Mix/Concentrate - 135 Reviews

Who doesn't want to be fit? I'm not saying you have to go the whole nine yards, juice up, and become completely muscle bound, just toned at least. I do. I feel like I used to be due to my incredible metabolism but then the years started catching up to me and I had to be a bit more conscience about what I eat and drink. I've never gone crazy with food, which is why I'm not four hundred pounds, but I could have definitely done better with my food choices in my life.

In order to become more fit, I have taken up bike riding, which I have actually scaled down since having no time to casually ride my bike with a kid. That helped for a little bit. Now it's down to things like eating right since I don't really have time to go to the gym. Either that or I'm lazy and making excuses. If I were to go to the gym, I know that I would traditionally bring Gatorade but with all the other fitness drinks I've had since doing Thirsty Dudes that might not be the go-to anymore. This is another one that should be on your radar. It's diet, yes. It's sweetened with sucralose, but it's not poison like you might think. The flavor is actually pretty light, which you can control with how much you squeeze in to your glass but I followed directions and it was lighter than I expected. It's zero calories, though, and has everything that's going to energize, hydrate, and electrolyte you to get to your target weight. The flavor is that of a berry, whether it be a blueberry, you know, because it's blue, or a black berry or any nondescript berry. It could be raspberry, which it could be in hindsight because of its "blue" color. You know how that is the only blue food that exists in drink form. Whatever flavor it is, it's not bad and with no calories you could drink it all day, in or out of the gym. I've seriously got to think about something fitness related before my body just rejects what little I do to it for payback.

I went over to my Mom's house a couple months ago and she was drinking this green algae like drink. I was puzzled because the only things I ever see her drinking is iced coffee or diet soda. When I inquired about it, she started going on about how it's this amazing Matcha drink and it's better than coffee. I tried it and it tasted good, so she sent me home with a few packets.

I finally got around to trying it out myself. The green powder doesn't really mix with water very well. It felt like I was stirring it for a good 3 minutes and I am still finding little chunks in it as I'm drinking. The taste though, just as I remembered, is incredible. It's a lot like the green smoothie drinks that Bolthouse and Naked sells, but not as thick and more fruit flavors in it. I can't pinpoint any, but the website for this says it's made with pomegranates and blueberries mixed with the matcha (which is a type of green tea).

Before I started drinking this I was feeling a bit sleepy, but I'm halfway through the glass and I'm already feeling more awake. I'm glad my mom gave me a few packets so it will hold me over until I have a chance to buy some more.

VBlast is a terribly disgusting name for a company. Anything really. Just "Blast" would have been fine but as soon as you added the "V" in there, my mind only goes one place and it gets grozz. I just had to get that off my chest first.

Secondly, this is just juice. This tastes like cherry Kool-Aid. I know there is pomegranate allegedly in there but he is hiding and shouldn't be paid for his role in this drink. It's diet and zero calories and sucralose is not offensive so if you love kid juice and just can't get past the fact that it has like a trillion calories, here is a good supplement. Also, it's got vitamins in it so all of a sudden juice is healthy. Blows your mind with what science can do nowadays, right?

I'm not the mix guy here at Thirsty Dudes. The person you would want to talk to about that is Mike. He loves being a participant in the completion of a beverage. Personally I just want the finished beverage handed to me. Proof of that is that it has more than likely been over a year since Oregon Chai sent us this concentrate and I have yet to try it. Tonight the drink gods decided to shine on the northwestern company because my apartment is freezing and I'm a stubborn so and so that refuses to turn on the heat yet.

The carton tells me to just mix this and milk (almond milk in my case) in equal amounts. I did so and decided to give it a try cold. It's really sweet. So much that the sweetness overpowers the chai-ness and I think I even put in too much concentrate. Every Chai beverage I've ever had has had an overpowering spice to it, but not this. The spiced flavor is there, but it's pretty mellow. After I heated it up the sweetness subsided a bit and it was more balanced out with the spice. The more I drink it the more I realize how much I appreciate the lighthandedness of it. Now I'm a bit warmer and I can sit around reading feeling nicely terrible due to the amount of Indian food Mike and I downed at dinner.

I think I've reached my limit with stevia. I know it's healthier because it's a zero calorie sweetener and it tastes much better than the dreaded aspartame and sucralose, but I feel like it's in 80% of the new drinks that have come out this year. I'm just getting sick of it.

I really wish I could try this drink with real sugar. I think I would absolutely love it. A lightly passionfruit flavored water drink with some vitamins added to it sounds great. Unfortunately the stevia cuts through a little too much. I've heard that stevia helps bring out the natural flavors in a drink, but to me it has a very specific flavor that can combat the actual flavor of the drink a bit too much for my liking. The aftertaste of this is too stevia for me. The entire passionfruit flavor is lost after you swallow. It's unfortunate. Minus the stevia this is a great drink. I would truly enjoy this other than that.

If I've learned one thing from my boss it's that you fill every receptacle in your house or apartment with water as soon as you her that something apocalyptic is about to happen. The water gets contaminated or water supply just gets cut. You end up drinking water of fish bowls and sand pails. For these reasons, you've got to spice it up any way you can.

While you are stocking up on bottled water if you are some sort of clean freak, you should stock up on these little guys. They are discreet and better than a lot of other drink mixes. It's organic, too so you can feel good about the lack of additives that are going into your system while you are absorbing countless radiation charges and poisons from whatever happened during the apocalypse. This is a good juice and doesn't taste like a mix at all. It is actually very cherry and somewhat berry tasting. Not too sweet although since it's a mix, you could make it as sweet or weak as you wanted. It might be the only fruit you're going to get if something happens to the crops.

My boss loves "end of the world" scenario shows and brings the "what ifs" into the office. We enjoy talking about it but not as much as he likes watching them. Also, nothing gets him madder than when they all get cancelled. Apparently no one else besides him thinks that preparedness is a skill worth learning.

Lemonade, plain old lemonade, is pretty quickly going the way of vanilla ice cream. "What am I talking about?" you say? Well it's just kind of old news. There are better things out there. Vanilla and lemonade are becoming so...basic. You just have to do so much to make them interesting. I guess that adding blueberry isn't that much but you feel me, right dogg?

This lemonade, albeit not really natural, isn't bad. It's blue, which I don't like because I hate things that turn my mouth blue. This doesn't do that, so I'm not counting it against it, but that's why I'm always fearful of blue drinks and candy. It doesn't have a bite like a true lemonade would but the lemon and blueberry flavor is pretty good. It's kind of in the middle of something like a blueberry lemonade popsicle and the juice that you would expect. It doesn't taste diet and doesn't taste bad. That is two wins.

During World War II, while important battles were going on all over the place, the US Government sent a few spies into Italy to steal something. That something was the recipe for Italian Ice, that fantastic summer treat. It took a couple weeks of recon and infiltration, trust, and lies but they got it. They flew home with the recipe in a metal briefcase handcuffed to the leader.

When they got home it took a week or so to get it right but they got it. This was a big score for the troops because they not only got a sweet treat when the weather was ravaging them, but if they could not freeze it long enough, they would have lemonade. The mix made a good lemonade and they started phasing out the lemon ice. It tasted good, not diet regardless of artificial sweeteners, and reminded the troops of a delicious infiltration so many years ago.

I know that after a while this would get old, but I wish everything had the ability to mix in your own flavors like this. I guess it would be hard to do things that involved syrup and stuff so let's say all drinks that can be separated by water and drink mix should do this. What's more fun that making your own drink by twisting a cap? Well...a lot but you get me, right? It's the little things in life.

This drink, price aside, renders grape Kool-Aid obsolete. It tastes like a wonderfully blended, perfectly mixed grape Kool-Aid with a little Stevia taste but the flavor is the same. I assume that you could ask any near-toothless eight year old boy if this is Kool-Aid and he would say that it was. What a dumb kid. You know what it is but he doesn't. What a dumb little boy. He doesn't know anything about the disaster area that is the inevitable life ahead of him. If he only knew what the next ten years of homework and school and girls and Top 40 radio held for him. You can't tell him all that in one go, though, because that would destroy him. It would turn him into the cynical jerk that you have become from your years of desensitization and chronic disappointment.

This tastes like grape Kool-Aid but it's atrocious for you. You and eight year old kids agree so it has to be true.

Charlie hated candy. He didn't hate the taste of it, he was just raised to hate candy by his parents who believed that anything unnatural was wrong and raised him on a very healthy diet of all natural foods. He didn't have a McDonald's hamburger until he was old enough to drive to a McDonald's and get one for himself. One day, when he was nineteen, he went to the store and on his way out he saw a candy machine. He decided that he would try it out. He dug out a quarter and got some Cherryhead candies. He ate two or three and his mind was blown. In the middle of the grocery store he dropped his organic eggs, milk, and screamed. He had missed nineteen years of candy and this was his first time ever having it and he was kicking himself for not being able to try it earlier. He ran to a store clerk and begged him to help him find more Cherryheads. The clerk said they only sold the candy in the vending machine but they sold a powder version of the candy that he could buy. He thought that would be perfect because he could just carry a bottle of water out of the house and fill it when he was on the road and his parent's weren't looking. He eagerly paid for the mix, went home, and went to sleep.

The next day Charlie had to go to work. He jumped out of bed, got ready for work, and jumped in the car. He brought his water with him, drove to an empty lot, parked his car, opened his glove compartment and grabbed the mix. Just as he started to pour the mix, he heard a knock at the window. He jumped, spilling some mix on himself. He looked out the window and it was his dad. He rolled down the window and asked his dad what was up. His dad told him that he was driving and saw his car in this empty lot and wanted to know if everything was alright. Just as he said that, he looked over and saw the box of drink mix. He said to Charlie, "Son, it's alright. I've been sneaking candy past your mother for almost three decades. I've hid it in the laundry chute that I convinced your mother was broken but it's really just blocked by my stash of candy. Just hide it from your mother and you'll be fine. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner." He nodded at his father and shook up his drink mix and took a sip. It tasted exactly like that candy he had in the store yesterday. Just as sweet and just as strong of a cherry taste. He was thrilled. He was also very excited that both he and his dad could bond over the fact that over the next few years, they would hide candy around the house together behind his mom's back.

Times like this are when my science skills get to shine. What sits in front of me is a delicious honey vanilla chai tea concentrate. There is a whole lot of concentrate in this bottle. The ingredients say that it's enough for eight servings, but I just made a glass, and it barely made a dent in the bottle.

To prove I am a scientist I got out some measuring cups so that I could follow the directions exactly. When it comes to reviewing concentrates like this it's pretty crucial to get it just right, or the favor could be completely off. Yeah, something as simple as that is still science, deal with it. The directions say to mix it with milk or milk substitute. Since I am not proud of my mutant gene that allows me to drink other creature's milk (oh man Professor X would be so disappointed in me) I went with unsweetened almond milk. I also chose to make it the cold way instead of hot, as it's summer and who wants to drink hot tea at 3PM in the blazing hot sun?

So I followed the directions and made myself a nice chilled glass of honey vanilla chai tea, and it is gosh darn delicious. It definitely tastes more vanilla than most chai teas I've had before. You also can taste the honey, which I didn't really expect. If this is what was served to me after I just shelled over nearly $5 at a local coffee shop, I wouldn't be upset or feel cheated. In fact if I didn't know any better I really wouldn't know that it was made from a concentrate. Some of the spices didn't really mix in all that well, and I would get sip that were chock full of clove and cinnamon, but I blame that on my mix of choice. I feel like they may have mixed in better with cow milk. I actually decided to drink a second glass, and I upped the almond milk ratio a little bit, and it turned out more my speed. That's the joy of concentrates, you can make them as weak or as strong as you'd like. Man, I really can't wait to try this hot once the sun goes down.

My brother has a friend that is in the armed forces. I don't know what branch, sorry. I guess he goes out for weekends and get these and sometimes gives them to my brother. I was at my parent's house and she offered it to me and told me to give it a try. Looking at this bag of government drink mix, I didn't know what to expect other than bland. Honestly, I didn't know they had such gourmet flavors up their sleeves. I figured it was a lot of dehydrated ice cream and dehydrated Salisbury steak. Everything in the military is dehydrated. I've been to the Army/Navy surplus store. I know what I'm talking about.

I followed the directions to a "T." Six ounces of water, place in bag, shake, and drink. Like I said, I didn't know what to expect so I wanted this to be as ideal as possible. I poured it back out and it came out looking like chocolate milk. Ideal. I took a sip and was pleased. It tasted like chocolate milk and I guess there could have been hazelnut in there. The only reference I have for chocolate and hazelnut is Nutella, which I love.

We do this website for people who want to try new drinks. I guess that if you're in the military, you can't really be picky so here's what I'm saying. If you have been drinking the chocolate milk day in and day out, you are safe with this one. You've done well, government. You treat our troops better than I thought.

Tommy goes to the tropics often. Ever since he saw that scene in Dumb and Dumber where the Hawaiian Tropics girls drive by in the bus, he knew that's where he wanted to visit. The "lady count" wasn't as high as he liked it but the weather and scenery was gorgeous so he doesn't complain. He travels there a few times a month and the locals have begun to recognize him and charge him a non-tourist rate on things like groceries and essentials.

Graduating from tourist to pre-local, he decided to celebrate by going to a local, non-franchise coffee shop that advertises that they harvest all their own stuff down to having a nearby coffee orchard, and roasting and brewing their own coffee beans. Tommy walked in and being the non-coffee drinker he was, he ordered a Very Berry Hibiscus juice. A couple minutes later he got an ice-cold glass with a sweet smelling nectar inside. He knew he had gone to the right place. He took one sip and loved it. It was lightly berry but still had a solid hibiscus flavor. It was advertised as sweetened with cane sugar and a Stevia sweetener.

He asked the waitress if they made it there and she leaned down and whispered in his ear that it was just a Starbucks powdered drink and that she told him because she knew he wasn't a local anymore. He lost a little bit of respect since they apparently are not all locally made items but he still went back since they didn't treat him like a filthy tourist.

"I don't like this. Do you want it?" she says to me. I don't often get proposals like this but I will always jump at the chance to drink something someone else doesn't want as long as it makes a good review. Obviously I said yes and the effect of that was over half a dozen packets of cherry pomegranate diet drink mix in my hand and a happy co-worker that doesn't have to look at them ever again. Everyone wins.

I made myself a glass of this and here's how it goes. If you fast-forward to Fall where people make candy covered apples, take their excess candy coating and roll some cherries and pomegranate arils in it and munch away on that. After you're done eating those at-one-time-healthy-snacks-now-made-terribly-unhealthy-snacks, imagine how they would be liquefied and that's about the slot that this drink fills. It's candy sweet but you can still manage to taste the pomegranate and cherry. That surprises me after thinking now of how good candy covered pomegranate is. Candy covered cherries doesn't appeal to me for some reason. If you're covering arils in the same stuff you use to make candy covered apples, you will have more candy than fruit. I guess I didn't think the logistics and dynamics of the comparison before I mentioned it. Oh well. It still stands. Enjoy your diet, everyone. Now with candy!

Italian Fest will be next week. I have a strange thing where I don't like to eat Italian food because I feel like I've never had Italian food that is any better than what I can make at home. I know that I have just irritated every Italian that is reading this as well as anyone who is reading this with an Italian lurking over their shoulder. Italian Fest is like St. Patrick's Day where everyone is Italian for the day. Well, everyone except Sicilians since there is some...thing...going on there.

To combat Italian Fest my own, stupid way, I decided to make some Italian food myself in the comfort of my own home. I boiled some boxed penne, and put some Goya chipotle marinade in some pre-made mushroom sauce and ate it and it was fantastic. I won. I beat Italian Fest. I decided to accompany my victory meal with a cold glass of MiO lemonade. I didn't know what to expect because my ideal lemonade has a pound of pulp in it. I know the container's restrictions so I wasn't surprised that there wasn't pulp in there. A couple squirts later, the water has turned into lemonade. This lemonade tasted like little kid's lemonade that was a bit watered down. That also means that you could make better MiO lemonade by not following directions and adding "too much" mix. It's got a bit of a diet taste, but it's a diet drink so who's surprised there? Not I. Not I.

Dear Italians. You're wonderful people but can keep your gross, cheese filled desserts.

Bro...I'm so hung over. I had a few too many Corona Lights, Bud Lights, strawberry daiquiris, Appletinis, Fuzzy Navels, Sex on the Beaches, Singapore Sling, Jagerbombs, and Zimas. Yeah, I drank all of them. What? I'm 22 and I am invincible. What was my tab? I don't know. Hold on. I'll get it. It was...$321.86. Woo. That's a lot. You were right there. Do we have any coffee? I'm dying over here. How are you fine? You drank one last shot? I don't understand how a shot saves you from the immense headache that I'm feeling. What? It's a powder? Are you talking about coke? Dude, I will drink until the sun comes up but I'm not doing coke. Oh, you're not talking about coke. Alright. It's a thing you put in water that you drink after you slam a few dozen drinks? Would it have helped me? You think it would? Did you see how many Bartles and James I had last night? So you just drink it and it makes hangover's not happen? My god. How do I get that inside of me like eight hours ago? Can I try one? You do what? You press it into a bottle of water? That's cool. It tastes like chalky, fruity Smarties. It's not bad, but it's clearly a powder in its infancy. I like it and it's drinkable, though. I would easily drink this after a night of crushing Smirnoff Ice.

I wish I had found this last night. I wish I had a better roommate that would allow me to not have the room spin. I guess until time travel is invented, I'm going to lay here on the kitchen floor with the lights off. Oh, you need to make a sandwich? What time is it? 4:00!? Well I'm fired. I don't even care. I'm not leaving this floor until that ceiling fan starts spinning on its own and not by my mind's way. This is sickening.

Let me start off by saying that I don't like reviewing mix drinks. When we started doing this site, I wanted it to be for ready to drink beverages only. I don't like that there can be so many variables that can affect the taste of a mix drink. Mike started reviewing some, then we got sent a couple more, and here I am reviewing a drink mix. I know that just blew your collective minds.

I figured since this was just going into a specific sized bottle of water (160z) there really isn't much that could go wrong. Well there was my first problem. The Powercap didn't attach correctly to the top of my water bottle. It has one of those shorter caps that use less plastic, and it apparently didn't leave enough room for the cap to latch on. I held it in place, pushed the thumb dispenser and when I was certain all of the powder had made it into the bottle I replaced the Powercap with the original cap and shook it up. Problem = overcome.

I like the idea of these caps, because you can easily bring them everywhere without having to carry around bulky bottles. My problem with them is that they are generally all 0 calories so the sweeteners they use are of the diet variety. This cap used stevia, which is the least offensive 0 calorie sweetener in my eyes. That doesn't mean that I thoroughly enjoy the taste of it though. While the contents of the cap do give the drink a mild pomegranate/acai taste (more than I expected) the stevia aftertaste turns me off. It's pretty strong and it overpowers the actual flavor the drink it supposed to have. My ladyfriend thinks that it tastes like medicine, but if you're used to diet drinks, you probably wouldn't mind it at all.

Hey moneybags! Yeah you. I see you there with your off-red J. Crew shorts with alligators on them, dock shoes nowhere near a body of water, Wayfarer sunglasses, and polo shirt. Come on, you're a dead giveaway looking like this. You are your own personal Harajuku you doofus. Come here, I've got something for you. Look, you've got the cash. I know you do. Oh, you don't? Nice Rolex Submariner. I'm sorry, were you saying something? I didn't think so. As I said, I've got something for you. You look like you're in decent shape and judging by your attire, and yes, I am judging a book by its cover, you row crew. That's cool. You've got deceivingly calloused hands even though you've probably never worked a day in your life. What are you even studying here at this college? Oh, general studies? Awesome. Enjoy your inherited millions. I'm sorry. I've got a 400 level economics test at three that I'm a bit stressed about.

What was I talking about? Oh, right, your money. I've got this for you. It's quite expensive but the likes of regular people like me can't afford it and I could use a little bit of cash, so if you could buy it from me...what is it? It's an antioxidant booster that you put in your water. One dropper for every cup of water but I've put it in tea, too. It's pomegranate flavored, unsweetened, and pretty great. It's got that really bitter pomegranate flavor mixed with the contrasting sweetness everyone loves about pomegranates. Ying and yang, that fruit. You drop it the water, stir it up, and drink it up. I like it but could use some cash for food and stupidly bought two of these and saw you sticking out like a sore thumb and thought that you might enjoy clean skin and lustrous hair. You do? Of course you do. I'll sell it to you for $30, which is like $10 less than I paid for it but I could easily get a Crave Case and feed my three roommates and myself for a couple days. You don't know what a Crave Case is? Man, what's it like to have all that money?

Hazel, your breath is terrible. I'm sorry. My darling, I love you. I really do. We've been together for a solid two months and I have to be honest; it's often hard to talk to you. I'm sorry. I am. I want to be the man you want and I hope that man is if one thing, honest. I am an honest man, my sweet. For that reason I have to tell you the truth. The truth is that I love you and your breath smells.

I don't want you to change because I love you for who you are and that includes your stank breath so I've brought you something. Do you know how you like unsweetened tea? I've bought you unsweetened tea. Not just any unsweetened tea but mint unsweetened tea. That should help combat that pesky halitosis. It's not too minty, either so you don't have to worry about drinking mouthwash. Another wonderful thing is that it's a concentrate so you've got so many glasses of this stuff coming your way. It's got a decent green tea taste with just a hint of mint to fight your paint peeling breath.

You understand? I'm so happy, my darling. I only want the best for us and I've been thinking about this for quite some time. You are a wonderful person and I wish us the best of luck in the future. I've made you a gallon of tea and I recommend you start drinking it now.

Ahh mocktails, the perfect drink for a summer afternoon. This drink fits many "perfect" slots for many people, too. For instance, did you know that you cannot drink when you are pregnant? Well, technically you can but there's no telling what will happen to the baby growing inside your tummy. Answer? Mocktails. Alcoholics shouldn't drink because it could quickly spiral out of control for them and the next thing you know they'll have a unicorn with a rainbow on it tattooed on their ankle. No one, not even fans of unicorns want that tattoo. Who else would love a mocktail? Kids? It's a stretch but kids that want to act cool and drink like their parents could drink mocktails all day long.

Now onto the drink itself: It's a fantastically retro peach Bellini. Traditionally made with sparkling wine and peach puree, this drink is probably closer to none of those things. It's not sparkling although you probably could make this with seltzer water and it would be spot on. It does taste quite peachy and no, I don't mean that in a 1996 KoЯn kind of way. Could you imagine if you went backstage at a KoЯn show and Munky, Head, and Fieldy were all drinking mocktail peach Bellinis? That would have been quite an image. Tough, nu-metal dudes drinking a low-cal faux alcoholic drink? I mean, they are professionals and had a show to put on. I would imagine that the pre-show ritual would include mock drinks but the post-show would involve shear chaos.

This drink isn't bad. It doesn't taste terribly diet, which is a plus and a bit of a shocker since I can usually spot a disgusting aspartame drink a mile away. This is loud on the peach, but take it from someone who isn't 100% into peaches, it's still good. KoЯn agrees. The Allman Brothers agree. The Presidents of the United States of America agree. This peach Bellini is pretty good.