United States - 4098 Reviews

Energy shots are garbage. It's a scientific fact. They are concentrated so they taste like liquid trash. It's up to you to decide if the trade off it worth it. Do you want to chug a big sugary can of something that will make you pee at least twice, or do you want something quick and compact? The cans generally taste better, in their own chemical way, but the shots can be stored in a pocket for anytime use.

Normally the shots and cans are around the same price, but On Go has put out this line of shots that are less than a dollar each. So they are compact and inexpensive. This one also tastes like radioactive raspberries. It's sad that the flavor doesn't put it at a disadvantage against other energy shots. As I said they all taste like neon trash. I can say that this works, possibly too well. I drank it on an all day excursion of bike riding/hiking/beaver watching and pizza eating and I was unable to fall asleep until about 4am. I should have been completely exhausted like my friends, who passed out around midnight, but this little bottle kept me alert, even when I pleaded for it not to.

Why America is Fat, by Mike Literman of the Thirsty Dudes,

It's no stretch to say that many American's are overweight. We can't go a week without hearing the nightly news talk about how we weigh more than all other countries combined, or something along those lines. That's not true, but you can't go a week without seeing footage of obese, neck down citizens. Why does this happen? Well it's actually very simple. American's do not understand moderation. Food servings are too big here. Yeah, feeling filled is great, but the fact that there is a four patty Baconator at Wendy's is too much food. Yes, it's too many calories for a family of four eating a five-course meal, too, but it's too much food for one person. It seems like it's gone too far because as soon as some restaurant comes up with a reasonable quantity of food, people won't know what to do with so little food and that joint will be closed twice as fast as it opened. Cheese comes on everything and cheese is delicious. Everything is doused in some sort of sauce or cream. Diet pop doesn't taste good so people opt to get non-diet drinks in exchange. That's where Thomas Kemper comes into play.

Thomas Kemper, a responsible group of people, has developed a root beer that is diet using Splenda that doesn't taste like you're drinking some sort of industrial strength floor cleaner. It's dark, has a strong vanilla taste, and although it isn't as complex as their non-diet version, people who drink diet pop or should be drinking diet pop can sigh in relief at the fact that this drink is not gross. It's more than not gross, but baby steps say that saying that it's "great" might be overstepping my boundaries. I will say that this is probably the best diet root beer I've had and that should hold some weight. Also, they still craft it using honey, just as one would expect from Mr. Kemper and friends.

I'm not calling you fat, but instead of drinking eight beers, six of which are in a six pack and it is a six pack made from other people's beer that they left in your fridge that you decided were now your own and you would fashion your own, custom sixer and balance it on your stomach, leave them in the fridge for another day, or never, and replace it with a six pack of delicious, diet root beer. Your belts, which you have actually worn out an awls because you have put so many of your own holes in them, will thank you.

Today was another earth scorching day in Buffalo. I had to run a bunch of errands so I was walking all over the place with the sun beating down on me. I could have really used a drink but I totally forgot to grab this when I left in a hurry this morning.

Maine Root is known for their delicious soda. I personally think their sarsaparilla is one of the best on the market. When I found out they started making lemonade, I was very excited to try it. When I saw it had maple syrup in it, my excitement was immeasurable.

Did it live up to the hype I gave it in my head? It surely did! As far as thirst quenching lemonades, this is one of the best I've ever had. I wish it had more tartness, but the lemon flavor is good and delicious. The maple syrup is what makes this drink amazing. It has this mouth-watering syrup aftertaste that makes me want to drink more.

To the people at Maine Root, thank you for making this but I have a suggestion. Use maple syrup in your root beer and/or sarsaparilla. It's been my dream to find a root beer with it, and I think it would make your already amazing soda unforgettable.

A lot of people fear Kim Jong-Il. This probably has something to do with the fact that he keeps his country under wraps, commits horrible human rights violations, and leaves the people who live there living in fear. I once watched a documentary about the Pyongyang mass games in North Korea. Basically, they put on this huge display of athletes, dancers, and gymnasts to celebrate Kim Jong-Il's birthday. They spent months and months, day and night, training for this. In the end, he didn't even show up. He wasn't sick or had something else to do, he just didn't feel like going. What a jerk!

I don't know about other people, but I stopped thinking Kim Jong-Il was a "threat" when I found this blog: http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com . This blog is why I love the internet. How can you live in fear of a guy who looks at stuff all the time? What I would love to see is him look at a bottle of this orange cream soda. I wonder if he'd be offended or flattered. It does say it has a "terrorizing taste".

As far as taste goes, he should be really flattered. This is one of the best orange cream soda's I've ever had. It has a really strong orange flavor with a nice creamy aftertaste. It's made with cane sugar and real vanilla. I was expecting it to be a generic soda inside of a cool bottle. The people at Rocket Fizz probably made sure it tasted good in case he got mad about the label. I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to be on Kim Jong-Il's enemy list.

I was riding my bike in a race at historic Billy Goat Falls today. Uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill and so on and so forth. It was a five and a half mile race and reached some intense inclines of about forty percent. It would have been a test to even the most seasoned rider. It took me twenty-six minutes to complete it and I rode along the mountains and we saw snowcaps on mountains, gondolas, and even that pesky Sasquatch who was just walking around in his cave watching the race.

When I finished, one whole minute behind my teammate, we headed back to base camp, cranked up Craig David's Story Goes, and drank some XAPP.

Initially the taste was pretty good. Fresh out of the cooler at the base it was pretty refreshing, but as soon as the dreaded room temperature hit, it started getting that thick, gritty, protein taste. If I could review the initial, better taste, it was good. Not too sweet and a pretty standard fruit punch taste. It didn't have any of the protein drink flavor. I don't know if it just kind of congealed once it warmed up, but that's what I'm hypothesizing happened and that led to a thick drink that was no where near as good as it initially was.

Tomorrow we may take a trip to that roller coaster that you can ride your bike on, or maybe take a day trip to space and ride in the tunnels they have up there. We'll play it by ear.

This drink is more soymilk than it is coffee and it shows. For some people that might be a turnoff, but for me it's a green light to keep on drinking. The coffee taste is at a level that puts it at "fancy coffee drink" status. Something that you would order at a local coffeehouse with a wacky name. It still has a coffee flavor, but it's smoothed out. If you drink your coffee black, this will taste insanely weak to you, but for those of us who only dabble in coffee drinks that are flavored with other things, this may be a stepping stone for getting into the hard stuff.

I am a licorice addict (except black licorice, it's some of the worst crap ever) . Seriously it's sad. If I open a bag it has to be taken away from me or I will consume it all in one sitting without even thinking about it, and I'm talking those huge bags of Twizzlers. Recently I've moved onto bigger and better things with Australian licorice. Now that is some good stuff. When I opened our package from Rocket Fizz and saw this bottle of red licorice soda I will admit I sort of lost my mind (I threw that black licorice one in Mike's pile, he can drink that swill and lie to you and say it was great).

So yes, I am an addict. I love licorice more than most foods. I had incredible expectations for this drink. Sadly Rocket Fizz did not follow through, and I mean very sadly. I thought I had found my new favorite pop. It smells almost right. By that I mean it smells like red licorice, but not as strong as Twizzlers. I was still extremely excited. I took a sip and noticed that while it's in your mouth it doesn't really taste like much. I took another sip and it has a very light "red pop" flavor. It's when you swallow that the actual flavor hits you. It's vaguely licorice tasting, but it's more of the cheap knock of brand licorice that you would find at a discount store.

Did I expect too much? Probably. Could Rocket Fizz have made a better soda? Definitely. It's by no means terrible. It's a decent fruity soda, but it didn't deliver what I wanted and that is saddening. I just really wish it was a lot stronger tasting.

Oh and to those of you who say that it's not real licorice unless it's black licorice, I will never understand your taste buds. I'd rather eat dirt. That's right dirt with worms in it!

On a fluke, sometimes it's really nice in Buffalo. Contrary to popular belief, although it snows like the dickens...Dickens(?)...Who cares? Contrary to popular believe, although it snows like Charles Dickens, the grass and snow sometimes emerge and when they do at the same time, it can be a really nice day. When this blue moon happens, the city knows it and every one goes outside. I'm going to say that the crime rate drops to zero because even the gangsters are drinking lemonade or buying new slacks at local shops. Gunfights are an indoor activity and should not be wasted on nice days like today.

We went out today to Buffalo's one of two beaches which, if you live in suburbia, are smaller than your yard and one of them is landlocked. A novel attempt, but poor delivery and a poor use of my tax dollars, I should say. Regardless, we played in the sand, walked by some WWII battleships, and got some ice cream. It was a nice walk into the sun and it made me quite parched.

While waiting for ice cream, I picked up a Vitamin Water that we somehow didn't do. I was going to get the orange one, because I like it, but the raspberry apple sounded better and more quenching. I made the right choice. It was everything I wanted it to be and was very refreshing, very cold, and I wish I didn't have to share it because I'm home now and am still thirsty. It did actually taste like raspberry and apple and nothing else. It was really good and possibly my new fallback when it comes to Vitamin Water. That says a lot.

To cap the night, I'm sure that there will be drag races outside my window as there are on most night and maybe, just maybe, if I'm lucky, there will be prostitutes outside watching the races, soliciting the racers and passersby. Hey, a woman has to make a living. I won't call the cops on you, girls.

Most energy drinks are targeted towards people between the ages of 15 and 30. Companies market them as "extreme" drinks that give you a rush. Most of them are so jam packed with artificial chemicals that I won't be shocked when studies come out in 10-15 years showing that everyone has pickled their insides and we're all going to die, but hey I stayed out all night partying so who cares?

There are other people who need pick me ups as well, but they aren't going to drive to the local convenience store and pick up a Monster or a Rockstar. There are health conscious people out there who want a little extra help getting their day going. Typically those people drink coffee, but Sambazon offers an alternative. This drink is a mixture of sparkling acai and acerola juice that are both extremely healthy fruits. Then they mix in organic guarana, guayaki and yerba mate to add an energy burst. It's all natural, and it's not going to give you the jitters like you might expect from your run of the mill energy drinks.

It definitely tastes like acai, which I know a lot of people are turned off by. If it's a flavor you're not into, you should steer clear of this product. I personally enjoy it when it's not too overpowering and it's not in this drink.

It's a hard life being a nerdy football player. What's wrong with a 6' 4", 280-pound jock who also likes to play Magic: The Gathering? I'll tell you what's wrong with it, it cost me my Gatorade endorsement. I was at the regional semi finals and I brought my Gatorade water bottle with me because I like to stay hydrated when I'm fighting Shivan Dragons and Serra Angels. Well it just so happens that the head of Gatorade saw a picture of me on http://www.gatheringmagic.com drinking from my water bottle with my Magic cards in my other hand. Next thing I know, i get this call from my agent saying they're letting me go because "they don't like my off field activities". What am I? Michael Vick? It's a collectible card game, not dog fighting.

Anyways, my agent is in talks with this company Greater Than. He gave me a few bottles to try and I really like the stuff! It has a lot more flavor than Gatorade, plus it has coconut water in it so it has a really smooth after taste. The lemon-lime is my favorite so far because it's light, refreshing, but still flavorful. Hopefully they don't look down on people who play M:TG. I'd gladly drink from a Greater Than water bottle at the next tournament.

Franklin Mercer realized how much he had put his family through for the past couple of months. Whatever made him think that he was cut out to be an Olympic athlete is beyond me. Now that his dreams were behind him he decided to take Sharon and the kids on a camping expedition in Wisconsin.

They got a nice little lakeside cabin and everything was calm and relaxing. It was the most perfect vacation any of them had ever been apart of. When hiking the first night they discovered a cherry orchard and a cranberry swamp. What cranberries were doing growing in Wisconsin Franklin had no idea, but it was a nice discovery. On the third day Sharon decided to take the kids out to pick some fruit. They were filling their baskets and bindles full of juicy fruit (not the gum) when the trouble began. Dozens of cardinals came out of nowhere and started attacking the children, pecking at their tiny hands and faces. The family dropped everything and ran the mile back to their cabin, where they filled in Franklin on what had happened.

Franklin was infuriated and stormed out the door, grabbing his butterfly net off the porch. He made his way out to the orchard and hid until he saw a bird. He caught they cardinal in his net and was getting prepared to bash its skull in (Have I mentioned that Franklin has anger management problems?) when he realized that it wasn't an actual bird but rather it was animatronic. Suddenly he fell out of his hiding space in the tree. When he looked up there were two men standing above him. They helped him up, brushed him of and took him to the other side of the swamp where they had a small brewery. They were the Sprecher brothers, and they explained to him that they had grown the fruit in such a strange location in order to produce their new soda "Ravin' Red." They gave him a bottle to try, apologizing for their robot bird attack on his family. They had built them to keep away other animals, never expecting humans to stumble upon their orchard. Franklin accepted their apologies and cracked open the soda. His first thought when he took a sip was how full bodied it was. It had mostly a very sweet cranberry flavor, but some cherry was poking it's nose through. The brothers said the full bodiedness was due to the fact that it was fire brewed. That made sense so Franklin continued to drink. The more he drank the more he noticed a problem. The flavor didn't really fade away into an after taste after he swallowed. The more he drank the more intense the flavor got. BY the time he was 3/4 of the way done with the bottle it almost tasted like he was drinking a concentrate without the consistency. He finished off the bottle, told the brothers thank you for the soda, but you may want to work on it a little more and then walked home. Of course he did steal their butterfly net off of the porch as he had landed on his breaking it earlier in the story.

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

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

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

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

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

"Energy and persistence alter all things" - Benjamin Franklin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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