I don't know where I got this. I know why I got it, though. Answer; because it was there. This is not a fantastic representation of mocha cappuccino. I promise to you that if you're looking for a "quality" drink, you won't find it constrained within the glass walls of this bottle. It's terrible fake tasting like they had some chocolate milk, cut it in half, poured bad instant, powder mocha cappuccino into to it, skipped all the "red tape" one would need to put out something legit and pushed it right to market. I probably got this on sale. The same people also make these chocolate milks that just tasted unpure.

Look. I enjoy a nice, sweet garbage drink. Give me a Nesquik in those gargantuan thirty-two ounce bottles and I will use all the strength inside of me to not Gregory House the whole thing. This is half that size and I'm going to probably have no choice but to dump half of that. Strong percentages. Weak drink. I don't know why a company called "North American Beverage" would market a drink called Havana. I do appreciate, slightly, that illustration of the most 80's bottle I've ever seen. It looks like it should be on the wall of a victim's house in Miami Vice. I felt like I should have been wearing a Panama hat and a Panama Jack shirt that I would have had to scour multiple Salvation Army's to find just to fully appreciate this drink. Since I'm wearing a fifteen-year-old hoodie that is ill fitting, this drink did not deliver.

I have mixed feelings about the Fall. On one hand it's awesome because the it's "jacket weather," being out doors is great, everything smells great and it's cider season. On the other hand it means that winter is coming soon and every year around this time I get sick without fail. It's never incredibly sick, but enough to annoy the hell out of me. That is where I am now; annoyed, stuffed up and achy.

To combat this illness I've been downing mass amounts of juice. For today's selection I went with Earth Wise's Harvest Select. It is harvest time after all. This is apple, tangerine, pineapple and carrot juice mixed together. It's strange how that one vegetable (which is at the bottom of the ingredients list) can effect a drink so much. This would be a "fun time" fruit punch, but the carrot definitely takes it in a different direction and makes it a nice Autumnal drink. It doesn't tastes like you're eating a bunch of carrots, but you can tell that there is a non-sweet juice in the mix. It's a nice twist on what would have been a fairly common juice.

Get healthy, and get out outside to enjoy the season before the snow comes and you're stuck indoors hating life for months.

"Energy and persistence alter all things" - Benjamin Franklin

This is the quote on the back of the can. It really sets the tone for this drink because Benjamin Franklin is probably one of the last people I think of when talking about energy drinks. The only person that probably beats him is Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Have you ever seen a picture of him? Not exactly what I think of when I think "energy drink".

Upon first sip of this over breakfast this morning, I audibly said "what the hell is that!?" My housemate laughed but refused to try it because he hates energy drinks. I'm half way through the can and I still can't put my finger on what is making this taste so gross. It's like they took the generic Red Bull clone energy drink taste and thought "this tastes too good, let's make it more gross so we'll end up discontinuing the flavor and people can buy it for 60 cents a can at Big Lots". If someone has this internal memo from Relentless, I'd love to see it to confirm my suspicions.

While stuck in a desert, you reach your hand in your pocket. You pull out a pocket full of sand. You don't know what you should have expected. You've been out here with your camel for going on four days. Four long, hot, sweaty, sandy days. You have already lost ten pounds putting yourself at your "target weight" but it doesn't really matter because working out is what you wanted to do to lose the weight, not starve yourself. Sure, you ate that bird, but it wasn't great and you didn't have the proper spices and herbs to really make it a nice meal. You look at your camel and you see a rib eye steak with your camel's head in the hole, like in cartoons. You would never eat Jerome, but you would think about it, a lot.

You just endlessly climb hills of sand only to uncover more hills of sand. All of a sudden, you reach the peak of another sand hill and look down to see someone else. "Help!" you exclaim as you tumble and slide down the side of the hill. On closer inspection, that dude is fat. He tells you that he is just looking for a nice, flat place for a picnic for one. You walk with him, confused as to why someone would travel all this way for a picnic for yourself when you know for a fact that the country you are in has picnic tables and out here blows. The fat man sits down, lays out a blanket, takes out a three tier candlestick, four sandwiches, two bottles of Jarritos lime pop, a box of Nutter Butters, and half a watermelon. He takes several bites out of the first sandwich and looks at you, looking like garbage, and he says that you may sit down and join him. You sit; grab a sandwich, slice of watermelon, and bottle of pop. Why no Nutter Butters? Because it's 122 degrees in the desert and that chocolate has long melted.

You take a sip of the pop and are almost instantly relieved. All those days in the desert were erased and your camel finally doesn't look like a piece of meat anymore. Good old Jerome. You've have lime pop before, but this is so subtle, that it's actually quenching and not overly sour or bold like you were frightened it would have been. Just because you were starving, doesn't mean that you don't have taste buds.

You finish up, help the man clean up, and he offers to walk you back to the city. You walk over one hill and notice that you've just been going around in circles for four days. You feel stupid but now you can feel good about losing all that weight and having a sensible lunch.

You with the aluminum can
don't be discouraged
oh I realize
it's hard to stand out
in a world full energy drinks
you can lose sight of it all
and the taste inside you
can make you seem so bland

But I see your true colors
shining through
I see your true colors
and that's why no one loves you
so be afraid to let them show
your true colors
true colors are generic
like a Red Bull

Show me a can then
don't be unhappy, can't remember
when I last saw you tasting 'original'
if this world makes you thirsty
and you've drank all you can bear
you call me up
because you know I'll be there

And I'll see your true colors
shining through
I see your true colors
and that's why no one loves you
so be afraid to let them show
your true colors
true colors are generic
like a Red Bull

Today R.E.M. announced that they were no longer a band. For most people that probably means very little. I'm sure a lot of people probably thought they broke up years ago. To me it's a major upset. They are and have been my favorite band for the last 25 years or so of my life. With the exception of an album and a half, their catalog is solid. This year's Collapse Into Now is one of the best records I've heard in years. They were the best live band I've ever witnessed and at one show Michael Stipe even threw me the microphone to sing the end of "It's the End of the World." I met bassist Mike Mills a couple years ago in Athens while I was touring through. He was one of the nicest people I've ever met. I just meant to say hello and tell him he was the reason I play bass now, but he engaged me in conversation for a while. The band has been with me throughout the highs and lows of my life and I will always hold them dear.

To celebrate this band/mourn their death I decided to review a southern sweet tea. Something that the folks of Athens, GA would sip on their front porches on a hot summer day. Okay they probably brew their own, and probably never think to buy this product, but it was the only sweet tea I had on hand. It does taste fairly authentic. It's made with cane sugar and you can totally tell. It's very sweet, but it actually tastes like tea and not sugar water. Bravo on the product.

Now onto the packaging. Really? Is Larry Johnson relevant at all anymore? The grandmamma character is from
Converse commercials that came out in the early 90's. I will be the first to admit that those commercials were awesome, and this would have made sense 15 years ago, but now would people even remember it by name? A gimmick that is out of date, but a product that is great. Now I'm going to go and listen to the entire R.E.M. catalog in chronological order.

You know, this is a good cola. It's good because I've spent the last twenty years drinking "common" colas. The Netherlands have stepped it up a notch and have released this 100% organic cola and although other companies have done it, this tastes different. Coloring is done by organic caramel and there is natural citrus for bonus flavoring. Who doesn't want anything bonus in life? I know who does and thinks you do; the Dutch. Them and their wooden shoes, which according to a recent episode of Globetrekkers, they still make and wear. No, not everyone, but some. The citrus adds a nice touch and you can tell in every sip that it's there. It's welcome, too.

One thing is that they have gone to the nines with greenness and organics and have used about as little plastic on the bottle as possible, leaving in your hand, a dangerous and almost inevitable spilling container if you're not careful. It really likes to give, like those new water bottles, which, in itself, even the best water bottle is terrible for the environment since you can get water everywhere. So, if you want a great, natural tasting cola that, for some reason, they call "sparkling cola" when it is just pop, and you enjoy change in your classics, and have great control of your hands, this is the drink for you.

I've become pretty tolerant of energy shots in the past couple years. I don't feel like going back through all my reviews, but I'm guessing I've tried at least two-dozen different brands and flavors. Obviously some are better than others, but for the most part they are gross.

I found this one at the Dollar Store and I now know why. It has a gross chalky berry flavor that is just not appealing to me. Xtra Energy? More like Xtra gross.

Sour apple is played out. It always gets old quickly, is too sweet, or both. Usually both. Typically both. Fuhrman's decided to switch it up, keep the color, and change the flavor. It doesn't have that cheek puckering quality of a sour apple and although still very "candy" it's a nice change to what the kid in you is used to.

This is a small company in Pennsylvania and is mostly an apple orchard. One would hope and some of those people would assume that some of the apple goodness that are handpicked or machine picked end up in this drink, but part of me thinks that it's predominantly artificial. It doesn't make me sad as much as it makes me hopeful for the day when an apple orchard makes their own pop. Oh man, just the thought of that makes my mouth water.

Sometimes I feel like I need to go to a S.S.A. meeting (no that has nothing to do with the Nazi SS, I'm not a scumbag). I would walk right up to that podium and say, "Hi, my name is Jason, and I'm a soda snob." I would then talk about how I bashed some sub-par soda or another on this site just because it wasn't as good as some crazy specialty pop I had drank at some point months ago. I'm using the restraint I learned at these completely made up meetings in reviewing this soda.

I would like to start by saying that had I found and drank this pop in the time before Thirsty Dudes ruled my life I would have absolutely loved it. The thing is that in the past year or so I have had the pleasure of tasting some of the best ginger beers this world has to offer. At this point a normal ginger beer just seems okay to me. I've also have this undying need to drink insanely strong ginger beers that burn your mouth/throat for hours. My girlfriend has the taste buds of an infant and she would probably say that this is too spicy for her. To me it's very mild. For a normal drinker, it would probably be somewhere in the middle.

This has the typical Jones sweetness to it. I was expecting it to be very candy-like and for it to basically be a glorified ginger ale. Luckily it does taste like a real ginger beer, and I'm thankful for that. I need to search out what other flavors Jones has as Canadian exclusives, but until then I'll have to keep attending these meetings in the church basement.

Life in the lab is hard work. Long hours, no time to socialize (except at home on World of Warcraft), hardly any sleep, etc... We used to have a coffee pot in the lab. Unfortunately one time I accidentally poured mercury into it. I almost made a cup of coffee with it to give to the new janitor Franklin, but I decided I didn't want to accidentally cause someone else's death.

Sadly, my coffee drinking days in the lab are over. Which is why, like most scientists, I have switched to energy drinks. Most of my colleagues like the standard ones: Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, Amp, etc... While those are all fine, I prefer to dig a little and find some hidden gems. This Neutron Energy one is one of my favorites currently. I was drawn to it by the name and artwork obviously. I love tart drinks as well and this one can definitely be classified as such. It has a strong grapefruit taste, which is awesome. It has a slight diet taste, but it definitely tastes better than most energy drinks. I've obviously never drank mercury coffee, but I'm sure it tastes better than that as well.

Remember Tommy Lee Jones in Batman? Two Face. This drink is not so much villain as much as it is just two faced. It's half good and half less good. Initially it tastes like a diet Capri Sun or Sunny D. It's got a somewhat gritty, "Hey they put powdered vitamins in here!" taste to it. Then it tastes like Tang. I like Tang. I love quality drinks but part of me loves Tang and ain't nothing wrong with that. Oh, you've got something against Tang? You think because you're an adult you can't like Tang anymore? You would be wrong, good sir.

What is this? A review for Tang? Nope. Not anymore. This drink is like a Gatling gun in your favorite video game with a Gatling gun. Here's how they work. You've got to get it up to speed before the bullets start flying and once it's going, momentum keep it going to when you're done shooting dudes, it's still spinning and you can shoot quickly until it slows down. This drink is like that. You have to drink through the roughness but once you get past it, you can keep sipping and it's good. Once you stop for a minute, you know, so that you're not drinking anymore, you have to re-work yourself back up.

Let's talk about Maroon 5 for a second. Whether or not you like them, you have to give them this; they might write some of the catchiest, more radio friendly pop rock songs ever. Good hooks, funky guitar, great rhythm section, and Adam Levine is a good singer. Real good. Although you might not like them, you have to give them that. I think that they are one of those bands that I could probably listen to any record and say to myself, "Yeah, this is a certified multi-platinum album for a reason." So, I can see why Snapple called up the Maroon 5 hotline and said, "Hey guys. Reason we called you is because while we were getting a drink from Bret Michaels, we thought that we might want to ask some people that the kids like for being good, not for winning a TV show. So what do you say, dudes?" They then had to go to the thinking lair of the Maroon 5 multi-million dollar headquarters and put together the perfect drink to put their name on.

They each picked a fruit and you know it was Adam Levine who stepped it up and thought out of the box and said that he wanted hibiscus in there. Everyone else probably had "fruit regret" because hibiscus is the secret ingredient in many drinks to push it over the top. Since they picked them, they had to stick with them, though. Snapple took these flavors, put them in a mixer, called up the hotline a week later and said, "This is great stuff, guys. I can taste everyone's flavor suggestion and can still tell that it's a black tea. It's nicely sweet and there is a nice, complex overall flavor both in initial taste and aftertaste. You've got another hit, boys!" and promptly put the drink on the shelves. Mickey Madden, the bass player with ears of gold said that he knew that he could sense that the person that made that call had gold, T-bar glasses, smoked a cigar, and was wearing a fedora when he made the call. He could hear it. Also, he could hear the reverberation coming from the call and also noted that he could tell that he was calling from a velvet-curtained room. Maroon 5 did a five person high five, sold another million records that second, and got sushi.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved the taste of cough syrup. Whenever I got sick and had to take it, I secretly was excited. I was a good kid and never abused it or took it when I didn't need it. Even as an adult, I've only ever took it as needed.

Also when I entered adulthood, I found out that most people hate the taste of cough medicine. I was so confused when I found this out. Were they all getting gross flavors and I just always happened to buy the good stuff? This energy drink tastes just like grape cough syrup and I love it. It's not as thick as its medicinal counterpart, but it has a slightly thicker than normal consistency to it. The best part is this barely has any gross energy drink or diet taste to it.

They promise. They deliver. Or I can only assume, since I can't read the packaging. This is a guava juice box. When I was a kid I always got Ssips juice boxes. While those were all well and good, if I had gotten a guava flavored one I would have been one ecstatic kid. I'm pretty sure this is only 15% juice, but it's still enjoyable. Do you have a kid in elementary school? Treat them well. Get them some fancy juice boxes.

Although this drink may be an acquired taste, who would want to go for a second one when it tastes like this? I don't hate the San Pellegrino Chinotto and I understand that it is an Italian staple, but this is something else.

Someone recommended this to me not too long after we started the site and I never found one that wasn't in an eight pack. If it was something that wasn't questionable, I might have gotten it, but since it was called a bitter, I didn't want to splurge and get an eight pack and have seven other ones lying around never going to be drank. Drinking this makes me appreciate my decision.

This drink tastes medicinal. The flavor seems like it might want to be cherry, and if you sip the smallest sip, you might taste it, but anything larger than that you get an onslaught of a medicine you were not prescribed. Oh, it's bitter, there is no doubt about that, but what is that good for? "Oh, I love a nice, bitter drink that doesn't have a taste as much as a tongue reaction when I drink it." Who is saying that? Who wants anything overly bitter? It's like asking for something too sweet or too salty. Does this accompany anything? I'm just so confused as to the purpose of this. I'm glad it was cheap, I'm glad it came in an awesome bottle, I'm glad I'm not obligated to drink the whole thing.

From the taste of this I would suspect that Tropical Azul is some sort of blue sugar candy. Perhaps is a blue off brand Lick-a-Made or Pixie Stick. Cintron has taken this beloved treat and somehow removed all of the sugar. You might think that you would just have an empty plate after that because it just looks like a pile of blue sugar, but if it were that simple my friend. Cintron developed the science for their diabetic friends and they have used it and used it well. Due to poor candy sales last quarter, they infused this treat into an energy drink. What was created is what is before me now. It tastes like blue candy and it tastes like an energy drink. It also tastes like a diet energy drink that doesn't taste like death. So ride the blue wave my friend. Ride it to lower blood sugar and a thinner waist.

"They're on to us." the CEO said. "They know what we've been doing all these years and are questioning our previous practices." "Why don't you just put something else out that will make it seem like your heart is in the right place and that you respect your customers?" said the drive through attendant who had only been working at the company for eight days and somehow managed to get a hold of the CEO of a major, multinational company. "That's a brilliant idea! What do you think we should make?" said the CEO, for the first time in a decade, with hope in his eyes. "I'm not sure. Why don't you upgrade the restaurants? Make them look a little more modern." suggested the pimpled attendant. "Eh, we've done that not too long ago. I guess we can put a little bit of lipstick on it but we need something simpler. Something approachable. Something like a menu item." suggested the CEO. "Hmm, what about a new milkshake? One with better ingredients. Some real ice cream and people love coffee with whipped cream, how about that. Oh, and get this, for the cherry on top? A cherry on top!" exclaimed the awkward teenage worker. "I love it." said the CEO. "Make one up for me and we'll see if we can use it."

The employee whipped together a strawberry milkshake, swirled in some fresh ice cream and chocolate syrup in there, put a nice, unhealthy dollop of whipped cream on top, and put a cherry on the top, as promised. "Here you go." said the employee happier than when he got a B+ on his physics test the day before. "Oh my gosh. Son, this is great. You can taste the ice cream and the classic strawberry taste and the whipped cream and cherry is really a "cost is no object" touch to it. What did you say your name was, because I'm appending the prefix "Manager" to whatever it is. What do you think about that?" beamed the CEO. "I love it, said the newly appointed manger. When do I start?" said the employee. "Right now! Take that dumb visor off and put this manager cap on. Enjoy your pay increase, your 401K, and your retirement and stock options packages. Today, you did well. Thank you for your help in saving this company with a milkshake."

The new Chevy Volt is as innovative as they come. The car does not run on gasoline, nor does it need electricity. Instead, Volt Soda powers it. I think this came about because they had warehouses of the stuff because no one was buying it. They needed to do something with it, so they teamed up with Chevy and built and engine that can run on it. Coming soon to a dealership near you.

In all seriousness I feel like this is an energy drink marketed towards children and that is a horrible idea. I feel like it's unhealthy for me as an adult to drink energy drinks, so for a kid...geez. I feel like all the time I see kids younger and younger downing them, and it really concerns me. So much extra stress on their little hearts.

This is basically carbonated fruit punch with all that energy garbage thrown in. It tastes like it should be a special flavor of Mountain Dew. I'm really just not into this. It tastes like a crappy soda that gives me the jitters. I say no thanks.

For the past couple of days my cat will not leave my lap. She goes through phases where she completely ignores my existence and then in the blink of an eye she needs all the attention in the world. I'm okay with that. I like giving her attention, well except when she insists on sitting directly in front of my computer monitor staring at me when I'm trying to get work done. I love when she's a lap cat. It's comforting, especially now that the weather is starting to cool down and Fall is right around the corner. This tea is also comforting. There's something about jasmine tea that just calms me down. The effect is greater when the tea is hot, but even when it's iced it does it's job. I think this may be the first jasmine tea I've had that has vitamin C added to it. It very subtly effects the flavor, but it's in a good way. It still has the great jasmine aftertaste, which I love.

Now I'm going to sit on my couch with my cat and this bottle of tea and read like a nerd. Yes I am fully aware that when I get old I will be the male equivalent of the crazy cat lady.