No Sugar Added - 718 Reviews

I had high hopes for this drink. Zico has had a good track record so far and made us Thirsty Dudes give coconut water another shot. On top of that, pomegranate is one of my favorite fruits. Both are fairly tropical so I figured this would be a good combo, right?

Meh. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a bad combo, but it's not amazing. This has more of a coconut water flavor, but not a whole lot pomegranate (or berry) flavor to it. There is a slight fruit after taste, but not as much as I would have hoped. This is still one of the best coconut waters I've had, but when something is flavored I assume it's going to be a strong flavor and not just a hint.

Rough days count for strong, unsweetened tea. Nothing calms me down like an unsweetened tea that's bursting with infused with flavors. I've been having a rough time at work. Things are going down, you know. It's one of those things where I just wish someone could punch me in the face and it would all be over? You've never had that? Come on. You've never wanted to get punched in the face and wake up and "it's all over"? You live an easy life, my friend.

Before someone punches me in the face, I would like to finish this bottle of tea. It's good. It's that nice bitterness that is accompanied with an uber-intense chamomile flavor that, I'm hoping, doesn't knock me out. I hope it just chills me out to the point where I don't care if someone runs up the back of my legs with a bike because no one in this city knows you're supposed to ride your bike on the street. Sidewalks are for walking. Streets are for bikes. So there aren't any bike lanes. Who cares? Deal with it.

I could easily make this tea a nice standby and if you are a non-sweetened tea lover, and you've never tried it, you can't go wrong. Drop a small amount of dough and relax. That punch is coming.

When a man is broken down the only thing to do is to load his vital stats into a computer and have it create an 80's like line diagram of his body. That way you can use science to fix him, to make him better. After everything is loaded in the best way to proceed is to pour a bottle of this beverage into your disc drive. It will take care of the rest. Sticky circuit boards are what it takes to cure a man.

This is rather odd. I don't know whether to call it a soda or a tea. I guess it is both, but I feel like one should have dominance. It is green tea extract added to carbonated water and the only sweeteners in it are the ones that come from fruit juice. That's something I can appreciate. They could have stopped there and had a decent drink, but that's not going to rebuild a man. In their wisdom they added kola nut, guarana, taurine, damiana, ginseng, ginko biloba, suma, gotu kola, echinacea, capsicum, dandelion root, kombucha and others. As a result I think this technically becomes an energy drink instead of a recovery beverage. Who knows, maybe they were able to complete the hybrid of the two with their sticky circuit boards.

Flavor-wise this is fairly similar to any carbonated green tea I've had. It has an accurate cranberry taste to it. There was a slight strange aftertaste and it wasn't until after I read the ingredients that I realized it was sarsaparilla. Why that is in there I will never know.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in an effort to gain superhuman sight I shall now consume no food other than carrots and drink nothing other than carrot juice. I am sick of this normal vision. I dream of a day when I can read at night and more importantly look through a closet refrigerator door so that I can realize there is nothing I want to eat inside without wasting the manual and electrical energy.

I will start this experiment in greatness with this carton of juice. 11.2 fl oz of freedom is what I hold in my hand. Hmm. This doesn't taste like actual carrots nearly as much as I imagined. Since the only ingredient is organic carrot juice I really expected this to taste like I chewed up a carrot for about 15 minutes. This is actually much sweeter than I anticipated. I would have sworn there was sugar added, but nope. It tastes like a juice of some sort that is vaguely carrot tasting and lightly sweetened. I'm kind of disappointed that it doesn't taste exactly like carrots, but I but if I drank a juice that did and this back to back, this would win out. Not bad.

What's what Sally? If I eat nothing but carrots my skin will start to turn orange? Well I want no part of that. I will leave the gift of super sight to rabbits and cats. He's to wasting fridge energy!

Roller coaster, the song by Everything But The Girl off the smash hit record "Amplified Heart" tells the tale of a unbalanced relationship where one person has moved on and the other person is still emotionally involved. Although this drink does not leave you crying in the dark listening to folk rock and eating iced cream, it does take you on a roller coaster of taste. It's got a very strong smell but when you taste it, it's light and very floral. If you really stick your nose in the bottle, like I did because I'm a scientist, it smells strong like barley, but if you just whiff it from the top, it's strong, but completely different. The taste is an incremental flavor where it tastes a little like a peach, but is not peach? Strange? It's infused with all sorts of stuff, none being peach, all being good.

This was a wonderful unsweetened tea that I could see myself coming back to time and time again. If you are bored with your jasmine green like I am, take a trip to flavor country, grab a bottle of this, put on "Amplified Heart" and just relax because both are great, great things.

Alright, wise guys. Who did this? I went to the store. I bought one green apple. I got a flat tire thirteen feet from leaving the store so I had to walk home like thirty minutes. I went to take a shower and I got back and this happened. Who did this? Oh, what? What am I talking about? Well I'll tell you. Who cored out my apple, poured carbonated water in it, and then capped it with the original top of the apple. Look, albeit very clever and quite well done, I really wanted this apple. I rode my bike all the way to the store for one apple. Hindsight is telling me that I'm crazy.

Since I went and did all of this, I need to eat it. You understand don't you? Hard work has to come to fruition and now I have to pay the price because you're a jerk. Well this is something now, isn't it. The carbonation seemed to seem into all of the pored of the apple and has somehow managed to carbonate the entire apple. It's got the inherent tart, sweetness of a green apple with the nice sparkle of a sparkling drink.

Who did this? Was it you, Carl? Who's lighting off those bottle rockets? It's freaking my dog out. Stop it. What's happening today? I'm going to eat this whole apple myself because it tastes exactly like those Picabi sparkling apple drink. I love those because they taste like this and I love this because it tastes like that. I don't love you because you ruined my precious apple for the better and who ever is lighting off those bottle rockets, my dog hates you.

Imagine for a second. You have a five-month-old kid who won't sleep. He's up every three hours including that awesome "ten minutes after you fall asleep" move which makes you contemplate, if only for a second, that you'll just let them starve and sit in pee for another hour so that you can get some sleep. Due to this constant up and down your sleep schedule is crunched down to a scatterbrained four or five hours night after night. You are up at six in the morning and you get some stuff done around the house and decide you're going to go to one of your favorite restaurants to get something for breakfast.

Your kid is sleeping soundly and for a minute, you actually and stupidly think that you're going to get time to enjoy a meal out without...woop...there it is. You eat like you have been stuck at sea for months and haven't had a good meal since you left shore and don't even get a chance to finish one single glass of iced tea, which you wanted…€¦a lot.

Since you're up so early, you decide to errands, all the while craving the tea that you had no chance to drink. Two hours later you're home and have no chance to sit and drink something because now you've got to do stuff around the house. You mow the lawn, plant a new hibiscus tree that you hope does well in your crappy soil, and try a new weed killer on the lawn which is fifty percent weeds.

Finally you're done. You're tired. You're accomplished. Your kid is asleep. You are all alone with silence in your house. You go into the fridge and there it is. Green tea, just green tea. No sugar. No preservatives. No fuss. You can't open it fast enough. You can taste the cool bite of the tea on your tongue. You wish it would never end. Had that can been bottomless, you would have somehow gotten to the end and asked for seconds. It's perfect. In this moment you are happy. And then your kid wakes back up and starts crying...

I have a weird relationship with Coconut Water. I have nothing against him, but he's not my favorite. He always shows up in nice packaging and chilled, but usually leaves a sour (not literally) taste in my mouth. When I picked him up today, he was hanging out with my good friend Aloe Vera. Now I haven't known Aloe Vera as long as Coconut Water, but he's a good dude and he always brings a smile to my face.

When they showed up today together, I was excited to try them together. They had an interesting fragrance on, not bad but not mouth watering. They had "Goji Berry" and "Lychee" clothes on, two names I was familiar with and have liked in the past. Now I don't want to blame it all on him, but I wish Coconut Water wouldn't have come. He kinda ruined the party. Otherwise, I think it would have been a really fun and memorable experience. He just kept bumping into everyone else and making things a mess. It's too bad because I was really looking forward to this.

Mouth: "Is this supposed to be water?"
Mama Fratelli: "It's wet, ain't it? Drink it!"

These thoughts were the first that came to mind as I saw this bottle in Wegmans today. The bottle of this isn't black, it's clear. The water itself is black. To quote blk.'s website:

"Our proprietary blend of Fulvic Acid (a derivative of plant matter) is mined from an 80 million year old source deep within the earth. Naturally black in color, the formula binds to the molecules of our pure Canadian Spring Water turning it naturally black, with no artificial dyes, coloring, or additives. Fulvic Acid is critical in growth of plant life, helping the transportation and absorption of nutrients. Fulvic Acid's small molecular structure allows for the fast absorption of over 77 different trace minerals and elements, powerful electrolytes, antioxidants, and free radical scavengers."

So yeah, this is black water. Pretty weird huh? I was expecting a sulfur smell upon opening the bottle, but it was just as odorless as normal water. As for taste, I was hoping for a charcoal aftertaste. Was there any? Nope. It sadly tastes just like any other water. It's pretty refreshing, and is good spring water. Unfortunately I don't have the palate to know the difference in different brands of spring water. The one thing that's interesting is that it has 30mg of sodium in the bottle, which I assume is naturally occurring from the minerals in it.

blk.'s tagline is "Enjoy the Dark Side of Water". I can only assume they hope this will be big in the goth community. If this is actually better for you than traditional water like they say it is, I'd drink this over boring clear water everyday.

Dear Grandmammy,

I've missed you. Ever since I moved to the big city, I haven't seen you. Let me tell you a little bit about the city. There are cars all over the street and people walking around and tall buildings. Everyone wears hats, which is a little strange, but it happens. To move from the country to the city was quite a feat. I mean, sure, I only had a few things; button down shirt, one pair of shoes, a pad of paper, and some toiletries. One suitcase is all I ever need.

The reason that I am writing you is that the city is stocked with some fancy teas. Not just black tea with milk and sugar for me, gram gram. They've got this stuff that is rose flavored green tea. It reminds me of you because it smells like you. I mean that in a good way. It's bitter, which is what green tea is supposed to taste like, or so I've been told. The taste is like I'm drinking this newfangled green tea through a bed of roses. It reminds me of that stuff daddy brought back from his trip to India for work except it was way tamer.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't need you anymore. I've grown up into a man and have replaced everyone I know with stuff from around the city so I'm not so homesick. I've met some kids around town that ride motorcycles and has a lot of tattoos and I think that I'm going to start to run with them. They seem like nice enough sorts.

Love,
Travis Tuffguy (formerly known as Travis Sprinkles)

I've never been to anywhere in the world that could be considered tropical. The closest I've ever come is Disney World in Orlando, Florida. While some may call it the happiest place on earth, I don't think anyone has ever called tropical. That label is reserved for places like Hawaii and the Bahamas. I have no desire to go to these places because they are very hot, and I don't like extremely hot weather.

But if I were forced to go to somewhere tropical at gunpoint, I would imagine drinking this there would be very fitting. While I'm not crazy about coconut water, this one is actually pretty good. It tastes really fresh and has a real creamy taste to it. While the summer heat in Buffalo doesn't compare to the tropics, this is definitely helping me …€˜beat the heat' as they say. My only complaint about this is you can't really taste the pineapple. This is disappointing to be because pineapple drinks are delicious and I was really looking forward to tasting the combination of coconut and pineapple.

John, I've got a fresh case of fruit. We don't have time to do the usual routine of cleaning, peeling, juicing, straining, and all that other stuff. We're swamped with other stuff and don't have time for all those steps. Just do what you can to get that fruit into these bottles. Oh, one more thing, the box fell out of my car and into a pile of sand. Good luck.

Great, now I've got to crush these and I have to leave in 9 minutes. Did he take what I usually use to clean all these? All I have is a cheese grater. Son of a gun! Whatever. I'm going to have to grate pineapples and stuff the same way I would grate mozzarella. I certainly wouldn't buy this batch. Plus, this sand, is he kidding me. If I had like 5 extra minutes I would rinse these but I've got to go to baseball practice and coach said if I was late one more time, he'd make me play outfield and we all know that outfield is one step away from off the team. This actually isn't as hard as I thought and I'm burning through this box of fruit. I'm going to bottle these here...alright...careful...got a little on the floor and if there isn't enough time to clean up the fruit, there isn't enough time to clean the floor. Honestly, who fills up a bottle with a handful of Wendy's straws? Hasn't anyone ever heard of a funnel before? Alright, done. All that fruit actually fit in there. Everything has settled on the bottom so let me give it a shake...alright. Taking a sip. Wow. Hey boss! You've got to try this. It's better than our usual stuff. It's got substance and that kiddie pool sand actually gives it an interesting texture. The tropics have never tasted so good. It's really natural tasting, like I'm eating fruit and some rind, you know, like you would if you ate real fruit. We should be in a bind for more time more often. Alright, sorry about the mess. I've got to get to practice. I'll clean up this ridiculous mess tomorrow. Wait tomorrow is Saturday. Monday. Ugh, this is going to be awful to clean up Monday. Whatever. See you later, boss.

FACT!
Every time Jay, Editor Dan, and myself go to Chili's our number one (numero uno) priority is to get the blackberry tea. It probably trumps the importance of the meal. Now although we don't frequent Chili's as much as we used to, and I don't know why because it's pretty consistently delicious, we still have cravings for that sweet, wonderful blackberry. We haven't done many blackberry related drinks and I don't know why. I feel like if I went into any anonymous forest, the bushes would be laden with that little black dude. That sounds racist. It isn't.

I was pleased to see that Hint released a blackberry. I don't know when. Perhaps I've just overlooked it thinking I had reviewed it before, but I didn't until today. I bought my official "Thirsty Tuesday Taco", my blackberry Hint, and headed outside to have dinner.

As per usual, it was good. It was light, as expected, but every time I have Hint water, I'm surprised at how well they pull it off. It's like they previously used the bottles for a blackberry drink, did a garbage job of cleaning it, and then filled it with water, but it's acceptable. It's so light that I could see people getting mad if they didn't know what to expect. "I thought this was a clear juice. What a bummer." they would exclaim while people who knew what time it was were getting refreshed just two tables over thinking to themselves, "Who's that jerk and what's he complaining about? This stuff is great."

Think of it this way. There is no better drink for you than water. I'll say it. I've drunk hundreds of different drinks in the last year and it's true. This is just water with a tiny bit of blackberry flavoring. It's enhanced water. No one can tell you that water is better than this.

Green tea? Had it. Black tea? Been there, too. White tea? Old news, friends. I think that it's about time that we vary our tea selection to varieties that aren't colors. We're adults. We're worldly. We travel by boats and planes to foreign countries. Worldwide trade is in full effect. Treat yourself to something not from the country you live in. Look, brand loyalty is fine, but look at Thirsty Dudes. We've reviewed drinks from dozens of different countries.

Take this team from Japan. Japan has sugar but does this oolong tea need it? Not at all. In a world filled with even the purest of sugar, sometimes you can't beat an unsweetened team on a hot summer day. This tea is a nice shortstop between green and black tea. A little bitter and a little earthy but just like you would make at home.

You don't have to love unsweetened tea, but as an adult, at some point you have to accept that some drinks don't need to be sweetened.

A drink is good when you don't want to stop drinking it. A drink is good when you want a fifty-five gallon drum of it. A drink is good when you take your first sip and it leaves you speechless. This drink is good. It's like an apple juice with a kick, but the kicker is not wearing shoes and between the toes is something tangy, and you want more. It's a strange foot fetish type scenario, but dude, you can't help it.

Why such a small can? Woongjin aren't a gaggle of idiots. They know that you'll be back. If they made them larger, you would only buy one. This stuff is fantastic. It's better than the best apple juice you've ever had because it's apple juice plus.

You have to like it. I put my name on it. I was thinking on my way into work that I haven't given a 5 in a while. This deserves it.

In recent times I was strolling down the beach and I saw a coconut fall from a tree. I ran over and snatched that little guys up. I am not a fan of coconut by any means, but when you see something like that fall from a tree how can you pass it up. So there I am carrying this coconut around and a new problem arose. How the hell do you open a coconut to get the juice/water out? I could have tried to smash it on the road, but then all the precious juice would be lost. I didn't have any tools on me to aid in my venture. The solution I came up with was to repeatedly bash it on the corner of a picnic table until it cracked a little and I could pry it apart with my fingers. After about 20 minutes of hitting it against the table I was finally able to get it open. I sent all that time and effort and not counting what spilled I got two small mouthfuls of coconut water. I actually enjoyed it a little. It didn't taste anything like dried coconut, which I believe to be a devil fruit. So there I am with a smashed coconut, juice all over my hands and face with a still mostly empty stomach. I was satisfied. I didn't need a lot. I just wanted a taste and I had a fun time doing it.

This tastes pretty much exactly like the water that I got out of that coconut. The only ingredients in it are coconut water and ascorbic acid. I'm still not a huge fan of coconut, but since I have experience with getting the water right from the source and this tasted exactly the same I felt the need to get it a four. I may not have enjoyed it as much as other beverages, but it is exactly what it claims to be and if someone likes coconut, they are going to love this.

When I'm at work I am at the height of being a "thirsty dude." The amount of beverages that I drink borders the insane. I don't know if I'm really as thirsty as I think I am, or if it's just a way to pass the time. I used to just drink whatever was on hand, but I got to a point where all the sugar was too much for me. After that I turned to mostly water. Even when I'm not working I drink nearly a gallon of water a day. Water is delicious, refreshing and cleansing. Now that I've discovered these huge bottles of Teas' Tea, everything else is out the window. They are water, tea and ascorbic acid. 0 calories and 0 sugar means that I don't have to feel guilty about drinking a two liter of it a day. On top of that it tastes great. It tastes like perfectly brewed tea that has been cooled down. If you have any interest whatsoever in unsweetened teas this line is something you need to check out.

Editor Dan picked this up for me a while ago. I would have drunk it much sooner, but something about the label just screamed, "diet" to me. I think it's the pink they used in their design. So for weeks this has been sitting in the crisper of my fridge with a handful of other drinks. This morning I woke up late and had to get to work in a hurry. Juice was an obvious necessary. This was the only bottle of juice I had that was already cold. I shrugged, grabbed the bottle and headed for the door.

I was still skeptical about how this was going to taste, so it wasn't until an hour into my workday that I finally opened it. I took a sip and instantly wished the bottle was larger. It didn't taste too much like pomegranate berry, but it did taste like the most perfect mixture of grape and apple juice. I really don't taste berry in this at all. I can see a little pomegranate in the grape flavor, but I don't know why they named it what they did.

There is also resveratrol in this. You don't know what that is? What are you some kind of dummy? Don't worry I had never heard of it before either. In tests done on bugs and animals it has shown to lower blood sugar, and it seems to be anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory. It hasn't been proven to work in humans yet, but if it's not going to harm anyone why not take the chance of it working and throwing it into the mix.

So the Teavana ad keeps popping up when I load our site. I have to say their tea is delicious. Possibly the best I've ever had. To be fair I haven't had much loose-leaf tea in my life, but the types I've had from there are over the top good. They have tea that has been picked by trained monkeys (Okay I think it was just a story about a monkey picking tea, but for the sake of the review let's pretend it's their tea that is monkey picked). Having a trained monkey would be pretty rad. At first I think I'd have him run errands for me, but eventually I would probably just hang out with him and play Uno or something. If I were ever in Japan I'd sure as hell have that little bugger pick me some tealeaves.

The leaves Teas' Tea uses may not be picked by monkeys, but it is pretty pure tasting. It's all natural and unsweetened. It's water, green tea and ascorbic acid (vitamin c). In the world of unsweetened green tea it doesn't get much better than this. Lucky for us Big Lots got a bunch in and they are blowing them out for $1 a bottle (they are normally about $4). I will be drinking this all day at work for weeks to come. Now how do I acquire a monkey, and then how do I train it?

Mondays I am home. I work for 15 minutes at a time while either feeding or changing or consoling Max. He rules, don't get me wrong, but he is tiring. I always eat quickly. I'm like a cop. Why do cops eat donuts? No, not because it's clichè, but because they need to. How long does it take to make a turkey dinner? Longer than it takes to get a donut and go solve crimes. Pop in, pop out. They have all the assortment in the world. Crueler, bear claw, angel cream and it's lesser, associate brother, Boston cream...the list goes on.

I wish I had a donut. I had to make microwave burritos. A little bit about these burritos; they aren't as old as they taste. They left a strange film on the roof of my mouth, much like Captain Crunch does. I've gotten over the "Oh, Captain Crunch tears the roof of your mouth to shreds." That's old news. Did I get sidetracked? You know that's right.

So I'm eating these burritos and...they...suck. I put a lot of pico de gallo on there, too. I needed to solve this pickle with something. In my fridge, keeping cool, was this Metromint Good Berry Mint. I was excited to see a new flavor and, because of that, I bought it. Isn't that how it works? I seem to think so.

So here I am, trying to disguise the foul grossness of these microwave burritos and anxiously awaiting the new flavors of whatever the heck Good Berry Mint is. First sip...mint. Second sip...mint. Third sip...mint. Excuse me...hello? Fourth sip...mint. Let's read the side of the bottle: raspberry, blueberry, pomegranate, acai, and blackberry. I don't taste any of the berry friends in here. Fifth sip...mint. Is it overpowering? Possibly, but I don't really get any fruit. If I was drinking this next to a Metromint Peppermint, I might be able to taste the difference, but by itself, plain mint.

It's hard to rate something that doesn't taste like what it's supposed to taste like. It's not bad, it's just mint-flavored water, but I don't get what they are trying to sell me.

Wishin' I just bought another Chocolate Mint. That's all I'm saying. No regrets, just wishin'.

EDIT!

So, after the encouragement by MetroMint themselves, I gave it another whirl. They thought that what I had may have been a bad batch or the fact that I drank it when it was cold, combined with the mint, may have hidden the berry. So I got another one, drank it right then and there, and, don't'cha'know, there was that berry critter. It was good. So, word to the wise, if you're going to drink the Good Berry Mint flavor maybe pour it in a glass with some ice or drink it at room temperature because once you get it the way that it's supposed to be got, it's really good.