Restore - 2 Reviews

This…€¦smells…€¦weird. It's like unbaked bread and vitamins had a baby that a liquid. Sometimes working your way past a smell can lead to great enjoyment for your other senses though. I woke up this moment feeling like doo-doo for some unknown reason. I was just worn out and achy. One would think I had a hangover, but that certainly wasn't the case. I did some things around the house and still felt like garbage, so I decided to take a nap. Of course it was this time that my sleep paralysis decided to come out for the first time in months (For those of you who don't know it's when you're sleep rhythms mess up and you get stuck between slumber and waking. You are aware of our surroundings and know that you're asleep, but can't move or fully wake up. It's the worst). When I finally convinced my brain to wake up 100% I felt even worse. I was just in a haze. That's when I remembered this was in the fridge. I started drinking it and within 10 minutes I was feeling noticeably better. Not only was my predicament improving but I was also really enjoying the taste, minus the weird smell.

This is carbonated lemonade, if lemonade has made with lemongrass as well as regular old lemons. Now I don't know if there is actually any lemon juice in here, but it certainly tastes like it is. There is also a nice ginger flavor to it, but without any hint of a burn. Around the edges there is some hints of the vitamins and other such things that help with recovery, but they are mainly just hanging around in the background. One thing I need to point out is that this is ridiculously carbonated. If you're entering into a belching competition, it would be wise to slam a can of this right before you go on. Then you'll be burping like an angel. Seriously though, look past the strange scent of this beverage and you may find yourself with a new little friend.

Even though we have reviewed several other Solixir products my brain was convinced that the “No Sugar Added” tag meant that this thing was going to be chock full of stevia. I keep finding myself reviewing drinks that contain stevia, and I've had my fill for a while. It seems like everyone is using it, either on it's own or in conjuncture with cane sugar. I understand it is healthier, but can everyone admit that it has a very distinguishable taste that can be overpowering? It seems like companies are acting like it is completely tasteless…€¦it's not.

I grabbed this, and braced myself for a cool “new-diet” sting that never came. It seems that when Solixer says no sugar added, they mean it. The only sweetener of any kind that can be found in this can is the kind that comes naturally in fruit juice (13g worth for those keeping track at home). I was overjoyed. This was a drink that I wasn't looking forward to at all, and it turns out that I truly enjoy it. It's simply carbonated water, white grape juice, pomegranate juice and a botanical extract blend that contains ginger root, European elderflower, European elderberry, stinging nettle leaf, dandelion root and honeysuckle stem. That is a lot of “unusual” ingredients yet the drink comes off as a very light, slightly fruity ginger ale. It has a slight botanical aftertaste, but it's in a good way, not in a “someone shot me in the mouth with perfume” sort of way. Yes, it tastes a bit watered down, but again it's in a pleasant way. Americans always seem to need strong flavor crammed down their throat, even when that flavor is a pale comparison of what it could taste like. This may have a light flavor, but the flavor that is there is of quality, and I would rather have it than some garbage artificially flavored soda any day.

I would love to try a cane sugar sweetened version of this, but I'm afraid that the sweetness would overpower the botanical flavors and all of it's greatness would be lost.