New Atlas Beverage Co.

This Black Currant Juice drink comes from Connecticut, where I picked it up in a local grocery store. It’s a dark juice, and very strong smell, a lot like concord grape, and similar almost to wine. The taste is very much like a dark purple grape juice. There are slight tannins, but overall it’s a very smooth drink.

It only has 3 ingredients: water, black currant juice (from concentrate), and fructose. But it’s only 22% juice. How can that be? I’m not sure, maybe that means it’s only 22% concentrate, with the water as the majority of the other 78%. If you know how they calculate the percentage of juice, please leave a comment. Regardless, this leads me to imagine that straight-up black currant juice is probably either bitter or sour – which is why cranberry juice is usually sold as a juice blend. The water and sugar really easily cut that though if it’s the case, because it’s actually very good.

Black currant is a small black fruit very high in antioxidants and vitamins, including Vitamin C. It has four times the Vitamin C of oranges, and twice as many antioxidants as blueberries. I think that qualifies it as a superfruit. It comes from Europe, and is working on making a comeback in the United States where it was banned in the past because of a threat to the logging industry. It is still banned in some states.

The black currant juice I tried was made by Currant Affair. You can visit their website at www.ConnecticutCurrant.com

Bossa nova’s acai juice has a great berry smell. It’s very smooth like a good acai juice should be, and doesn’t have any of the brown residue like sambazon acai juice did. The mango is not extremely noticeable, but it does give it an extra sweetness and a bit of a cooling sensation like fresh mango does. It’s not bitter at all, and not really too sweet either. The mango does cut some of the acai so you don’t get the rich acai flavor that i’ve had in other pure acai juices. This one is 88% juice, and is sweetened with organic agave nectar, which seems to be the trend these days for sweeteners since it has a relatively neutral taste and none of the bad image that might come with sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

Overall, a very good and refreshing acai juice blend. One of the best I’ve tasted.

I heard a lot about Thums Up from my Indian friends all throughout college, but never got a chance to try it until I recently found it in an Indian food specialty shop. After hearing so much praise, I had very high expectations. It looks and tastes like a cola, but it does have a distinct taste from the likes of Coke or Pepsi. It’s flavors are more like China Cola, herbal and aromatic, though sweeter and more carbonated.

It may just be my bias knowing it comes from India, but the spices and flavors in it do seem to match the profile of Indian food. According to Wikipedia, it has a taste “reminiscent of betel nut.” I don’t know what betel nut tastes like but for anyone who does, maybe it gives you a better idea of what I’m talking about. That being said, it is still a cola, and may just be an interesting drink as an alternative to Coke. Its interesting flavors would also make a good mix with rum for a rum and thums up.

Thums Up still comes in a glass bottle with an actual, real bottle cap that you have to use a bottle opener for. What it might lack in convenience, it makes up for in authenticity. Despite the fact that it’s made by Coca-Cola, I still give this drink a thumbs up.

This bottle looks like a kid’s drink, with a cartoon bear hugging a giant ear of corn, but I think it may be marketed toward adults as a beauty drink because of the nutrients.

This corn juice was being sold in 500g bottles as well as 2-liter bottles, and it looked like there was only one flavor option: corn.  The foil cap on the small bottle I bought was extremely hard to open. I tried peeling at first, but it seems like it was made for  a straw. With no straw in sight, I had to stab it with a pen a couple times to get it to open up.

So, the long and short of it is: this tastes like (more…)

A blood orange is a fruit from Italy, which is a variety of orange that has red juice the color of blood. The juice is a dark orange color, but not quite red. It tastes a little bit more bitter and sour than regular orange juice, almost like a mix between orange and grapefruit. It has a nice tart flavor that would go really well in a cocktail. I think mixing blood orange juice with vodka would be a great variation on a screwdriver. I haven’t thought of a clever name for it yet though, leave your ideas in the comments.

It says on the bottle that this blood orange juice is made from blood oranges from Mt. Etna Volcano in Sicily, Italy. It’s imported into the US and registered USDA 100% Organic. It’s not from concentrate and it’s high in Vitamin C and antioxidants as most citrus fruits are. The best part about this brand is that it’s 100% organic blood orange juice, so you know it’s fresh and healthy. (more…)

Hey, I like peanuts and I like peanut butter. I’ve never heard of peanut juice, but it can’t be that bad right? It’s probably good even!

This is what was going through my head when I picked up this peanut drink. Plus, it’s in a juice box. What could be better? (more…)

Really, what sounds more appetizing than juice from a Jew’s ear, especially “Quality Jew’s ear selected from Changbai Mountain?”

I’m actually pretty nervous to try it. From the Chinese name,  黑木耳露 （Hei1 Mu4 Er3 Lu4）, I know that it’s wood ear juice. Wood ear (evidently a.k.a. Jew’s ear) is a fungus that’s pretty common in Chinese dishes, but I would never think about drinking it. (more…)

I sipped this before smelling it. Bad idea.

Based on the harmless-looking sprig of wheat or barley on the can, I figured it would be something like Nikola Kvas, especially since Korea is so close to Russia. Boy, was I wrong. (more…)

This blueberry drink comes from China, and is actually a specialty of Inner Mongolia. It’s called Ye Lao Da, which roughly translates to “Very Wild.” There’s a long story on the label about how the wild blueberries are hand-selected from the primordial forests in the mountains.

This drink is actually more blueberries than blueberry juice. It’s deep purple, and has a ton of little blueberries floating in it. These Chinese blueberries aren’t exactly the same as the standard North American variety, they’re a little bit bigger and look almost like small grapes. (more…)

Spike Shooter’s got a new flavor, and it’s called ‘Quila Lime. This version is ever as potent as  the original spike shooter. For the full review of spike’s intense effects, read the Spike Shooter Original Flavor Review.

Quila Lime smells like a margarita mix, just like the name suggests. (more…)