New Zealand Native Sparkling Green Tea- Apple Feijoa flavor

 

New Zealand Native produces green tea base sparkling beverage from New Zealand, there are four different flavors including tangerine, kiwifruit, apple & feijoa, and lemon lime. Each bottle has only 85 calories, which is about half of a can of coke, and it has no added preservative.

I picked the apple and feijoa flavor because I didn't know what feijoa was and I was curious. First, let's look at the label. Since it's green tea base the first ingredients is indeed green tea, however, it is not freshly brewed green tea instead it is just a blend of water plus green tea extract. And the claims that it has added antioxidant, it is only ascobic acid (aka Vitamin C) which is commonly used in beverages as a natural preservative by lowering the pH of the drink. 

After drinking it, I still am not sure how feijoa fruit should taste like. The drink has a very complex, hard to describe taste that taste like beer (hop) + hint of manuka honey + slight apple soda taste. It's confusing, I Know!

What I love about this drink:

• It's made in New Zealand
• No added preservative
• Contain Manuka Honey

What I don't like about this drink:

• Strange taste and aroma

Cheers,

B

Califia Farms California Tangerine Juice

Another hot day here in Norther California, instead of soda I grabbed this tangerine juice from the store. Perhaps I should just stick with orange juice next time, because this is the second disappointing tangerine juice I have tasted in a month!! (Read the first disappointment here)

So this Califia Farms tangerine juice contains no pulps, yet it has thick texture that flow very syrupy. And I suspected that they never filtered out the pulps instead they blended it all in, hence the thick texture of the juice.

What I love about this drink:

• It's produced in California from California grown tangerine!
• Non GMO

What I don't like about this drink:

• Syrupy, thicker than normal 
• Lack of tangerine taste, felt like I was drinking a diluted OJ

Cheers,

B

spindrift Sparkling Orange Mango Soda

It has become a habit or a routine to grab something to drink whenever I go grocery shopping. This weekend I was at Berkeley Bowl and the spindrift sparkling soda grabbed my attention. Actually anything with sedimentation always grab my attention, but this one in a good way. After reading the label and knowing that what's at the bottom is actually mango puree, I decided to give it a try. 

This beverage has no added flavors meaning that its flavor comes from the mango puree and orange juice that was added. And this vivid yellow color is colored by fresh fruit juice instead of artificial coloring, which they probably added a lot that's why it's so bright to compensate for the color fade that is prone to happen under light and heat. 

What I love about this drink:

• Love the fresh alfonso mango taste
• Love that it's refreshing 
• Love that it's a right balance of sweet so it's not cloying
• Love the flavor combination

What I don't like about this drink:

• Orange taste is weak, I would love to taste a bit more of it
• It was pricy! $2.99 for a 355ml bottle.

Cheers,

B

Trader Joe's Tangerine Juice

 

Trader Joe's is full of goodies, look what I picked up yesterday while grocery shopping. This 100% fresh tangerine juice. It's more sour than I would have expected, almost tasted like orange juice. But since it was so warm yesterday, anything cold and refreshing worked.

Trader Joe's also sell different types of cold press juices, wanna know more between regular freshly squeezed bottle juices vs c

old pressed juices, this article explains it very well.

As much as I enjoy drinking juice, I prefer eating the actual fruit instead for the fiber they provided. 

Cheers,

B

Bruce Cost Ginger Ale Jasmine Tea

Yesterday we talked about Ginger Beer, today I am reviewing Bruce Cost Ginger Ale Jasmine Tea. 

This drink grabbed my attention because it contains Jasmine tea (real brewed "premium" tea). I was very interested to know how well ginger ale and jasmine tea would go together. Despite that giant cloud of sediments at the bottom, with those ugly looking brown "peels" sinking at the bottom, I decided to give it a try. After all, it does say unfiltered and the label did mention that sedimentation is normal, just shake before drinking.

To be honest, I regretted buy a 4 pack. If it was labeled as an Unfiltered Ginger Ale, I would buy it again. But the fact that it claims to have Jasmine Tea in it and I couldn't even taste the slightest hint of floral taste, then we have a problem. And it was labeled that it contains "Premium Jasmine Tea"?!? I wish I can taste how premium it really is!

Companies try to trick consumers all the time with labeling.  While FDA has a strict regulation on certain types of wording, the word "Premium" is not one of them. It is added to romanticize the ingredients or make you feel that it's worth the money.

Besides not being able to taste the Jasmine tea, I would say it tastes almost like a ginger beer. Unlike other ginger ale brands out there, it uses fresh ginger instead of flavorings, which gives a much stronger ginger taste but without that spicy taste. Some ginger ales also have a hint of vanilla sweetness, but not in this one. 

What I love about this drink:

• Love the strong ginger taste yet not over powering

What I don't like about this drink:

• 35g of sugar per serving, so don't be drinking it every single day!!
• That cloud of gunk sinking at the bottom, I don't know if it adds any taste to it but it looks ugly and disgusting
• No jasmine tea taste whatsoever

Cheers,

B

Cock and Bull Ginger Beer

Cock and Bull Ginger Beer! This has been my favorite ginger beer so far!!

Although this is a formulated ginger beer (it contains no brewed ginger roots, all flavors are coming from natural flavors, and the pale brown color comes from caramel), it has genuine ginger taste and aroma that is perfectly balanced. But having said that it is a formulated drink, it is lacking that spicy burning ginger taste that a brewed ginger beer has. If that's what you love about ginger beer, you might not like it.

I love to pair it with spicy hot pot, but the brand also suggests that it's a great mixer for a Moscow Mule!

What I love about this drink:

• Love the fresh ginger taste that's not too spicy or artificial
• Love that it's super carbonated which pairs well with spicy food

What I don't like about this drink:

• 35g of sugar per serving, so don't be drinking it every single day!!

Cheers,

B

Koh Coconut Water

I enjoy drinking coconut water, it's refreshing and it's relatively healthier than juices. Zico has to be my favorite coconut water brand after trying so many different ones on the market ( my least liked has to be VitaCoco). So we have been buying our coconut water from Costco mainly because they have it there and it's cheaper than the supermarket, but Zico is not always avaliable at the store. Well it is online but they are sold per PALLET! Yes you saw it right!

So recently Koh coconut water is on sale at Costco. We were skeptical to try because some coconut water taste very acidic, cooked, and tasted nothing like a fresh coconut with clean, naturally sweet taste. But we decided to give it a try and to our surprised it tastes as good, if not better, as Zico. It was so good that we bought 4 boxes of 6. Lol.

What I love about this drink:

• It's taste like I'm drinking it out from a coconut
• It's not from concentrate
• Inexpensive (because it was on sale @Costco)

What I don't like about this drink:

• Nothing really!! I love this drink!

Cheers,

B