I saw Jimmy Eat World play last night. I've been a fan of them for many years, but had never seen them live. Being the music nerd I am, I found their set lists for this tour so I knew what to expect. It was a good mixture of Bleed American, Clarity and Futures, with a splash of Chase This Light and Invented.

They started the set with "Bleed American" followed by "A Praise Chorus", which was their standard opening on this tour. What came next, I wasn't expecting at all. "Today is the 10th anniversary of the release of Bleed American so we're going to play the whole album". The show I already knew was going to be good, just became amazing!

What does this have to do with this pop? That is exactly how I feel about this orange cream. Jason has given two other flavors by Vintage Soda great reviews, so when Mike gifted me this can (because he doesn't like orange cream soda. Crazy, huh?) I knew I was in for a treat. The first sip was good, tasted like a standard orange cream. It wasn't until the 2nd or 3rd sip that it hit me: this has a tangerine taste to it! Sure enough, tangerine extract is in the ingredients after orange extract.

Call me crazy, but I love tangerines more than oranges. In addition to the citrus medley, it has a really nice vanilla taste. It's not the smoothest orange cream, but it compliments the tangerine/orange flavor so well. To top it off, this soda is clear and is made with real sugar which is great seeing as they actually live by their "100% Natural" label, unlike some drinks.

John, I've got a fresh case of fruit. We don't have time to do the usual routine of cleaning, peeling, juicing, straining, and all that other stuff. We're swamped with other stuff and don't have time for all those steps. Just do what you can to get that fruit into these bottles. Oh, one more thing, the box fell out of my car and into a pile of sand. Good luck.

Great, now I've got to crush these and I have to leave in 9 minutes. Did he take what I usually use to clean all these? All I have is a cheese grater. Son of a gun! Whatever. I'm going to have to grate pineapples and stuff the same way I would grate mozzarella. I certainly wouldn't buy this batch. Plus, this sand, is he kidding me. If I had like 5 extra minutes I would rinse these but I've got to go to baseball practice and coach said if I was late one more time, he'd make me play outfield and we all know that outfield is one step away from off the team. This actually isn't as hard as I thought and I'm burning through this box of fruit. I'm going to bottle these here...alright...careful...got a little on the floor and if there isn't enough time to clean up the fruit, there isn't enough time to clean the floor. Honestly, who fills up a bottle with a handful of Wendy's straws? Hasn't anyone ever heard of a funnel before? Alright, done. All that fruit actually fit in there. Everything has settled on the bottom so let me give it a shake...alright. Taking a sip. Wow. Hey boss! You've got to try this. It's better than our usual stuff. It's got substance and that kiddie pool sand actually gives it an interesting texture. The tropics have never tasted so good. It's really natural tasting, like I'm eating fruit and some rind, you know, like you would if you ate real fruit. We should be in a bind for more time more often. Alright, sorry about the mess. I've got to get to practice. I'll clean up this ridiculous mess tomorrow. Wait tomorrow is Saturday. Monday. Ugh, this is going to be awful to clean up Monday. Whatever. See you later, boss.

Recently I've been on a winning streak with blueberry drinks. If I were Clark W Griswold I would grab the $27 that I had in my wallet, go to the nearest casino and place a $26 bet on the "Pick a Fruit" game that they will undeniably have (I'd need to save the extra dollar for bus fare home). Everything would come up Griswold. Rusty would finally look up to me. I would be the man I always wanted to be. Then for some inexplicable reason I would change my bet and put it all on crappy durian. Who would ever pick durian? It smells like vomit! The wheel would spin, slow down, land on durian and then at the last second flip one more space and land on blueberry again. I would be broke with only my bus fare home. Oh wait I used that to tip that pretty waitress that looked like a model from the 80's. It's a sad time in the life of a man who just loves to vacation.

I (Clark) would be crushed, but blueberry would reign supreme, just like it does in this drink. When you open the bottle it's like shoving your nose in a bushel of fresh picked berries. The tea and lemonade are at perfect levels, with the blueberry just a touch higher in the mix. It's tart, sweet and fruity all in one. I don't know if the world of "Arnold Palmers" gets better than this.

Some drinks have a special purpose and when reviewing those drinks it's hard to decide what is more important flavor or functionality. The Celsius drinks score great in the realm of functionality. I can't say whether or not it burns the calories on it's own, but it definitely gives you more energy to exercise. When I drink one of these before jumping on my bike I end up riding way longer than I normally would.

On the side of flavor they sometimes leave something to be desired. That is because of their good friend sucralose. The sweetener that tastes sweet in all the wrong ways. I wish they would just switch over to stevia. If you're not going with real sugar stevia is the way to go in my book.

This is the best tasting Celsius I've had thus far. I think that's because it's a tea and not a "soda." It still has the sucralose taste, but it's masked a bit by the tea. It basically tastes like a diet raspberry tea. I don't taste the acai at all, but really who needs it when you have raspberry in the mix?

I've been inside for far to long today. This can is now empty so I'm going to go jump on my bike and ride around the city for a while. Try not to hit me.

Why oh why did I read the ingredients on this before I took a sip? I was so excited about it. Lemon ginger is a great flavor, and I've been a fan of the other probiotic drinks I've had. There is something that I am absolutely not a fan of and that is vinegar. Yes I eat salsa by the jarful. Yes I know that vinegar is one of the main ingredients in it, but salsa doesn't taste like vinegar....at all. It tastes like magic.

As you may have guessed apple cider vinegar is the third ingredient listed on the label. Ugh. I ruined it. Everyone else that tried this said they didn't taste vinegar at all, but I had it on the mind so there it was front and center for me. Okay not front and center, but there was a hint of it. It also smelled like the dye you use to color Easter eggs to a lesser extent. Apparently I am insane because as I said no one else thought that at all.

Other than the "hint of vin" this is pretty good. Even though it's not carbonated, it tastes like it is. Yes to me carbonation has a flavor. This has it. Let's move on. It tastes like a lemon soda mixed with ginger ale (minus the bubbles). That is nothing like I expected it to taste. I was expecting a decently strong ginger with a very tart lemon. Nope. Wrong again. If I could just get passed my hatred of vinegar and the ghost of it that lives in this bottle, only haunting me, I would be able to enjoy this as a healthy organic beverage that tastes like it was neither healthy nor organic. That is a good place to be.

I've been sitting on this for a long time. I knew it was going to be at very least interesting so I wanted to get some other stuff out of the way first, hence the large gap between Zuberfizz reviews.

I don't know who the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is, but they've (apparently) teamed up with the Zuberfizz crew in order to create this little treat.

I, for the life of me cannot place what the chocolate reminds me of. My friend said that it was like the chocolate you get from Kinder Surprise, a Canadian treat which is essentially a hollow chocolate ball with a toy in it. To the tongue, this is a great drink, but once it goes down your throat, it's a little strange. The fizz almost makes it seem like a spicy chocolate. Once it's down your throat you get a nice aftertaste of a real genuine chocolate taste that's quite pleasing. The smell is great, too.

I've got it! It tastes like chocolate PEZ. Don't know what they taste like? Find 'em and buy 'em and tell me I'm wrong. I dare you. Chocolate PEZ. My friend says it also smells like chocolate Tootsie Pops. Together I'd say we nailed it. Track this down. It's fun. Have fun with pop. Pop is fun.

While passing this drink around the office, I received mixed results. Everyone said it was good, but I think that they wanted it to be thicker. Look, I would love to try a thicker version of this drink, but if Honest wanted a thicker drink, they would have made it, so drop it already. Jeez! So this drink, I like it. It's got a good dark chocolate bitter taste. It really tastes like a really dark chocolate candy bar. The mint lingers at the tail end, almost like an Andes mint that you would get after a delicious steak dinner. Oh, you're vegan? Do vegans eat steak? No? Fair enough. After a nice meal of a salad and a side of carrots since the restaurant that I took you to has a limited menu. I'm sorry. I didn't make it up. It's not my fault that they don't cater to people that don't eat anything from animals. It's a steakhouse. Why did you even agree to come? Come on. Let's go get you some cereal or something.

All of us here at Thirsty Dudes are huge fans of The Best Show on WFMU. It is a radio show based out of NJ, but available world wide, so don't call it local! The host of the show is the wonderful Tom Scharpling. He entertains the world via radio for three hours every Tuesday night. It is one of the funniest things I've ever listened to. Guests like Paul F Tompkins, Ted Leo, Patton Oswalt, Todd Barry and many others a frequent. If you are a fan of hilarity I suggest you check it out.

Okay now that the plug is over, on with the story. Last week I finally worked up the courage to call into the show to talk to Tom about Thirsty Dudes. The mush state of my mouth was discussed and then when asked for suggestions on things to review Tom told me orange juice. Who am I to argue? So here's your orange juice review.

Simply puts out nothing but high quality beverages as far as I've tasted. It so happens that all three of us purchased and reviewed a Simply drink in the past two days. All of them got high marks. They don't mess around with adding extra ingredients to their juices. They know with something like this it's best to keep things.....simple. I have to say this is the best orange juice (minus some the was fresh squeezed) that I have ever had. It doesn't taste old or weird like a lot of carton orange juices do. There is a decent amount of pulp in it, which is a bonus in my world. I don't care what my friend Kevyn says. Pulp does not make a drink seem like you're imbibing dirty dishwater. It makes it seem like your eating the actual fruit, minus the annoying peeling session. How does everyone else start to peel and orange? I always bite the skin a little, but then I get a spray of the gross bitter peel in my mouth. It almost makes it not worth it. Give me advice people!

FACT!
Every time Jay, Editor Dan, and myself go to Chili's our number one (numero uno) priority is to get the blackberry tea. It probably trumps the importance of the meal. Now although we don't frequent Chili's as much as we used to, and I don't know why because it's pretty consistently delicious, we still have cravings for that sweet, wonderful blackberry. We haven't done many blackberry related drinks and I don't know why. I feel like if I went into any anonymous forest, the bushes would be laden with that little black dude. That sounds racist. It isn't.

I was pleased to see that Hint released a blackberry. I don't know when. Perhaps I've just overlooked it thinking I had reviewed it before, but I didn't until today. I bought my official "Thirsty Tuesday Taco", my blackberry Hint, and headed outside to have dinner.

As per usual, it was good. It was light, as expected, but every time I have Hint water, I'm surprised at how well they pull it off. It's like they previously used the bottles for a blackberry drink, did a garbage job of cleaning it, and then filled it with water, but it's acceptable. It's so light that I could see people getting mad if they didn't know what to expect. "I thought this was a clear juice. What a bummer." they would exclaim while people who knew what time it was were getting refreshed just two tables over thinking to themselves, "Who's that jerk and what's he complaining about? This stuff is great."

Think of it this way. There is no better drink for you than water. I'll say it. I've drunk hundreds of different drinks in the last year and it's true. This is just water with a tiny bit of blackberry flavoring. It's enhanced water. No one can tell you that water is better than this.

Guys I just brewed the best tea ever. What's great about it is that's it's all-natural! What's in it? I'll tell you what's in it! It's just three simple things; tea, water and heroin. Why are you looking at me like that? The tea is certified organic and free trade friendly and the water is from the purest springs. Obviously you must not be taking offense to the heroin. It's made from locally grown poppies. What do you mean it's not "natural"? I just told you it's made from poppies. If JB's can say that HFCS is natural than I can say my heroin is as well!

Seriously, don't say all natural and then use HFCS. Own up to it! The tea isn't all that bad. Sure it's syrupy, but it tastes good. Just accept yourself for who you are. Like Angus, "you're still here."

We had people over for an impromptu grilling session at our house yesterday. I consumed way more beverages than any one person should in that short of a time, so now I have to play catch up.

We cracked open a couple of bottles of College club for everyone to share. I had yet to try their Golden Ginger Ale, and I really don't know why I waited so long. Their Pale Dry Ginger Ale has a very strong ginger flavor, which is not as sweet than most sodas. With this variety they flip-flopped it. It's way sweeter and the ginger is lower in the mix. So now you can fine-tune your soda choice to your tastes.

College Club, based out of Rochester, NY, puts out a decent size line of quality sodas. It's a small family business that has been passed on for several generations. We were lucky enough to go to their factory and assist them in bottling some of their soda. It was great to say the least.

We've been enjoying their pops for quite some time now, but somehow we have failed to write a review for their root beer. The first thing I'd like to say is man is it good. It's not a fancy brewed root beer, but it is in the upper echelon of "normal" root beers. It's dark and flavorful. It doesn't taste like spices and herbs, but it also doesn't taste like candy. It tastes like the purest essence of the root beer you would drink as a kid. It's similar to a Mug or a Dad's but it's of a higher quality. We're proud to have them as a fairly local company.

Man, after that great game of baseball I'm exhausted. I'm so hungry and thirsty at the same time. I want a roast beef on weck, salted pretzel, and a nice lemon lime Gatorade. Strange that this place doesn't have hot dogs and hamburgers, isn't it? You don't carry Gatorade and all you carry is Sponsor? Well alright, I'll take it if you say it's as good as Gatorade. Well anyhow, thanks for all the food. Here's $15 for all of it, which I feel is a bit exorbitant but what do I know? I'm an eleven years old boy that hasn't taken a single course in economics.

Let me just set everything up here. I'm totally going to slay this cup of Sponsor. I wonder why they didn't just give me the nice, resealable bottle it came in and they wasted a styrofoam cup. I mean, it all fit in this cup, it seems like a waste to me, but what do I know, I'm eleven? Alright, so I've taken the lid off of the cup because I don't want anything standing in between me and this drink. I'm going to eat this pretzel first. Woops! Some of the salt fell into my Gatorade. Eh, a little salt never hurt anyone. Take a sip of my drink here...it's a little salty, but I'm so thirsty it doesn't matter.

Let's get to the main course, the roast beef on weck, which I just dropped the top of into my Gato...Sponsor. Great. Whatever. It's still delicious. Wow, there is a lot of salt in there now. Welp, bottoms up. Alright, that's gross. That's too much salt. It was fine with just pretzel salt but now with this weck salt, it's gross. Mom? Can we get some actual Gatorade? This place is the pits. Oh, where did I learn that phrase? Grandpa. Why shouldn't I use it? It's not stupid!

You know how sometimes you have a bit of a scratchy throat? You just find yourself clearing it all the time for no reason and you think that it's annoying but really, people don't care. They understand. It happens to the best of us. It just happens and we deal with it. It's life.

Suggestion. Do not drink Simply Lemonade (with raspberry) when you are suffering from these life-threatening conditions. It tastes like you're drinking sandpaper. Great tasting sandpaper, but sandpaper nonetheless.

All other times of the year, please, by all means, treat yourself to this beverage. It's pretty sweet and the lemonade cuts right through. I, personally, couldn't tell "raspberry" was in it. I knew that it wasn't straight lemonade, and I appreciated that he had a tag team partner, but the sweetness and acidity from the lemonade really covered up the other flavors. There is pulp in it, which is also the sign of an impending good drink. Either that or a poor strainer at the factory it's made at. I trust that it was on purpose.

All the same, I would drink this again because it was very good. It's a lot more sharp than the Calypso lemonade, which I find smoother compared to this, but it's a different sort of lemonade and I liked it. It's summertime, though, and I think that most lemonade is pretty exceptional.

At least one person on this planet is going to be real bummed when they buy this soda. I feel like most people think of ginger ale as something completely different than those of us who scratch the surface of the soda world a little more. Companies like Vernors and Schweppes, while making decent products, have led the world to believe that all ginger ale is sweet and smooth. Here is a news flash folks; "real" ginger ale has a kick to it. If you've ever tasted actual ginger you know that it has some spice to it. When made into a soda properly it can have quite a burn. That burn is not for everyone, but those of us who like it really, really love it. Usually ginger sodas that have this kick are known as ginger beers nowadays. Sometimes companies still call them ginger ale, and I'm fine with that. Red Rock is one such company.

It doesn't have the strongest burn I've ever experienced in a ginger soda, but it's stronger than I had expected. This is a slow sipper with a lot of flavor. So when aunt Milda ventures to the store to buy some ginger ale to sooth her upset stomach, she is going to be in for a shock when she takes a swig of this. Her stomach will probably be all the better for it though.

Green tea? Had it. Black tea? Been there, too. White tea? Old news, friends. I think that it's about time that we vary our tea selection to varieties that aren't colors. We're adults. We're worldly. We travel by boats and planes to foreign countries. Worldwide trade is in full effect. Treat yourself to something not from the country you live in. Look, brand loyalty is fine, but look at Thirsty Dudes. We've reviewed drinks from dozens of different countries.

Take this team from Japan. Japan has sugar but does this oolong tea need it? Not at all. In a world filled with even the purest of sugar, sometimes you can't beat an unsweetened team on a hot summer day. This tea is a nice shortstop between green and black tea. A little bitter and a little earthy but just like you would make at home.

You don't have to love unsweetened tea, but as an adult, at some point you have to accept that some drinks don't need to be sweetened.

"The thing about huckleberries is, once you've had fresh, you'll never go back to canned..." Well Nelson, I can't say if that's true or not, as this marks my first experience with huckleberries at all. That is a lie I suppose. I do have some history with Huckleberry Hound and Huckleberry Finn, but I've never tasted either of them and I will make a pledge this self same day to never do so. There, are you happy now?

As far as I knew, until today, huckleberries were some archaic fruit that had long since gone extinct. The olde-timey picture on the label does nothing but support that idea. As it turns out the fruit still flourishes, but has gone out of vogue. The fine folks at Jackson Hole understand that this is nothing more than a hate crime against the fruit world. As a result they are taking it back.

Every Jackson Hole soda we've had so far has been spectacular and they just stepped up their game with this one. This and the Thomas Kemper Bumble Berry sodas stand as the two best fruit sodas that have ever graced my taste buds. High Mountain Huckleberry is reminiscent of a Shirley Temple made with high quality berries instead of grenadine. It's sweet and fruity in all of the right ways. I had assumed that huckleberries were a specific subset of raspberries, but a quick internet search informed me that they were closer to the blueberry. Whatever they are they are completely incredible and I now must search out the actual fruit. Even if it requires I complete the time machine I've been building in my attic.

I recently moved back to Buffalo from living in Portland, OR for 2 years. When I got back, fellow Thirsty Dude Jay gave me some drinks from his stash to get my queue going. He pawned this drink off on me, presumably because he wasn't looking forward to it. I don't blame him, it has all the characteristics of a horrible energy drink: no flavor listed, company you've never heard of, diet/sugar free/0 calories, bad artwork, etc... Oh, the pull-tab says "buzz" on it too. Ugg.

After a little research on their website, I found out this is pink grapefruit flavored (or should I say flavoured since this is a Canadian product?) This was good news to me since, as I've said many times, I love grapefruit flavoured drinks. But it's still a diet energy drink so I was still skeptical.

Here is my thought process after opening it:
Hmm, smells like grapefruit and not like chemicals.
*takes first sip*
Definitely tastes like grapefruit, now lets wait for the chemical aftertaste.
*it never comes*
Wait, really?
*takes another, bigger sip*
This diet energy drink is awesome! It tastes like Squirt and doesn't taste gross at all. After a half dozen sips, I already feel energized and can't wait to be productive the rest of the night. Once again, the fine folks of Canada have made a great product.

I was drawn to this drink because of the color. This pink colored drink really stood out in the Asian markets cooler. After I picked it up and noticed that it was a chunky drink, I was sold.

At first I thought the chunks were aloe, but then I looked a little closer. I saw 'nata de coco' in the ingredients. I had no idea what this was, but a quick Google search found the answer for me. Taken from Wikipedia: "Nata de coco is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food product produced by the fermentation of coconut water, which gels through the production of microbial cellulose by Acetobacter xylinus. Nata de coco is most commonly sweetened as a candy or dessert, and can accompany many things including pickles, drinks, ice cream, puddings and fruit mixes."

Now I can see these chunks with drinks and fruit mixes. Ice cream and pudding are ones I wouldn't have thought of, but I'm sure it's delicious. The one that throws me off is pickles. So are there jars of pickles with these chunks floating in it? If so, I really want to find one of these because I love pickles.

The drink itself is good. It's really refreshing and taste like something between juice and vitamin water. It's not too sweet which actually works in this case. I feared it was going to be very syrupy. The strawberry flavor is good, but I wish it had more of a tart flavor to it. This is quite possibly the chunkiest drink I have ever had. It is impossible to take a sip and not get any chunks. It's pretty awesome.

As I peer across my vast 0.08 acre backyard, I am reminded of a few things. Number one, it has been the rainiest season on record and although today called for yet another day of showers, I am sitting on my deck with the umbrella up, sipping on a bottle of orange pop like it were a fine wine. It most certainly isn't, but circumstantially, it might as well be.

Finally my once neglected lawn looks good and I can sit around for a minute while instead of my dogs enjoying the sunshine, they sit by the door and bark like jerks. The birds seem to be enjoying the weather so I rely on them to remind me that summer is right around the bend. Not much says more to me about summer than orange pop.

This particular orange pop is nothing special. You've had it a hundred times if you've had it once. Does that make it bad? Nope. I think this is the model of what orange pop should be, though. It reminds me of a childhood spent at McDonalds with my family. It reminds me of simpler times.

I don't drink a lot of orange pop. There are just other things I would rather drink. Not today, though, man.