Alright now boys and girls of the beverage persuasion, here we go with the last Zico Coconut Water review! And just in time too, I was gifted an entire box of drinks perfect for us, and I need to get on those soon.  What would be better after a long day working outside in the heat than an uber-hydrating glass of coconut water?  Not much, and anything else would distract from this review, so forget about it.  This is just what I needed after an afternoon of significant perspiration, and we already know its benefits, but let us see how the ‘natural’ coconut water stacks up against its flavored comrades.

Coconut water has a very peculiar and pleasant scent to it, at once nutty and fresh.  The taste has a similar quality, with the nutty flavor coming through well with the water in its natural state.  There is something else to flavor I can never quite put my finger on, and for those unfamiliar with coconut water, I’m not sure if I can adequately explain it, you must try it.  The sweetness is very light, and as expected, comes naturally from the water itself.  The aftertaste I can only describe as similar to having just eaten a handful of almonds, it has a similar nut-like quality.  This really makes me miss eating fresh, young coconut at my favorite Thai place, a seasonal delight around these landlocked parts.

Overall, for anyone seeking serious hydration and refreshment, but isn’t too preoccupied with counting calories, this is the perfect way to go.  It’s healthy, all natural, and if you recycle the bottle, not a burden on the environment.  These are by far superior to any average sports drink or ‘health water’, and taste better than most.  Still, if you need to spare the calories, stick with water, you can’t go wrong with H2O.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. A hydration master from nature and better for you, even with the sugar.

– WiseGuise

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**Danithius Review Rebuttal!**

I think Zico has a decent coconut water here.  It has the lowest sugar content that I’ve seen in any coconut water so far, so it does win in the health department.  But flavor-wise, it feels like it lacks a certain body that I’ve found in others.  While snooping around online for coconut waters, I found some Zico customer reviews that were lamenting a recent formula change.  I wish I could have tried some of their previous formula to judge for myself!  But nitpicking aside, it is still a great hydrating refresher, so I’d probably give it a 4.0

Perfect for chillin' on the couch

Hello libationers! I’ve been absent for a while, mostly due to my own laziness, but partially due to aiding my girlfriend in her ceaseless endeavor to save every homeless dog in the tri-county area.  Any-who, I’m going to be finishing off this string of Zico reviews, first with a tasty-sounding combination of pomegranate, berry and coconut water.  I’ve been enjoying the last few flavors, but feel slightly guilty not adding my opinion, so enjoy my detailed reviews.

Senses: After finding my way through the maze of packaging that would have impressed Daedalus (look it up, kids), I got to inspect the olfactory complexities of this drink.  The distinct pomegranate scent takes the leading position, followed closely by the nutty coconut scent, and a sweet, tangy but vague background of berry.  Off to my expectant tongue.  The taste strikes me as predominantly coconut, then a slight tang of sour and followed by the pomegranate and a hint of something berry-like.  There is a slight, lingering sweetness, which is surprising with the 12 g of sugar in the 14 oz bottle.  The overall flavor leaves me wanting more pomberry and less coconut.

Sensible: There is a total of 60 calories in the 14 oz bottle, all of them coming from the naturally occurring sugar in the coconut water.  There are five electrolytes inside, including more potassium than a whole banana.  I’m writing this review after a hard day working in the ninety-degree Utah summer, and I feel quite refreshed and hydrated after finishing this.  Reading up on their product, Zico claims that coconut water is the only natural substance that can be used as an emergency intravenous fluid, and from what I’ve gleaned from the Internet, it’s true.

Overall, although it is still a tasty and unique flavored coconut water, this is probably my least favorite flavor from Zico.  I feel it lacked somewhat in the flavor category, and could have easily handled more pomegranate flavor.  That being said, I am biased due to my love of pomegranate juice, and I still enjoyed this beverage.  I will personally continue to support Zico by using their coconut water line as a great recovery drink, and for general re-hydration purposes.  The only other issue I can take with this drink is the excessive packaging, which prohibits a more immediate refreshment, and isn’t particularly environmentally friendly.

Score: 4 out of 5. A superb re-hydration beverage that only lacks a little flavor.

– WiseGuise

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**Danithius Review Rebuttal!**

Took the words right out of my mouth.  Decent flavor, but I think it could be polished up with another trip to the flavor lab.  I want more of a true pomegranate punch with a twist of fresh berry.  I also give this a four.

Howdy, enlightened libation seekers!  Today I’m fresh off a session of Kenpo and ready for my next Zico contender: Tao Mango.  (The logical next step in the tropical fruit spectrum, of course!)  I’m thirsty and covered in sweat, so let’s skip the pleasantries and get right to it.

Aroma: Mango tang!  I love it when drinks nail the nuances of fruit flavors, and it smells like Tao Mango is right on track.  It smells of that citrus-y tropical bite you get when cutting into a real mango.   

Taste: Coco-mango!  The flavor turned out to be a lot lighter and smoother than the scent led me to believe.  I believe the coconut water has something of a muting, smoothing effect on other flavors that results in something totally new. Evidently when mango and coconut water are combined, you get a bonus banana-like flavor that also springs up to say hi.  I am surprised that the distinct mango tang that I smelled turned out to be mostly absent in the taste, though.

Health Factor: 12 g of sugar in the whole 14 ounce bottle.  Tons of potassium and other vitamins and minerals.  All-natural.  No fat.  Need I say more? 

Overall:  As you may have noticed from previous nitpickings, I’m something of a purist when it comes to drink flavorings.  I dearly appreciate companies that can get spot on flavor profiles.  This flavor is a worthy nod to mango, but at the same time I can tell that it is indeed a flavoring – something that was concocted by a research lab somewhere.  It feels a bit hollow, like it’s missing that distinct bite of a real mango.  It’s still tasty and quite refreshing, don’t get me wrong.  The flavorings in this are all natural.  But the thing is, for a perfect 5 star drink I really want to be WOWed by the flavor profile.  (See: Zico Chocolate)

Rating: 4.0 out of 5

-Danithius-

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Ahh, pineapple and coconut.  One of the tastiest flavor combinations to come out of the tropics.  (And responsible for the inebriation of countless sorority girls across the country).

Aroma: The second I crack open the seal, I’m greeted by a distinctive citrus-y pineapple tang.  The pineapple scent seems to be right on target – I hope this carries through to the actual taste!

Taste: The sweet tang of pineapple (and possibly a little mango or citrus) does indeed take center stage in this drink.  It tastes light and almost a little creamy.  At first I was concerned that the pineapple would overpower the rather delicate flavor of the coconut water (which has a much lighter flavor than cream of coconut), but it seems to balance out just fine here.  Sweet pineapple-citrus up front, and slightly nutty coconut on the back end. 

Health Factor: Like all its coconutty siblings, Pina Tropicale pulls off an amazing level of sweetness with only 12 grams of sugar in the entire 14-ounce bottle.  Part of this is simply because of the nature of coconut water – it always seems to deliver a big sweetness punch without a lot of sugar.  But out of everything I’ve tried so far, Zico ranks the lowest in total sugar grams per ounce.  That’s quite the accomplishment!

Overall: While deciding my final rating, I had to think long and hard about the flavoring of this drink.  I could nitpick about wanting a slightly sharper, fresher pineapple flavor from it.  I felt like it could be a little more full-bodied.  But after pondering it for a while, I concluded that it is meant to be a light, refreshing sports drink, and it does has a wonderful flavor for that.  And like the other flavors, it kept me coming back for more until the entire bottle disappeared with alarming speed.  I’m taking it for what it is – a light, tasty, and very refreshing sports drink.

Rating: 5.0 out of 5

-Danithius-

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My workout program continues, and so does my quest to find tasty, effective hydration.  Today I’m fresh off a Yoga session and ready to give Zico’s Lima Citron flavor a shot.

Hmmm, lime and coconut huh?  (Must… not… quote… Harry Nilsson coconut song)

Aroma: I take a whiff from the bottle, and the first thing that jumps to my head is a lime otter pop.  (Or whatever the preferred tube-shaped frozen refreshment is in your area).  I can detect a limey tang set against a mildly sweet background of coconut water.  In the past I have noticed that coconut water really doesn’t smell much like “coconut” at all – it’s more of a sweet-yet-muted slightly tropical scent.   

Taste: Light sweetness, light tang, and an ever-so-slight sense of creaminess combine to form a surprisingly refreshing, full beverage.  It goes down supremely easy, and it has that addicting quality that I’ve found in other coconut waters.  I think it’s because of the light, mild, yet intriguing flavor.  It doesn’t leave much of an aftertaste, so as soon as you swallow one mouthful you want to go right back in for more.

The lime flavoring that Zico uses here is well-balanced with the rest of the drink, so I can’t take much issue with it.  But it does lack that trademark fresh citrus bite that a real slice of lime would have.  Now I’m wishing that I hadn’t finished off the whole bottle!  Just for fun, I’d like to mix up my own mad concoction of Zico and real lime to see how much of a kick this drink can handle.

Health Factor: Like its siblings, Lima Citron has very low sugar – it clocks in at 12 grams for the entire 14 ounce bottle.  (And that’s not added sugar, either, that’s straight from the coconut water.)  Let’s put that in perspective for you:  You could drink three 14-ounce bottles of Zico and you’d still be three grams shy of the sugar content in just one 12-ounce can of Coke.  And unline Coke, you’ll also find plenty of potassium and other vitamins and minerals in your coconut water.  Is that enough reason for you?

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – for a refreshing twist on putting the lime in de coconut… (dammit, I was so close)

-Danithius-

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Hola Libationaros!  Today I’m pleased to kick off another multi-flavor review run – this time for Zico Coconut Water.  Recently I became addicted to coconut water both because of its taste and its natural hydration properties.  Due to a particularly intense workout program that WiseGuise talked me into, I’ve been exercising six days a week at an intensity level that usually has me drenched in sweat by the time it’s over.  (And thus in dire need of good hydration).  So, it was almost too perfect when Zico offered to send some of their new flavors to us for review.  I searched my living room for listening devices, but found nothing.  Yet.

As I write this, I’ve just finished with an intense Yoga session (don’t laugh – this yoga will CRUSH YOU), so I’m ready for some serious hydration.  I have a lot of flavors to choose from here, but it so happens that a total fitness-buff friend advised me that chocolate milk is a great post-workout recovery drink.  And I just happen to have a bottle of chocolate coconut water right here!

Aroma: Off goes the plastic wrapping, off goes the screw-on top, and off goes the inner seal.  (Wow, I’ve seen band-aid packages that take fewer precautions than this).  Now we get to the good stuff – a rich, fudgy scent that reminds me of a cross between a dark chocolate truffle and… let’s say Cocoa Puffs. 

Taste: This is not my usual experience with coconut water.  They have somehow made this light, mellow juice into a thick, rich chocolate experience.  And yet… as I drink more, I find that it goes down just as easily as the regular stuff, leaving me feeling refreshed and revitalized.  As a matter of fact, despite the differences I’m finding this flavor just as addicting as I found straight-up coconut water.  I just want to drink more and more and… oops, it’s gone. 

Health Factor: I am always impressed with coconut water’s ability to achieve perfect sweetness with so little sugar, and this is no exception.  18 little grams manage to sweeten the whole 14 ounce bottle, and it doesn’t lack for anything.  On the other hand, pretty much every chocolate milk that I can find (even in health food stores) packs a sugary wallop of 25-30 grams per cup. (A cup is 8 ounces, for the record).

This coconut water also packs a nice amount of vitamins/minerals such as potassium, calcium, vitamin A, iron, phosphorus, and magnesium.  One bottle has just over 100 calories and only 2 grams of fat.  I’d take this over chocolate milk any day!

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 – A chocolate sports drink?  A chocolate sports drink??  Your prayers have been answered.  (Hell, screw sports, I’d drink this any time).

-Danithius-

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Honest Ade in its natural element - bright friggin' desert sunshine

Hey there, Libation-loving boys and girls!  Today I’m taking advantage of the season by imbibing this new drink from Honest Ade: zero calorie lemonade!  A perfect entry for mid-July.  But don’t think that being a timely flavor is enough to get a free pass from me – regular readers will know that I’ve had many a bone to pick with bottled lemonades in the past.  In particular, anything with a “plastic lemon” concentrate-y flavor will lose big points with me.

Honest’s flavors have always been solid in the past, but this one might be a tall order.  On top of the plastic lemon problem, they only use stevia to sweeten things up.  I admire this from a health standpoint, but lemonade is a drink that traditionally requires massive amounts of sweet real sugar in order to counter the tart lemon.  I dearly want them to pull this off, but my common sense tells me not to get my hopes up…

Enough deliberation, let’s see what they’ve delivered!

Aroma: The lemon juice concentrate and extracts make for a light, pleasing lemon-fresh scent.  It does have a slight concentrate-y dullness to it, though.  It smells like a lemon, but like all bottled lemonades I’ve tried, it lacks that burst of citrus freshness that you smell right when you cut into the real thing.  (First lemonade to pull that off will get a gold star from me.)

Taste: This one’s a poser.  The stevia provides a balanced sense of sweetness that is equal to the tart, astringent lemon taste.  But if you’re familiar with stevia-sweetened drinks, you know that the sense of sweetness comes out more in the aftertaste, a second or two after it hits your tongue.  Which means that you have to take the leap of faith through tart lemon-town before you can discover sweet relief.  This becomes less pronounced as you keep drinking, though, because the sweet stevia taste lingers longer than normal sugar.  Unless you’re one of those who really babies your beverages, the sweetness will still be hanging around from the last drink by the time you go back for more.

So what of the plastic lemon dilemma?  While the taste is very light, the juice in this is indeed from concentrate, and I can taste it.  It’s definitely not as bad as some, but it’s still there.

Overall, the core lemon flavor is pleasing and the light sweetness is enough to refresh, but the concentrate tinge and astringent dryness knock off a couple points.

Health Factor: Honest Tea earns some extra points from me just for the sheer audacity of producing a stevia-sweetened lemonade.  You know they’re serious about their beverage-healthification quest when they attempt to storm the sugary bastion of the lemonade market!  (I know there are at least a couple of “light” or “diet” lemonade options  out there from the big boys, but I surely wouldn’t touch any of them with a ten foot pole.)  Kudos, Honest. 

Overall Rating: 4.0 out of 5 – for an audaciously healthy lemonade.

-Danithius-

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I'm ready for my closeup...

This infusion comes from the good people at Honest, whom we have come to adore over the years for their healthy, tasty drinks.  This line came out of the blue for me, Danithius was apparently more on the up-and-up with things going on in the world of cacao.  Cherry and chocolate is one of those beloved flavor combinations that conjure childhood memories of eating chocolate cherries until you get sick.  But this tandem of tastes goes well beyond that.  The two are sensually-charged alone, together they create something akin to a ‘flavor explosion’, but less overdone and cliche.

With all the cocoa sediment, this one really needs a good shake.  After a twist of the ‘organic’-emblazoned lid, I get the first lusty aromatic experience.  The cherry cacao scent is strong with this one, at once sharp, sweet and earthy.  A smokey scent is present, but just a hint.  The taste is sweet with a hint of the cherry tartness, and a smooth background flavor of the cacao and chickory.  One might expect this to be thick and creamy, like a chocolate milk, but it has no milk products in it.  It still has a creamy quality to it, with a smokey hint from the roasted ingredients.

It’s like eating chocolate dipped cherries in front of a fire on a moonlit night–inside of a bottle.  Only fifty calories, delicious, a sensory overload and organic/fair trade?  Yeah, that will pass our guidelines.  If this came by the quart, I would chug it straight from the bottle.  Beware chocolate lovers and those with experienced palates, this one will draw you in and leave you wanting more, like a low-calorie, amazing one-night stand.

Score: 5 out of 5. Not your average chocolate beverage, but far above average; and not bad for you.

– WiseGuise

** Danithius Review Rebuttal **

Cherry is the PERFECT flavor to round out Honest Tea’s cacao-drink trio.  The spot-on sweet cherry flavor in this bottle dances beautifully with the cocoa and roasted chicory essences.  This is the perfect flavor to introduce you to the CocoaNova line; it has the familiarity of a cherry cordial and yet feels somehow exotic as you explore the roasty richness of Honest’s cocoa blend.  Another 5.0 in my book!

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Today it’s time to tackle another cacao-infused entry from Honest Tea.  I was a big fan of the Mint Cacao flavor, and I’m anxious to see how the mocha entry measures up.  I’m definitely down with coffee/cocoa combinations, though.  Really, the two flavors are practically made for each other.  The beans themselves go through a very similar process – coffee and cacao beans are both fermented, dried, and roasted in order to yield the tasty, tasty products we all know and love.  (OK, not all coffee beans are fermented.  But typically the good ones are).

Aroma: I shake up the bottle and pop the top.  The deep, heady aroma of melted dark chocolate wafts up to my nose, enticing me to take a sip right away.  I have to restrain myself in order to take another whiff, and this time I can detect the roasted coffee scent mingling pleasantly with the chocolate.   OK, enough smelling!

Taste: There are so many flavors swirling around in this drink.  It does indeed taste chocolatey, but similar to the Mint Cacao flavor, the chocolate in this a raw edge to it.  A tang, a little bite, a tinge of brightness.  That tang actually helps drive the sense of sweetness for the whole drink, aided by a little bit of organic cane sugar.  The full roasty flavor from the coffee, cocoa, and roasted chicory stays with you as the sweetness fades, leaving a warm depth of flavor to keep your tongue company.  I said before that I found my new morning drink of choice in the Mint Cacao flavor, but I’m taking that back.  This is my new morning drink of choice!  (The mint will now be my afternoon refresher of choice).  I don’t think it’s even possible to produce a more perfect morning beverage.  Until they invent a method for juicing rainbows. 

Health Factor: It still amazes me that Honest manages to get such sweetly balanced flavors out of so little sugar.  This 10 ounce bottle packs a mere 13 grams of sugar, and yet it lacks nothing for sweetness.  It has a total calorie count of 50. It passes every BL health-test that we can throw at it with flying colors. 

Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5

-Danithius-

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Honest Tea, Ancient Mayan-Style

Hey there, fellow libation-liberation fighters!  Recently WiseGuise and I were almost giddy to find out that Honest Tea has started producing a cacao-based beverage.  No, not like a hot cocoa or a Yoo-hoo kind of deal.  This is OLD-school chocolate, the way it used to be quaffed by the ancient Mayans!

My ears have been abuzz recently with news about several companies that are putting cacao beans through a process similar to coffee beans, roasting and brewing them to create delicious and healthy choco-drinks.  I’m excited to finally dig into one!

Aroma: I shake up the bottle, pop the top, and inhale deeply.  Fresh mint and sweet chocolate are the first scents to greet me, and as I investigate further I can detect traces of the roast.  It doesn’t smell as deeply-sweet as a normal chocolate drink – it smells more fresh and slightly tangy, like a raw drink as opposed to a refined, sugary one.

Taste: Now that is something.  It is somewhere in the land between a chocolate drink, tea, and coffee.  The warm roasty flavors of the cocoa and chicory root are countered superbly by the cooling peppermint.  This drink has plenty of body and is sweetened juuuust right – definitely one of Honest Tea’s talents.  But don’t go in expecting the creamy-sweet mouthfeel that refined chocolate drinks have.  This is more of a flavorful tonic that could very well replace your daily coffee or tea if you had such a mind. 

Health Factor: This is a great way to access a lot of the antioxidant powers of dark chocolate without OD’ing on sugar.  One bottle of Honest CocoaNova has all the right measurements: 10.1 total ounces, 13 grams of sugar, and 50 calories!  And it’s all organic and fair-trade to boot.  This is the natural, healthful direction that I’d like to see all beverages strive towards. 

Rating:  5.0 out of 5 – I think I found my new morning drink of choice. 

-Danithius-

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