Crayons Fruit Juice Drink

Product Type:Juice: Juice Drink; Container: 14 oz PET
BevNET Review: Our favorite of the new lineup, Crayons’ Blueberry Raspberry is a sweet and fruity product whose best assets are its accurate fruit flavors. The blueberry is what hits you first, with a heavy note of what tastes like real blueberries. Second up is the raspberry, which adds a strong tart note to the mix. After that, the drink is rounded out with some notes of pear and citrus to the finish. It’s sweet, which is likely to aid the drink's appeal to kids, while the added vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, and B vitamins) should make the drink sufficient from a parental point of view. On the exterior, the drink features what the marketer calls “authentic art” and, in this case, the exterior is attributed to Jon Burgerman, a British artist. The look is funky and colorful, with red, white, and blue streaks across a black backdrop. If Crayons did this to try and stand out, they’ve certainly succeeded – this doesn’t look like any beverage we’ve seen before. And in this particular product, we appreciate how the Crayons logo feels like an integrated part of the design – something that we didn’t see in some of the other flavors. However, the flavor name, which uses contrasting colors for the words “blueberry” and “raspberry" is a bit hard to read. The simple fix of changing both of these words to the same color would alleviate this issue. Overall, a very well done product that’s enjoyable to drink and look at.Reviewed on: 11/23/2009

Product Type:Juice: Juice Drink; Container: 14, 46 oz PET
BevNET Review: Crayons Fruit Juice Drink’s Fruit Punch flavor was our second favorite flavor of the lineup. This 30 percent juice drink features pear, lemon, pineapple, apple, cherry, and grape juices, which result in a much more balanced flavor than that of the Pink Lemonade and a less candy like flavor than the Kiwi Strawberry. Otherwise, the drink tastes just like a classic fruit punch juice drink, which is obviously what they are going for. One of the other selling points are the 8 vitamins and minerals, which include vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, and B vitamins. So, it’s likely to satisfy kids and parents alike. On the outside, the bottle has a funky art backdrop on a fully wrapped 14 oz. hot fill bottle. It’s quite nice looking, although the text (for the logo and flavor name) almost blends in with the backdrop. That’s something that could (and should) be easily remedied with a difference choice of color (or background color) for the text. On the back, they’ve introduced a new tagline, “Drink Outside the Lines,” which seems like a clever choice given the brand’s name. We’d like to see that more heavily integrated with the rest of the brand. Overall, this product seems like a big step in the right direction for Crayons, but a few tweaks to the packaging could further improve it.Reviewed on: 11/23/2009

Product Type:Juice: Juice Drink; Container: 14 oz, 46 oz PET
BevNET Review: The Kiwi Strawberry flavor of Crayons Fruit Juice Drink is, like the other two flavors, made with 30 percent juice, including pear, lemon, grape, kiwi, and strawberry juices. The product is also has natural flavors and evaporated cane juice (sugar), resulting in an almost candy-like note to its finish. The last part we could certainly live without, but otherwise the product has an enjoyable and fruity flavor that does indeed taste like kiwi strawberry. However, this drink isn’t about just flavor alone, so they’ve added eight vitamins and minerals to the formulation, including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, and B vitamins. That’s certainly going to help with the parents who inevitably purchase the product for their kids. From a kid point of view, the flashy and colorful bottle is sure to catch their eyes, with “real artwork” giving the product an urban-looking theme. Compared with the other two flavors, the brand’s logo and flavor text stand out a bit more thanks to proper placement atop contrasting colors. That’s a big plus for this flavor – and we hope they carry it through to the other two flavors. Overall, an enjoyable tasting and cool looking product that’s done a good job of going beyond just empty calories.Reviewed on: 11/23/2009

Product Type:Juice: Juice Drink; Container: 14 oz PET
BevNET Review: The latest rendition of Crayons takes the product back into a bottle, this time a 14 o. hot fill Amcor PET that’s been fully wrapped. It’s definitely their best looking product to date, with bright colors and flashy accent graphics covering the entire front panel. The Crayons name gets center stage, while the flavor name is placed directly above alongside an image of two lemons. Since all of the colors are more or less the same level of brightness, the flavor and brand name don’t stand out as well as they possibly can. That’s something that could certainly be adjusted in future editions. On the inside of the bottle, this product is made with 30 percent juice, but it’s 28 percent pear and 2 percent lemon (according to the label). The resulting flavor is sweet (evaporated cane juice) and has a pear flavor that’s noticeably stronger than that of the lemon. Adjusting this ratio and making the lemon sweeter would be a huge plus. One of the manufacturer’s other selling points is the fact that the product has been enhanced with 8 vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, and B vitamins. That’s certainly a nice plus, but ultimately, it’s going to be the branding and flavor that sell this product. That being said, we really hope to see more lemon flavor in future runs of this product. Still, this product is a much improved and rather enjoyable product. Reviewed on: 11/23/2009