I'm a big fan of grapefruit flavored sodas, and this one is a classic. It has such a crisp grapefruit taste that it makes my mouth water. The only downside to this tasty drink is the HFCS that is used to sweeten it. It leaves that syrupy consistency on my tongue after a few sips. I hope someday they decide to do a "throwback" version of this and use sugar as a sweetener instead.

This just came in over the wire: Chewing Gum Industry Single Handedly Takes Down The Mint Tea Empire. This morning officials met in an undisclosed location to discuss the state of mint iced teas. In recent years there has been a steady decline in the amount of mint in teas. It was put to a vote after hours of deliberation and the results came back unanimous that mint chewing gum is the solely responsible for this unfortunate demise. Stuart VonBrewenburg, leader of the anti-chewing gum league, was quoted as saying the following, "How can we continue to make our wonderful refreshing beverages when all our customers can say after a sip is that it tastes like they are drinking plain tea whilst chewing a stick of gum?" The most recent victim of this crime is the Numi company from Oakland, CA. Their "Moroccan Mint" line never stood a chance once the Wrigley Spearmint hit the streets back in 1911. Average citizen Kevyn Godwin from Buffalo, NY was heard to say, "It's hard to swallow when you imaging you're downing a bottle of spearmint tainted saliva."

Large Plastic Bottle and a 79¢ price tag built into the design of the label. This spells low quality. I am so down on plastic bottles. In my head they instantly make a beverage seem cheap. Glass bottles are at the top of the beverage containment food chain. Next in line is the aluminum can. Plastic bottles are way down at the bottom. Can you imagine if the Ghostbusters would have used plastic for their containment unit? Their proton packs would have been pointless, because those flimsy things would have never held the souls of the screaming undead. You know what's an even bigger bummer than plastic bottles? Finding out that everything I had read about Ghostbusters 3 was just internet rumors. At least it's still happening according to Mr. Ramis, but it's going to be a long wait.

Another thing I don't get about this drink is that it's acai passionfruit flavored, two fruits that are notably good for you, but they chose to use HFCS for their sweetener. A quick inspection of the ingredients shows that their is also no juice from either of those fruits in it as well. I think the Texas Tea company is trying to hoodwink customers into thinking their run of the mill gas station tea is good for them. I'm not falling for it. What I will fall for is that even though it may not be healthy, this tea actually tastes pretty decent. It has hints of the fruits it boasts about, without them actually being present. It's a really sweet green tea with some nice flavoring. I think I would have given it a four if it were in different packaging and a different sweetener.

For my final trick, I will make this unsweetened green tea good. Wait, does that make this drink sound like it's bad to start? Am I saying this out loud? This is the worst magic...er...illusion show I've ever done. I think that me saying that made it worse. My boss is going to fire me for this performance. Kids, here's a handful of quarters. Pull them out of each other's ears.

What am I going to do? This tea is pretty good and not everyone is going to think it's bad. It's got a good taste through and through, but these kids won't appreciate it since there isn't sugar pouring out of the top of it.

Jimmy, don't put that quarter in your nose. We're doing ears only.

Where else could I work? I've got illusions running through my blood. I can do so many things that people only dream about with a single deck of cards except play poker. That's something I could never get a hold of. Cards aren't a game, though. Cards are serious business. This tea is serious business. No sweetness, all goodness. Maybe I'll get a job at the...JIMMY! DON'T PUT THAT QUARTER IN TOM'S NOSE EITHER! WE'RE ONLY DOING EARS! GOD!

I'm great with kids, but I don't want to be a teacher. Maybe I'll just get a job at a bank. I can do some cool stuff with money. I don't think that they would want to see their money disappear, though. I know customers like to get in and out of a bank and the usage of smoke and mirrors might be prohibited in a bank.

JIMMY! STOP IT WITH THE NOSE ALREADY!

I tried something new with this bottle of Jarritos. I didn't drink it while eating a burrito. I did this because I don't have any burritos at the moment. I also wanted to find out if my theory is true about burritos and Jarritos being a perfect match.

Well I think my theory was correct. It may be because I don't like strawberries that much, or don't usually go crazy over strawberry flavored drinks, but I'm going to blame it on the lack of burrito that I'm not that into this soda. It smells, and tastes, like strawberry, and it's really light and fruity with the perfect amount of sweetness. But something is missing, and that something is a burrito.

Lesson learned.

The world became aware of the plight of Africa through the Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle Blood Diamond. I'm here to let everyone know about another travesty that exists on this planet. This one isn't a world away, but occurs in my own country. Every day down in Florida children are losing life and limb every day in order to harvest one of the most coveted item in the world, the blood orange. Children ages 6-10 are sent into the depths of the orange groves of the "Wang of America," bushels in hand. They climb rickety ladders, risking splinters. You would not believe the lower back pain these children will experience later in life. The sunburns? Don't get me started.

We will forgive Thomas Kemper for perpetuating these crimes against humanity for yet again creating an incredible soda. I would work out in those fields myself in order to ensure this drink stays in production. It tastes more like an Italian soda than a regular soda pop. It's nice and light and full of wonderful blood oranges. I can taste the blood of the completely fabricated victims with every sip.

Lemon and lime. Lemon and lime. Lemon and lime. It gets old after a while doesn't it? You know that one friend who tells the same story all the time? I've been known to do this, but I can admit it, which makes me above those that don't. Yeah, I'm better than some people. Who cares? Embrace what you're good at. You know what Ski is good at? Mixing lemon and orange and throwing limes in the garbage or giving them to Mexican restaurants for delicious tacos or to bars to put in Corona beers to make them more drinkable. Yeah, I know originally you put limes in because it keeps the flies out, but if there are flies in your bar, find a different bar because someone isn't cleaning sufficiently.

Orange and lemon pop is pretty good. It's less sweet than a lemon lime pop and after you accept that orange took lemon's place, it's not bad.

Good job Ski. You've done a good job of switching it up.

When I was in about 9th grade I can remember a conversation that I had with my home and careers teacher verbatim. First of all, I started with "I'm going through a lot of changes." which was probably the worst thing I could have started with. I thought that she thought that I was going to talk about body hair, or at least something involving my wiener. I followed up that ambiguous statement with "I like to drink tea." I then followed that by saying that I think that I like listening to classical music, which lasted about a month and never, went past one compilation album of "the essentials" of classical music. I probably wouldn't touch the stuff now.

So anyhow, back to teatime. As soon as I started liking tea, I thought it was all the same. I don't even think that I had ventured into the Celestial Seasonings line yet. It was just whatever we had in the house. My best friend growing up's parent were right off the boat from England, Liverpool to be more precise. Being English, they knew their tea and bought me some loose Earl Gray tea. It was alright. Not too strong, pretty basic, but drinkable and very consistent. This Numi tea is the first time I've had Earl Gray of any variety in probably over ten years but it reminds me of way back when. This is sweetened, barely, but nonetheless, sweetened and it's very good. You can taste that it's different than just black tea and has a little something else to it. It's got a sophisticated, worldly taste to it that I cannot stand behind any more.

Americans and Englishmen alike. Please split a bottle of this and together we will have a feast.

I almost didn't buy this drink because the first ingredient is "beer 70%". I have never drunk a drop of beer in my life. The smell of it disgusts me, plus I don't drink alcoholic beverages. But after consulting with my fellow Thirsty Dudes, I was reassured that this is completely safe to drink since like other Fentiman's drinks it had less than .05% alcohol.

After doing some research, I found out that shandy is traditionally a beer mixed with citrus-flavored soda, carbonated lemonade, ginger beer, ginger ale, or cider. This has lemon juice in it so I'm assuming it's the carbonated lemonade variety, minus the alcohol of course. Upon opening it, it definitely had a beer like smell to it. Not as strong as normal beer though.

The taste? Gross, plain and simple. It's like malted lemonade. I don't understand why anyone would drink this. Hopefully one of my housemates wants the rest of this bottle because I won't be drinking any more of it.

Unfortunately this does not contain yogurt at all. It's basically tastes like the Aloevine Pineapple drink with milk added to it. I've had a bunch of drinks with milk in them lately, and I haven't been a huge fan. The chunks of aloe in this are no larger than pulp in orange juice. That's disappointment city. The chunks are what makes aloe drinks fun. In conclusion with is like a pulpy pineapple juice with milk. Who wants that?

Thomas Kemper without the honey, what has this world come to? I'll tell you what it's come to a diet soda that doesn't taste disgusting. It has a slight diet taste. Did you really think that the universe would allow there to be a low calorie drink that didn't have the diety taste? It's mostly grapefruit flavor with an undercurrent of other citrus flavor. It's lighter than other grapefruit pops I've had, but it's not weird and artificial tasting like other diet drinks that haunt my past.

I will admit. I have been leery to try relaxation drinks. I don't know how my body is going to react. They all typically have the same ingredients, rose hips, melatonin, more stuff. All natural, earth grown, vitamins, more stuff. I think that I have a history of taking medicine when I was way younger and not eating and get nauseous. All the time I would do it. I would, for some stupid reason, not eat all day, take some Tylenol or something and feel...just...gross. Taking the medicine made me feel worse. All I had to do was put some peanut butter on bread and all would have been fixed. I could have easily bypassed dozens of ill feeling days/nights/etc.

So now you know my history of medicine, or at least a significant portion of it, so last night, I decided to give this a try. I drank it and it tasted very diet. It is fully explainable since no one is going to want sugar before you go to bed, and that's the intended usage of this product, so they had to artificially sweeten it. Don't get mad at them because they thought of knocking you out cold. It did have a sharp berry taste. It wasn't bad. If you're used to diet drinks, this is no different and you know the "sharpness" you're talking about.

I had full intention of watching at least two episodes of Cowboy Bebop last night. I watched one and made it through about 10 minutes of another one before I was knocked out cold. They say that it reached full potency at 15 minutes and you'll start getting sleepy. I clocked in at probably about a half hour before I started doing that thing where you don't get enough sleep, go to math class, and fall asleep for seconds at a time. I slept through the night, had some strange dream about a social gathering at the abandoned house next door to me, and woke up at 9:30 because my dog was yelling at me, but I feel good today. No side effects, no drowsiness, no leftovers.

This was the Night formula and I gave some friends some of this so hopefully I can coerce them to leave their experiences in the comments section. If you've tried it, let people know what you thought.

The kids are all skipping school. Some of them borrowed their mom's SUV, while others are rocking their step dad's pick up. I seriously think that every single person in the United States between the ages of 16 and 35 knew someone who would drive their step dad's truck in high school. It's just a coming of age thing I guess. Now back to the story. Everyone piles out at the beach with their boom boxes, coolers, blankets and towels. Those who are lucky enough to be born with skin that doesn't ignite as soon as the sun touches it run off into the water immediately, the others like myself hunker down in whatever shade they can find and pull out a bottle that looks exactly like this. Everyone, and I mean every single person, whom I showed this bottle to said that it looks like a bottle of sun tan lotion. They are all totally right. I was kind of surprised when I opened it up and it didn't smell like that fake coconut sunscreen scent. Lucky for VIB, it smells like limes, and it doesn't make you want to vom if you get it in your mouth. In fact you should try to get it in your mouth, all of it. It's actually really good. It's heavy on the lime, light on the mango. I really think that more drinks need a heavy lime flavor. It's really good. It really just tastes like a lime soda, which has a slightly weird aftertaste.

This is a relaxation drink made to calm you down. It's not made as a sleep aid, but to relieve stress. You can drink it during the day without fear of passing out. You wouldn't really need it at the beach, unless you're the girl in the bikini that Johnny Pick Up Truck keeps hitting on. If that's the case watch out, if he meets you out in the waves he's totally going to "accidentally" pull down your top. What a creep. You should totally write slander about him on the stall in the girl's room when you get back to school. Better yet sneak in to the boys room and write, "for a good time call..." with his number. That will show him.

When I first sipped this, it tasted exactly like Red Bull. As most people know, Red Bull is an acquired taste and I happen to enjoy it. But I was hoping this drink would be different. I was really disappointed.

But then the aftertaste kicked in. It burned my throat, but not in the usual acidic energy drink way. This burn was similar to ginger beer, but not as intense. It was really surprising in a good way.

The design of this bottle is pretty darn rad. Simple, yet classy. This and my positive experience with the Key Lime Cream Soda left me with high hopes for the soda it contained. Unfortunately my hopes, dreams and aspirations were not met. This doesn't mean that it was a one-way train to Grossville, but it just wasn't in the upper echelon of colas. It's a quality soda, it's better than your average Pepsi or Coca Cola, but it just doesn't stand out very much. It doesn't have much of a bite to it. I'm assuming the label on the bottle that says "Soda with altitude" is due to the fact that it's caffeinated.

One thing I miss about living in Buffalo, NY is the abundance of birch beer. I even had a keg of birch beer at my high school graduation party. I cannot find a bottle of birch beer anywhere here in Portland. There's plenty of root beer, but no birch beer. Which is why I was excited when I got this bottle in the mail as it's been quite some time since I've tasted the sweetness of a bottle of birch beer.

This bottle goes down real smooth. It has a really nice vanilla taste to it. I really like how Wild Bill's uses real sugar, because I don't get that heavy taste that some birch beers give you. I'm excited to try all the other soda's Wild Bill's has to offer.

This was another bottle I got from Anthony of Rootbeerbarrel.com, hence the green stuff on the bottle.

If you didn't chuckle at the name of this drink I assure you, you have no soul. It's funny. You know a little wacky word play. I give up. You were tragically born without a sense of humor.

I would have really liked this a lot more if it didn't have dairy in it. It really would have made a great juice. All of the berries really blend well together. Instead it tastes like a liquid version of those Lifesavers Creme Savers candy. Those never sat right with me. Solidified creme is just plain strange.

You know what sucks about Sonic? They play commercials for locations that they don't have locations in. From the front door of my house to the nearest Sonic is 161.36 Miles. Why am I getting commercials for restaurants that are about 3 hours away? I took a vacation to North Carolina a few years ago and they had it there. Since I get the commercials, I do know what they have to offer me. Cherry limeade is one of those items that I know I can purchase. Difference is that there, I have the additional pleasure of having it be a slushie and not "just" a pop.

This does taste like cherry limeade, but it's a bit thick, which could be in part to the corn syrup, but sweeteners aside, it's just alright. Everyone who tried it agreed. It's "eh". I guess it's the best I'm going to do unless I stupidly decide to take a road trip to get a hamburger, cheesy tater tots, and authentic cherry limeade. Oh wait, this Frostie beverage isn't even available around me. I'm screwed.

Thirsty Dude comrade Dan has been pulling on my pant leg ever since I told him I bought this drink. I've had it in my fridge for weeks. Months even. It's just been sitting there. Every time I open the door to get another drink, there's that moose, staring me in the face, asking me "Hey Mike. When is it time for you and me to spend some one-on-one time. You love Hall and Oates, right? I know, who doesn't? You know that song mano-a-mano? You and me, dude. Mano-a-mano. Let's do this thing, already." Literally every time I opened the fridge, he would say that to me. Since no one likes a broken record, or a skipping needle, or even a skipping CD, today had to be the day. I shook it up thoroughly. Got out to glasses. Split that drink right in half; half of it for me, half of it for Dan and none for corgis. You know what happened after that? I took one sip and didn't like it, plain as that. I don't know why they called it Cookies & Cream since it didn't taste anything like cookies and cream. It didn't taste anything like cookies or cream, but it did taste like cruddy chocolate milk. I would not recommend this and I would not buy this again. I do not regret my purchase, but I have considered it a learning experience as to what not to do again.

North American Beverage Co? Number one, change your name. You sound like a government subsidy or a company that only makes drinks for elementary school cafeterias. Number two? Drop this item from your line.

Holy crap! I was excited for this, but I didn't expect it to be this good. It tastes like a slightly floral sweet tea, with a little something extra. That's right there is cinnamon and orange peel in this. You cannot imagine what that can do to an already quality iced tea. You like apple cider, right? Of course you do, because you're not a Nazi, and only Nazi's hate apple cider. You know what makes cider even better, and infuriates the führer even more? Spices. Spiced apple cider is one of the greatest things that can ever grace ones taste buds. True Brew has taken that same science and logic and applied it to this tea. If you see it in a store don't buy one. Buy a case.