Organic (58 reviews)
Nature's Promise Organic Oolong Tea With Lemon Chamomile
Can Nature promise me that all of this dumb snow will be gone by the next time I look out the window. I know I live in Buffalo and I should be used to it. I am, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I could move out of Buffalo, but that’s where I keep all my stuff. What would I do with all my stuff? STUFF!!!???
Now that I’ve worked myself up into a tizzy I should probably drink this tea, as it has chamomile in it and it will help calm down my winter rage. First and foremost this tea has a strong oolong taste to it. Like yerba mate, oolong has a very distinct taste. It also looks dumb written out, as no words should start with two Os. So there you have it. This is a very strong, natural tasting tea. It has some lemon in it, but not in the cleaning spray way. It just helps the tea flavor shine instead of trying to run the show. That is the way lemon should behave. Know your place lemons! If children should be seen and not heard then lemons should be noticed, but not overbearing. Actually nothing in the world should be overbearing…well except bears. They can do whatever they want.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 12/31/2012
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365 Organic Mint Green Tea
We in Buffalo do not have a Whole Foods. It has something with us having a rival grocery store and fifty miles and something. Not too far out in Ontario, Canada there is one. Jay, Jay's old lady, and myself went there and did some damage. We bought a lot of things that you can only get at Whole Foods but nothing that you can get only at a Canadian Whole Foods. I think they stock what they stock regardless of country. This 365 seems like it's an "in house" brand. What does it taste like? A little like minty pool water if you ask my coworker, Dan. Do I agree? Mostly. It's a lightly sweetened green tea with little bite and a little, good amount of mint, but somewhere in that mix, it certainly does have a bit of a "minty plastic" taste. I drank the whole thing, so I must have gotten over it, but it was just "alright." Would I drink it again? Eh, probably not. I'm not really moved one way or the other with this guy. I thought it would be good, and it wasn't awful, but it might have stumped my taste buds into making a decision. That could be the worst rating of all; one that is just...there. It's like that cat that just appears when you try to leave for work and you would normally give it a cliché saucer of milk but you've got a big meeting with the Johnson firm today and you can't be late. Those eyes...dead inside, just staring at you. Where did that cat come from? It makes no noise but is just...there...being there.
- Website
- http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 12/14/2012
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Blue Sky Organic Orange Divine
Last night was the US Presidential Election, and Barack Obama will be our president again for the next four years. I was half-heartedly watching the election coverage on my laptop as I read last night. Watching states turn blue was a treat. I was waiting for the swing states to switch over (mostly Ohio, Florida and Virginia). I had decided that when Florida went blue I would celebrate with a nice orange soda to pay my respects to the people in that state who made the right decision. Time went by and Florida stayed grey. I got to thinking about that orange pop and I really wanted it. In my head I justified that by drinking it I would help usher on the counting of the votes. I think I messed things up guys. Luckily other parts of the country picked up the slack and the blue won, but I’m pretty sure the fact that I picked such a lack luster soda was what delayed the count (it’s 11am now and it still isn’t done).
Blue sky was one of the first organic sodas that I remember seeing on the market. In 2000 or so I remember going to the local health food store to get a nice seitan sandwich and I grabbed my first can of Blue Sky (not Orange Divine). I remember thinking it was good, but nothing spectacular. That’s fine, not everything needs to be over the top. I thought I knew what I was getting into with this can. It has natural orange flavor in it, so I was expecting it to be a lesser tasting/more sweetened Orangina. I ended up getting something that was between a sparkling orange juice and your everyday orange soda, except it had been filtered through the general taste of a health food store. Something was definitely off about it. It tasted as if it had been lightly spiced for some unknown reason. There is nothing listed in the ingredient list that should give it such a flavor, so I’m stumped.
Again, I apologize to the folks of Florida for delaying the count of their votes. If I had chosen a better orange soda I bet this would be all wrapped up.
- Website
- http://www.blueskysoda.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Juice
- Categories
- Soda Pop
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 11/7/2012
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Kiju Organic Mango Orange
Is it wrong of me to assume that when something is organic that it is just going to be solely what it is labeled as? I feel like ten years back that was the case, but not so much these days. I wanted there to be nothing in this bottle except for juices that came from mangos and oranges. Oh it would have been so delicious, perhaps a perfect drink. That is not what I received. While it still is better than 90% of the juices available to the world, there are other elements at work in this beverage that lessen its quality. Sure there are orange and mango juice in here, but right along side them, and in greater quantity according to the ingredient list, are their friends apple and grape. It’s like orange and orange arranged this wonderful little get away together and then their two overbearing friends invited themselves along and rearranged the entire trip to suit their own needs. Jerks. What would have been the vacation of a lifetime ends up being more of an apple juice that is orange and mango flavored (grape got food poisoning and spent the weekend in bed). As I said I do really enjoy the drink a lot, and it’s fairly unique tasting, but it’s not what I was expecting, nor what I really wanted. Knowing what it is I think I would enjoy it a lot more in the future.
- Website
- http://www.kiju.ca/
- Country
- Canada
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Categories
- Juice
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 11/4/2012
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Aloic Organic Original
Summer is depressingly over. If you live where I live, you can essentially kiss the sun goodbye (great album name that is available with credit given to me) for the next six months. These are things we deal with on the East Coast. Oh it's bright and you still need sunglasses but you can't see the sun and need twelve jackets to fight the ice age that is northeast winters. It's fine. It's really no big deal.
Why do I bring up the sun and a paragraph of nothing before I review a drink? Well for two reasons mostly. Number one is that I'm trying to create a picture and a scene and number two is that we are terrible at writing drink reviews. You can't really say otherwise and if you do, well, thanks. You're too kind. Wrong, but kind. We're narrative masterminds but we are not product reviews.
So aloe is used to cure us from the sun's lashings upon our fair skin. Human skin was made for holding in our muscles, guts, and organs. "Guts" might be slang for organs so I might have just said the same thing twice but I didn't want to leave anyone out. Now that the sun isn't out we can't get burnt, the role of aloe turns from topical to internal usage. That's right. Aloe drinks are winter drinks to prep our skin from the inside out to prepare it for the emergence of the sun come April. What better way to do it that with the help of Aloic? It's not overly sweet, still has a ton of chunks, and that grapy taste that anyone who likes grape juice or has drank an aloe drink in the past loves. The sweetness part is the item that gets my love. That is a problem I have with a lot of aloe drinks is that they are too sweet. Good, but too sweet. This solves that problem in a delicious, chunky way.
I can feel my skin tightening and toughening up as I drink this. Every sip is one more day I don't have to wear sunscreen, a safari hat, and pants in the summer to protect me from that jerk sun. I appreciate all that you do what with annually burning my lawn and killing my flowers with your relentless rays, but sometimes you can be a real turd. Just tone it down a little bit. Go hide behind the clouds and read a nudie mag or something so we can stop fertilizing and melting.
- Website
- http://www.aloic.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Aloe Vera
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 10/19/2012
- Comments
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Blue Sky Organic Ginger Ale
A little bite and a genuine ginger taste: this is the model right here, ladies and gentlemen. If this had been labeled a "ginger beer" I would have been upset that there wasn't enough bite. I have had ginger beers that taste like this, which is disappointing. This little guy packs a punch for a ginger ale. One word ruins a drink. Let it be known. It's all about expectations. I drank the Jamaican Ginger Ale and now I don't remember if there was a difference between the two.
This was probably one of the best ginger ales I have ever had. That's a thing to be said. Now, when people say to me, "Mike, you look great today. What is the best ginger ale you've ever had? I'm nauseous from being on this giant yacht of yours with real gold lions scattered throughout." I will say, "It happens, man. When you go out on a gigantic yacht that you can call your own you get used to it. One of my favorite ginger ales that you can get most places is Blue Sky ginger ale. Also, did you know that those giant gold lions have candy in their mouth? Reach on in and get a Fun Size Kit Kat. Don't puke on my boat."
- Website
- http://www.blueskysoda.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Juice
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 10/3/2012
- Comments
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Nature's Promise Organic Red Tea With Mango Mandarin
One good thing about Mother Nature is that she always keeps her word. When she makes a promise you know she’ll follow through. Don’t listen to what those meteorologists say; they don’t have a direct line to Mrs. Nature and are full of lies. I would say that next time you want to go to the beach or on a picnic to give her a call yourself, but her number is unlisted and I don’t really feel comfortable giving it out to people. I don’t want to annoy her at all.
I was talking to Mother Nature just the other day and she made a promise to me that this tea would be totally organic and totally awesome. Of course that wasn’t a lie and this tea is amazing. It’s semi-sweet, which is how I’ve grown to love my tea. You don’t feel like you’re drinking liquid sugar, but you also aren’t just drinking a whole bunch of bitter either. It’s made with red tea; a nice change up from the normal black and green varieties. Also, while there is no juice in this bottle the mango and mandarin flavors are there just enough to make this a flavorful tea without taking away from the taste of the tea itself. I could drink this stuff by the gallon, and I would if Mother Nature hadn’t told me that it would be a bad idea. As we’ve learned she doesn’t lie and is never wrong, so I’ll stick to my 16oz bottle.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 9/20/2012
- Comments
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Santa Cruz Organic Orange Mango
You put the orange in the mango and you drink them both up…wait…that’s not right. Oh well they are already mixed together so I might as well go with it. I mean I already checked out and the cashier gave me the weirdest look because I was singing. I didn’t really want anything coconut flavored anyways.
Okay, now that I’ve tried this I’m pretty happy that I messed up. It tastes like tiny mandarin oranges were juiced and then filtered through some mango puree. The flavor starts off completely orange and by the time the aftertaste has faded away it had gotten to a point of pure mango. Somewhere in the middle it tastes like someone spritzed in a little lemon juice, you know the way you add limejuice to guacamole so it doesn’t turn brown. No one wants their sparkling juice to turn brown, so make sure you add a little lemon.
As an after thought what the heck was Harry Nilsson talking about? Who wants to have lime and coconut mixed together? It just seems like it would curdle and that is way gross.
- Website
- http://www.scojuice.com/
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Sweetener
- Organic Evaporated Cane Juice
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 8/31/2012
- Comments
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Nature's Promise Organic White Tea with Raspberry
Nature's promise is to fill your body with vitamins and minerals that come from nature. Nature does a good job making food and drink. As a matter of fact, it probably does the best job. Technology makes food maybe bigger and faster but that doesn't necessarily make it better as much as it makes it convenient. When nature says something, it means it. Nature doesn't lie. People lie and blame it on nature. Things like "100% Natural" means that it comes completely from nature and that, in my experience, is about five out of ten times true. That's 50% lies. Nature never lies, once again.
When nature wasn't lying, they teamed up with a company that used that phrase as their titular line and made a delicious drink. It's a raspberry white tea. It's not bitter, has a pretty great raspberry taste, and is lightly sweetened. The latter has the keys to my heart because it's an actual relief when something isn't just chocked full of sugar.
Here is where the vegans, namaste-ans, and hipster vegans have a point in that they believe in things that come from the earth and don't really subscribe to things that are "manufactured" and artificial. You guys. You guys and your dreadlocks, fixed gear bikes, patch'd jackets, and 80's secretary glasses. You guys have a point. You have a point about nutrition. Only. Exclusively. Just nutrition. Knock it off with the rest of that nonsense. You girls are wasting your prime years looking like my Jewish Aunt did in 1986.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 8/27/2012
- Comments
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Columbia Gorge Organic Vitasea
I am under the impression that all green "super food" drinks are delicious. Everyone I’ve ever tried is good and filling and full of lots of stuff that's good for you. I don't like to drink them on a regular basis because they are very thick. I'd say once a month or every other month I pass the juice cooler at Whole Foods or New Seasons and think "I really need a drink that is good for me for a change". I don't even want to know what all the soda I drink has done to my insides.
This particular green drink has lots of delicious green vegetables that read like the worlds most delicious seaweed salad. Mmmm, now I want sushi. Anyways, there's also a bunch of fruit purees in here that make it sweet so it's not just a liquid salad. Columbia Gorge (or as we call it in Portland, CoGo) succeeds in making another delicious drink.
Speaking of CoGo, it's a bummer for the rest of the USA that they don't have a large distribution. Here in Portland they are in every store right next to Odwalla and Naked (they are basically competitors with them if you will). You know what? Columbia Gorge makes WAAAAAY better drinks than the other two.
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Categories
- Juice
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 8/15/2012
- Comments
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