Passion House Coffee Roasters is a specialty coffee roaster based in Chicago. The company's approach is a bit different than other roasters in that it offers three “genres” of coffee: Ambient, Mainstream, and Experimental.
DailyServing takes a novel approach to food and beverage, combining an approximately 4 oz. serving of juice with an identically sized snack. The juice, which is cold-pressed and HPP, is the more compelling part of the offering (maybe that’s just our jaded perspective as beverage folks).
TruBrain is a unique product that was designed to offer consumers cognitive and energy benefits as a way to provide what it describes as “genuine focus” to users. It sounds like a very lofty goal, but fortunately the folks behind this are a team of UCLA-trained neuroscientists.
A line of green teas infused with mushroom extracts, Mudra Mushroom is certainly one of the more unique ready-to-drink tea brands on the market. All in all, we like the notion of a functional mushroom tea, but we feel as though the company needs to do more for the brand to really stand out to a broader audience.
From our perspective, Joni Juice produces some of the better cold-pressed juices and smoothies that we've sampled. Yet while we really like the formulation of the products, there’s a bigger opportunity for the brand if its package design was given an overhaul.
Green Mustache has made a number of updates to its brand of kid-focused juice smoothies, which are blended with nutritionally dense ingredients like chia and kale. The beverages are now high pressure processed and packaged in a 12 oz. cylindrical bottle. Green Mustache has also added a couple new flavor varieties to its lineup
Bluewater Farms' Cranberry Juice is the flagship product in the company's line of cranberry-based beverages. While it’s tastier than many shelf-stable alternatives out there, we think there needs to be more done to make it a compelling product.
NüBrü Coffee markets a three-SKU line of cold-brewed and high pressure processed (HPP) coffee drinks. Packaged in 12 oz. bottles, it's first HPP and cold-brew coffee line that we've seen and, for us, the combined use of the processing methods results in some truly delicious beverages.
Hiball’s Black Cherry Organic Energy Drink is the latest addition to its line of sweetened offerings. With added organic sour cherry juice concentrate (5 percent juice), his one takes shape quite nicely.
Maté Bros, which comes in an 8 oz. slim can, is positioned as a yerba mate “energy” product. Based on packaging and label, the product seems to be skirting around some of the same challenges that other yerba mate products have come to struggle with: is it a tea, an energy drink, or something else?
Honest Tea has extended its "Summer Refershers" line with a new Watermelon Lemonade variety. The product, which is made with 9 percent juice, including both lemon and watermelon juices (Honest Tea also includes natural flavorings and organic lemon extract), delivers a straightforward flavor: it almost tastes like something you’d make at home.
LaCroix’s NiCola is a sweetener-, color-, and calorie-free sparkling water that is formulated with cola flavoring. Admittedly, our hopes were not high for this product, but after our first sip, we were quickly won over.
Califia Farms has extended its line of cold brew coffee and almond milk blends with three new varieties: Dirty Chai, Mocha Mexica and Triple Shot. While we'd prefer a slightly more dialed up flavor for the coffee, the products are otherwise well-formulated.
Sound Sparkling Tea, which launched as Sodterra, is a line of carbonated tea drinks that come in three unsweetened and zero-calorie varieties. In our review of the brand's White Tea and Chamomile products, it's clear that Sound has created beverages that are very enjoyable and, aside from a couple adjustments to the labels, well-executed.
