Fuze Orange Blossom White Tea

Aroma : Sweetly orange with a hint of ginger, and the herby aroma of tea leaves. Very pleasant.

Taste : A mildly sweet burst of orange and ginger assails me, then—wow—tastes like actual leaves or flowers, but not in an unpleasant way. Kind of how I would expect an orange blossom sprinkled lightly with honey to taste. The soft white tea flavor mellows on your tastebuds, and the orangey sweetness kicks back and hangs out on the sides of your tongue like old friends on an old couch.

Price : $1.29 at your local grocer, or available online.

Ingredients : filtered water, crystalline fructose, honey, natural orange ginger flavor with other natural flavors, white tea solids, malic acid, ascorbic acid (C), white tea extract, niacin (B3), calcium pantothenate, vitamin E acetate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), folic acid, cyanocobalamin (B12) (dietary suplement)

Other Comments : This beverage comes in a keen looking bottle which is not covered in statements addressing how cool the company is for making such a product. Actually, over a quarter of the label space is devoted to additional nutritional information on the various antioxidants and vitamins contained within. Is it necessary? Probably not. Is it refreshing to see? Definitely.

Overall : With an aesthetically pleasing package and a smooth draught of vitamin rich, naturally sweetened teafuzion (yeah, I just made that up now), this beverage pleasantly surprised me, having tried other beverages of this nature before, and have been continually turned off by the taste of the artificial sweeteners used. However, this drink may not be to the liking of those adverse to the earthly, leafy taste.

Rating : 4/5 stars.

-WiseGuise

Ayala's Lemongrass Mint Vanilla

Aroma: This product has a light herbal scent reminiscent of nice minty chamomile tea.

Taste: Firstly, (I've noticed this with all the flavors), the water itself tastes pure and has no trace of that bottled water or mineral water taste that I have come to despise. The lemongrass really shines in this one, followed by minty overtones and a light vanilla finale. The potency of the lemon flavor is nice and refreshing. The herbal intricacies easily rival any tea or other unsweetened drink. And yes, the herbs taste real. It's refreshing in a world where "grape drink flavor" and the flavor of actual grapes are two concepts that are completely separate and foreign from each other.

Price: $2.00/bottle when purchased in a case of 12 - available through their online store. At first I thought this a bit pricey, but then I realized it includes free shipping, which can be a bear when shipping heavy beverages.

Ingredients: purified water, extracts from vanilla beans, lemongrass, and spearmint leaves

Other Comments: It's almost creepy how well these guys matched our drink submission requirements and our overall mission. They're a small independent company that hasn't yet been gobbled up by one of the big boys (as far as I can tell). They're locally distributed in New York City and Philadelphia markets, but they are available nationwide through their website. They have a hard-core distaste for high fructose corn syrup and anything artificial. They have a passion for healthy living. And they make some of the most interesting natural drink flavors that I've ever seen. (I'm a chef, so I got all giddy when I read about their different herb and spice-based flavors). The herb selections aren't all arbitrary, either. They have an outline of all the herbs on the label which tells you about their individual benefits.
Ayala is the name of the woman who created these drinks, and not surprisingly she is a cook and a doctor (a pediatrician, to be exact). Evidently she was looking for an alternative to sugar-laden and artificially flavored beverages. A clip from their site: "Americans are getting heavier—in fact, two-thirds of us are overweight or obese. We simply consume many more calories than we need, and a significant amount of those extra calories comes from sugar and high fructose corn syrup." Boom! Short and sweet.

Overall: Here again Ayala's has succeeded in making a tasty drink with no sweeteners, fillers, or artificial crap. It's simple, yet I still don't feel as though I could whip one of these up at home for a sixteenth of the price. (See MetroMint). I am quite impressed with the company's efforts to be green as well, which earns them extra points. I don't hesitate to give this product a full five stars.

Rating: 5/5 stars.

-Danithius

***Review Rebuttal!***
When Sir Danithius first told me about this, I was skeptical about the flavor. Thankfully, I was wrong. Although I couldn't detect the vanilla, that very well may be due to an oncoming cold. Besides that, it tastes great, clean water with the aroma and taste of pleasant herbs. I dig it.

-WiseGuise

Ayala's Cloves Cardamom Cinnamon Herbal Water

Aroma: This product has a very nice herbal scent. The cardamom is the most pronounced, and it blends perfectly with the hints of clove and cinnamon. For those of you that don't know (I even had to head to the spice cabinet for a refresher), cardamom has a very mild ginger-like aroma to it, and goes quite well with spices like nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and of course cloves and cinnamon.

Taste: Firstly, one thing on the water itself. It tastes pure, and has no trace of that bottled water or mineral water taste that I have come to despise. That scored some points right off the bat. The herbal flavor itself is quite pleasant and it lingers in your mouth for a good while, making your breath feel all nice and clean. (Herbs were some of the first breath fresheners, after all.) The potency of the flavors is just right and the herbal intricacies rival any tea or other unsweetened drink. The best part is: the herbs taste real. I'm tired of people scientifically fiddling around with my drink flavors until they're virtually unrecognizable. This tastes like there were actually cloves and cinnamon sticks floating in the bottle at some point.

Price: $2.00 bottle when purchased in a case of 12 - available through their online store. At first I thought this a bit pricey, but then I realized it includes free shipping, which can be a bear when shipping heavy drinks.

Ingredients: purified water, honey, extracts from cloves, cardamom seeds, and cinnamon bark.

Other Comments: It's almost creepy how well these guys matched our drink submission requirements and our overall mission. They're a small independent company that hasn't yet been gobbled up by one of the big boys (as far as I can tell). They're locally distributed in New York City and Philadelphia markets, but they are available nationwide through their website. They have a hard-core distaste for high fructose corn syrup and anything artificial. They have a passion for healthy living. And they make some of the most interesting natural drink flavors that I've ever seen. (I'm a chef, so I got all giddy when I read about their different herb and spice-based flavors). The herb selections aren't all arbitrary, either. They have an outline of all the herbs on the label which tells you about their individual benefits.
Ayala is the name of the woman who created these drinks, and not surprisingly she is a cook and a doctor (a pediatrician, to be exact). Evidently she was looking for an alternative to sugar-laden and artificially flavored beverages. A clip from their site: "Americans are getting heavier—in fact, two-thirds of us are overweight or obese. We simply consume many more calories than we need, and a significant amount of those extra calories comes from sugar and high fructose corn syrup." Boom! Short and sweet.

Overall: Here Ayala's has succeeded in making a tasty drink with no sweeteners, fillers, or artificial crap. It's simple, yet I still don't feel as though I could whip one of these up at home for a sixteenth of the price. (See MetroMint). I am impressed with the company as well, which earns them extra points. I see no reason not to give this product a full five stars.

Rating: 5/5 stars.

-Danithius


***Review Rebuttal!***
Once again Ayala's has scored with this one. I found the herb scents pleasantly strong, but not in taste, which is excellent, since cinnamon can overwhelm the palate. The faint sweetness of the honey also made me quite happy. This is one of my favorites of theirs. I wish I had a case of this stuff, I would drink it daily. *hint, hint*

-WiseGuise

IZZE Sparkling Grapefruit

Aroma: Yep, smells like grapefruit all right. Grape, apple, and lemon juices actually come before the grapefruit on the ingredients list, but you coulda fooled me.

Taste: This one is going to be hard to describe. Instead of having an immediate grapefruit taste, I would describe it as more of an aftertaste. The initial flavor is a nice blend of all the juices that went into this product backed by that little sparkling bite of carbonation. (More of a nibble, really. It's quite pleasant). The sweetness is well-balanced with the tart taste of the grapefruit and lemon. I personally like my grapefruit juices to jump up and smack me in the face (makes me feel more like a man), but they have done a nice job of making grapefruit accessible even to those who normally avoid it. (a.k.a. "pansies")

Price: $1.29 at local natural foods store. Available nationwide at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and a whole bunch of other national stores. You can't throw a stick without finding a store that sells it, it seems...

Ingredients: Pure juice from grape, apple, lemon, grapefruit, and orange juice concentrates, sparkling water, gum acacia [from acacia trees], red cabbage extract [color], natural flavors, ester gum

Other Comments: I looked over their site, and they had every indication that they were a smaller independent company. But when I wandered over to Wikipedia....
"On September 26, 2006, Izze Beverage Co was purchased by PepsiCo. PepsiCo has announced that it plans to leave Izze as is, only assisting with marketing efforts."
Hmm. So that's why they're so widely distributed.

Overall: The price is nice, and I like the 70% fruit juice, 30% sparkling water aspect a lot. But keep in mind that even though fruit juice offers much better nutrition than the straight HCFS and water you find in regular sodas, fruit juice still does have a lot of sugar. (37g per 12 oz. bottle in this instance - a 12 oz can of Coke has about 39g). So it's probably not a good idea to drink it like it was water. All in all though, it's a good-tasting, more nutritive alternative to regular soda.

Rating: 4/5 stars.