True story: Just outside of Buffalo there is a barn whose side has been painted with a mural of bees and it says “When we go we're taking you all with us.” With the numbers of bees on this planet dropping that is a terrifying thought. They do a lot of good here on Earth, and their disappearance is concerning. Mikaila (the human child that helped form the company that makes these lemonades knows this a problem so she donates some of her profits to organizations who are working to help the bees. If you don't think this is wonderful in itself, keep in mind that she started doing this when she was 11. She's a better person than most adults I know and that is before you take into account that her drinks are delicious.

This lemonade is made with real lemon juice and cane sugar. In my opinion a beverage that does not have those two ingredients isn't lemonade, but you'd be surprised with what companies try to pass off. It also has honey in it, you know, because of the bees). This proper beverage is tart and refusing with some sweetness to even it out. On top of all of that there is prickly pear in here, which is actually not a pear at all, but a cactus. It adds a nice fruity flavor that is vaguely melon tasting. Overall it's quite tasty and with the weather finally breaking it's a nice treat. Maybe I'll drive out to the mural and sip on a bottle pretending that I'm a street tough with a soft spot for bees and an indifference to the human race.

From Poland, to Knoxville, TN, and then all the way to Buffalo, NY this brand is quite a world traveler. The question is was all of that travelling worth it? I mean they are bringing that standard blend of energy drink flavor to the people with their original blend, but so are about fifty other companies, many doing it “locally.” To stand out Hype decided to switch things up and while they were doing so they slipping and smashed their dang face on the way down. This drink is definitely a misstep. It has that children's chewable vitamin flavor that most energy drinks have, but along with that they decided to mix the taste of children's aspirin as well as some adult vitamins. Perhaps that wouldn't have been so bad if it sat underneath a nice fruit punch flavor, but things got all mixed up and the fruit punch is the minor flavor in here and all the weirdness is so much stronger than it. It's like someone watered down Hawaiian Punch and then ground up a whole mess of vitamins and aspirin and mixed it in. It's not the best. Functionally it works great and I got the much needed energy I was looking for on an overnight drive, but I was really forcing myself to get through this can.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Please take this moment to enter your bathrooms, open your medicine cabinets, grab your toothbrush, floss, and mouthwash and throw them directly in the trash. You no longer need them. Think of all the hours you have spent throughout your life cleaning your teeth, when you could have simply been drinking a can of this tea after every meal. Say goodbye to toothbrush stains on your shirts (if you don't know how to brush in a proper fashion) and say hello to a ginger green tea that has a lemongrass aftertaste. It tastes like real ginger and it tastes like real lemongrass, and it tastes like real tea. The reason being that they are all real in here and it's wonderful. On top of that perfect blend they add their XyVita compound on top of it and that is what is there for oral care. It is a mixture of Xylitol, vegetable glycerin, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium alginate. Actually my dentist just called and yelled at me. I was also told that 9 out of 10 dentists would tell me that I am a moron for throwing all of my teeth cleaning utensils away. This is not a replacement, but to be used in conjuncture (it reduced the acidity in your mouth). I don't really care. All that matters to me is that it tastes pleasant and that I can't really taste the Xylitol. That could have really messed things up.

It's been quite some time since I've drank something with so much substance. It's gritty and grainy and if you are not into these types of drink or like protein rich foods and drinks, walk on past this guy because she is thick. She's also not too shabby. I admittedly don't drink a lot of chai. I like it but I don't drink a lot of it. Why? Some things just happen.

Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is mad about having to shake orange juice and Jerry makes fun of her by lightly shaking it? This is like that but I feel like you constantly have to shake it. It might be so concentrated that there is no room for anything to "settle." It might just be dense. Thick and dense. I think that I'm drinking the drink incantation of myself.

To the flavor. It's a good, honest flavor and good representation of chai but somehow allows all of the ingredients to shine through. Cashew, coconut, ginger, chai, turmeric, salt. It's all in there and it all tastes good. It's a good drink. Would I drink it again? Eh, no. That just has to do with me not drinking chai. I've got other flavors I might not be so quick to dismiss.

In short, if you like chai and aren't afraid of a little grit, you've got a champion contender on your hands. If you are wavering on any of the aforementioned criteria, this might just be strange.

Honest has had a lot of tea on the market over the years. Throughout their dozens and dozens of flavors there have been quite a few green teas under different names. I will go out on a limb and say all of them are wonderful. Honest is a company that doesn't mess around and they make nothing but quality products. Looking online, it seems that this is still just the Green Dragon Tea with Passion Fruit. For some reason it doesn't taste the same as I remember. The passion fruit flavor isn't as strong and it's more of just a “just a tad sweet” green tea with a little lemon in it (and some other light flavors). Whatever you want to call it, it's tasty and I'm not complaining. Green tea is always fantastic when it's not buried underneath ridiculous amounts of sweeteners. I'll just take their word for it and sip in pleasure.

Oh boy, this one is a doozy! We don't review many non-ready-to-drink beverages, but when a company contacts us about sending samples for review we aren't going to say no. I mean, they are still things you drink, it just takes a little more work on your end. I was really expecting to be sent a one serving sample of this, but Naked were very nice and sent a full sized 1lb container. It is much appreciated.

So it's been a slow Sunday in mid-April and the weather is pure garbage. I had no plans this afternoon, so I decided to go to the gym and take this for a test drive. The directions say to mix one of two scoops into 8oz of water (or your favorite beverage and mix it thoroughly. The nutritional facts say that one serving is two scoops so I did just that. Unfortunately I have to say that it did not taste all that pleasant. The fruit punch flavor was very much overshadowed by the taste of supplements. It's a bit chemically. I would advise someone to mix it into something other than water to avoid that. If I use it again I'm going to try mixing it into some vanilla seltzer, which seems weird to drink before working out. I'm gonna be all burps.

Okay, so the flavor is not all that great. That can be acceptable, as it is a functional product and not meant for the pleasure of one's taste buds. This is some strong stuff though. It's meant to help push you in your workouts and give you “clean” energy. I can attest that it does that very much. I also had some side effects though. Now, it's happened very rarely, but it has happened that I have gotten the “Niacin Flush” from certain strong energy drinks. For those who don't' know what that is, it is when you take too much vitamin B3 and you get warm, look like you have a sunburn, and experience a tingly/burning /itchy sensation. In the past when it has happened It was in my face and top of my head. With this product my whole body felt insane. If I didn't know what it was I would have been highly concerned, searched Wed MD and convinced myself I was dying from some exotic disease. Being in the know, I just went on with my workout and this product definitely pushed me more than I normally would have. I did feel completely crazy the entire time and was just aware of my entire body. Then when I toweled off sweat my body just wanted to be touched more (not like that you creep). I've never taken Ecstasy, but from how I've seen it portrayed in movies and tv, I'm guessing it feels like this to a way crazier extent. Keep in mind I'm not saying this will happen to everyone, but I would suggest starting off with only one scoop and see how that works out for you. I'm going to try again in a few days on my next gym outing and lower my dose and see how that treats me. Hopefully not feeling like a maniac.

It's never too late to catch up and get with the times. Actually the times seem pretty terrible to me nowadays, so maybe getting with them is not the best of ideas. Let's rephrase that and say it's never too late to change and try to better yourself and expand your world view. Honest gets that. They have an organic line, which is always a plus, but more importantly they have started releasing some mate teas. Sure it's a mix of mate and black tea, but it's still moving in the right direction and I love it. I'm a sucker for mate so any amount of it is a positive to me. I also see this as a great introduction, or a stepping stone if you will, to get people into yerba mate. I can see stepping into it blind being a bit strange as the earthy flavor could be off-putting if you are expecting it to be like black or green tea. This has a mild earth flavor. It's smoother because of the black tea ( and the sugar). It's a great balance between the two. The mango flavor comes from mango puree as well, so that means it's wonderful. I hope they expand their products into a full yerba mate line. Ahh to dream.

This drink brings up an interesting question, out of all of the protein drinks and powders that we have come across in the wild how is this the first one that is coffee flavored? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that coffee is more than likely the #1 most drank beverage in the country and I feel like excluding it a large market (and profit) is being missed. I could see that it might be hard to get a decent coffee flavor in a powder form, but for the ready to drink variety of protein shakes, I don't see an excuse.
Canvas are no dummies and they know a good product when they see one. They have created what Editor Dan (back from the dead) has called a “Dessert Shake” with a decent coffee flavor. It's not super strong, but then again they call it a latte so the milk (coconut milk) is carrying some of the load. Like the Matcha shake of theirs that I have tried this is thick and grainy (in the best way). The only difference is this time the flavor of the coconut sugar is cutting through a bit more. I'm not the biggest coconut fan, so it's a little distracting to me, but for people who are on the coconut train that is going to be nothing but a positive. This is tasty, healthy and ethical. Can you do better than that?

What does MFP stand for? Major Focused Power? Majestic Forest Provider? Metallica Forever Peeps? Ohh Ohh, maybe it's Milk for President. All of the above are wrong. After some internet searching it came out that it actually means Money From Patience, wait no that's not it either. It's really “Most Full Power.” Seeing as it's originally from the Netherlands and this is made in Poland I will chalk that up to a poor translation, though my times I've spend in both countries the English people spoke was not broken at all. The name isn't all that exciting, but the cryptic MFP with no explanation on the can gets the desired effect.

Names aside the flavor of this is what is to be expected from a diet energy drink. It tastes like liquid candy that had all its sugar replaced with a zero calorie substitution. It's nothing new, it's nothing exciting, but it gets the job done. Normally it's hard for me to drink a full diet beverage, but the base flavor of energy drinks is either strong to enough to mask, or blends in with the sucralose garbage flavor and it makes it palatable. So it's got that going for it.

I called this house meeting because I believe someone has been snooping around my room when I'm not home. My reasoning for this is that someone has obviously been reading my dream journal and then selling the information to the various companies that it would benefit. I mean how else would anyone know that perhaps the product I want most in life to exist is a hibiscus yerba mate seltzer? Yet here I sit with a bottle of Sound in front of me. Yes, I know they mean for it to be more of a sparkling tea, but in my world if it's carbonated with no sugar, it's a seltzer. I also see that they have somehow improved on my dreams and added lime and lemon to the mix. If I weren't so furious that one of you has been going through my things I could weep with happiness. This is one of the most wonderful tasting things I have ever experienced. It's a mixture of yerba mate, white tea and guayusa that has some hibiscus flowers brewed with it. The whole thing tastes like a slightly floral yerba mate with just a twist of citrus. It's obvious that if any company had made it this far into such a wonderful product they would knock it down a few pegs by adding some sugar, or…€¦ick…€¦stevia. Here it sits though, completely unsweetened, just like I always dreamed. You two have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do, especially since you are both cats and I don't know how you even read my journal.

Probiotics have been all the rage over the past few years. We, as Americans, tend to have terrible diets and our digestive system gets all out of whack. To combat this, companies started putting out probiotics, which are living bacteria, similar to those in our bodies to help with digestion and immune defenses. Canvas thought this was all nice and all, but they took things in a different direction and put prebiotic fiber in their shakes that feed and support the bacteria that already exist in your body. Basically it's like saying, “Why give up for yourself and call in reinforcements when your troops just need some provisions to get them through the great digestive wars?” I don't know which way is more productive, as I'm not that kind of scientist. What I do know is that Canvas makes some delicious shakes.

I have to admit that it probably would help you enjoy these beverages if you already had somewhat of a healthy diet. This is “real” food and it tastes as such. If you are used to fast food and soda, and don't necessarily eat a lot of fruits, vegetables or other natural foods, this might be hard to gulp down. If that is the case you are also the type of person who would benefit the most from this, so hold your nose and chug away to force it down. This drink is thick and gritty. It is mostly made up of spent grain isolate (let's just say grains) and cashew milk. It is also sweetened slightly with coconut sugar. The base of it tastes very much like liquid nuts and grains, what weren't quite blended all the way. That probably sounds like a turn off, but I think it's great. For extra flavor that put in some matcha (aka green tea) and it makes it all so very wonderful. If you've never used matcha powder before it has a very specific taste and is like concentrated green tea flavor. It's one of my favorites and as a result I love this shake. My guts love this shake too. I bet yours would as well if you would just put down the liter of cola and chicken nuggets and eat like you were sitting down to dinner in a 1950's sitcom. (I can only imagine food was healthier then).

Have you ever tasted the liquid gold that is Starbucks Passion Tea? Are you like me and love ever second of it but something about buying it from them makes you feel dirty? Sure I probably buy a ton of stuff from much worse companies, but I grew up in a time when coffee shops weren't so sterile and we're actually pretty seedy a lot of the time. They were a haven for artists, musicians and junkies. I miss that. I blame Starbucks for the homogenization of them. I'm sure most people see that as a plus, not this guy.
Anyway, so I've bought the tea leaves myself to make it at home and then never comes out the same. It's tasty, but not nearly as delicious. This is hibiscus with cinnamon, apple, licorice root, and lemongrass. It's how I dream anything hibiscus should taste, yet few do. So here I am, brewing tea that never turns out as good, cursing my inability. Then Teavana releases these ready to drink versions. Sure they are sweetened (not too much) and I'd prefer them to be unsweetened, but I will take what I can get when it comes to this incredible spiced floral tea. Now I need to work on not downing the entire bottle so fast and learn to sip and not gulp.

If you just happen to be a sadistic little so and so, may I recommend forcing people to drink this energy drink. The reason being that it may just be the single most diet tasting drink that I have ever had the displeasure of drinking. I mean I knew this was diet when I was going into it, but woo does it taste so damn diet. I want to say it tastes like a diet mountain dew with the sucralose increased 300%, but it's a slight different citrus taste to it. It's actually hard to make out the actual citrus taste through the insane amount of sucralose that I can only assumed is in this can. So, if you want to see people do a spit take in disgust feed them this. Otherwise I don't know who this is for.

This is a re-branding of Bee Sweet and here is our review when it was called that:

Want to hear the most adorable thing you'll come across all day? This company is owned by an 11 year old lady named Mikaila. It started when she was trying to come up with an idea for a children's business competition. She got stung by a bee, twice and received her grandmother's cookbook with the lemonade recipe in it. Through that she became obsessed with saving bees and donates a percentage of her profits to organizations working to help bees. It kind of makes you feel like you've wasted your life, right? I wish I cared about anything as much as this girl cares for bees. In doing so she also produces a delicious beverage.

The ingredients in this are water, lemon juice, cane sugar, honey, ginger and flaxseed. It's simple. It's delicious. It has digestive benefits. You can also feel good spending your money on it because you're helping a child help bees. The ginger and the lemons overpower the honey a bit, but you can still taste it. I like when beverages taste heavily of honey, but I'm not one to argue with ginger (which has a kick that's on the mellower side in here).

I'm not going to spend the rest of the day staring at the wall trying to figure out how I can be a better person.

It seems that Starbucks is easing back on advertising their Refresher line as “Natural energy from green coffee extract.” I mean it's still in there, but it's just not boldly proclaimed on the front of the can. Instead they are leaning on the coconut water and real fruit juice angle. Whatever they are pushing it is still the same product, well with coconut water added. I think the result is supposed to resemble a natural Gatorade for adults. It has the coconut water and juice to help rehydrate and refresh you, with the added bonus of caffeine to keep you moving. Then again there isn't such sodium in this so I'm probably totally off base. It's also carbonated, so yeah ignore that comparison. I should probably go back and just delete that part, but it looks like I'm going to just keep typing out my thoughts and forgo any professionalism. To reiterate Refreshers do not equal adult Gatorade. They always have seemed like kind of a hangover drink to me. I wonder what percentage of their sales are used for that purpose.

I suppose I should tough on the taste of this thing. It tastes like a lighter black cherry soda. Makes sense right. That's not a flavor I'm overly fond of, but lucky for me there is some lime in the aftertaste and that is something I can get behind. It is all improved through the use of real juice and not just some syrupy mix. I think it might be the coconut water that is making it taste lighter. It just smooths is out a little. Oh wait I just saw that salt is an ingredient so I'm back on the adult Gatorade kick. Nothing but staunch professionalism here.

I have been on a huge tea kick lately. Drinking it hot, brewing mass quantities to put in the fridge to complete the transformation to iced, and just buying bottles and cans of ready to drink stuff. For the most part I have kept it unsweetened to give myself the illusion that I am not treating my body like the town dump, but I've developed a soft spot for the Inko's energy teas. I mean it's not like I'm polluting myself with all the junk in the energy drinks that would initially cross your mind. These are simply flavored white teas (with all the caffeine that involves) with some ginseng and guarana added to it. If these didn't have sugar added the amount that I drink would increase drastically. I probably wouldn't need all of that energy, and by probably I mean definitely. So let's look as this sugar as a benefit since due to it I can actually sleep.

These are some of the few beverages that mix sugar with stevia for lower calorie count that actually don't taste diet (at least if you drink it cold). It's just a not-overly sweetened tea that has a nice mango flavor. This is something I feel other companies should strive for. Inkos knows how to make a good product and I look forward to seeing what they put out next.

Welcome to a very special episode of Tales from the Teahouse. This week there is a new exotic stranger in the town of True Brew. At first the townsfolks write him off because he is formerly a citizen of another country where things are kept quite hot and they feel he has no place in such a cool place as True Brew. Things come to a head when the stranger walks up to the front of the town hall meeting and implores the townsfolk to give him a chance saying that he's not like the other people of his kind. His spice is brewed right into his tea. He knows how purity is so important to the town and that is why he wanted to live there so badly. He is tea, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom all brewed into one magnificent form. If they would just partake of him they would all find that True Brew was truly where he belongs. Some of them partake of his body and find that he is right. He should have been a mess but he was close to perfection. Spiced Chai then became not only their neighbor, but also their god. If Vulture were to review this episode it would go something like ”True Brew is seriously a messed up town and this week a whole racist/Jesus thing went down and when you think about it the racism wasn't really cleared up and it actually ended up more engrained that you originally thought. A must see!”

This is the last baby can of coffee I've got to review. It half makes me sad but between you and I, I've got extra duplicates at home that I can enjoy whenever I want.

I don't know why I like this stuff so much. It's the same review as it always is; it's sweet but not too sweet. It's smooth because of the milk (powder). This did taste a little different but I wouldn't be able to explicitly say, "Oh, that's a Blue Mountain right there." It's got a great coffee taste and is not bitter at all. It's good, though. I don't know why we filthy American's don't embrace stuff like this. This is sweetened, canned coffee. We love coffee here. Embrace it, turds. You'll love it. Why do I call you turds? Because this is my website, not yours. This is my soapbox. You don't talk to the man on the soapbox because he's got something important to say. I mean, he brought that box to make a statement and he's going to do it.

Go to your local Asian market and get this. It's not hard to find. Buffalo is hardly a metropolis. If you are in an equal sized city, you've got a bunch of markets. Just walk in, grab a couple cans, pay for them, and sit in your car and cry because your wife left you for a younger man. Also, drink this.

This drink is just as overly sweet and weird as I thought it would be. Here's a rule you can go by; if a beverage this this bright of a green, it will more than likely be sweeter than you want it to be. The thing is that this really tastes like honey dew though. I mean it tastes like if you cut up a melon and dumped the same amount of sugar on it that your grandmother would dump on her morning grapefruit (or was that just mine?). The thing is that the melon flavor is artificial, yet it doesn't taste like candy as things like this tend to do. The basil seeds really do nothing. As far as I can tell they have no particular taste, and they tend to slip down your throat without you even realizing they exist.

I've been waiting patiently for a proper melon beverage to make its way to me (other than watermelon). This is a step in the right direction, but I really want straight up cantaloupe or honey dew juice. I guess I will just have to make do with this until my dreams come true.

I find it strange that while arguably being the largest coffee company in the US, Starbucks certainly seems to have a lot of ready to drink products that taste very little like coffee. I will admit that this has more of a coffee flavor than the vanilla Frappuccino, but any of their products that have milk in them seem to goa bit overboard with that particular ingredient. While I said the other beverage mentioned here tasted like a melted vanilla milkshake with a shot of coffee in it, this would be that with the number of shots doubled to a whopping two. It's like dessert in a can. I just wish it has a slightly less milky taste to it. I want more coffee in these drinks and less cow sustenance. At least it doesn't taste like someone mixed a Red Bull into a cup of coffee that would be Barf City, USA population me. It shares a lot of the same ingredients to give you a kick of energy, luckily it doesn't share a flavor. In this order this is milk, vanilla, and coffee. Switch that up a bit and this could have been a very, very pleasant beverage, instead of being a notch above serviceable.