July 2014 – David's Beverage Blog

Honest Tea Black Forest Berry

Posted on July 31, 2014 by David

Honest Tea calls this an infusion or tisane. I call it delicious! The Goldilocks of drinks, it has a not too strong, not too weak refreshing berry flavor that’s just right. It has a low amount of sugar and what I think is a perfect flavor to sweetness balance. This is caffeine free beverage.

Sweetener: cane sugar

Amount of sweetener: 16 grams (17oz bottle)

Minute Maid Lemonade

Posted on July 30, 2014 by David

This is a weird one so hang on. I don’t like this lemonade out of the bottle, but with a change I’ll describe later, I like this beverage very much. The lemonade flavor is good in this beverage, but a 20oz bottle has a whopping 70 grams of sugar. (I had to update my sugar visual graphic for this one.) That’s a total of 18 packets of sugar! To make this drinkable I’ll mix 20% lemonade and 80% ice cold water. It’s refreshing and the mix creates a nice balance of flavor and sweetness. Out of the bottle Minute Maid Lemonade gets a 2 rating, mixed with water it’s a 4 rating.

Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup

Amount of sweetener: 70 grams (20oz bottle)

This beverage gets a rating of 2 out of the bottle.

This beverage gets a rating of 4 mixed with 80% water.

Nestle Pure Life Water

Posted on July 29, 2014 by David

I like this water. I think it has good taste and is similar to Deer Park water. It doesn’t have that dead taste that water can sometimes have. Nestle has added minerals for taste. I’m still looking for that great tasting water that Dasani once was, but I have not found it yet. Update: After drinking a lot of this water I’ve increased the rating from 4 to 4.5.

Pepsi

Posted on July 25, 2014 by David

Pepsi is a solid drink with good flavor. Like Coke, it has a long history. Compared to Coke it’s sweeter and has less bite. Coke has more of an acidic element. I like the taste of Pepsi, but I don’t drink it often. A 20oz bottle contains 66 grams of sugar. That’s about 16.5 teaspoons of sugar. It’s a good pick me up if your blood sugar is low and you need immediate calories, but I rarely consume this beverage, it is too sweet.

Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup

Amount of sweetener: 66 grams (20oz bottle)

Dasani Water

Posted on July 25, 2014 by David

When this water debuted I said to myself, “this is the only water I’m going to drink.” It tasted so good back then, but it changed. In fact, now I try to avoid this water. Originally, when Dasani was released the taste was amazing. I believe this was due to the amount of minerals that were added for flavor. After some time the taste of this water began to change. It no longer has that wonderful flavor and now has a dead taste similar to what you’ll find in some water coolers. I believe this is because they have reduced the amount of minerals used in this water.

Vanilla Coke

Posted on July 25, 2014 by David

This is a classic with a twist, it’s vanilla flavored Coke! The vanilla flavor is pleasant and mellows out the acidic or biting flavor of Coke. I think this is a good tasting drink, but I drink it very sparingly just a few times a year (and not all at once). The 20FL oz bottle contains 70 grams of sugar. That is no joke. It’s about 17.5 teaspoons of sugar.

Sweetener: high fructose corn syrup

Amount of sweetener: 70 grams (20oz bottle)

Honest Tea Assam Black Tea

Posted on July 25, 2014 by David

This is one of my most favorite beverages. I would be a happy man if I had an ice cold bottle of Assam in my fridge at all times. I especially love drinking this in the morning. This tea has a complex flavor, it’s soo good I’ll drink it a sip at a time to re-experience every aspect of it’s diverse flavor. I’m usually left with an empty bottle. The flavor is crisp, strong, and has a slight bitterness that I love. If you are used to Snapple or Lipton bottled tea’s you may taste this and think there is no sweetener at all, but there is, 10 grams of sugar. Roughly 2.5 packets of sugar.

Sweetener: cane sugar

Amount of sweetener: 10 grams (17oz bottle)