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 MoreI don’t normally review “shot” type beverages, but hey when you’re supplied a “shot” type beverage you review it. That’s exactly what ThirstMonger sent my way this week; a series of tiny bottles for various situations of life. The brand is Body Works and the drinks have titles like Energy, Wellness, and Sleep with ingredients that promote each. I picked Relax since I didn’t want a boost of energy and didn’t want to go to sleep. We all want to relax, right? The first thing I notice is that this label is flavor free. Sure the color is primarily purple, but nowhere on here can I find a flavor. Perhaps in the ingredients will prove more helpful.
Twist says Relax
Ok, I’m about drink some filtered water, citric acid, natural flavors, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, and sucralose. Well at least I know that the flavor in the bottle is “natural”. According to the bottle I’m supposed to drink then when I’m “Feeling Overworked. Feeling tension. A need to unwind. Stress. Anytime you need to relax”. As I said before, I just picked this because I don’t need to fall asleep and I don’t care to be jumping off the walls. Oh, and the purple color made me hope this was berry flavored. Let’s find out, shall we?
Out of the mouth of this tiny bottle the scent of berries appears. There’s a citrus scent lurking behind the front line berries, but I’m not sure how pungent they will be in the ensuing battle for taste.
Ok, so the immediate flavor that I experience is a very tart, berry explosion that I kind of enjoy. Less than a second after that the berry taste gets shoved into the mud by a bitter, chalky, coffee flavor that decided my drink experience needed to be ruined. I’m aware that people don’t drink “shot” type beverages for the flavor, but guess what I do for a “living”. I review beverages based on the “flavor” and this one isn’t great. I’ve already completed the tiny bottle even though I was trying to nurse it as slowly as possible. Each sip was the exact same experience, drink it, enjoy the berry burst, watch as the bitter, chalky, coffee flavor takes over, and then sigh because you’re about to take another sip. Will Body Works Relax make me relax? Probably so, but it didn’t make me want to drink more of it.
You know how you’ll see quotes promoting things you personally don’t think are all that great. Ever notice how they have ellipses before them or no punctuation at all? It’s just a series of words that the company grabbed from an article that helps make them look good. This next sentence is the one that the company would use. Body Works Relax is the best tasting “shot” type beverage I’ve had to date. With that said, I’ve had three and the other two were awful. Body Works Relax isn’t awful, but I’m not going to classify it as good either.
~A
Remember 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
There’s an issue I’ve been tip-toeing around for a while here on the site and that is whether or not I should include non-carbonated beverages in the reviews. The response I’ve come up with is that I’ll take them on a case by case basis if they seem unique enough to test. First and foremost this is a SODA review site, but occasionally it may step off that path for a brief second. With that said, I’m not sure today’s selected beverage is carbonated. I can tell you that it’s a Turkish beverage given to us by a nice lady who works with me. The beverage at hand is called Tamek Sour Cherry Nectar. The can is 330ml and a rich pink color. There are no less than 26 cherries pictured on the can as well so you have to hope their taking this “cherry flavor” seriously. Another sign that shows how “real” this beverage is about to be are the lack of nonsense ingredients. Water, Sugar, Sour Cherry Juice (from concentrate), and Citric Acid are the only components of Tamek Sour Cherry Nectar. Again, I know this doesn’t fit our “soda definition”, but did you really think I’d turn down reviewing a Turkish beverage of any kind? Drinkin’ time.
I don’t know if my nose isn’t working properly or what, but I’m getting little to no scent coming out of this stout little can. My olfactory glands can only detect the slightest of aromas… to the point where my brain might be creating the scent for me just so I don’t feel insane. Hopefully the flavor is a bit stronger.
Well, the non-carbonation aspect took me by surprise even though I knew it had no fizz to it. I can sum the flavor of this beverage up fairly easily. This tastes like liquid cherry pie filling. If you like cherry pie (feel free to make all the innuendos you wish, I’m not doing your dirty work for you) then you’ll probably love this beverage. The only flavor difference between this and a cherry pie filling is that at the end of the road this veers more towards tart where a cherry pie might swerve towards sweet. Looking at the nutrition label I’m surprised to see that it only has 12grams of sugar because it tastes like it would have closer to 30. The cherry juice does produce a trivial burn in the back of your throat with the completion of each sip, but unless your throat is made of origami paper you probably won’t even notice. The aftertaste, which is exactly like the before taste and the current taste, sits in your mouth for a good while after your drink is complete. That seems to be the only downside to Tamek Sour Cherry Nectar, the fact that it sits rather heavy in your mouth for the duration of the consumption. I’m aware that nectar would be apt to do such a thing, but I still have to compare this to soda. I know this probably goes without saying but nectar isn’t the most refreshing of beverages so don’t expect your thirst to be quenched. Refreshing or not this can holds a good amount of deliciousness that might even be a bit too rich for some. Pretty much every word I wrote after typing “This tastes like liquid cherry pie filling”
~A
Twist only plays Turkish board games.
