Organic Cane Sugar - 229 Reviews

For months this tub o' milk substitute has been staring me down in the organic section of my local Wegmans. I think it's mostly because even though I know the product is called Ripple, the way the typeface is on the bottle I always read it as Apple and subconsciously my taste buds are tricked into thinking that it was going to be some sort of delicious chocolate apple milk. The somewhat hefty price tag ($8 I believe) help me back from making the purchase. My ladyfriend finally pulled the trigger, because unaware to me it has also been pulling at her with its chocolatey siren's call.

My first thought when I took as sip was a ridiculous disappointment. How on earth could I expect this to taste like apple when I knew it wasn't at all is a secret my brain to will take to its grave. I can't hold a lack of apple against the company when it was never promised in the first place.

My second thought was, well this isn't really a sipping beverage. It's a bit chalky and you can taste the plant protein in it (it comes from peas, luckily it tastes nothing like the semi-grossness of peas when they exist outside of a pot pie). It reminds me a lot of protein drinks, but less thick. I think the ideal use for this would be as a base for a smoothie. I can't see myself drinking a full glass of this, or putting it on cereal, but I can see me mixing it with some peanut butter and such mixed up in a blender.

This is nothing I would spend money on for the price, but it does have its purposes if you have the disposable income.

Canada is the home to some pretty fantastic beverages. This may only be the second Good Drink product I've ever drunk, but I think it's pretty safe to say that it is the cream of an already wonderful crop. This is carbonated water, blackberry juice and cane sugar. It's simple. It's tasty. These days I would expect myself to say that I would have liked it more with less or no sugar in it, but I'm pretty fond of it the way it is. I don't know if I would change a thing. It only has 13% juice in it, but you would be extremely surprised to learn just how flavorful 13% can be. I wonder if the percentage was higher, if the whole thing would seem like too much. Perhaps I will have to buy an obscene amount of blackberries and juice them myself. Then use beakers and such to work out different ratios to carbonated water. How much do you think that little experiment will cost me? Probably about as much as a college education.

On Friday I had my first encounter with moringa. I came across it was at a vegan Caribbean restaurant in Toronto called Veggie D'Light and they had a “moringa loaf.” I had no idea what it was, but it was delicious. Now I'm sitting here in the summer heat sipping on a tea in the summer heat and it has entered my life yet again. It led me to looking up what it actually is, and it turns out it is a plant (duh) whose leaves have a ton of vitamins and minerals in them and are extremely healthy. You can brew it as a tea, such as this, or it is ground down into a powder, which is what I assume the restaurant used.

I read online that the tea tastes vegetal like greens, but I don't get that at all. It tastes like some variant of tea to me. In here it does taste a bit watered down, but not in a way that seems like they are skimping. It just tastes like a light tea, albeit slightly earthy. The peach flavoring is also fairly light, but very clearly there. You know, the way that things should be flavored, instead of beating you in the taste buds.

If the great taste of this tea wasn't enough for you, you can also feel like a good person buying it because for every bottle that is sold the company donates a “wholesome meal to people struggling with hunger.” That's a win-win folks. Now I want to head back up to Toronto and get another meal and pair it with this tea. Moringa overload.

Why is it that a combination of salt and lime sounds enticing (and Mexican, but switch out that citrus fruit for another and it sounds off? The thought of it certainly had me putting off drinking this. I knew it wouldn't be horrible, but it just didn't sound like something I wanted. When I finally got around to it I was pleasantly surprised. Sure it doesn't make me think of the millions of tacos I would like to consume, but who is eating tacos while playing sports? Geniuses maybe?

The salt in here is noticeable, but Kra did not go overboard with it. It really just tastes like a more natural lemon sports drink. You score all the points, you make all the goals and then you rehydrate with one of these. You won't be sorry. It's a better version of what you are used to, and what more could you ask for?

Now I'm going to go run a marathon and down a taco at every quarter mile.

This is the last of the three Wicked Lekker teas that are currently available and if they are nothing they are a consistent company. They are actually more than just consistent though. They are a company that makes great tasting teas that I could sip day after day and not get sick of them.

I love peaches, but I am wary of peach flavored things because they have a tendency to taste candied and that is something I'm just not looking for. After my first taste of Wikked Lekker's black currant I was pretty sure they were going to do right by peach and I was not disappointed. It actually tastes like fruit and the use of white tea is always the wise choice. It has a softer taste that sits a little in the background and gives the rest of the drink a little time to make your acquaintance. After the rooibos tea says “what's up and stuff” to your taste buds the white peach slips in to make sure that everyone is getting along well, and trust me it's a love fest in there and my mouth wants to host that party for a long time to come.

In a recent review I spoke of how no sports drink company will be able to overthrow the dynasty of Gatorade. It has become to ingrained in our culture that it's essentially on the same level as Jello, Xerox , or Kleenex. Many have tried to replace it and all have failed. If there were a movie made about the fall of big Gatorade Kra would be our star. Rising from humble beginnings and fighting against all odds to take down the behemoth.
Sadly, at this point this is only fiction, but I feel a change is going to come. My faith comes from the thought that started this product to begin with; “Why do athletes, who are so committed to taking care of their bodies, hydrate with super-sugary, chemical-filled sports drinks?” The truth is that there aren't many readily available options and young athletes are taught to bow down before the G at such an early age that they rarely question it. Kra created an alternative. It is a sports drink made from water, juice, minimal (real) sugar, and sea salt. There is nothing artificial in here, which means there is nothing to feel bad about ingesting. It tastes like a slightly salty juice and that salt goes a long way to not only replenish your body, but to also make the flavor a bit more interesting. It in no way tastes like a ton of salt was dumped in here, it's just around the edges, but it sticks to your lips a little making it intriguing.

This is like a Juicy Juice for adult athletes (sure kids can drink it too). It does it's intended job and does it while tasting great and not being syrupy. Soon people will chant “The king is dead. Long live the king.”

The Ito En / Teas' Tea company doesn't mess around. They keep things simple, natural and delicious. Their iced teas actually taste like tea instead of sugar, like most companies. They know the secret that tea is delicious on its own and it does not need to be disguised by sweeteners. Sure sometimes you want a little something extra in it, but for those times you certainly do not need to go overboard and dump the equivalent of a semi's load into a single bottle. With this “Lightly Sweet” tea they added 20g of sugar, as opposed to the 30-40g range that a lot of teas fall into. To be honest I didn't even need that much sugar. I think it detracts a bit from the green tea and hibiscus. When you use quality ingredients you don't need to mask the way they taste, and there is nothing but quality in this bottle. Do I think the floral taste would have been better without any sugar? Yes, I do. Do I really mind that they added some? No. It is still delicious. I believe hibiscus is at its peak when it is paired with some spices, such as cinnamon, but I do think it has a lot to offer in solo form and this drink proves that.

These New England folks have done it again. They have made a tea that should have been completely average something that I truly enjoyed. When you think of a lemon tea your mind tends to wander to the mundane. Apparently the secret to success with that is to throw that black tea out the window and embrace rooibos aka red tea. It has a somewhat earthy taste with a hint of vanilla. What drink doesn't vanilla improve? I'll wait while you try to figure that out.

I am not a fan of lemon normally. I find it boring and unless it is in exceptional lemonade I tend to think most drinks would be better off with it omitted. The Meyer lemon in here is something different though. It definitely enhances the flavor by blending in with the tea in a way that normally doesn't happen. I expected so little from this tea and I was given so much in return. To quote the Pet Shop Boys, “What have I done to deserve this?”

When I first saw this I made a joke about it being from Massachusetts, specifically Boston. Anything with the word “wicked” in the title has to be from there, right? Guess what? IT IS! I didn't really think was going to be. I mean people joke about people from that region saying everything is wicked this or wicked that, but I had no idea that the denizens of MA actually embraced the stereotype. That is better than my joke could ever be. I also just discovered from the company's website that lekker is the Afrikaans word for awesome. That's right, this companies name translates to “Wicked Awesome.” Somewhere Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are very proud.

As much as I would like to, and will, laugh about this company's name, they are right. This tea is pretty great. Due to it being a rooibos tea it is a different beast than the iced teas you are used to. It's slightly nutty and a little fruity. It's definitely a nice path to take from time to time as a respite from your normal iced teas. You can really taste the honey in here as well. Most importantly, at least to me, is that the black currant isn't overpowering. You can taste it, but it adds to the flavor rather than taking over the whole show.

Wicked Lekker, your name is ridiculous and I love it. I also love your teas. I hope the fact that I found it at a discount store means that you are just redoing your labels and not that your company is in trouble. I want to see more of you.

There is joy and there is sadness in the world of Big Lots. We tend to find a decent amount of tasty and interesting beverages there. If we find something we enjoy and we are lucky then it's simply there because a company ordered too much, or there has been a change in the label and the company is trying to blow out their old stock. Unfortunately there are other times when a product is being discontinued or a company has gone out of business. This seems to be the case more often than not when I find something I like there, so I buy up what I can and enjoy the limited time I have with it.

Luckily in the case of Runa, their teas presence at the discount store is due to nothing more than a chance of label. I will still be able to find these delicious teas in the future, but you can bet your bottom that at fifty cents per bottle I will be buying up the stores stock.

It's been awhile since I've drank an iced tea that has impressed me, so I was caught completely off guard with this. It's no secret that peach flavored beverages tend to be a little much, and end up tasting candied. This tea is flavored with “organic peach flavor” and that apparently equates to a taste that is like a peach that is right on the cusp of being perfectly ripe. It has a sweetness to it, but also a vague bitterness that comes with unripe fruit. It's a refreshing change of pace for this particular flavor. It also helps that they didn't go overboard with the sweetener and there are only 16g of sugar in the entire bottle.

This drink is very smooth and you get a little kick from the caffeine that is found in the guayusa. Flavor and energy; this tea truly has it all.

You know what happens when you use good ingredients? You get a great tea at any temperature. Temperature?! Why are you mentioning temperature? Well it's because I didn't finish this yesterday and came back today to polish it off and review it. It was better today than it was yesterday. This uses real sugar and not corn syrup so after fourteen hours, it was not a syrupy mess. When it was cold, the temperature kind of made things different than today when it's neat I could taste the blackberry and the hint of sage. It was very nice, too. It was fruity and you could tell there was something. Not specifically sage but "something" herbal.

I think I'm going to have to befriend a bodega employee to sell me back stock so that it's warm. I think I'm going to have to befriend a bodega employee so that I can go hang out at bodegas. My dad used to own a Convenient store but I was too young to work there. Alas.

"Nutritious Plant-Based Milk" isn't really milk at all, is it? I mean, you could argue that almond milk or soy milk isn't milk but I guess it's all in your definition of what "milk" is, now, isn't it? One thing I can say is that whether you call this milk or a plant-based milk, I can tell you that it is one thing, it's not that great.

It most certainly tastes like something is "up." It doesn't have the smoothness of milk. I don't want to say gritty but there is definitely some stuff up in there. I get that it's a nice alternative to dairy and for vegans, if you had the strength, you might do a backflip to hear that you've got another alternative to murderous milk.

This tastes like chocolate but as far as chocolate milk goes, it's definitely lacking in both sugar and chocolate. I'm not saying that as an insult but you might want to think of this as not only dairyless milk, but also think of it as "chocolate milk light" but put "light" in double quotes because this 12 ounce bottle still manages to cram 220 calories in her. It's a difficult battle, milk, but I suppose we can't let them have all the fun in Mootown.

Things I've recently learned about myself include the fact that if you make a coffee drink “Mexican” I will probably love it. Generally that means adding cinnamon and chilies to it. I also think of it as having to do with chocolate since my first forays into it were with Mexican hot chocolate. This does not have chocolate. Actually it doesn't have chilies either. That doesn't stop it from being amazing though. What it does contain is high quality cold brewed coffee, cane sugar, vanilla, almond and cinnamon. The results are flat out fantastic. It's one of the best coffee beverages I have ever tasted. Even with all of the added ingredients the coffee is still the main flavor, and it's smooth and delicious. The other things are just icing on an already delicious cake. There is something about this that makes me think of a drink from when I was younger, but I can't put my finger on what that drink is. I know it's the cinnamon that's pointing me in that direction though. While you could drink this at any point in the day, it would be perfect as a dessert beverage.

Do you identify with the majority of Americans who ingest far too much sugar, but find it hard to give up soda pop? Do you just crave the bubbles, but seltzer doesn't taste right to you? At the same time do you think that artificial sweeteners are just the worst? I was once where you are friend. I wanted out of the sugar game, but I had my vices. For me the change came in the form of Polar vanilla seltzer. It bridged a gap for me and led me down a path where I drink an abundance of seltzer, to a point where I had to look it up if it was bad for me. I understand that this might not be the gateway beverage for everyone, but I have good news. Izze is here to hold your hand while you eliminate a lot of sugar from your diet, at least of the soda variety. Their Sparkling Water line is essentially seltzer water with 2g of sugar added. I know what you're thinking; 2g is not a lot when a can of Coke has 39g. The thing is that it's just enough to give a faint hint of sweetness and overpower the weirdness of seltzer and help you acclimate yourself to it.

This actually tastes sweet to me. I don't know if it's because I don't drink much sugar these days, or if it would taste like that to anyone. Would Coke taste sweet enough with only 1/3 of the sugar they use? I would really like to taste Coke with different levels of sugar and see where it really needs to fall. I feel like the current amount it a bit extreme. Whatever the case may be with that, I think there is enough sugar in here for anyone to enjoy. Then once their body gets used to the lower sugar content they can ween off of it. I know that's probably not the Izze plan, as they need to maintain sales, but it's probably for the betterment of our countries health. Hell, people could just stay with these instead of normal sodas and I bet the effects would be astounding.

Did I mention at some point in my tirade that it also tastes great? I don't really get much watermelon, but it has a nice berry flavor. It's light, due to the lack of sugar, but it's just where I want it to be. Nothing is disguising it and that is how I like things. Low sugar, great taste. It's like a 90's beer ad.

For the life of me I have no idea why they have labeled this a milkshake. It's not thick. There is no ice cream involved. It's really just strawberry milk…€¦with a bunch of veggies added. To be clear they are veggies that you also cannot taste. They are hidden nicely in the mix. Also to be clear, this doesn't taste like Strawberry Quik either. It's a different beast that is close, but not quite the same. It really just tastes like what I imagine people thought strawberry milk tasted like before Quik was invented. Did it even exist before then though? Is this a chicken/egg or a music/misery type situation? I guess it doesn't matter. This tastes pretty good and you're getting some vitamins from veggies. Kids will love it.

A couple of years ago when Sneakz was launched, it was less than stellar. The vegetable taste seeped through too much and when mixed with chocolate it was like someone used Hershey syrup as salad dressing. The company realized the error of their ways and corrected their formula into something that was more than just passable. They also expanded their line to include strawberry and this vanilla.
I'm assuming they used the same basic principles they developed for the new chocolate version and applied them to vanilla because I don't taste vegetables in here at all. This is full of carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach and cauliflower but you would never know it by taking a sip. It's all vanilla, but not in a cheap ice cream kind of way. It tastes like actually vanilla beans were used. You can't ask for much more than that in a drink of this variety. You get ½ a serving of veggies and it tastes great. That's a win all the way around.

When I think about bamboo I don't think about leaves. I only think about the stalks and building structures out of them. In my early adolescence we would build some pretty rad forts our of bamboo stalks that were hidden in patches of the plant. They were great and we really felt like we weren't only a couple of hundred yards from my friend's back yard. Now that I think about it they did have leaves, but they grew so high that we didn't really have to deal with them. I certainly never thought about brewing them into tea. To be fair I thought Nestea was what tea was at that time so I was more than a little ignorant.

This is surprisingly good though. You could most definitely pass it off as a light green tea, and then snicker because your guests have no idea they are drinking bamboo, and they would have probably passed had you called it bamboo tea. The hibiscus really shines more than the bamboo, and that will never earn a complaint from me. The blackberry taste is very light, but it complements the hibiscus nicely. The label says this is “light, crisp, & refreshing” and it certainly is not lying. I just spent hours painting a fence in 90+ degree weather and this is hitting the spot perfectly. This bamboo stuff really has something going for it.

Take a walk. Talk a walk on down to Coconut Town, USA where we have the finest in different flavored coconuts. You thought you added flavor to make coconut water taste like raspberries. Boy, you're as dumb as you look. No, son. They grow coconuts in different flavors. Take this tree here. This here tree grows the finest black cherry flavored coconuts you've ever seen. This here tree grows lemon flavored coconuts. That one? You want to know about that one? Well you've got a keen eye because this here is our best seller. This is the allusive chocolate coconut tree. It naturally makes the finest chocolate coconut milk your dry mouth has ever tasted. Let me have one of the boys cut one down for you to sample.

What do you think of it? It's good right? Oh, you don't like it warm? Yeah, it is a bit chalky. Here, let me have the missus get you some from the fridge. Here you go. There you go. It's nice, right? Nice, light coconut flavor and a nice chocolate flavor. No, it's not thick. It's not totally like a chocolate milk. You would think describing something like a "watered down chocolate milk" would be gross but it's not bad. It doesn't have any sort of gross fake sweetener taste and just tastes like what's in it. That's why you're here boy, for the good stuff.

So how many cases can I put you down for, son? None? What do you mean you just want directions to the Holiday Inn Express? You've been down here sampling the goods just to be polite? Well I guess I can't fault you for that. Here's one for the road and if you go down a couple blocks you'll see your hotel on the right just after the third gas station and before the ninth taco stand. You can't miss it.

Lipton released its Pure Leaf line as a higher quality, real tea iced tea a few years ago. It started off as Lipton's Pure Leaf and now it's just Pure Leaf with the name Lipton only appearing in the small print on the back. Now they have taken things in an even fancier direction by having Pure Leaf hasa sub-line called the Tea House Collection.

This is organic green tea that has had apple and ginger brewed right into it. This is the way tea should be. It's not garbage tea that has had some sort of flavoring added to it, such as syrup, like a lot of companies do. When you brew all of the organic material together it tastes real and that is what this is. I wish more companies thought this way. I would happily pay a little more for a quality product like this instead of a can of something that makes my teeth feel like they are rotting.


As with most drinks I would have preferred a stronger showing from the ginger, but it's still there in taste if not burn. The Fuji apple is fairly strong. It kind of taste like I'm eating an apple that someone has shot with a syringe full of green tea. Just imagine biting into that juicy beast. That would be great, messy but great. Save on the cleanup time and get yourself a bottle of this. I defy you to find a more naturally tasting mass produced tea.

You have to appreciate when a company makes a large effort with their presentation. The size/shape of bottles and cans has become so uniform and standard that when a company mixes things up it's hard not to take notice. Sure, Galvanina didn't create something new, but their embossed glass bottles with minimum label are just classy. They could have easily thrown their sparkling juice into any old bottle and it would have just blended in with the scenery, but the way they present it makes it stand out and makes it special. It's similar to the way that San Pellegrino stands out because of the foil they put over the top of their cans. You feel a small specialness when you drink them. Just one glance at this bottle and I could tell it was most likely made it Europe. It feels old in the best possible way.

On top of having all the right looks this also tastes pretty fantastic. Normally when beverages are made sparkling carbonation is just added to regular water. In here mineral water is used and it does give it a bit of a regal feel. Also involved are clementine and carrot juice concentrates as well as orange and lemon pulp. It does fall on the sweeter side of how I like my sparkling juice, but it still mostly tastes like juice and that is the important thing. This wins all around.