Based in San Francisco, Forager Project is a company that produces a range of organic, cold-pressed juices. Marketed as "fast slow food," the brand includes four sublines -- Greens, Nuts, Roots and Cleanse -- with two to four juices in each line. While we enjoyed the formulation of the drinks that we sampled, the naming convention for the juices, differentiated by the name of the subline and a letter (i.e. "Greens A" and "Nuts B") could be improved upon.
Vita Coco’s Lemonade variety is a not-from-concentrate coconut water that is perhaps the company's most mainstream offering to date. Blending lemon puree, which has a pretty assertive flavor, with coconut water and fruit sugar results in something that tastes much more like lemonade than coconut water. To that end, consumers don't necessarily need to care for lemonade to enjoy this product.
Last year, TYR, a sportswear manufacturer, launched TYR Endurance Sport drinks. The company has certainly put out a very professional looking first effort, with a formulation that includes EMIQ (a form of quercetin), carbohydrate complex, caffeine and EGCG, and Ace-K and sugar as its sweeteners. From a taste perspective, the products are very drinkable, but the packaging will need some work for this brand to make its mark.
Kombucha Wonder Drink's "Raw" line comes in three varieties each containing 13 calories and 2 grams of sugar per 11 oz. bottle. While the beverages have a slightly sour note to them, rather that the vinegary taste associated with most kombucha drinks, the products have a mellow flavor and are quite drinkable. If we have any criticism, it's for the labels, but overall, this is a great line.
Fortified with chia seed oil, rather than seeds or ground chia, Xiomega Seedless Chia Water has no detectable taste of chia.This could be opportunity for the company, in that some consumers dislike the texture of some some chia drinks. However, we do wonder about Xiomega's use of agave as a sweetener and think that the label for these products definitely needs an upgrade.
Launched in January, Essentials is Suja’s third line of organic, HPP juices and designed to be a more mainstream offering than its other lines. The launch comes with a subtle…
drinkme, which markets a line of "cold blended" and high pressure processed juices and smoothies, recently updated its packaging and moved into a new 15.2 oz. round-edged bottle. While the company had done well with the formulation of the products, we’re still left feeling as though the company could do more with the label.
Mastiqua is a sparkling mineral water flavored with mastiha, "a world-renowned natural resin from the Mediterranean island of Chios," according to the supplier. For most people out there, that really will give no indication as to the taste of this product, which has a flavor that is almost like a light birch or sarsaparilla flavor with a mint finish. While we do like what's inside the bottle, we think that the branding, which is very heavy on its Greek origins, is not the best way to position it.
More varieties of Daily Greens means more green juice -- and once again, we like what the company has formulated in the three additional varieties that we sampled for this review. From a hemp milk-based beverage to a juice blended with carrot and tumeric, we like the way that the company has offered consumers a bit of differentiation from competing products.
As we expand our beverage reviews to include more non-RTD products, including cocktail mixers, Owl’s Brew, which markets a line of teas that are crafted for use in cocktails, is a great place to start. From a flavor perspective, the products are very enjoyable; whether we drink it straight or use it as a mixer, the enjoyment factor is the same. Add to the mix some standout packaging, and you've got a great recipe for success.
Often marketed as tea drinks, RTD hibiscus-brewed beverages have been popping up with greater frequency in recent years. A relatively new brand is Bissap Breeze, which sells a line of hibiscus drinks and concentrates. In our review of its RTD products, we think the company has done a good job with the formulation and branding of the drinks, but could use a bit of tweaking, and, perhaps, a trimming of its line up.
While the flavor of Go Ape Energy Drink is definitely one that we’ve had before, the company wisely chose NOT to use the classic Red Bull-style flavor that so many upstart brands use. Unfortunately, however, the taste isn't overly memorable or substantially better than what’s out there. And while the ape theme is certainly something that will catch eyes, it does, at least in our opinion, undermine its credibility as a functional product.
With each new variety that Bai adds to its Bai5 line of coffeefruit-infused drinks, the flavor has gotten better and better. Bai's latest introduction, Tanzania Lemonade Tea, is no exception, with the stevia and erythritol providing a level of sweetness that is about as sugar-like as we’ve seen from any drink that has used these sweeteners.
Marketed as "Nature's Recovery Fuel," Whey Coco is a powdered coconut water based-protein drink that contains 15g of protein per serving. The product combines whey protein isolate, freeze-dried coconut water, cocoa, evaporated cane juice, non-fat milk powder, natural flavor and monk fruit extract. Although the product's target consumers are fitness buffs and active individuals, the blend is so enjoyable that we could see ourselves consuming it simply for the taste alone.
