The Art Of Trying Something New: Dole Sensation Natural Guava Juice Is Yummy!

The Good: Tastes good, Novelty
The Bad: Slightly watery taste, Could be a lot more nutritious!
The Basics: Not a food to try to live on, Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice is a good dessert on cold nights or just when one wants something different from standard hot chocolate!


Having returned from our latest trip with rather grave health concerns for my wife, this summer finds us stocking up on more healthy food and drink than usual. To play along and trick my heart into something a little more healthy than coffee, black tea and cocoa, my wife picked me up some Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice. This is my first, that I can recall, juice review and despite my enjoying the novelty of the flavor, Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice could be better in a number of ways.

That said, if one can find it on sale, there are far worse things to put in your body than this juice. But, as my wife and I are rapidly discovering, store bought juices like Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice are not the incredible health food love fest that many people hope it would be!

Basics

Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice is a refrigerated juice put out by Dole. The blue, pink and green carton is like a standard half gallon milk container and is found currently in the refrigerated juice section of most major grocery stores. Dole Sensation Natural is a new product for Dole and locally, my wife and I could only find the Guava and Tangerine juices. The guava juice is a light pale pink/orange juice which is more opaque than translucent and reminds one of fresh pink grapefruit juice in its appearance. The half gallon cardboard carton has eight servings in it. This is a very light juice and has no leg, though it does foam nicely for a little head when shaken up properly.

Ease Of Preparation

Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice is very easy to prepare, as it is a fresh juice drink. Simply unscrew the spout at the top of the container (the first time one does this, they must remove the plastic safety seal from inside) and pour the contents into a glass. It doesn’t get much easier than drinking juice like this!

Taste

Pouring the Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice reveals a light fruit juice which has a vaguely citrus aroma. Of course, the guava juice smells like guava and the best analogy I could provide for the fleshy, fruity smell was mango. Guava smells a lot like mango and the Dole Sensation Natural juice prepares the consumer for that taste well.

Tasting the drink – which is by far best cold – one is introduced to a taste that is much like mango: Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice is not as overwhelmingly sweet as most mango is and tastes like a watered down citrus juice. This guava juice is initially sweet, like apple juice, then ends with just enough tartness to suggest a citrus flavor. As it washes over the tongue, I recall flattened grapefruit soda and the middle taste is precisely that flavor.

Nutrition

Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice is giving me quite the education. I always thought fruit juices were nutritious, but this one is not exactly blowing the doors of good health wide open. One serving, which is classified as 8 fluid ounces has 110 calories, none of which are from fat. In fact, this drink is fat free (which makes some sense) as well as cholesterol free and protein free. What baffled me, though, was that Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice has no vitamins, calcium or iron and the only mineral it has is a trace amount (1% RDA from 35 mg) of potassium. As well, it has 24 grams of sugar and 10 mg of sodium. This is not an incredibly healthy beverage.

What it does live up to is its claim to be all natural. With the primary ingredients being filtered water, sugar and guava puree, there is nothing bad in this drink.

Storage/Clean-up

Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice is ridiculously easy to store and clean up. Kept unopened in the refrigerator, it will last a few weeks. We bought ours last week and it has an expiration date of June 6, 2011. Because it is all natural with no apparent preservatives, it does expire quicker than some juices, but because it tastes so good, it is likely not to be around when the expiration date comes!

Cleaning up Nestle Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice is easy, though it is likely to stain lighter fabrics and one ought to consult one's fabric guide for cleaning if that happens. In general, it is a light fluid and can be cleaned up easily with a washcloth.

Overall

While Dole Sensation Natural Guava juice tastes sweet, light and different from any other single juice, it is not nutritious or delicious enough to make one want to stock up on it.

For other drinks, please visit my reviews of:
Powerade Fruit Punch
The Simpsons Duff Energy Drink
Kahlua Mocha Coffee

6/10

For other food and drink reviews, please be sure to check out my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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