Mike Literman - 1759 Reviews

If you aren't from Western New York, you have probably never heard of this. Yes, loganberry is a real fruit. I don't know why it isn't used more, and why I've never seen one outside of this can. There is another company called "Crystal Beach" which also makes a loganberry drink that's pretty parallel with Aunt Rosie's. To describe the taste...syrup-y. It's a classic HFCS drink. It might taste "wrong" if it were made with something else. One of those "Don't fix what's not broken" or "Don't ruin a good thing" scenario. It's fruity and candy-like. To define the flavor, though? It's hard. It's clearly a "berry" taste, but I can't compare it to anything. Blackberry-esque. That might be the closest that I can compare it to.

I don't like regular San Pellegrino. I'm not a huge fan of seltzer or sparkling water. My girlfriend loves it and always asks for soda water with lemon any time we go to a restaurant. I try it once every three months and hate on it every time.

This is different. It's got a dry cola taste with a strong, citrus taste to it. It tastes like an orange rind would taste, but not like an orange juice pop might. The chinotto isn't an orange, but it's got to be from the same family as it's the same shape, color, scent, and so on.

I like this. It's different. It's very bitter and it's a dry cola taste. It's a sipping drink. A large gulp might be too much, much like eating a handful of orange peels, which you would never do unless you hated yourself.

This was recommended by a friend who told me it was an Italian favorite and an acquired taste. You can probably get it at most larger grocery stores or any Italian market.

Go back in time to when you were in second grade. Don't think of the future. After all, you're 7. What do you care about the economy, career, marriage, responsibility, or basically anything? There is one thing you care about...

It's time for lunch. You and your class walk down to the lunchroom and wait in line. You get a boiled hot dog, chocolate milk, apple and one more thing. You go over to the ice cream freezer and get an orange creamsicle. You eat everything on your plate and then you silence the world around you as you eat that creamsicle.

Do I need to say that Romano's Orange Creme tastes just like that? I hope that I don't.

Time for another installment to our diet section of the ever-growing list of drinks. See, dieteers? We care. We really do. So lose that weight and don't look back.

Initially, this smells like an energy drink. While awaiting the million Smarties flavor to invade my taste buds, I was happy/surprised to not get it. There is bitterness to this that perhaps in the non-diet version might be a little less bitter, but it's actually not bad. With the aspartame, I got a bit of the tongue pinching that you get with artificial sweeteners, but you get a strong tea and light, dry cola taste. It's not bad and it's definitely different. If you have the chance, get it and give it a taste. Expect it to be bitter, because the yerba mate is, after all, a tea.


Now, as you can see (hopefully) that I took a picture of my friend John drinking this. He wanted to put in a little review so here is his contribution to Thirsty Dudes:

While it resembles some foul-tasting energy drinks I've had, the resemblance is similar to the resemblance between a hot sister and an ugly sister. We've all seen them... you know they're sisters, they look somewhat alike, and they act a lot alike, yet one is hot and the other is butt-ugly.

Wow. Candied pineapples. It's so sweet and there is no way that I could drink a whole can of this. Kids could, self-respecting adults could not. Burps taste like pineapple candy, too. I'm trying to cover all aspects of this drink for you. You put the can to your face and you begin to smell what's to come when you tip that can over a bit. It's pretty good and next time I'm anywhere where Cawy drinks are sold and I want a pineapple pop and have 11 friends around me to share the can with, I'll buy it.

Also, designers, seriously, look at the can. It's so classic and vintage. You've got to see the rest of the stuff they sell. Many in the same vein and nothing looks like it's past the early 80's.

Ahhhh. I woke up early, took the dogs for a walk, hung out for too long, went to get lunch/dinner, went shopping, painted trim, cleaned up and all of that makes a man tired. It also makes him thirsty.

It's no surprise that being in this line of "work" I have a lot of things in my fridge to drink. When I saw this New Leaf raspberry lemonade, my search was over.

It was wonderful. It had a nice lemonade taste followed by a very nice blackberry taste. This is the best lemonade I've had potentially ever.

This was a fun drink. Every flavor was adequately represented in a golden light. The drink had a vanilla nose. You drink it and you get the mint and on the way down, the cool taste of the lemongrass and then to round out the trip back to vanilla.

I liked this a lot and am excited they decided to make some flavors in a much larger bottle.

Get on a plane and ride it to the Caribbean because that's where you will want to be after taking one sip of this stuff. I think that this would be best drunk at the coldest it can get before it freezes. A strange thing to say, I know, but mine is cold and I am loving it. It's a smorgasbord of fruit flavors and I can't really put my finger on any other than lemon and lime, but it's not a Sprite or 7Up by any means. It's very sweet, but very good. I could see myself buying this again without a doubt.

This is a limited edition flavor, which means if you see it get it. It taunts you when you put the drink to your mouth because it's very strong in the citrus department. You'll like it.

I don't know why my picture looks like I airbrushed it. Think of it as a 90's hair metal video. Everything had a soft edge on it and I don't know why.

This is my second lemon drink of the day. No, it's not favoritism like those seven years I took tae-kwon-do and was treated like crap because I wasn't as good as the best kid in the class. That was awful. Sure I leaned manners and respect and how to break boards, but I also learned about favoritism, which was a hard and long-lasting lesson to learn.

Go to a restaurant. Any one. Get a glass of water and ask for it with lemon. If they don't do it, where are you going? Seriously, everyone has lemons. This tastes just like it but you what you don't get? The seeds from those lemons that you vigorously squeezed because you love lemon water so darn much. This is just nice. Would I buy this again? Yes. Is it a lazy man's "glass of water with lemon in it?" Yes. Do I care? Not when I want lemon water and I'm in a crunch for time.

At first, you think to yourself "Lemon pop? What's this all about?" and then you take a sip and realize, wait a second here, there is lime in this, too. It's good. Crisp. It's defiantly lemon and lime but different than Sprite and 7Up. It's a bit like the Pop Shoppe Sparkle Up pop we had a while back. It was nice. Not too sweet and not at all syrupy as it's made with cane sugar. This would make a great summertime pop.

I used to hate this stuff. Hate! With a fervor! Hate! Now I'm a little bit older and my palette that has been trained to have more distinguished tastes.

This tastes like raisin bran. Just like it except possibly more sweet. This was the original version that is made with cane sugar and honestly isn't as bad as I remember.

I would not drink it again but I am not giving it a bad review. Not my taste but it's a good drink. I'll admit it.

I came in to work today and the lovely and talented Kristin Merz stopped at her local Asian market and picked me up this Mango juice drink. Yes, there is nata de coco in it, but there isn't a lot. It's not like a lot of the other ones I've had where there is an abundance of little squared, gummy goodness. This drink had but a few little dudes but the mango juice was actually really good. There is actually a small bit of mango chunk in there, too, but nothing to really write home about. It's not a puree or a smoothie, just a juice, but a good juice. Personally, I think it's an all or nothing gig with nata de coco. Either put a lot in or don't put any in.

This is a excellent juice and I urge anyone who is 10% adventurous to go down to their local Asian market and get a can.

Finally, light lemonade that doesn't want to assault my senses like a pack of dogs getting thrown a steak. I prefer my drinks not too sweet and sometimes just plain watered down. This drink is not too sweet, not too sour, not too anything, which makes it just right for me. It kind of tastes like it was pretty sweet when you bought it at the theme park and it was filled with ice and now that the 87 degree weather has done it's damage to those little ice cubes, it has lost some of it's punch and you're left with a nice, calm drink.

At first sip, the sweetener kind of takes you for a loop. I'm familiar with cane sugar, Splenda, real sugar, and about everything in between but this Erythritol is different. The flavor of the drink was pretty good. I didn't get a lot of pomegranate or blueberry but the overall "fruitiness" was pretty good. The sweetener makes this drink "diet" as there are zero calories, which is good. I bet people are sick of their previous options of Sweet 'N Low and Splenda as both of those are gross. Aspartame isn't much better. This one makes things a bit "cool" to the taste and is present that it's not a "real" sugar but it's not terrible. I will drink the rest of this and encourage anyone who is dieting to give it a try.

What's that middle taste? I can't figure it out. It's like a cola last. Maybe there is some grape in there but it's made from hops and barley, which makes the aroma. It's not bad but my mind is telling me it's alcoholic. Nothing on the bottle says that there is but it tastes a little like I remember old, crappy red wine to smell.

I don't know who I could recommend this to. Someone who loves red wine, pop, and can't drink at work, but really want to drink at work. You know, the perfect clientele.

I don't know if this is seasonal, either, because there is a little Santa-like gnome wearing mittens and is surrounded by packages.

Our first plum drink! I don't eat plums. They're a friggin' mess, and for someone who doesn't use napkins, that is not a good path to go down. I needn't bother going into my hatred for napkins. Let me just say, be more careful when you eat and don't rely on napkins. Done. So anyhow, I liked it. Let it be known that it's not because of the flavor that I don't eat plums. Not a lot of stuff we've found have had plums in it and after drinking this tea it makes me wonder why not.

New Leaf nailed the green tea bite and combined with just the right amount of cane sugar, this is the gold standard. Add a lil' bit o' plum and you've got something. This, my friends, is a solid recommendation. Even if you're the smallest bit curious about how this will taste, you will like it. It's a new flavor for you and something to enjoy in the future.

How do I describe the smell of this drink in a way that you could understand? Red wine mixed with body odor. I'd say that does it justice.

Taste? Kind of like a grape juice. Like a red grape juice, not like a white grape. Not a lot of body or presence either which is kind of strange. There's no bite or sharpness or bitterness or tartness or anything.

Now myself, and possibly you, have no idea what a blackcurrant is. To me it kind of looks like a purple grape on the carton. I don't know what it tastes like to base the flavor of it, but I assume that the actual fruit has some sort of character. This just feels a bit lacking. It's got a lot of flavor though so you could possibly use this as a mixer.

As I sit here and wait for the security people, which they should of been here 16 minutes ago I'm drinking by my lonesome a glass of passion fruit drink. The ingredients are sugar, water, and passion fruit juice? All the same this is pretty good. It's pretty sweet but a good natural fruit sweet. It's right on the line of a juice and smoothie because it's not as thick as a smoothie but it's also thicker than juice.

Finally the dude's here. Safety.

I got this drink at a local, low price food store but you could probably get it at nearly every Hispanic market. Also, for around a dollar, you can't go wrong.

Part I:
I don't get it. If you have one sugar, why don't you stick with it? If you are sweetening primarily with cane sugar, why add rebiana, which is a stevia extract? You've clearly already made your decision to sweeten one, way, are you trying to cheapen costs by "watering down" your sugar by adding fake sugar? This is the equivalent of cutting cocaine with baking soda to "break even".

Part II:
3/4 of people that drank this didn't like it. It's very sweet, and had a very harsh lemon "pinch". You know what that is, right? Like when you drink something sour and your cheeks contract? Pinch. Got it? There is lemon in the bottle, this is true and it's not lemon flavor, it's actually made from lemon concentrate. It tastes like kids lemonade. Good when you're hot, but the mix just isn't right. It is very sweet, but there is also a strong lemon kick to it, so I can't pinpoint what's "wrong". Maybe there isn't, but this is not the best lemonade I've had.

Look...I want to like this, I really do. I don't know why? It's just a drink, but sometimes you just get a good feeling. I had high hopes for Hubert's. Good, classic bottles with nice, embossed labels and a cute story about how it was founded way back in 1935. Something changed in the last 75 years that slightly modified the recipe, I can almost guarantee.

Could it be because it is fall and I'm wearing a jacket that this just isn't getting the review it deserves? Could I just not be thirsty enough? If a child poured this into a Dixie cup and sold it to me for a quarter, would it taste better? I don't know. Someone else buy this and let me know what I'm missing if I am, in fact, missing something.

Smooth.

Could you imagine if I left it at that, a one-word review? That's super lame so I will actually sell this drink to you. Let's start at the top. It's got a good black cherry taste like that of your standard black cherry pops, but less sweet and it had a very strong black cherry nose to it as opposed to the sugary, candy standard. Shortly after everything is rounded out quite rapidly by the cream soda. Creme soda? Whatever. By the time it goes down your throat, it's been coated by the creaminess and it just glides down.

Having never had any other black cherry cream soda, I can't compare it, but also, for that I give kudos to Virgil's for making a unique new product.