New Atlas Beverage Co.

Kombucha definitely fits the bill of a strange beverage. Pronounced kom-BOO-cha, it is a sweetened tea that is fermented using a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. The fermenting process carbonates it and gives it a trace amount of alcohol. By the way, this colony of 2 billion organisms is alive and growing inside the drink! A handmade tea from China, this tea is renowned for it’s health properties to “restore balance and vitality” to your body.

I picked up a few bottles of G.T.’s Kombucha Synergy, which means that it’s a blend of 95% raw Kombucha and 5% fruit Juice to review. This version just tastes a bit better than GT’s 100% Kombucha. I’ll be reviewing the Trilogy flavor, which is raspberry, lemon, and ginger.

When you  get the bottle, it usually has the colony growing at the bottom, so you have to shake it up to get it mixed throughout. Depending on how ‘young’ the Kombucha is, there will be more or less of these culture strands, since they grow over time. If it’s your first time trying Kombucha, I recommend getting one with not much of the culture. Since it is carbonated, don’t shake it too hard because it will explode when opening it. This has happened to me. (more…)

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.

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…)

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…)

Bottle of Mona-Vie

I first came across Mona-Vie when looking for a healthy acai drink. It calls itself “the premier acai blend,” with 19 different beneficial fruits. However, it’s very expensive just for one bottle, rivaling a decent priced liquor. A 750 ml bottle of the monavie active blend can go for $45 in the US.

I finally got my hands on this expensive blend of fruit juices from someone I know who ordered it, since I don’t believe it’s sold in stores. (more…)

Sweet tea vodka may not be strange to some people, but in the northern United States, “sweet tea” was unheard of until recently when it began to be sold at fast food restaurants. Sweet Tea is a traditional drink in the southern US, basically consisting of iced tea and sugar. Firefly has infused this classic drink into a vodka using the only tea grown in America. As they say, “This ain’t your Grandma’s sweet tea.” (more…)

Spike shooter is the ultimate energy drink. Second-to-none, this hardcore energy drink comes with plenty of warnings. The original flavor is not listed on the can, but it’s some sort of fruit punch.

The Spike Shooter original flavor is bright red and lightly carbonated. It smells like a melted cherry popsicle. The taste is like a very sweet cherry flavored soda, and is very drinkable. It doesn’t have any of the nasty flavors that many other energy drinks have.

The real thing that makes spike energy drink unusual is it’s potency. It has 25,000% of the recommended daily value of vitamin B-12, and that’s not a typo. Spike Shooter ingredients contain an absorbable form of B-12 called methylcobalamin, which is said to reduce stress, increase healthy cell growth, but most importantly boost your energy. Caffeine is the third ingredient in the drink after water and citric acid. The 250mL can is said to have the same amount of caffeine as the largest starbucks coffee. In addition to both of these, the Spike Shooter formula has it’s own secret recipe of mystery energy boosters. (more…)