Beet Sugar - 12 Reviews

Let's get things sorted, shall we. First off, this is a company with a French name, which means “beautiful.” Secondly, it is not a French company, and they actually reside in the United Kingdom. Finally, this is a flavor that leads my mind to not drift to neither France, nor the UK, but instead to the American South. This is something I could imagine being sipped on the porch of a fancy plantation in a time when racism ran rampant. Wait, am I talking about the 1800s, or 2018? Garbage humans aside, this is one hell of a beverage. It's as refreshing as anything on an oppressively hot summer day.
Something about the cucumber and mint gives it an almost pickle smell, but trust me that is nowhere to be found in the taste (as pointed out by recording engineer Jay Zubricky). This is pure luxury in a sipable format. It is mostly cucumber and mint, in a good way that does not resemble chewing gum one bit. I had thought that just being at that point would be wonderful, and the added lemon seemed like overkill, but I was wrong, it adds something wonderful to the mix. It hides around the edges and gives it the little bump it needed to become an ultimate summer beverage.

The British have a very different take on sodas and I love it. Growing up in the US you are fed your cola, root beers, lemon limes, orange sodas and the like. In England it's all ginger beer, dandelion and burdock, elderflower and other deliciousness that is strange to my American tongue. Okay, maybe they aren't all strange, but they are way different than what I grew up with and it's a difference that I can appreciate. I'm not sure if all Fentimans sodas are classic British flavors, but if they are myself, as a young boy would think they were from another world.

If you think about it, a straight lime soda isn't very common in the US. Sure we are up to the gills in lemon lime (and it can all be flushed away with the mass quantity of pet fish that have died), but just lime are hard to come by. Now take that and then throw some jasmine in it and you have stepped aboard Mr Toad's Wild Soda Ride. It's floral, it's very much lime and it's fairly bitter. It has a tonic water sort of taste to it, which leads me to believe that this would make a great mixer for liquor. When I mentioned that I bet this would go great with gin (which I have never tasted) I was told that both of them are made with juniper berries. Look at me being smart for once in my life.

While I do love this, I can only drink it in small amounts, which when you think about it is how you should probably always enjoy soda pop. This 16.9oz bottle with probably also last me five or six sittings, so I win again and again. I'm pretty sure 99 out of 100 children would hate this, but what do they know. This is a soda for adults, whether they want to mix it with alcohol or not.

Sometimes when you're a non-drinker, you still want to pretend like your fancy. You dress up, get yourself a fancy bottle of sparkling juice, get out the nice glass wear and play at being adults who are better than your current station in life. Then there are other times when you get that same bottle, dress like you always do and just take swig after swig directly from the bottle at a party. Can you guess which category I fell under? I'm not one for delusion, I'm happy with my place in life, and I most certainly love fancy drinks. This is most certainly fancy.

If Ikea is any indication, lingonberries run rampant in Sweden and they are used to flavor everything. I really wish this were true, but when I visited that country I don't think I saw anything of that flavor. It's a shame because it's a fantastic tasting fruit. Oh, you say you've never tasted lingonberry before? Well let me let you in on a secret; you know the classic red Swedish Fish candy that you love? Yep, that's lingonberry flavored. That's actually the perfect way to describe this. It tastes like someone somehow juiced a huge bag of Swedish Fish and mixed it with apple juice. The whole thing comes off not tasting like candy at all, but coming off as very natural, because you know it is an actual fruit, and not really made from chewy confections.

This is very likely the greatest sparkling juice I have ever tasted. Sure, I'd like to think I could do without the added beet sugar, but who knows maybe that would have offset the flavor balance. I do not want to upset the balance. They have it perfect.

To break up a 20 hour drive from the UK to Italy, we stopped in a town right outside of Dijon, France. I was one hungry little boy since the only vegetarian food I was able to find (that wasn't candy or chips) since we crossed into France was baguettes at a gas station. For the record they were warm and cost 60 cents each, in short they were wonderful, but I was starving. We finally got to our stop and hit up a grocery store. Let me tell you non-meat eaters/pseudo vegans of the world, when you can't read labels France is no place for our kind. Everything was meats and cheeses. I ended up getting a couple more baguettes and a handful of avocados for my day's meals. It some that may seem ridiculous, but it's actually what I eat a lot at home, so I was comfortable with my situation. While in the store I also picked up this bottle of soda on the cheap and I was very excited about it.

With this fancy bottle I really thought I was in for something special. Then I remembered that things just look fancier in Europe than they do back home in the US. It wasn't bad at all; it just didn't have that special pizzazz that I was hoping for. According to my traveling companions it tasted like a generic cola that they have back in Wales. I wish I remember what it was called, but the name escapes me. The thing is that even though it may be budget cola to them, it's made with beet sugar so it already has a leg up in my world. One would think that such a sweetener would give the cola an unusual flavor, but it tastes just like it was sweetened with cane sugar.

Had this been the first cola I had in France i probably would have enjoyed it immensely, but I had drunk a Coke earlier in our travels, and that blew the American version out of the water. A fountain Coke in Italy is better than most artisan sodas in the US. We're doing something wrong people.

Lemonade is great but man is there a lot of sugar in there. Kids don't know portioning or teaspoons from tablespoons. "Who cares?" they say as they dump a cup of sugar into a container that only needs two tablespoons of sugar. Kids are often adorable but their actions can cause grave consequences. This though, adults formulated this drink. People who can read a measuring cup and know how to weigh and properly distribute ingredients. The mix between lemon and sweet, brought to you by your friend the beet, is perfect. It's got a little bit of sour and bitter from the lemon but before you are taken to a citric wasteland, Captain Beets relieves your tongue with some fantastic sweetness. Beets and lemons: together at last.

I would like to make a proposal to the International Drink Commission. I know that every year you esteemed folks choose a flavor that will be the trend for the next twelve months, possibly longer if people really eat it up. In the past it was cranberry, pomegranate and more recently acai. I can tell from this list that those among you have a preference for all thins anti-oxidant. I propose that in the coming year you move away from that theme and in the direction of something more unique. Ladies and gentlemen I put before you that elderflower should be the new flavor that is all the rage. Think about it, it's fairly unknown and no one can deny that it is absolutely amazing. There are very few companies that use it in the beverages, and an even fewer amount that produce them in the United States. I see it as the clear choice for the new generation.

As an example of what we could expect I preset you with this bottle of Found infused sparkling water. It was slightly sweet and wonderfully floral. I know that may seem like a turnoff, but I'm not talking some rose flavored garbage here; this is elderflower and it has a very specific taste that it slightly floral while staying it's own thing. It's almost like it's a fruit more than it is a flower.

It also has versatility. As you can see/taste here there has been very little sweetener added to this drink (they used beet sugar) and it is enough in addition to he elderflower to remove the seltzer taste from the sparkling water. It also tastes wonderful when it is in a highly sweetened taste. I myself prefer it like it is in Found, but you know people like variety, and elderflower can provide that.

Found has created a near perfect drink, that perfectly reflects what elderflower can do for the beverage world. Like your coveted anti-oxidants it has health benefits relating to detoxing as well as many others. When you look at this scientifically, like I know you all will, you will see that you really have no other choice. I swear this is not because I really just want to have this flavor more regularly available for personal use. I want it for the people!

Cinnamon. I love the stuff. It's sweet and spicy. It can hit both spot on my desire palate. Spicy cinnamon. Sweet cinnamon. Two different animals. Two lovely animals. The kind of animals that could kill you instantly if they wanted but they are totally content with allowing you to put tiny hats on them and take pictures.

Apples are a mixed bag. All apples are good but there are some that are far better than others. I like a nice, crisp, sour green apple. I like it. Red apples are fine but green apples are my joint. One thing that is an exception is when I'm making a snack at home, which is made of apples and cinnamon and sugar. Sure, sometimes I sprinkle some nutmeg on there to really make things exotic but when I'm in a rush and need to slam an apple really quick, it's a red apple and cinnamon sugar from the shaker. Red apples, not green. Why? Well spice and sour don't often mesh well and the red apples are typically sweeter and it's a good compliment to each other. As a Jew, I spent many nights eating apples and honey, which is fantastic, but those were done with red apples, too.

This drink tastes like it's made from green apples, regardless of what is beautifully printed on the front of this bottle. This drink is more of a sparkling green apple drink because it doesn't taste like there is any cinnamon in it whatsoever. Honestly? A pretty big letdown since I was looking forward to it. I thought at the end of a rough week that I could drink this and enjoy my favorite fruit snack in liquid form but I was wrong. Dead wrong. Looks like that adorable cinnamon animal didn't want to wear that fez for me and instead would rather introduce my spleen to its razor sharp claws. He's just doing what he's supposed to do. Can't fault him for that.

American's will be in for a shock if they ever go to Europe and order lemonade, as more often than not they are carbonated. I don't understand why that is, but it's life. I was certainly surprised the first time it happened to me, but it was a good surprise. It doesn't end up being a standard soda. It's more like an Italian Soda aka carbonated juice. Instead of adding whatever other garbage is in your every day pop, it's like they took a glass of lemonade and just added bubbles. It's interesting, and a nice change of pace.

Now I knew this was carbonated, as it says so fairly large on the label. What tricked me this time is that I thought it was going to be lemon and lime with some blood orange mixed in. I mean what would you expect when you see the word “limonade?” In reality there is no lime contained, or lemon for that matter. I guess limonade is just a word that means any sort of ade made from a juice.

This has a nice blood orange flavor, that doesn't taste overly sweetened. The use of beet sugar was a nice choice. Now I want to go to the store, buy a bunch of blood oranges and make blood orange-ade. I bet it would be incredible and I could put the kids down the street's lemonade stand out of business. That will teach them to throw snowballs at my car.

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.

Take a really good Gatorade flavor and mix it with coconut water and you get this drink. I'm sure the company probably hates getting compared to Gatorade, but they were on the forefront of sports drinks, and their products are what comes to mind for most people when they think about said category of drinks.

Want to know a secret? I would pick this over a Gatorade any day. First off it's tastes great. Secondly it's all-natural and it's sweetened with beet sugar and not HFCS.

We can only hope that someday sports teams will have giant coolers filled with Greater Than to dump over their coaches when they win the big game. Gatorade has run that monopoly for way too long.

For far too long Gatorade ran the sports drink world with its syrupy fluids. Other contenders came along such as Powerade that really did not step up their game. The Vitamin Water came onto the scene. I don't know if it really counts, but I'm going to say it does. They didn't use HFCS so their drinks had a thinner consistency. Now Greater Than comes onto the scene. They are here to let the world know that sports drinks can be all natural and still be hydrating and refreshing.

To boil it down to me this is like coconut water mixed with Gatorade, but it's sweetened with beet sugar. At first it's kind of strange, but after two sips I got used to it and it was enjoyable. It really tastes like someone mixed a little classic orange Gatorade into a bottle of plain coconut water. I drank this after spending a couple of hours in my sweatbox of a print shop, and I definitely felt refreshed. I'll have to try it again after a long bike ride and see how it works.

Before even opening this beverage I had an appreciation for it; mainly for it's use of a "Grolsch" top. I don't know if that's the official name, but that's what I've heard it referred to. I know that's the name of a beer company that uses the same design, so maybe it's just slang. Besides being visually appealing and fun to open they also wield a secret purpose. As someone who plays guitar (well bass, it's still a guitar) the annoyance of your strap coming unattached from your instrument while you play can be annoying and embarrassing. Sure you can go buy fancy strap locks, but who really wants to have to screw something into their instrument. The secret these bottles hold is that you can pop off the little rubber washer and put that over your strap after it's on your guitar and that strap won't be going anywhere. It's cheaper. It's easier. For that any company that uses this design gets a nod from me.

Flavor-wise this is also really great. A nice sparkling blood orange flavored lemonade. It's more blood orange than lemonade, which I enjoy. It also has the slight bitterness of an Italian soda, but it's from France. This could cause an international incident. They chose to sweeten this with beet sugar, which is interesting and it worked well for them. This is a fancy adult soda that I feel like I should be sipping on the patio of some cafe or another. Thumbs up all around.