Xingtea

Since there are several flavors of this beverage I enjoy, I will do a general review of the product line as I have experienced it. At first it was hard to find this anywhere but the original 7-11 I discovered it in, but have since found it sold in a few more gas stations in the area. This may not be the case in other parts of the country, since I live in a near dead-zone of original beverages.

What first caught my eye was the large can with pretty colors, and then it was the prominent All-Natural labeling around the top. Then I saw it was only $1.39 (more elsewhere), and I took a small chance. It was phenomenal. I have tried several of the flavors, finding blueberry to be my personal favorite. As far a real tea goes, this is no contender; but for a flavored tea, it beats all I have tried thus far. They are sweetened mostly with honey, contain some boosts like ginseng, and are not too sweet.

I do have some grievances, though. Like I mentioned above, it can be hard to find these. Secondly, there is little information to be found online about the product. I did find out that they are now produced and distributed by Cott, and they have a line of 14 flavors or products, including 3 diet versions and an energy drink. For best results, drink on a sunny, sultry day so you can finish all 23.5oz.

Score: not widely available, but still quite tasty, 4.5 out of 5.

-- WiseGuise

The Beginning of the End of HFCS: A WiseGuise Diatribe

As those of you who read this humble blog with any interest or regularity hopefully know, we are working toward a world without a need for the ubiquitous and unhealthy sweetener known as HFCS or High Fructose Corn Syrup. This unholy substance is used in almost every production food imaginable, including beverages, flavored alcohols, corn and potato chips, soups, candy, packaged vegetables, cereals and even bread. Bread! Why does bread need sugar? Much less hydrogenated oils and enriched (processed) white flour, but that's a topic for another rant.

As it turns out, we are not the only ones fighting this massively one-sided battle. As you may have noticed, some companies (even those owned by Big Soda) are beginning to sense a change in the tide and have begun to return to more natural sweet stuff; these include, but are not entirely limited to:

• SoBe: all redesigned bottles I have found now contain sugar, and proudly proclaim it
• Jones Soda: has switched many of their sodas to cane sugar
• Steaz: I have no idea who they are, but use only organic cane sugar
• Goose Island: same as above
• Dr. Pepper: it's called Dublin Dr. Pepper
  
• Coke: known as the "Mexican" Coke, it is produced south of the border, with regular sugar, and has a better taste in many persons' opinions, including my own
  

In recent reading, I found this surprising and amusing poll. An unbelievable NINETY PERCENT of people are at least trying to avoid HFCS, as I found while reading this article on the poll itself. Also in a related article (by related I mean linked) Coke is coming out with Passover Coke, since corn is not OK on passover, despite Coke being kosher.

It seems a lot of people also prefer the taste of sugar over HFCS, as in the MexiCoke. So you may ask, why the HFCS if people prefer the taste of sugar? There are a lot of reasons, but the main ones are simple economics. First, there are sugar tariffs in the U.S., making it more expensive to import (hint: it doesn't grow well here). Second, there are subsidies for the corn industry in the U.S., making it cheaper to run that corn through the lengthy process of converting it to HFCS; and therefore, cheaper than just buying sugar. Another reason is that it mixes easier with liquids, being a liquid. Less work for the soda companies.

I have read some rumorings of bringing back a stevia-derived sweetener into use again, since it was banned in the U.S. in 1991. Methinks this was a move by other sweetener lobbies to get it out of the picture since it was competition (300 times the sweetness of sucrose!). It has been used in South America for centuries, and if it was killing people, we'd probably know by now.

In conclusion, if you are making an effort to get HFCS out of your life, keep it up, it appears to be working, and maybe one day it will be as rare to see it in a product as it was to see sugar just a few years ago. Choosing healthier drinks is just the beginning.

Thanks to my sources, Wikipedia, the Consumerist and Google.

-- WiseGuise

A quick update...

Hello Better Libationers!

As you may have noticed, we`ve taken the liberty of upgrading a few things, including our domain name. You can now find us at http://www.betterlibations.com/. Drink submissions will now be emailed to drinkme@betterlibations.com, while love letters, death threats, and random advice can be sent to either Danithius@betterlibations.com or Wiseguise@betterlibations.com.

I haven`t posted for the last two weeks because I`ve been away on a little excursion to the Land of the Rising Sun. I just needed to get away from the high-fructose rat race for a while, you see. How unhappy I was when I discovered some of my favorite drinks out here have the Devil`s Sweetener in them, too! (I had some nagging suspicions, I just never knew for sure - mostly because, well, the ingredients are in Japanese.) So that has cast a slightly sticky shadow on an otherwise wonderful vacation. That, and the Ninjas.

But never fear, I`ll be back in the states soon with some special edition Far Eastern reviews! Stay tuned!

-Danithius in Tokyo