only ingredient they could really taste. I am happy to now present you each with a can of that same ginger ale with the stevia lowered and a bit of cane sugar thrown in the mix. Tell me that isn't the best diet ginger ale you've ever tasted and I will call you a liar. No longer is the stevia distracting from the last of the ginger. This is the way ginger ale was meant to taste. You can actually feel the slight lemon kick that has been hidden for all these years. Sure there is a bit of the coolness of stevia, but it's so low that in blind taste tests most people didn't even notice it. All of that flavor and it's only 15g of sugar as opposed to the 30+ from other “mainstream” ginger ales. On this side of the table we really believe we are on to something and we hope that all of you feel the same. We've seen the future folks and it is called compromise.

Does this bottle contain the secret to Mariah Carey's reported five octave vocal range? Is this a recreation of the potion she got from an old witch near a lake house while she was riding a tire swing? If it is the concoction doesn't work without some properly placed spell words, because I still can't sing correctly in on octave, let alone five.

One thing I can certainly say is that this tastes just like hone…€¦wait no that's night right. It does taste exactly like how I would imagine magical butterflies to taste though, and that is like some sort of berry Wonka candy. I mean that in the best possible way. I absolutely love this drink. It tastes like a tropical berry energy drink without the garbage that keeps me up all night with the shakes. There is even sucralose in here, which is normally the kiss of death for any drink, and it doesn't bother me at all, probably because there's so little of it. There's still 42g of sugar in this bottle. That's two servings of 21g of sweet, sweet gold.

Normally things that are overly sweet just aren't my bag these days. This really gets me though. It's got me feeling emotions. In fact they are deeper than I've ever dreamed of. Get me a convertible, a case of these drinks and let's celebrate the summer.

I would like to propose to all of the collegiate institutions out there that you offer a class about beverages. I don't know if every college is like this, but where I attended every student, no matter what their major needed to take at least three science classes. For most of the student body science had nothing to do with their major, so they (I) would take the easiest classes I could. I think a course named something like The Discipline of Beverages would attract a decent amount of students and be a nice break for everyone involved. The class could be all about how different beverages/sweeteners/flavors are created and the like.

A sample class would go something like this:
Hello class today we will be talking about the science behind maple drinks. You see there are a handful of companies out there nowadays that have maple flavored beverages. Perhaps it's to go along side of the bacon craze our country currently finds itself in. Most of these companies waste a lot of time and energy with their process. They take maple syrup and add water to it in order to put it into a liquid form. I know that sounds simple enough, but that is more steps than need to be taken. You see, in order to create maple syrup, one would put a tap into a maple tree, in order to procure the maple sap that is inside. Due to the improper nomenclature many people believe that this sap is actually pure maple syrup, those people are wrong. You see the “sap” is actually pretty thin, and not the sticky mess one would believe. That liquid that is removed is boiled down to create maple syrup. Now why would someone take the time to remove the water from something just to add it back again? The answer is because those people don't understand science. Work smarter, not harder my friends.

Now Better Sweet is a company that uses their brain. The only ingredient they have in their product is organic maple sap. They tap trees, and what comes out is what you get; pure organic maple water straight from the trees of Vermont. Due to their process they are also the only company of this type that is certified organic at this time.

I don't mean to turn my lecture into an advert, but if you love breakfast foods and all things maple, this is a drink you should try. It tastes like watered down pure maple syrup, because that is exactly what it is. If you don't have a taste for that sticky topping then why on earth would you ever want to try this? You know you're not going to like it.

Now I know that would need to be flushed out a bit more, but you get what I'm going for. It's science. It's learning. It's lazy. It's what college is all about to kids these days. Oh and I would fact check everything I said above before you teach it to students. I'm just passing along information that was fed to me.

For four long days I was in Florida last month. I was on tour with Cheap Girls, and I flew down there to meet up with them. When I left Buffalo I was still wearing a jacket. Within two minutes of walking out the door at the airport in Tampa I was drenched in sweat. I don't understand how people live down there. I mean I know people probably say the same thing about the cold in Buffalo, but I feel it's easier to warm up then cool down. Even though most of my 96 hours in the Sunshine State were spent sweating I refer to that as the dry portion of the trip. You see in those couple of days I only found a single beverage that we had not reviewed yet, and that is this can of 7Up. I wasn't even that excited when I found it because I thought it was just a new flavor that I would be seeing everywhere. Nope. I should have known better from the Spanish on the can.

The funny thing is that even though it was all I could find down there I still didn't drink it until a couple weeks after returning home. I am not a fan of 7Up. Like all lemon lime sodas I find it very boring. It's a flavor that I wish didn't exist. Sparkling lemonades are great. Lime soda is wonderful. So why does the combination of the two leave me unfulfilled? Lucky for me this is nothing like the original. I would liken it to one of the whacky Mountain Dew flavors, but with 7Up as the base. It certainly tastes tropical. It tastes like it's mostly mango, but there are other flavors in there as well that leave it not tasting natural. Like I said it has that Mountain Dew feel to it, but that boring base is hiding beneath the fun and excitement. If this was marketed as a Dew flavor I probably wouldn't have batted an eye, but that lemon lime flavor is hiding in the murky soda of the can.

We all knew this was coming, right? I mean it seems like an obvious move for the biggest name in vitamin supplement beverages to release a line of energy drinks, which are more than likely the fastest growing market in the beverage world. They could have gone the easy way out and just dumped a bunch of taurine and other garbage in there to give people the little rush that they so desperately crave, but Glaceau is a company with some sort of standards and convictions. They were one of the first companies to move away from the trend of sweetening with High Fructose Corn Syrup, and they have at least put forth minimum effort to make their beverages slightly healthier than their competition. I'm not saying these beverages are the healthiest things in the world, but they are better than a lot of the garbage that stocks the shelves these days. As a result of all of this for their Energy line, Glaceau added green coffee bean extract (for caffeine) and B vitamins. You might not get the same dizzying highs as you would from all the Red Bull imitators out there, but you also will not experience those terrible crashes.

If you are familiar with Vitamin Water, and I assume you are if you are taking the time to read this dumb website, you can certainly imagine what the base of this drink tastes like. Envision a strawberry lime Vitamin Water. Now add in some green coffee bean extract, and you will have yourself a nice little beverage. It has a slightly different taste due to the green coffee, but trust me when I say it is nothing like what you think coffee tastes like. The extract is nothing like brewed coffee, it's slightly bitter, like green tea, except you know…€¦totally different. It's its own flavor.

Glaceau decided to take this wonderful drink a bit further and added two more things. One of them made the beverage more enjoyable, and the other took it down a peg or two. The beneficial addition was carbonation. I love bubbly drinks, so it was a definite plus for me. Unfortunately they also put in some stevia. It doesn't ruin the drink, or make it taste overly diet, but it's there a bit. It's a new trend for companies to use both cane sugar and a zero calorie sweetener to lower the sugar content, and it's a compromise I can handle. You lose a little bit of flavor, but you also won't become an obese mess that needs someone to flip them every so often so they don't get bed sores. Ugh.

So I'm pretty sure that any decent person residing on this planet would agree with me that people who host dog fights are complete scum, who deserve to have those selfsame dogs let loose on them. I think there is very little debate over that, well at least the first part. My question is would a person be worse, better or the same if they hosted pig fights? You know, if they starved some swine in tiny cages and once they were worked up in a fervor, make them tear each other apart. I personally have the same level of disgust, but would meat eaters not see a problem with that? Would they think to themselves, “Well whoever loses this fight is going to be served up with breakfast in the morning.”? I would hope that even if they are a person that would eat a pig, they would at least not want it's final days spent in torture.

What does all of this have to do with this cola? Absolutely nothing. To the best of my knowledge Pig Iron does not partake in pig fights, or any sort of animal fights for that matter. I assume they serve up a lot of dead flesh to be consumed by the masses, but that's seen as normal in society. For some reason my mind started wandering to pig fights as I was drinking this. In cartoon form my brain tells me it would be hysterical, but in reality it would be an atrocity. It's like people getting hit by cars; in movies it always makes me laugh, but when you see it in real life it's quite traumatic. Also, I have no soul.

Pigs aside this is a fairly standard cola. I love that I live in a world where there can be a standard for cane sugar sweetened colas. You can bet your butt that this is better than and high fructose corn syrup sweetened cola I've tasted, but in the world of “fancy” sodas it leaves something to be desired. I want it to taste darker than it does. I want interesting ingredients mixed in. This is your basic cola that you could find in any gas station with the sweetener switched out. It's nothing to shake a stick at, but the fancy label gave me false hope for something groundbreaking.

Things have just gone too far. I don't know who originally started associating zero calorie sparkling beverages with ice and all things frozen, but as good of a marketing plan that was other companies have beaten it to death. Yes they tend to taste crisp and cool, so the original idea makes sense. The thing is that ice is not the first thing that a brain would think of hen drinking these types of beverages without the names being forced upon them. I don't hate these drinks by any means, but for the love of all that is good in the world, please come up with your own ideas and stop copying another companies marketing scheme.

Cumberland Farms happily sent us these samples, so I feel a bit bad for ragging on them, but it drives me crazy. Luckily their beverages aren't that bad. Like all good beverages of this ilk this is crisp and refreshing. They chose to sweeten it with sucralose instead of the stevia blends that a lot of the other companies are using these days. That concerned me at first, but luckily the flavor didn't suffer for that decision. This is clearly a diet drink, but it doesn't have that terrible 80's diet taste that most sucralose drinks force upon the imbiber.

My brain automatically associates the strawberry kiwi flavor with diet beverages. My mom and sister always drank gross zero calorie drinks with that flavor, and I always wanted a real sugar version, because it sounded like a wonderful combination. Once I finally tasted a fully sweetened beverage of that sought after flavor it was far too sweet and seemed to be for children. So diet it remains in my mind. I can't really say that this tastes like those two fruits, but it does taste exactly how I would expect it to, as its predecessors have.

A thing that I should have mentioned earlier is that unlike its contemporaries, Cumberland Farms combined the classic zero calorie sparkling beverage with a Vitamin Water style beverage. They enhanced their recipe with vitamins and antioxidants. So to sum things up, they somehow created a sucralose sweetened drink that doesn't taste like complete poison. They also had the sense to use some fruit juice in it and not artificial flavors. On top of all that they added a bunch of ingredients to make sure people get essential vitamins that might be lacking in their diet. It's certainly not my favorite drink out there, but it's doing okay for itself.

Plan Tea is good at exactly what their name claims. I'm sure the planning didn't take very long. It was probably something along these lines; “What type of tea should we use, black? Wait, no let's use Darjeeling white tea, it will make it stand out from the crowd more. What about sweetener, do we want to go all out, or make it diet? Oh good idea let's make it semi sweet by adding just a drop of wildflower honey. It looks like our planning is complete.” Quick, simple and exactly what the world needed.

This is a great example of how good white tea can be and how more companies should embrace it. This also shows the world that excessive sweetener in tea (cane, hfcs, or zero calorie) is unnecessary. Just a bit of honey gives this just a nudge into the sweetened world and I don't know why anyone would need anything more. You can taste the flavor of the honey, but it doesn't overpower the tea.

Good planning folks. You have done exactly what you should have and the world is better for it.

I know that Gatorade is meant to be consumed after some sort of physical activity in order to quench your thirst and replace lost electrolytes, but I'd also like to think that the person doing the drinking had burned off enough calories during said activity to counteract the sugar in the drink. These low calorie versions of theirs are borderline undrinkable. The thing that confuses me is that it's not that they taste diet, they just taste gross. This is sweetened with erythritol and Reb A as well as some sucrose. Normally a match up like that is the best you can get with zero calorie sweeteners, but it just tastes wrong here. I blame one of the other ingredients, because it has an aftertaste like I've never experienced. The initial taste is a general citrus flavor that's a tad diet, but that aftertaste just taste the drink on a weird turn and all of the passengers are thrown from the vehicle. It's just ghastly.

People are constantly asking me what the difference between root beer and birch beer is. I usually tell then that birch beer is like a darker root beer that is historically made from bark of the birch tree, whereas root beer is more often made from a variety of roots/barks. I have to admit here and now that I have been spreading lies. I'm going to let you all in on a secret that the soda world doesn't want you to know. The real difference between these two similar sodas is that root beer is extracted from the tusks of a walrus, and birch beer comes from those (teeth) of the hippopotamus. Strange I know, but 100% true. You can surely understand why this would be kept a secret. It would be hard to market a beverage that comes from animal teeth.

Hippo Size gave hints with their sodas, but they hid them behind a promise of gargantuan, hippo sized flavor. They were right with that boast. This is a fantastic representation of what can be extracted from a hippo. The animal that got this from must have been eating a lot of mint, because this has a very strong wintergreen taste, which is fantastic. I really enjoy this red birch soda that is made with white birch extract. I'll leave that for another science lesson. This really hit the spot. It's creamy without being anything like a cream soda. It's just what I needed after a long day like today.

Orca beverages have been breathing life into some long forgotten soda companies, and they are doing a great job at it. I certainly would never have had this if it wasn't for them, and I thank them for the experience.

When I heard that Ito En was releasing a line of coffee drinks that they had named after me, I was ecstatic. I was also slightly confused as I am not the world's biggest coffee fan, but pumped all the same. Then I remembered that I had no correspondence with the company, and there are thousands of other Jay's in the world, so the chances of it being named after me were pretty slim. I can dare to dream though.

When I twisted off the cap to take a sip of the potential chocolaty goodness inside, I quickly changed my mind and hoped that this was in fact not named after me. This is not very good. I mean it's drinkable, but it doesn't have the strong flavor that one would hope for with such a beverage. I would actually say that it is more milk than anything. Mocha Milk would be an appropriate name for this. Even worse is that it's nonfat dry milk, so it is slightly chalky. The coffee flavor is not very present with the chocolate taking second place behind the powdered dairy. It's also pretty sweet with 38g of sugar in the bottle.

I had expected more from the fine folks at Ito En, and for the record I never really thought it was named after me, but if someone does want to do that, please let me try it first so I can give it my official stamp of approval. We wouldn't want any embarrassing situations such as this.