Talking Rain Twist - Lemon

Talking Rain w/ Ribeye Backdrop, cir. 2008

As illustrated by this photo, Talking Rain Twist Lemon tastes great on a hot sunny afternoon, especially when it's washing down a freshly seared meduim-rare piece of red meat. Mmmmmmm, cow.

Oh, and before I forget: Wise Guise, you'll find your severance check in the mail in the next couple of days. Nobody steals a new product line review out from under Danithius! You'll never work in this business again, you two-timing beverage whore!

Ahem. Now then, this drink has a nice sun-kissed lemon flavor with just the right amount of bite, and nothing else. No sugar, no anything, just lemon-water. Nice, crisp, clean - goes great with food or as a nice refresher.

With this tasty submission, Talking Rain has won its way back into my good graces, which is pretty hard to do after my last Talking Rain sampling fiasco. I can now officially retract my statement that all of their flavor-creator scientist people must have been flunkies that were fired from the Kool-Aid corporation. Clearly that was only half of their staff, and the non-idiot members are working on the Twist series.

This stuff is 9% juice, which includes pineapple concentrate. (Interesting choice of ingredients. I would have never guessed it had pineapple in it.) As I said, no sugar and no artificial sweeteners, so you can't get too much healthier than that.

All in all, it's great for what it is (lemon-water), and it fits in well with our M.O. as a site, but I'm going to dock a point for lack of originality. As was my problem at first with Metromint, I don't like giving full points to something that I could make at home for 1/10th of the price. C'mon, give me a lemon for a quarter and some tap water, I'll whip up five of these. (Yes, yes, I know yours is "Ultra Premium", Talking Rain. But MY tap water is "Uber-Premium". To infinity. So there.)

Score: 4.0/5

-Danithius

V8 V-Fusion

*Reader Suggested*

This has actually been on my radar for some time, since suggested to me by my juice-loving friend Annie. Once we finally received them in our state, I took an instant liking to them. These beverages are 100% juice, unlike their other alt-beverage V8 Splash, which contains only 10% juice and HFCS (and regular V8 has kill-you amounts of sodium).

The flavors I have tried are quite good, the Peach Mango being my favorite. The Pomegranate Blueberry is good but has a bit of an odd aftertaste in large quantities. The Strawberry Banana has a bit more sugar, 38 g per 12oz bottle, but still not bad. Oddly enough, the main filler in all these is sweet potato juice, although, I can't tell.

Each small bottle gives you a serving of fruit and vegetable, but can cost upwards of two bucks a bottle. I would buy the larger bottle (anywhere between $2.50-$3.20) and save some cash. I think this would be a great idea for those trying to get more fruit and veggies in their diet, or those of their kids/family. I would avoid the 'Lite' offerings, they contain sucralose, an artificial sweetener.

Sadly, V8 is also part of Campbell's, another large corporation slowly swallowing up other brands over the years. At least they have these drinks under their wide belt, possibly the healthiest thing the company makes.

Score: 4.5 out of 5, points lost for corporate hierarchy.

-- WiseGuise

Talking Rain Twist - West Indies Lime

One of my favorite flavors is lime, ask anyone. Well, anyone that knows me. If fact, just ask me, you can't trust anyone else. Now then. I spotted one of these in Danithius' fridge, so I found one myself, and have managed to post my review before him. Take that.

It has a crisp, limey, slightly sour taste, and finishes with a mild sweetness and is quite enjoyable for sipping. It smells like a key lime pie, too. This is certified organic AND kosher, for our Semitic readers.

After our dismal receiving of their sparkling water line, this is a more-than-welcome change. I was sad after I finished the bottle, and wanted to go get another. Although I wasn't too fond of the cottony tongue I got afterward, but that what comes with real citrus juices. So you can just deal with it too.

I like their little axiom I spied on the back of the bottle: As in Life, Chill For Best Results. It contains 9% 'nectar', and only 2 g of sugar a serving. The only ingredients are water, agave nectar, lime juice and citric acid. Although I probably wouldn't drink this while working out, any other time it would suit me quite well. More info about their line here.

Score: 4.5 out of 5.

--WiseGuise