Hi, Libationers!  Firstly, let me apologize for our unplanned Summer sabbatical.  I assure you, it was spent entirely fighting against the man in the name of healthier beverages.  But WiseGuise and I were so busy advancing the revolution that we barely had time to sit down and write new reviews!  But not to worry – here’s a brand new contender ready to be put to the test: a new Hansen’s flavor entitled “the Grove”.

Hansen’s was kind enough to send these out for us to review, so expect to see WiseGuise’s opinion coming up soon.

First, let’s start with the basic pro’s and cons of what I can see here.

Pros:

• Real cane sugar
• All natural
• No funky artificial colors

Cons:

• Sugar content – there are 34 grams in one 12 oz can.  (Coke has about 39 grams per can).
• No actual fruit content – the flavors are from fruit extracts.

This is all information that you can get just from glancing at the label.  But at the end of the day, you know I’m a sucker for flavor – so how does this stuff actually taste?

Berry-riffic, with a surprisingly tart/tangy aftertaste.  I really like the initial fruit flavor, which is a complex mix of berries and citrus.  But the dry astringency in the aftertaste makes it a little hard to keep up with.  This is definitely a sippin’ soda, if for no other reason than it would be almost impossible to chug.  But that’s okay, it still works on some level.  Is it my favorite?  Nope.  But it’s a worthy effort, and I like the direction they’re heading with it.

Conclusion

Hansen’s is taking a similar course as Jones Soda, who switched to all cane sugar some years ago.  I do like the all-natural approach, and this soda is assuredly better than many mainstream sodas out there in both flavor complexity and nutrition.  But I would like to see them take it to the next level, ala Izze’s real fruit juice content or Fizz Ed’s portion/sugar content control.  I like this, but in the end, neither the flavor nor the nutrition content is quite enough to make me seek it out at the grocery store.

Rating: 3.0 out of 5

-Danithius-

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Straight up from down under

The wife of my girlfriend’s co-worker hails from Australia, and Bundaberg is his favorite soda from the big island.  He was kind enough to offer a bottle for her/our private consumption.  Apparently, Pepsi has started distributing it locally, but I have no official confirmation of this.  Little did he  know I swiped it and reviewed it.  Hooray for freebies!

First thing, this has an awesome little pull tab on it, but, being the American I am, I’m not quite familiar with this method of opening a bottle, so my pull is slow and careful.  It comes off without incident, and this foreign drink is subjected to the first test of any drink, the aroma test.  It smells awesome and super sweet; there’s 44 g of the white stuff in this 12.7 oz bottle.  The first taste I recognize is the spicy, dark sweet of molasses.  I catch hints of ginger and vanilla, and the licorice shows up in the aftertaste.  This is brewed using yeast, which often turns a soda fermenty and unpleasant to most people, but I can hardly tell with this, except for the malty-sweet taste and beer-like mouth-feel after I swallow.  The carbonation is light and the sweetness is surprisingly mellow and doesn’t stick to your tongue too long.

It has a nice spice and an interesting tang to it, something many American root beers lack, besides originality. The cane sugar and molasses give it a perfect, rich sweetness that the darker sugar tones down.  The flavor combination is perfect, leaving nothing to be desired of this Australian treat.  That’s exactly what it should be considered, a treat, if you can find it.  It currently isn’t distributed in the U.S.  Their slogan on the bottle, Naturally Brewed to be Better, seems apt.  I have nothing negative to say about this soda, despite the large amount of sugar in it.  This may be the best root beer I’ve ever had.

You can get it shipped your way from The Soda Shop.

Score: 5 out of 5. Root beers rarely get better than this.

– WiseGuise

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Right off the top I can smell orange, lemon, a hint of pineapple and passion fruit. I toss back a mouthful and am greeted with a delicious multi-layered taste, sweet and tangy.  The fruit flavors come one at a time, unlike many fruit punch concoctions where one flavor takes over or they are completely indistinguishable, buried under sugar.  It is slightly pulpy, so remember to shake it, but it isn’t gritty.

This is quite easy to drink, I ended up chugging most of it, leaving my mouth and tongue feeling sweet and tingly.  The sugar is about that of a Coke 29 g per serving, but it’s 40% juice, so not a terrible amount is added.  Overall I really enjoyed this citrusy tropical extravaganza; all it lacked was some rum, a coconut, and a tiny umbrella.

I am also impressed with their efforts to get a higher return to the small farmers they purchase from, and their encouraging of sustainable agriculture.  It isn’t just some hippie feel-good idea, it can be a reality if we start purchasing our produce from local farmers, farmers markets, and store that sell and support locally grown and organic produce.  Any more questions?  Look here.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Delicious fruity tropical punch, organic and sustainable!

– WiseGuise

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Almost forgot the photo . . .

I’ve been absent for several weeks, much to my own dismay, spending a great deal of that time packing, cleaning and frantically moving, so my internet and beverage duties fell to the wayside.  A thousand apologies.  I’m back, thankfully, with my second-to-last purity.organic review, and a rebuttal, posted below, to the Half & Half Danithius reviewed.  Hopefully I will be much more prompt with my reviews, as I already have the next four lined up in my fridge.  Sorry for my absence and the delay with these particular reviews.  On with the show.

My first inclination at opening this is to assume it is going to be much like a strawberry lemonade, particularly from the aroma.   My first sip does not oppose this thesis, it actually reinforces it with quite a lemony kick.  Maybe more like a sour boot heel to the chin.  It leads in briefly with a berry sweetness, then the tartness and lemon-sour attack my flavor-receptors with a combo that lasts.  I thought I might build up an immunity to this, but after a few more mouthfuls, the prognosis was negative. If tastes could hurt you, this would have bruised my tongue.

The strawberry continues to remain evident only at first, but vanishes under a jaw-tightening pucker, being completely overwhelmed by the lemon.  A curious and possible cause for this may be the fact they have used lemon juice, lemon juice concentrate and lemon emulsion, compared with just strawberry puree.  There is also aronia berry (chokeberry) juice, which is naturally astringent.  Even the 28 g of sugar per serving doesn’t tone down the tartness and sourness of this beverage.  I may be stressing this too much.

It is definitely a unique flavor combo, but it was just too much for me.  Even regular strawberry lemonade isn’t even this sour.   I just wasn’t prepared for such a foray into the less forgiving territories of my taste-buds.  I’ve never quite had a drink like this before, but I’m not so sure that I want to try it again.  I never enjoy giving a less than favorable review, but I feel obligated to state my personal experience and opinion.  I can’t write reviews like this, it just isn’t my style.  Others may fully enjoy this beverage, but I had a hard time finishing it.

Score: 2.5 out of 5. A puckering excursion into the sour parts of Strawberry Paradise.

– WiseGuise

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Checkmate.

Welcome, libation-loving boys and girls!  Today I have a fresh pick from Purity.Organic, and this one really is hot off the presses!  Purity just came out with it in the last month or two.  And I’m especially excited (and nervous) for this flavor, because I love Half & Half’s!  (Or Arnold Palmers, as they’re known in my neck of the woods.)  For those of you not in familiar with either term, first of all, shame on you.  Second of all, it is a combination of lemonade and black tea, and when they’re made fresh they are absolutely delicious.  The two flavors are made for each other – the lemonade sweetens the bitter black tea, and the black tea cuts the acidity and intensity of the lemonade.  It’s yin and yang in a bottle!

That’s why I’m a little nervous, though – because it’s in a bottle.  I haven’t had the best experiences with bottled lemonades, so I hope this doesn’t turn out to taste like plastic lemons squeezed into my tea.  I don’t think I should be too worried, though, Purity.Organic did have a solid bottled lemonade flavor.

Let’s get to it!

Fragrance: Mmm-mm, lemony tea!  Smells like sweet, heavy black tea with a little lemon zing.

Flavor: Wow, that hits the spot… it appears that I had no need to worry about this one!  It’s got everything I want in an Arnold Palmer (Half and Half, whatever).  First the lemonade hits you, riding your tongue to a rising wave of  sweetness.  And just when you start to think “wait, is this going to be too sweet?”, the bitter black tea swoops in and calms everything down, leaving a pleasingly deep herbal taste in your mouth.  The flavor balance is perfect, the sweetness level is great, and the flavors themselves taste real and fresh.  This is the perfect summer drink.

The one and only issue that I can find with this beverage is its sugar level.  It has 19 grams per serving, which is so perfectly on the fence between “permissible” and “too much for a full score” that it’s driving me insane.  Coca Cola has about 26 grams per serving, to give you something to contrast it with.

Ultimately though, I think you need that much sugar just due to the nature of this drink.  It is necessary to balance out the two powerhouse flavors, lemon and tea.  I think if they tried to cut any more sugar out, the tea and lemon would quickly be overpowering,  thus ruining the experience of a good Half & Half.  I’ll go with the full five points!

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 - Perfectly sweet, perfectly balanced, and perfectly tasty.

-Danithius-

*****Review Rebuttal!!*****

Both Danithius and I have become enamored with the ‘Arnold Palmer’ beverage, so imagine my excitement when he tossed me one of these.  It leads off with a fruity sweetness for me, and finishes with a nice dry tartness compliments of the black tea.  It has a perfect lemony tea aroma.  I sipped the first half and chugged the rest. Quite pleasing to my palate and thirst. I wonder if I could talk them into sending a couple cases our way?

– WiseGuise

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Hey there, Libationers!  Step right up as I review my final Purity.Organic entry: Cranberry Harmony!  Don’t worry though, WiseGuise still has a couple of flavors to go, and I hear through the grapevine that we may even receive a brand new flavor from Purity!  So if you’re a Purity.Organic fan, there will be more to come!

Fragrance: This smells kind of like a cran-apple drink… probably because it is!  It has a blend of cranberry, apple, and grape juices.  Personally, I’m a cranberry fan, so I hope they didn’t sweeten my favorite tart berry too much!

Flavor: Tart, sweet and fruity!  Nope, I don’t think they sweetened it too much.  The astringent cranberry tartness shines through just fine, with a modest helping of sweetness to serve as a counterweight.  I’m usually wary of drink companies using apple or grape juices as “fillers”, especially when the advertised flavor has neither grape nor apple in it.  I’m wary because a.) it’s a method of cheapening the product, and b.) the grape and apple flavors will inevitably seep into the main flavor profile.

However, cranberry juice is a major exception.  Pure cranberry juice has such an intense flavor that it begs to be tempered with other juices.  And even when you do add another juice, the cranberry flavor will immediately let it know who’s boss, making it slink away into the background with its head hung low.  That’s what’s happening here.  This is cranberry juice first, with a light overtone of grape and apple that you almost have to be looking for to catch.  I can dig that.

Flavor-wise, it’s perfect.  I wouldn’t change a thing.  But one thing I must mention is the sugar content – one serving of this has 25 grams of sugar, which is comparable to Coca-Cola.  Yes, it’s natural sugar from juice, not HFCS.  And yes, as we discussed before it is a lot less sugar than many 100% juices out there.  But it is still a good amount of sugar, so I can’t give it full points.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – for a splendidly tart cranberry cocktail that is made to be sipped.  Just watch the sugar on this, and you’re golden.

-Danithius-

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ImPRESSive?

A telling sign of any good apple juice or cider is its lack of clarity.  This juice is as opaque as they come, with a nice ruddy brown color.  This is a good indication that it is a pure, un-clarified apple juice without any white grape juice mixed in to thin it out and make it clear and pretty.  This is actually pressed in a cider house according to purity.organic, and is labeled as a limited pressing.

Breaking the seal, it smells just like a freshly juices apples, but stronger, as if its been concentrated.  You better believe it tastes like it too.  It is rather sweet, as it is pure, unadulterated apple juice, almost too sweet.  It finishes a bit tart, a nice follow up on the sweetness.  I don’t think I could drink too much of this at once, so it’s probably a good think that the bottle is only 16 oz.  Still, it has 54 grams of sugar, that about equals Coke, without the HFCS, caffeine, and carbonation and other junk.

It tastes great, very apple-y, and it kind of reminds me of those dried apple slices that are so delicious.  As juices go, this ranks right up there with Simply Apple, which has slightly more sugar.  Purity.Organic’s Apple Juice is definitely a much better option than any of the sugar-added juices out there, but if you’re watching your sugar intake it might not be the best choice.  Still, it’s a sweet, tasty treat.

Score: 4 out of 5. A superior though sugary apple rendering.

– WiseGuise

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Ahoy there, all ye sailors drowning in a sea of high fructose corn syrup!  This is Better Libations, the little tugboat that’s going to save your sticky hides.  Every week we bring you drinks that don’t contain HFCS, artificial sweeteners, and diabetes-inducing amounts of sugar.  Or as we like to call them, drinks that probably won’t kill you(tm).  Now buckle up for this week’s entry from purity.Organic, purveyor of organic juice drinks squeezed straight from the farmer’s market.

Fragrance: Today’s flavor is Tropical Bliss, and tropically blissful it doth smell.  You can tell without looking at the ingredient list that pineapple plays a major role in this drink, backed up by hints of kiwi, grape, and mango.

Flavor: Guh!  For some reason, this taste threw me for a loop at first – you do indeed get the pineapple juice flavor coming out strong at first, but it is tempered by the white grape and kiwi in a way that I didn’t expect.  It still tastes “tropical”, but it has a mellow finish that is not usually found in drinks like this.

After several more sips and lengthy contemplation, I have decided that I like this juice, but that initial grape/kiwi/pineapple combo still catches me in an odd way.  It’s hard to explain – it’s like you’re anticipating a tangy citrus rush, and you start to feel it on the tip of your tongue, but then the middle notes are surprisingly alkaline.  All in all, though, it’s a solid drink, with 36% fruit juice and some organic cane juice as the sweeteners.  It contains less sugar than just about any 100% juice, so this could be a good alternative.

A lot of people consider juice to be healthier than soda, but in terms of sugar content, most of the time juice blows soda away!  Try 40 grams per 8-ounce serving, as is the case with many grape juices.  (That said, don’t think you’re being healthy by downing Coca-Cola instead of juice!)  So in my humble opinion, it is best to go with fruit-juice-sweetened drinks like these which aren’t 100%, but still use a significant amount of real juice.  This one clocks in at 23 grams of sugar per 8 ounce serving, which is a little high for my taste, but again, it’s no 40 grams per serving!

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 – for a real organic juice drink with good flavor and reasonable sugar content.  Drink this instead of 100% O.J. in the morning.

-Danithius-

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Fragrance: This smells sweet and tart like a lemonade should.  But wait… do I detect a hint of concentrate-y scent as well?  (You know what I’m talking about… like that concentrate juice that comes in squeezable plastic lemons).  It shouldn’t, because this lemonade doesn’t use concentrated juice – they just pasteurize it.  Hmm…

Taste: It’s sweet… it’s tart… it’s lemony.  There is a big difference when you use not-from-concentrate juice – the lemon flavor is a lot more true-to-life and not so plasticine.  Is it as good as my refrigerated favorite, Simply Lemonade?  ‘Fraid not.  But it’s close.  (And I hate to say that, because Simply Lemonade is owned by Minute Maid, who is owned by Coca-Cola.  The horror.)

Yes, I’m being nitpicky.  But there is a little something of the fresh fruit flavor that I’m missing in Purity.Organic’s entry, something that seems to be preserved by whatever technique Simply Lemonade uses on its juice.  It’s that pungent, fresh citrus edge that is so distinctive with fresh-cut lemons.  Don’t get me wrong, Purity.Organic has a good flavor going here, and the sweet and tart are perfectly balanced.  But I’m looking for something with that last little kick, that citrusy-fresh finish – something that is so hard to find in bottled lemonade.  It’s more of an aroma than a flavor, like the smell of the lemon zest when you first scrape it from the fruit.  Am I making sense, or am I off in my own little foodie world again?

But all nitpicking aside, I have definitely found a new “best” for my (non-refrigerated) bottled lemonade list.  It tastes good.

One other issue.  I know this comes with the territory when you’re making real lemonade, but this guy packs some serious sugar.  Just be aware of it!  And don’t drink it like it’s water.  One 8 oz serving of Purity.Organic’s lemonade contains 30 grams of sugar – this is more sugar per serving than Coca-Cola.  Some of this is balanced out by the fact that they use organic cane and lemon juices, sure, but I can’t give it full points as a “healthy” drink.

So with that in mind, I’m giving this .5 points off for sugar, and .5 off for my flavor nitpickings.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5. Finally, a solid bottled (non-refrigerated) lemonade.

-Danithius-

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Greetings, my liquid-loving brothers and sisters!  Today I have another flavor from Purity.Organic up on the chopping block.  It’s our third and final review from Purity.Organic’s “Functional” category – i.e., lower sugar, lower calorie, Lifewater-esque beverages.  Let’s see how it holds up under the spotlight.

Fragrance: A surprisingly realistic blueberry scent with hints of grape.

Flavor: Wow.  This is downright… pleasant.  The blueberry flavor comes through beautifully, supported by hints of the grape and cane juices.  I can pick up a little bit of pomegranate flavor in the aftertaste as well, but it’s definitely understated.  Most of all, I am impressed by the sweet taste that rides with you from start to finish.  Now given, it is not exactly a miraculous feat for a company to produce a sweet-tasting drink.  However, it is impressive when said company manages to produce a sweet-tasting drink with only 14 grams of sugar per serving (about half the sugar of Coca Cola). And no artificial sweeteners, to boot.  And much of the sugar comes from natural fruit juice from local organic farmers.  Wow.  Seriously, guys, did you guys build this drink specifically for us?

Score: 5.0 out of 5 – It works for me on every level: perfect sweetness, balanced flavor, low sugar, real fruit, organic, and possibly magical.  Seriously, I’m going to order a box of this.

-Danithius-

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