Long time readers of the site know that on occasion I’ll review a non-carbonated beverage. Most times I do so because I falsely believed the beverage was carbonated which leads to an embarrassing time for all. Other times it’s because I feel the beverage is culturally important enough at the time to include.
Read MoreRemember a while back when Mountain, sorry, MTN Dew tried their hand in the breakfast drink market with Kickstart? It all seemed rather forced, but then again I don’t work for Drink Co. and think of multi-million dollar ideas. Why are you trying to make a new breakfast beverage when the ones we have work so well. If you want to wake us up just add caffeine to what we already drink for breakfast. Segue. Positive Energy is the beverage ThirstMonger sent to me today and guess what it is, orange juice with caffeine. They also make a cranberry juice cocktail version, but I’ve been told that the OJ is the bees knees so it’s the one being reviewed.
Positive Energy Orange Juice is not made from concentrate, has no sugar added, and uses green coffee bean caffeine. I don’t really care what kind of caffeine they use, but green coffee bean caffeine is by far the most fun to say. Looking at the back I see that this little bottle has the same amount of wake up juice (why isn’t this called Wake Up Juice?) that your morning cup of coffee has. Positive Energy OJ has been visited by the vitamin fairy as well with giftings of vitamins A, B, and C. Now the task will be simple. Can you put all of this in orange juice and still have it be tasty? I just finished my bowl of Grape Nut Flakes (TheCerealJerks.net give it "Buy a Bowl") and I’m ready to be swept away citrusly.
Can't you see how wired Twist is?
Wow, they fill this bottle to the tippity top. Guess what it smells like? If you guessed orange juice you’re probably too far away for me to give you anything with minimal effort, but you’d be right.
Well that’s pretty dang tasty. It’d have been pretty amazing if someone could mess up OJ, but this is honestly good on the OJ spectrum as well. A lot of orange juice has an almost caustic feel, but Positive Energy Orange Juice goes down smooth compared to its brethren. Being orange juice this occasionally touches both the sweet and bitter spectrum of flavor. The initial sensation I get is indeed bitter, but this is mostly broken up by the savory side of the orange a few seconds into each sip. With that said there is a consistent bitter taste to Positive Energy. While you might think this would keep me from enjoying this beverage, as bitter tastes have in the past, it’s not strong enough to even make me consider stopping. I’m not addicted to it by any means, but it’s a delightful beverage. Positive Energy Orange Juice is doing right (with a much smaller budget I’m sure) what MTN Dew did so very wrong. Positive Energy took a flavor we already like and added a little “boost” to it without compromising the flavor much if at all. Great concept, great delivery. With that said it’s still orange juice so I’m not going to go crazy with the ranking.
~A
Twist knew that snake and he's ok with the outcome
So the folks at ThirstMonger have filled my fridge once again with their drink of the week. This week’s brand is Golazo which labels itself as an “ALL NATURAL SPORTS HYDRATION DRINK”. They’re awfully fond of capital letters at Golazo, but who can blame them. Since it’s a sports drink I’m sure it’ll be chock full of hard to pronounce “natural ingredients”. Let’s take a look, shall we? Ok, color me wrong. Here are the ingredients for Golazo Mango-Lime: Water, Cane Sugar, Coconut Water Concentrate, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, and Salt. I’m impressed and now even more curious about the Mango-Lime flavor I chose. Lemon-Lime was another beverage I could have reviewed by Golazo, but that flavor is so very common in the sports drink world I figured I’d give the odd duck of Mango-Lime a try. Hopefully this risk will pay off.
A stronger than expected aroma escapes the wide mouth bottle. True to its listed flavor the scent is easily identified as both mango and citrus. Once again I’ve doubted Golazo and once again they’ve proven me foolish for doubting them. Why would I even begin to doubt a beverage whose label clearly states that it’s “born to score”? Interesting use of lowercase letters here, yet another surprise.
The mango/lime combination is definitely unusual, but nothing that would be described as off putting. The initial sip can be described as a light mango flavored water, which is quite refreshing. When the lime shows up to the party it brings a little bit of a bitter taste with it, but I suppose that’s to be expected when you partner sweet with sour. Through the majority of the experience my mouth is pleased with the overall feel of Golazo Mango-Lime. It’s promised to be a refreshing beverage and it delivers that promise in spades. I am wishing I’d tried the Lemon-Lime version now as I bet it’d be one of the better ones on the market. The ingredient list of this was amazing, the flavor is enjoyable, and the mouth feel follows suite. So what is wrong with Golazo Mango-Lime? Well, going back to the bitter taste the lime seems to bring. That bitter taste, albeit small, interrupts the overall flow of the beverage for me. It’s like driving down the highway and every five miles you hit a speed bump. You’re still going to get to your destination, but the trip isn’t going to be as pleasurable because of it.
Even though I’m not sold on this particular flavor I will tell you that Golazo has made me excited to try other flavors by them and that’s saying something. They did too many good things with this “ALL NATURAL SPORTS HYDRATION DRINK” for me to ignore. Good thing I have another flavor chilling in my fridge.
~A
