Jason Draper - 2709 Reviews

I am a relatively recent convert to the love of matcha. I mean I'm pretty sure I would have always loved it, but I was just unaware. I've been drinking/loving green tea for about two decades now, but I was completely ignorant of its powdered brethren's existence. I feel like I had a sibling who I never knew of because they were given away for adoption, and now they have used the magic of the internet to track me down. Luckily for me they aren't looking for money, just to enrich my life with their wonderful flavor…€¦okay that got creepy.

For those who aren't in the know, matcha (or macca) is high quality green tea that has been finely ground into a powder. It can be used in beverages or in order to flavor food. How do you think they make green tea mocha? I myself have a package of it that I mix in with ice cream to make my own flavored version instead of paying the ridiculous price for store bought green tea ice cream. When you mix it with water or milk and it makes a nice little cup of green tea. I find it to be a bit more bitter and stronger than brewed tea, and I personally love it.

The contents of this can are nice and strong, but it has a bit too much sugar in it for my liking. I prefer my green tea to be unsweetened ( I guess I should have bought that version). Don't get me wrong, it is still wonderful, but I'm just stating my preference. It's not like there is an obscene amount of sugar in here, it's just that I would like it more with none. This is probably perfect for most people.

I brought this along with me when I was running errands yesterday, and I have to admit that I thought it was fairly gross and only took two sips. I was then placed in my cup holder and returned to my fridge when I got home. For the past 24 hours every time I opened the door to grab a drink or something to eat it just stared at me. I decided I should just take a few more sips, write a review and get it over with. The thing is when I tried it again today it tasted totally different and I enjoyed it. For some reason yesterday it had an overpowering aftertaste that I would liken to eating a pile of orange pulp that had all it's juice drained out. Not a happy time. Now that flavor is so miniscule I probably wouldn't even have noticed it unless I was looking or it, which I was.

To dumb this down for everyone to have a point of reference this would best be described as Vitamin Water that has natural caffeine and B vitamins added to it to give the drinker a little boost of energy (meant to increase stamina, boost brainpower, and enhance focus, not get you to participate in extreme sports). It's sweetened by a combination of cane sugar, erythritol and stevia, which gives it a lower calorie content without tasting overly diet. The flavor is light but pleasant. It could easily be passed off as a genuine Vitamin Water for those stubborn folks who don't like to try new things. I personally think this is a superior version to the low calorie beverages that particular company puts out. Dragonfruit is sometimes compared to a light kiwi, but I think it is its own fruit. I don't know how else to describe it though.

I don't know what was up with my taste buds yesterday, but I'm glad they are back in order. This is a beverage I can sit back and enjoy without any feelings of guilt and gluttony.

We've given Vemma's Verve line a lot of accolades mostly because none of the drinks taste like typical energy drinks. They are also on the healthier side of the energy drink spectrum, but the flavor is really what caught our eye. Since we tried our fist can the company has put out a handful of new flavors and while all of them have a unique taste, they all taste vaguely the same. Their flavor is all fueled by mangosteen, which gives it a nice fruity flavor that has a little bit of the taste of bubble gum in it. This can of ReMIX is no different. Actually, I don't remember their Bold flavor tasting very different from this. I'm sure if I drank them back to back I would be able to pick out the particulars, but with ten months between tastings I would say they are very similar. It's all very fruity bubblegum.

From what I can gather from the news section of Vemma's page this seems to be their Bold and ParTea flavors mixed together. So it looks like my taste buds have not failed me after all.

As an adult do you ever find yourself craving chocolate milk, but you feel that it is a beverage made for children and someone in your life told you it was time to leave childish things behind? First off, if that is true someone told you a horrible lie and wants you to lead a miserable existence. Nearly all things that are fun are childish, and life without fun is just pain and now we're getting into philosophy and I'm not prepared for that. Regardless, this beverage is for you. There is nothing seemingly childish about coconut water, but the fun is hidden in there.

This is like someone dumped Nesquik into coconut water, but instead of the cheap chocolate powder we're all used to it was finely ground semi-fancy milk chocolate. It's ridiculous how much it tastes like real chocolate and not some powder garbage. This is indeed “chocolate milk” for adults. Also, on top of tasting delicious it also is extremely refreshing, unlike its childish counterpart. So yeah, put that specific childish thing behind you all accept this as your new chocolate beverage of choice.

Hi Ball has a new line that is headed in a new direction, well a well-worn path that they have yet to follow. After years of only producing “Sparkling Energy Water,” which are unsweetened energy drinks that taste like seltzer water and not some sort of toxin, Hi Ball has finally added sugar to some of their beverages. These sweetened version plays out as more of a soda pop than an energy drink, and they are good sodas at that. This here drink tastes nothing like a traditional energy drink and instead tastes exactly like what I wish all ginger ale was. It's a fairly sweet soda that has real ginger root in it and you can taste the difference from the ginger ales that are available in 2 liter bottles. There are other flavors around the edges (guarana, panax ginseng and various other organic energy providers), but they do not distract from the flavor of the ginger. You get a nice little boost, but it tastes like a quality soda. Hopefully these will soon be available in mini-marts and gas station all around the country.

Much like the truck on the label this is very much a classic. It is exactly what I think of and what I want, when it is sweltering hot out and I want to cool down with a nice lemonade. It tastes like lemons without being overly tart, thanks to the sugar. Speaking of the sugar, can we make it a law that lemonade cannot exist unless it is made with real sugar? The sweetener really matters when it comes to this type of beverage, and nothing is as perfect as cane sugar.

This is it folks. This is all that you need. It is the quintessential lemonade and if I lived on the east coast I would be drinking it all summer.

There are so many companies out there nowadays putting out zero calories flavored sparkling waters. Want to know a secret? Most of them blow. Their flavors are weak and they are so overly diet that I can't handle it. Sparkling Ice stands out in this crowd, and by stands out I mean they make a palatable drink that is fairly average in the overall scheme of things, but supreme in its specific category.

Even though it's just supposed to be sparkling water they are not afraid to make their flavors bold. In fact they actually add a splash of real juice for their flavoring instead of artificial garbage that tastes more like chemicals than anything else. This has a strong peach taste to it, and yes there is a bit of nectarine in there as well, which in reality is just a smooth skinned peach.

This is one of the few drinks that are sweetened using sucralose that I can actually stomach. They have found a way for the peach flavor to hide the sucralose poison. I would like to know exactly how they do it, but a good magician never reveals their secrets, so I'm sure mums the word.

Sometimes you stay out in Brooklyn until 5am watching bands and hanging out with friends, all while stealing their tickets for free personal pizzas that they got for ordering drinks at Lulus in Greenpoint. The next morning you wake up at 9am like clockwork feeling like garbage, yet unable to fall back asleep. You get a minimal breakfast and realize what you really need is some nice fresh-ish juice. Lucky for you juicing is all the rage in this particular city to an extent that even delis (aka convenient stores) make their own juice. You go to a natural market down the street and are presented with a treasure trove of liquefied fruits and vegetables. Even though there is a bunch that you haven't reviewed for your dumb website about drinks, you decide to go with the store brand because you just can't pass up pineapple cucumber juice of any sort.

With your first sip you know you messed up. You should have spent the extra dollar and gone with the passionfruit juice that caught your eye. It's not that what you chose is bad, in fact if this would have been somewhere in Middle America you would have been stoked on it. But at one of the hubs of the world, with so many choices, you just expected more. The juice isn't as strong as you hoped it would be. It tastes like a watered down pineapple juice with some cucumber skin ground up in it. When you drop $5 on a juice when you're feeling like garbage with the sun blaring you want something that is crisp and refreshing, not a weak juice that is borderline boring.

The promise of a wonderful cucumber juice was nothing but a lie. You continue to sip away though. After all you did pay a somewhat hefty price for this bottle, and it is making you feel a little bit better. Up next I suggest downing that coconut water you also purchased. Eating more pizzas than you can count on one hand sure puts a toll on your body.

While Philadelphia may be the trash can of the United States its inhabitants sure know what they are doing when it comes to food and drink. Before you get all offended, please present your counter argument, but know that I have been to the city more than two dozen times, in many different neighborhoods and there has not been a single visit where I did not witness a decent amount of trash being blown around. I always have a good time there, but it is the dirtiest city I have ever visited. Let's wash those visions of garbage away and think about the good things like soft pretzels, (vegan) cheesesteaks, peanut chews, Wawa iced tea and of course Hank's soda.

Hank's root beer has been a staple of my Philly trips for years, and now they have expanded their reach into the world of iced teas. Normally I would say that they needn't have bothered with the existence of Wawa and their delicious teas, but I'm pretty sure Hanks took the mighty mini-mart into consideration and went for more unusual flavors. As much as I love Wawa, you're not going to see a cucumber watermelon tea in their line. This is where I think hanks will find its new market and thrive.

When the days are hot such as these, a good melon or cucumber drink is always what is needed to hit the spot, when you get tired of lemonade. A combination of the two is a dream for some. I just happen to be included in that some. The watermelon in here is nice, as it actually tastes a bit like the summer treat and not like a Jolly Rancher aka the candy that nearly destroyed the fruits entire reputation. I could use a bit stronger cucumber flavor, as it's really only there in the aftertaste. It's still better than nothing though.

My only suggestions are that I believe this would have worked much better with a green or white tea. I'm just tired of black iced tea. It tastes so standard. There's really nothing wrong with it, and I'm sure in six months I'll be on a black tea kick again, but at the moment all I can think of is lemon tea, and that's not what I want to think of with this.

Also, there are three sweeteners in this game; sugar, agave nectar and Rebiana. I made it through about half the bottle before the stevia started to show itself. I think that's only because it started to warm up a bit. Even when it's there it's not very strong and doesn't distract from the beverage much. I understand why it's included, but I am the type of tea drinker that would rather have less sugar than to have a zero calorie one included. Tea doesn't need to be very sweet (if at all).

Like the benefactor in the Dickens' classic I had great expectations for this beverage. While all of my hopes and dreams were not met, I feel this it was worth my time, and with some tweaking I think that future flavors in this line could do great things for the convenient stores of the north east.

This has no redeeming social value. I know what you're thinking, “How can that be true? Tangerine Melon sounds astronomically good.” On any other day you would be correct with that statement. Unfortunately today is not my day, and to be fair this wouldn't be good even if we were in a post-apocalyptic world where water was worth more than diamonds, and you were crossing a desert without a sweet neck-bandana hat like Joe Strummer wore in the Rock the Casbah video.

One would be quick to blame the stevia for horribleness in this can, but I have grown accustomed to that particular sweetener and it no longer bothers me. While the zero calorie sweetener doesn't help much the problem is rooted way deeper. Also, it's a light drink so there is a margin a leniency with the sweetener. I would have let a lot slide, but Give has done me wrong.

Perhaps the windmill on the can was downwind from a garbage dump and they decided to filter the liquid through the stink lines it produced. It's extremely lightly flavored (yet very stevia sweetened) and what little flavor it has just tastes wrong. I was looking for a nice refreshing drink, and what I was delivered was quickly introduced to my neighborhood sewage system.

This is a bit of a wild ride, but not really the thrill a minute I was hoping for. It has a sourness from the grapefruit, but not really in a way that makes your lips pucker up. The ginger is in a similar state. It has some burn to it, but it never reaches a level that hurts in a good way. Instead it leaves your throat with a mild annoyance as if you had been hanging out all night in a smoky bar. This beverage plays with your emotions, pulling you this way and that, but never fully takes you to the destination you want to go. Instead of walking you to your door, it drops you off at some seedy truck stop on a deserted highway whose only denizens are an army of lot lizards.

The only ingredients are water, grapefruit juice, agave nectar and ginger juice, so the problem comes from one or two locations. First off, it's a more water than juice (only 20%). I want that grapefruit to grab hold of my taste buds and squeeze them until they scream. What I am delivered couldn't even be described as a minor inconvenience. Secondly, this is something that I hardly ever say about drinks, it's not sweet enough. It's like the sugar is dipping it's toe into the pool and it can't decide whether it wants to take a swim, or not. Just jump in, you're annoying everyone around you with your indecision

After smack talking this product for two paragraphs, I would say that it's still decent, but it just has such unrealized potential. Either lowering the percentage of water or adding more sweetener would greatly improve this beverage and take it in the direction that I so desperately want it to go.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here today to discuss a very important topic with you, the death of the mango. You see for the last 10-15 years mango has been everywhere in the beverage world. At first it was a wonderful thing having such a glorious fruit flavor readily available, but then the quality began to slip, the same way that it had in the past for orange, grape and the beloved cherry. People were tricked into thinking that a weird artificial flavor was an acceptable substitute and people have come to believe that this flavor is what this great fruit really tastes like.

We are here to ask for donations to help revive the reputation of the mango. We need to make people aware that this is not a cheap tasting flavor. That it is strong and robust and truly wonderful. We are not asking for direct donations, we are simply asking you to only buy beverages that have real mango in them. Kicking this off we are pleased to unveil the newest product from Peace Tea; Viva Mango.

This is made with real mango puree as well as apple, orange and pineapple juice. While this is better than a lot of mango flavored beverages on the market, it does miss its mark a bit. The apple and the orange juice take away from the robustness of the mango. That causes the natural flavor to be watered down, or juiced down if you want to be fair. It doesn't so much taste like those juices, as it just tastes like weaker mango. Ideally they would have been left out and this would have just been mango puree with a splash of pineapple juice thrown in for good measure.

As I said, this is a step in the right direction, but the added ingredients, which I assume were used to lower the price point, distract from this potentially wonderful juice drink. Let the mango live people. Let it live!

You know how you've been waiting for what feels like your whole life to taste a beverage that tastes like the guarana that is used as an energy boosting ingredient in nearly every energy drink? Remember how you spent many a sleepless night thinking away the dark hours hoping and praying that this reality would see the light of day? Oh, you haven't? You never even contemplated such a beverage, mainly because you've never heard of guarana and didn't realize it was in all those slender cans you slug back? Well, you my friend should crack a food book sometimes. I don't know what a food book is; maybe a catalog of food, maybe a cook book, perhaps it`s even just an ad from the grocer, but one thing is for certain is that there is a whole world of food stuffs that you are completely ignorant of.

Now it's time to describe the juice of your dreams that I have imposed upon you. This is mostly a mango juice that has a handful of guarana seeds mixed in to give this tropical drink even more of a twist. Apple juice serves as the bass for its natural sweetness, but it's hardly noticeable in the flavor.

Now I know what I said before, but I am a man who enjoys the beverages of many cultures and I in fact have had several guarana flavored sodas before. They have been less than stellar. They almost always taste like a fruitier kola champagne aka fruity bubble gum. It's lucky for us that this isn't processed to hell, and it has some semblance of freshness, so that gross flavor that is only acceptable in gum form is nowhere to be seen. In here the guarana just tastes fruity and exotic. There are also some pineapple and lemon juice in the mix, and while they are more notable than the apple juice, they stick to the fringes of the flavor and serve to round everything out a little bit.

This tastes nothing like the classic energy drink taste that most of us have begrudgingly grown to love. Nor does it have the kola champagne taste that guarana sodas tend to have. What this is far surpasses those garbage drink and gives you something you can really enjoy without feeling bad about.

Okay, so last time I did one of these I followed directions to a T and mixed it with water. I wasn't too pleased with the consistency that gave me, as it turned out a tad on the slimy side. This time I threw caution to the wind and mixed it with unsweetened almond milk. After spending far too long vigorously mixing this up, because I didn't have the recommended shaker ball, I took a sip. Definitely less slimy, but it's still so, so thick. I'm talking like baby food thick here folks. It does not have the consistency of something one would think of ingesting. It feels foreign in a from another world sort of way. It's like aliens visited us, and said, “Hey dummies, you're doing food wrong. This is much simpler. It's thick and weird, but it gives you what you need in less time with less fuss.” Stupid jerk aliens are always pointing out our shortcomings.

Consistency aside, this has a nice light vanilla flavor. It doesn't taste cheap, like a bunch of vanilla extract was dumped in. It tastes like quality vanilla, as if real beans were used. I can see where they are going with the ice cream tag. I appreciate that they are not trying to make a health shake taste exactly like an unhealthy thing. There's some stevia in the mix, which you can taste a bit, but this is a drink for health and not leisure, so it's understandable and acceptable.

It takes a few sips to get acclimated to, but once you get over the strange viscosity this is downright enjoyable for a meal replacement shake.

If you like pina coladas and songs about proposed infidelity then this is for you. Okay, maybe not the infidelity part, but like millions of people across this great land I can't think of this particular flavor and not get that dumb song stuck in my head. It's supposed to be playful and fun, but in reality it's about two people who believe they are in a loveless relationship that set out to cheat on their partners only to end up together again. The action may not have taken place, but they were both ready willing and able to have relations with whomever was waiting for them. That is dark folks.

Luckily this drink will lighten your spirits. Cascade Ice is the only company I know who has made sucralose palatable. Sure, they haven't done away with the diet flavor completely, but it's masked nicely. This is a mostly pineapple soda, with a little coconut here and there. If the flavors were reversed I probably wouldn't want anything to do with this, but it all falls in line nicely. This is a great option for those of you watching your calorie intake. As far as I know the company also doesn't condone going behind your partners back for some extra loving. That's a plus as well.

This feels like some sort of riddle; what do you get when you mix mediocre coconut water with espresso? A mixture I could take or leave that also has milk in it for some reason. Really though, why is the milk here? Isn't the coconut water supposed to act as the milk like substance? It's as if they combined espresso, chocolate and milk to create a normal mocha drink, and then watered it down with coconut water. It's like the coconut water was more of an afterthought rather than an integral part of the creating process.

For those of you out there, like me, who are not huge coffee fans, this has a bearable coffee flavoring. Unfortunately the chocolate isn't as strong as I would like it to be. Coco Cafè came out with a similar product a while ago and they achieved what this was reaching for and missed.

I have a confession to make. I never understood these flavored waters. The extreme lightness of the flavoring always left me feeling like I was drinking a bottle of water after eating whatever fruit it was flavored with. As a result I let Mike write 7 out of the 8 Hint waters we have reviewed. Something has happened though and I now understand the allure. Perhaps my wishes have been granted and I am now a real boy, or a grown up with a fully working set of taste buds. Whatever the case this makes sense to me now.

This is simply water, mango and grapefruit. I can only assume the company has huge vats of water that they soak fruit in. They don't squeeze the juice out of the fruit; they just let the soaking extract a tiny bit of flavor. The result is nice and refreshing without any overbearance or intense sweetness. It does have a slight sweetness from the mango, but it's very subtle. Even though the flavor is minimal, the mango is definitely stronger than the grapefruit. Actually if a competitor wanted to create a similar beverage line I would suggest they use that as their name, Subtle. The Cola wars were so 80s. This is the decade for the minimally flavored water wars.

Man while I'm sitting back relaxing drinking my juice I can only think about how the rest of the world is full of suckers. They are all drinking regular orange juice and here I am living like a king drinking mandarin juice, and it even has pulp. I swear in some parts of the world this really would make me royalty. Mandarin juice is just so superior. It has its own unique taste, which still clearly being part of the orange family. Jim, you haven't had much to say about his. Actually why are you making a giant pile of salt out here on the back deck. Oh, you're saving up so you have a surplus next winter because you just want to spread it over the driveway so you never have to shovel? Well, I'm not sure if that will work, but I like the way you think, and I give you points for ingenuity. Why don't you pull yourself up a hammock and grab a nice glass of mandarin juice and take in a slice of the good life. Oh man, Jim! You've covered in salt and a bunch of it got into the juice. This is why no one likes you Jim; you ruin even the simplest of things.

You're still drinking the juice? Did you see how much salt dissolved in there? You say it's not that bad? Give it here! Actually you're right, this is not nearly as salty as I would have expected, and it gives the juice a certain charm. Actually no, I was wrong. One or two sips was okay, but the more I drink the more I notice the salt and it's kind of ruining everything, much like yourself. I feel like I might try putting a dash of salt into my next carafe of mandarin juice, but anything more than a pinch is just too much. I can't make it even a third of the way through this glass. Jim, you're lucky I'm not the king I previously pretended to be or else it would be off with your head!

Swamp Pop may be my current favorite soda company going these days. They take classic soda flavors and mix them up with a Louisiana twist. Oh you want a cola, how about we throw some figs into the mix? That cream soda you so desperately crave? Well you're not getting that until we add in some pralines. This is the flavor I have been saving for a rainy day, or a perfectly nice day when I'm sitting around a fire at night. With embers a blazing I cracked open the cap of the combination I feel I have been waiting for all my life; ginger ale and cucumber. People always laugh at me when I rant about my love of cucumber beverages. They are fools who don't understand that it is the most refreshing flavor of all times. It is both crisp and cool, which is just what you need on a hot balmy day.

This soda is named after the local “gentlemen pirate” Jean Lafitte, who basically ran the Gulf of Mexico during the 18th century. The man did it all; bootlegging, smuggling, spy work, and he even worked as a wartime defender under General Andrew Jackson. All of those activities have to take a lot out of a person so I can only imagine him kicking back after a long day of raiding ships and sipping on a bottle of this soda. I assure you that he would in fact be sipping and not chugging, as that is the sort of pop this is. You want to mull over the flavor in your mouth, letting it wash over your taste buds with each sip.

This is much sweeter than I anticipated, but it feels right in its level of sugar. The folks of the south like their sugar, as is evident with sweet tea, and that has been translated here. It's a ginger ale that you can taste the ginger in. It has the slightest of burns to it, but nothing that a small child couldn't handle. So as a base you have a nicely sweet, slightly hot ginger ale. What better way to improve that than by cooling it down with some cucumber? With that addition you have near perfection. It is also a flavor that instantly makes me think of Louisiana, heat, humidity and how to make it all bearable.

All my life I have been told that men and women were created equally. Okay, except in those religion classes I took as a kid where they said man was created in god's image and then woman was made from man's rib. That's a pretty crappy deal for women. Lucky for them it's all make believe and stories, even I realized that before I was out of elementary school. So yeah, we're created equal. Then H10O comes along and tells us that men and women need different formulations of vitamins. Someone here is a liar, or just misinformed.

I'm not really that dumb. I mean I'm an idiot, but I have some intelligence. I know that certain vitamins and minerals are more effective for the different sexes. The real problem here is that this company is supplying those vitamins in a vehicle that tastes like crappy diet garbage.

This is a non-carbonated orange beverage that basically tastes like Tang that is rich in vitamins as well as caffeine and guarana. It wouldn't be so bad except the grossness of sucralose ruins it all. I appreciate that there is no sugar and no carbs in this, but as a society haven't we learned that there are better tasting alternatives in the world of zero calorie sweeteners? This drink had no chance of being exceptional, but it could have turned out much better than it did.