Starbucks Refreshers Raspberry Pomegranate and Orange Melon

Starbucks Refreshers: Natural Energy from Green Coffee Bean Extract

Sparks (or at least sparkling juices) fly when energy and refreshment unite in a lightly carbonated blend of juices, vitamins, ginseng, and green, unroasted coffee beans. It's a delicious energy boost, without any coffee taste.

Starbucks Refreshers are a relatively new line of beverages that are advertised as giving you natural energy, which comes from the green coffee bean extract. Their line includes tea beverages that you can order in the shop, the powdered Via sticks, or they come in a can (which is, as you can see in the picture, the one I am reviewing today).

So let's get started on green coffee bean extract itself. No there isn't separate color of coffee bean that you can buy, for those of you who don't know. It's not like regular beans where they come in a red, white, and black eyed variety. Green coffee beans are just like the regular coffee beans you buy at the store, but they are the raw version. When you pick coffee beans from the little plant, it looks like you are picking some sort of red berry. But the seed inside is a coffee bean and it is a nice bright green color. 

So why are they better for you than regular coffee? Isn't regular coffee still natural even if they roast it? Hell yeah it is. But some benefits are lost in the coffee bean through the roasting process. This includes some special antioxidants and something called chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic acid will help you lose weight because of the way it helps your body metabolize some of the sugars you have eaten throughout the day. Suppliers of green coffee bean pills claim that you can eat as you please as long as you take the green coffee bean supplement. Apparently it has helped people lose weight and is completely safe to use as far as we know. Dr. Oz even recommends it. This acid is what has made green coffee bean the new superfood/weight loss supplement on the market. People are crazy about it and I am starting to see it everywhere. Just like the acai berry, green tea, and greek yogurt craze before; companies want to add it to anything and everything to make people buy their products which they advertise are healthy. Side rant: Greek yogurt ice cream, or any frozen yogurt type of ice cream is not healthy for you. It is not even a healthier alternative to the real stuff. So what, you get 2 more grams of fucking protein than the regular ice cream? Let me tell you this, at the end of the day those 2 extra grams are not going to matter. Especially next to all that sugar in your frozen yogurt.

Well back to coffee beans. Why not just eat them raw and whole? Well cause they are bitter as hell and you won't be able to eat them no matter how well you trained your taste buds to bitterness. So you can either take it as a supplement, buy it as a powder, or buy it in prebottled beverages.

Now let's move along to the refresher. Raspberry pomegranate is the flavor I am reviewing. So I pop open the 12 oz can, which is an average of $1.99 wherever you buy it, and I do get a raspberry pomegranate smell. The can is all cool looking, nice and skinny and long. How does it taste?

Well it tastes pretty okay. Nothing special. It has the raspberry pomegranate taste you are looking for but it doesn't have such a strong flavor of it though. I was hoping for a heavily flavored juice with a nice aftertaste, but after it goes down your throat you feel like you drank just regular old soda.

The carbonation is not very heavy, as they have stated, but it does not taste like flat soda either. It is pretty smooth and the carbonation is preserved in the can pretty well. 

Like they said, no coffee flavor, which I actually prefer the coffee flavor but that is just me. I love the java. But this is more like a juice like substance.

Overall all I give it a 4/10. I mean, it is nothing special and the health benefits are almost none. I do like how there isn't any artificial sweetener in it, but there is too light of a flavor for me. Not to mention, it is ridiculously priced.


Now for the Orange Mango flavor, which I decided to add to the end of this post because I also had it today. I am a bit of a caffeine addict since I had two cans of this stuff today in addition to my giant pots of coffee sipping all day.

So the Orange Melon flavor is alright. Like the Raspberry Pomegranate the flavor is really light. But it also has a decent Orange and Mango flavoring, which apparently is from real juices since 1/4 of the can is real juice. I actually prefer the Raspberry Pomegranate which seems to be a little heavier in flavoring. Usually I prefer the tropical flavors though. But I do like how well the flavor of the fruits are captured in these two refreshers.

Sorry for the crappy camera pics.

V8 V-Fusion Sparkling Black Cherry and Pomegranate

V8 vegetable juices have been around for as long as I could remember Surprise, surprise, it is owned by the Campbell Soup Company. As a kid they were always one of those things that you see in the store and you never buy. I remember looking at the original V8 juice and wondering how people could drink tomato juice. Now I like tomatoes, but I still don't like the idea of having them in a juice.

Well anyways, I found these Sparkling V8s on sale for 25 cents a can so I decided to give it a try.

The cans look like a small Starbucks Refreshers can; thin and tall. The flavor I got says: A sparkling black cherry and pomegranate flavored blend of 5 fruits and vegetable juices from concentrate with other natural flavors. Each can is 8.4 oz, 60 calories, 14 grams of sugar. I would think that V8 would have some sort of vitamin health benefit, but the can only contains 20% of your daily vitamin C needs. Which is nothing cause you can get over 100% of your vitamin C needs if you just had a tiny orange every day. Not to mention, juice from concentrate is not as awesome as real juice. All in all, this is an unhealthy snack.

So now for the taste, my mother thinks it tastes like medicine. I personally think it tastes just weird. I don't like it, I don't hate it. It's whatever. It reminds me of black cherry soda, and you do kinda get a hint of some pomegranate flavor. But somewhere in there is this funny vegetable flavor. It is bubbly, but not as bubbly as regular soda. It's truly "sparkling". On the bright side, it is much more flavorful than regular soda, and it leaves an aftertastes that is not entirely pleasant, but sweet nonetheless.

Personally, I don't like vegetable juices in general. Vegetables are sort of a salad, and food thing for me - not smoothies and juices. I do want a Jack Lalanne juicer one day though.

I give this a 3/10

Sambazon Protein: Chocolate

So I was at Whole Foods when I saw that they had  a sale on Sambazon drinks. I've never got into the acai hype that occurred two years ago because the products were so expensive. But since it was on sale, I was interested in splurging and trying something new. Plus, I'm in a position where I do not have a blender and thick drinks are something I crave at times. 

This particular shake is in their protein line, but you should not be expecting too much protein out of it. The bottle only contains roughly 10 grams of protein, which you can get for cheaper out of a glass of milk. But then again it is enough protein for this drink to be a little snack, along with almost 7 grams of fiber in this drink. The protein in there is hemp protein. 

It is made with over 100 acai berries which are blended in there. I don't know how big acai berries are but it can be hard to believe that there are 100 of them in there, but a company would not lie right? =/

Okay so texture wise, it is super thick, and slightly gritty. But the grit clearly comes from the berries and not the protein. It tastes chocolaty, but not too heavy in chocolate. It's dairy free so they use soy milk and chocolate powder to get that flavoring. You honestly do taste that soy milk in there, but it is super thick. I personally do not like soy milk that much, I've tried it many times but I can only down so much of it before I start getting sick of it. It's too think for me, but mixed with all this berries and whatever else is in there, it tastes delicious.

There is a slight berry - ish flavor associated with the chocolate. Not too heavy at all though, but you can recognize it in the background. 

It is pretty filling I guess. It will hold you out for another hour or two. I would consider it a good snack, not as a meal replacement. Each bottle has 250 calories. 

It's all natural, organic, vegan, and pretty good. I give the product a nice 7/10. I would give it an 8, but it is on the pricey side whether you buy it on sale or not. Let's just say you don't get in on sale, it would be $2.99 regular price. 

Fresh & Easy Spiced Apple Cider

As a little girl I always thought of apple cider as a hot version of apple juice. The first time I tried it was at the pool facility that is part of my aunt's condominiums. I was pretty much in love. For a while I even preferred it to hot cocoa (which is huge because I am chocolate obsessed.

Yes, that was a crappy intro, but I'm not in a creative mood here so bear with me. I'll just cut to the chase and make it short.

I bought a 7 cup/ 56 oz bottle of spiced apple cider from my local Fresh & Easy supermarket. It's a new product that contains organic apple and orange juices mixed with seasonal spices. It was quite expensive for $5, but I guess that's what you get for organic.

For some reason I thought that if it came in a bottle from the refrigerator section, it should be drunk cold. So I did. It was absolutely fantastic! I must say I was highly impressed with the almost perfect combination of spices, sugar, and juice. Yes, there is a tiny bit of pulp in the bottle, but shake it before you drink it and it immediately goes away. I don't know why people are afraid of the pulp anyways?

Well I drank about half the bottle before I realized that it should be drunk hot, so I warmed it up and it tasted just as good. Some might say better because it brought out even more of the sugar.

It's a great product overall...too bad it's so gosh darn expensive. Well if you compare it to a cup of Starbucks for $5, it doesn't sound so bad.

Minute Maid Raspberry Passion Light

What I thought about this product:

• I was initially disappointed because I expected it to be a thick drink
• The color was surprisingly lighter than I expected it to be. I thought it would be a dark red like those Red Delicious apples
• In the first sip, I felt like there wasn't much flavor-but now I am thinking maybe that was because it was too early in the morning for my taste buds to be awake yet.
• Later, after lunch, this drink tastes magnificent
• If you can't read in the pictures I posted on the bottles, it says 10% of the juice is a blend of pear, apple, raspberry, and passion fruit juices from concentrate
• That's what sucks about this drink, the juices are from concentrate
• But on the bright side it has 100% vitamin C per serving
• Vitamin C is cool because it aids in the burning of calories
• Many people may think, 15 calories per cup is a lot. But the whole carton (1/2 gallon) will be only 120 calories.
• An average glass of not-light juice is 120 calories
• You get 8 times more juice for the calories
• So drink away!
• They mixed natural fruit sugars with aspartame
• It leaves a good flavor in your mouth
• You definitely have a passionfruit taste going
• Apple is hinted in there but I cannot find the pear
• Good product, a little overpriced
• Not the best of Minute Maid's products

Gloria Jean's Pomegranate Berry Fusion Tea

My mother was the one who showed me what the Keurig was. It honestly looks like an amazing product. No matter what you want to drink you can have it fresh instantly. I don't actually own one but my friend bought one. I took a visit to her house and she made me some Pomegranate Berry Fusion Tea, claiming it to be one of the best teas she have ever drank.

I reluctantly accepted her offer and asked for it to be iced. The moment it came out it released a wonderful aroma that filled the room with a strong berry scent mixed with fresh brewed black tea.

The tea itself was very smooth and was a nice deep black tea color with a reddish tint. It was a bit light for me, but my friend said she thought it was perfect. You definitely taste the berries and pomegranates in this, making it almost like a unique fruit juice without the calories. I did add a packet of Splenda to this for taste. No doubt the keurig did make this tea taste fresh.

This is no where near my personal favorite tea. I myself prefer "chai" spiced tea. I put quotes around that because in my mother language, and most of the neighboring languages, "chai" means tea in general; not just the spiced American version. But the spiced American version is my favorite.

Fresh&Easy Egg Nog

The first time I heard of egg nog was from the movie Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. The first time I tried egg nog was in 8th grade when my teacher brought us some as a treat the last day before winter break. It turned out that I didn't like the stuff much at all. It had a taste to it that I just didn't attract my taste buds much. It wasn't vomit disgusting, but it wasn't great at all. It's been years since then, and I have never had a mug of egg nog since.



But during the holidays I took a trip to Fresh and Easy and they had egg nog for sample. I took one, thinking maybe I was wrong about egg nog all along and that it wouldn't hurt to try it again. I didn't expect to like it much, and for the first sip I didn't so much. But on the second and third sip it quickly grew on me. It was like an instant change of mind for me. I watched my life flash from anti-egg nog to pro-egg nog. I don't know about the special formula of egg nog that Fresh and Easy brewed up, but it converted me.

The egg nog was so thick and creamy; I almost wanted to eat it with a spoon. The flavor was amazing and strong, which was the best part of it. I love flavorful food. It was very sweet as well. I found that I wouldn't want to drink too much of it all at once, which is a great thing cause egg nog is high in calories. It's like chocolate cake, you love it at first, but after a few slices you get sick of it cause of all the sugar.

Another wonderful thing about this product is that it has not artificial flavoring, colors, or preservatives. It's just pure pasteurized egg nog.

I bought one container of it and enjoyed it very much. I filled it into a nice glass and sipped on it slowly while it was nice and ice cold. It was fantastic! I can't wait till they bring it back for the holiday season. If you can get your hands on some, go for it!

Diet Dr. Pepper

I am not a big soda fan. I think it is because my dad refused to get me soda as a child. I guess I can thank him for that. I still to this day don't buy soda. If I were to buy soda though, it would only be Diet Dr. Pepper.

Dr. Pepper is the only tasty soda.
I love all the flavors I have tried so far:
Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper
Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper
Diet Berries n' Creme Dr. Pepper
Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper

Don Francisco

Coffee has been a staple in my daily diet since I was in the 5th grade. No lie, I really did start drinking it every morning since then. Even as a little girl, I would bring my plastic tea set to my mom and dad and ask them to fill coffee inside of it so I could sip it from there. Many people joke that coffee is what stunted my growth; but that's no doubt my short parents fault. =p



Well anyways, I usually drink the coffee from the bulk aisle at Winco because it's the cheapest that I could find for decent taste. But I was visiting my cousin and she had the courtesy to get me some coffee. Knowing that my favorite is the hazelnut blend she decided to buy me Don Francisco's Hawaiian Hazelnut Blend.

I've never tried Don Francisco's coffee before, nor have a tried a Hawaiian Hazelnut brand. I was very curious of the taste. I brewed it the moment I got to her house. It released one of the most wonderful smells in the world. The smell of coffee is something I and many other people enjoy very much. I wouldn't mind if more air fresheners and perfumes smelled like coffee. It's an idea somebody should pursue.

The taste was fantastic. She got me medium roast, which was a little light but still had lots of flavor, which was the key to this coffee. It has the most exotic taste and smell. I got sort of a coconut taste in there as well, even there is no evidence of coconut flavoring.

It's just a wonderful coffee. I give it a 9/10.
It's a must try for coffee lovers.