Finally! A Wonderful Use For Coconut Water: Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness Is Great!

The Good: Very nutritious, Good flavor, Decent ingredients
The Bad: Expensive, Short shelf life
The Basics: Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness is a surprising hit for those looking for a nutritious fruit juice and who love a good blend of pineapple, guava and coconut flavors!


I have an appreciation for the niche market of truly healthy fruit juices and bottled fruit smoothies. In my quest to find healthy beverage options, I have often encountered - and largely rejected - juices that include coconut water (or flavored coconut waters on their own). So, when my local grocery store started selling Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness, which was coconut water based, I thought nothing of it. But when the store decided to clearance a couple bottles of the Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness, I figured that it was about time that I try it.

Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness is a pleasant surprise and the first beverage I can think of that included coconut water that I'd love to have more of!

Basics

Bolthouse Farms is a health drink brand, which is a full-health beverage (as opposed to being a liquid vitamin supplement) and, as a general rule, they tend to taste better than energy drinks. This is a fruit beverage that naturally contains several nutrients. Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness comes in a 15.2 fl. oz. plastic bottle that is smooth and very portable. The #1 recyclable bottle is filled with the fairly opaque light pink liquid. Bolthouse Farms juice products is one of the leading manufacturer of healthy prepared beverages, both of fruit juices and dairy beverages.

The 15.2 fl. oz. bottle gives consumers just under two full servings, though the bottle is not marked with clear delineations for each serving.

Ease Of Preparation

Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness is a liquid in the 15.2 fl. oz. bottle and is a ready-to-drink beverage. So, preparation is as easy as opening a plastic bottle. Tropical Goodness has a plastic cap that easily twists off and can be put back on in order to reseal it. It is important to note that this is supposed to be refrigerated, so quality of the beverage may degrade if it is left out at room temperature before or after the bottle is open. This has a pretty standard security seal ring around the lower half of the cap and informs the consumer as to whether the product has been opened by cracking off when the top is twisted.

Taste

The Tropical Goodness smells fruity, of coconut water and pineapple. The aroma is fruity and subtle, though it is aromatic enough to be inviting. The coconut water and pineapple scents are enough to evoke a slight memory of pina coladas, which is pretty cool.

In the mouth, the Tropical Goodness is a pretty distinct blend of pineapple, coconut water and guava. A few years ago, I probably would not have recognized the flavor of guava juice, but the Tropical Goodness tastes like it. The sweet, fruity flavor of the guava plays nicely off the pineapple and the blend manages to never develop the taste of dry from the coconut water or sour for the pineapple. Instead of overwhelming each other, the blend of juices in the Tropical Goodness manage to compliment one another well and work together to create a delightful drink.

The Tropical Goodness has a slightly sweet aftertaste to it.

Nutrition

As a healthy fruit beverage, Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness is designed to fill in some of the nutritional gaps one might have in their diet, most notably Manganese and Vitamins A and C, which the Tropical Goodness has a decent amount of! Nutritionally, Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness is an option for those who are dieting or are trying to improve their health, who are looking for specific nutrients and hydration. Tropical Goodness is made primarily of: coconut water from concentrate, pineapple juice from concentrate, and apple juice from concentrate. It contains nothing bad and it is gluten free, though it does not appear to contain any meat or dairy products in it, so it IS Vegan compliant! As well, there are no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors or genetically modified ingredients!

This drink is also very healthy. One serving of Tropical Goodness has .5 grams of fat and 110 calories. While there are 26 grams of sugars and a gram of protein, the beverage has no cholesterol! There are 60 mg (3% RDA) of sodium in each serving. A single serving is a decent source of five key vitamins and minerals.

Storage/Clean-up

Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness comes in a plastic bottle and it keeps for only a few weeks. This beverage must be refrigerated!

This drink is a fruit product and watery light pink color. If this gets on light clothes, it will certainly stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

Bolthouse Farms Tropical Goodness is a healthy fruit juice drink that is more than enough to make one rethink coconut water!

For other Bolthouse beverages, please check out my reviews of:
Green Goodness
100% Carrot Juice
Holiday Nog

8/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice Unfortunately Underwhelms!

The Good: Comparatively not overly expensive
The Bad: Overly carbonated, Sharpness in the aroma, Sour, Not accurately flavored
The Basics: R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is a good idea that is executed in an unimpressive way for what it is supposed to be.


2017 got off to an unfortunate start for my wife and I. We picked up some treats in order to ring in the New Year with a little celebration and the two foods we got for it were not very good at all. We decided to do a little Not-Wine And (what turned out to be Not) Cheese Event and neither were overly good. The cheese portion of our celebration was Williams Smoked Cheddar (reviewed here!), which I realized too late was a cheese product, not an actual cheese, but we thought we knew what we were getting into with the R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice bottle we picked up.

R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is very carbonated and not at all caramel flavored and the sour flavored and sharply scented making for a less thrilling beverage.

Basics

R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is a bottled flavored apple juice that is sold at grocery stores. Each 25.4 fl. oz. glass bottle houses the translucent brown/orange liquid, which looks just like apple juice. The bottles look unremarkable, but professional and uniform.

The glass bottle represents about three servings of R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice and that is what we got out of the bottle.

Ease Of Preparation

R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is a liquid in a clear 25.4 fl. oz. bottle. Preparation is as easy as opening the bottle by twisting the bottle cap off and drinking the liquid inside. I recommend refrigerating the bottle first as it brings out more of the flavor than at room temperature.

Taste

The aroma of the R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is strongly one of apple juice. The caramel scent does not come out at all; this is a very apple-scented beverage. The apple scent is strong and somewhat reminiscent of vinegar . . . there is something subtly off in the apple aroma.

As for the flavor, the Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is very sparkly and tastes like apple juice. The apple flavor is entirely sublimated to the carbonation and the juice flavor comes out only after the carbonation bubbles off the tongue. The R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice does not taste at all like caramel; it is slightly sour and fruity, but not at all sweet or buttery like what one expects from something supposed to be caramel flavored. The Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice becomes more sour, even as it gets flatter, undermining its value.

The R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice has a vaguely caramel aftertaste after all of the product is swallowed and gone from the mouth. This apple juice transitions from sour to slightly dry on the tongue in an aftertaste that lasts for about three minutes after the last of it is consumed.

Nutrition

As a Sparkling Apple Juice, one might expect this to have unpronounceable ingredients related to its carbonation. However, R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is made of sparkling filtered water, apple juice concentrate, and natural flavor. There are no other or unpronounceable ingredients in this and R.W. Knudsen makes natural sparkling juices!

Nutritionally, R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is not enough to live off, but it is not as bad as soda. R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice has 110 calories, 28 g of which are carbohydrates, 15 mg sodium and no protien. R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice has no fat and the only mineral listed on the label is 2% of the RDA of Calcium! Like most juice concentrates, there are no other nutrients, not even vitamin C in this drink!

Storage/Clean-up

R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice comes in a glass bottle and I was surprised by how long it lasted. The bottles we bought in late-December for the New Year's celebration had a August 3, 2018 expiration date!

This drink is lightly colored and if it gets on anything that is light colored, it will stain. Consult a fabric guide for getting juice out of fabrics if it gets on something.

Overall

R.W. Knudsen Caramel Apple Sparkling Apple Juice is sour, over-carbonated and less flavored than it could be . . . but at least it was inexpensive!

For other beverages, please check out my reviews of:
Paradiso Wild Berry Italian Mineral Water
Stephen's Gourmet Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa
Ayala's Lemongrass Mint Vanilla Herbal Water

1/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Drink Review Index Page for a complete listing of all the foods I have reviewed!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Watery Waste: Tropicana Watermelon Drink Underwhelms.

The Good: Does not taste bad, Awesome if one can get it for free (but what isn't?!)
The Bad: Strongly watery taste, Could be a lot more nutritious, Expensive for what it is, Indistinct flavor
The Basics: Tropicana Watermelon Drink is little more than flavored water and is not worth picking up.


My local grocery store is pretty awesome. Every week, on Wednesday, it has a digital coupon for a freebie, which is pretty cool. Last week, I was psyched because a Tropicana beverage was the week's free item and when I went to the store to get it, I was blown away that the free item was a full 59 oz. carafe of "juice." I put juice in quotes there because shortly after I picked up the beverage, I noticed that it was not quite what I thought it was. The beverage is Tropicana Watermelon Drink and the fact that it cannot even call itself juice was somewhat troubling to me when I observed that.

Sadly, the Tropicana Watermelon Drink starts with a wishy-washy name and follows-through with a decidedly underwhelming beverage. The Watermelon Drink is not bad, it simply is not much of anything.

Basics

Tropicana Watermelon Drink is a refrigerated juice (it's closer to a juice than anything else!) put out by Tropicana. The clear plastic carafe is instantly reminiscent of orange juice. Tropicana Natural is a new product for Tropicana and locally, it was a part of a line where I could only find the Watermelon Drink and Lemonade. The watermelon drink is a light pale pink juice which is more translucent than opaque and reminds one of fresh pink grapefruit juice in its appearance. The 59 fl. oz. plastic carafe has about seven servings in it. This is a very light juice and has no leg, though it does appear to have minuscule fruit chunks - like pulp in a citrus beverage - in it.

Ease Of Preparation

Tropicana Watermelon Drink is very easy to prepare, as it is a fresh juice drink. Simply unscrew the lid from the top of the container (the first time one does this, they must remove the plastic/foil 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 Tropicana Watermelon Drink reveals a light fruit juice that has a strong, distinct aroma that we have come to associate with watermelons. The sweet scent that wafts out of the beverage is not the scent of actual watermelons - they have a fairly mild aroma, as most melons do - but rather the powerfully-concentrated scent that is what humans have been conditioned to accept as watermelons. It is not a bad scent at all, but it is not the true scent of actual watermelons.

Tasting the drink, which is best cold, the Tropicana Watermelon Drink the consumer is given a burst of sweetness that is vaguely fruity. The flavor is watery and reminiscent of watermelon, with a surprisingly sour kick to it. The fruit flavor is more analogous to slightly-turned apple juice than it is to authentic watermelon flavor.

The Tropicana Watermelon Drink has a strong, sweet, aftertaste to it that lingers in the mouth for about ten minutes after one finishes consuming it.

Nutrition

Tropicana Watermelon Drink is barely more than water on the nutrition front. One serving of Tropicana Watermelon Drink is 8 fluid ounces has 90 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 Tropicana Watermelon Drink has no vitamins, calcium or iron and the only mineral it has is a trace amount (10 mg) of sodium. There are 23 grams of carbs in the drink. 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 watermelon juice concentrate, there is nothing bad in this drink.

Storage/Clean-up

Tropicana Watermelon Drink is ridiculously easy to store and clean up. Kept unopened in the refrigerator, it will last a few weeks. We got ours last week and it has an expiration date of November 30, 2016. Because it is all natural with no apparent preservatives, it does expire quicker than some juices on the market.

Cleaning up Nestle Tropicana Watermelon Drink 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

Tropicana Watermelon Drink might satisfy those who pay for premium flavored waters, but for those used to juices, it is a tough drink to get at all excited about.

For other drinks, please visit my reviews of:
Dole Sensation Natural Guava Juice
Maine Root Ginger Brew
Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness

2/10

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

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Upper End Of Average: Bolthouse Farms C-Boost Blows Standard Juices Away!

The Good: Very nutritious, Tastes good
The Bad: Expensive, Not a superlative flavor
The Basics: Bolthouse Farms C-Boost tastes fine and has good nutritional value, though there are other Bolthouse blends with better tastes and more of a vitamin punch to them.


Bolthouse Farms has a number of admirable products and the quality of their products has generally forced me to raise the bar when I consider other juices. While it is hard to match Bolthouse Farms on the nutrition (and variety!) front, sometimes Bolthouse has a tough time reaching its own high standards. With its huge line of juices and protein-enhanced drinks that supply scores of vitamins and minerals (much like Total Cereal does), Bolthouse Farms occasionally has trouble getting a rave review from me simply because I find one of their products that is not as loaded with nutrients and/or does not have a great taste. Bolthouse Farms C-Boost is one of those beverages.

Don’t get me wrong; C-Boost tastes good, but it doesn’t have a delightful or distinctive flavor that makes one think “I should seek that drink out.” Similarly, given that other Bolthouse beverages like the Mango Protein Plus (reviewed here!) have more nutrients, one does not have a lot to be drawn to with the C-Boost.

Basics

Bolthouse Farms is a health drink brand, which is a full-health beverage (as opposed to being a liquid vitamin supplement) and, as a general rule, they tend to taste better than energy drinks. This is a fruit beverage that naturally contains several nutrients. Bolthouse Farms C-Boost comes in a 32 fl. oz. plastic bottle that is smooth and very portable. The #1 recyclable bottle is filled with the opaque orange liquid. Bolthouse Farms juice products is one of the leading manufacturer of healthy prepared beverages, both of fruit juices and dairy beverages.

The 32 fl. oz. bottle gives consumers four full servings, though the bottle is not marked with clear delineations for each serving.

Ease Of Preparation

Bolthouse Farms C-Boost is a liquid in the 32 fl. oz. bottle and is a ready-to-drink beverage. So, preparation is as easy as opening a plastic bottle. C-Boost has a plastic cap that easily twists off and can be put back on in order to reseal it. It is important to note that this is supposed to be refrigerated, so quality of the beverage may degrade if it is left out at room temperature before or after the bottle is open. This has a pretty standard security seal ring around the lower half of the cap and informs the consumer as to whether the product has been opened by cracking off when the top is twisted.

Taste

C-Boost smells fruity and energizing. Interestingly, the main aroma from the C-Boost is that of pears. From an orange-colored, citrus juice, there is something disconcerting about such a strong pear scent coming from it.

The incongruence ends when one gets the C-Boost into the mouth. Away from the sight/smell schism, the C-Boost pops as a strong mix of pear and mango flavors. This tastes like a more flavorful version of apple juice, with a slight citrus tang to the finishing flavor. The mango does not overwhelm the pear flavor, so it is surprising that the C-Boost tastes as good as it does; pear juice is a fairly indistinct flavor of juice.

The C-Boost has a slightly sweet aftertaste that does not last very long.

Nutrition

As a healthy fruit beverage, Bolthouse Farms C-Boost is designed to fill in some of the nutritional gaps one might have in their diet, most notably Vitamin C, which the C-Boost has 1200% of your RDA of! Nutritionally, Bolthouse Farms C-Boost is an option for those who are dieting or are trying to improve their health, who are looking for specific nutrients and hydration. C-Boost contains pear juice from concentrate, mango juice from concentrate, and acerola puree from concentrate (among other things). It contains nothing bad and it is gluten free and does not appear to contain any meat or dairy products in it, so it IS Vegan compliant! As well, there are no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors or genetically modified ingredients!

This drink is also very healthy. One serving of C-Boost has no fat and 120 calories. While there are 27 grams of sugars and a gram of protein, the beverage has no cholesterol! There are 10 mg (0% RDA) of sodium in each serving. A single serving is a decent source of Vitamin A (50% RDA). It has vastly more than your daily needs for Vitamin C.

Storage/Clean-up

Bolthouse Farms C-Boost comes in a plastic bottle and it keeps for only a few months. The bottle I bought on two days ago had an expiration date of April 1, 2015. This beverage must be refrigerated!

This drink is a fruit product and dull orange. If this gets on light clothes, it will certainly stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

Bolthouse Farms C-Boost is a very average juice and an unremarkable Bolthouse Farms beverage. While it does not taste bad at all, I find it’s really only worth picking up when the Protein Plus fruit smoothies are not available.

For other Bolthouse beverages, please check out my reviews of:
Daily Roots
Berry Boost
Holiday Nog

6.5/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Oi! POM Wonderful Coconut Is Anything But Wonderful!

The Good: Not bad for you?
The Bad: Expensive, Not nearly as healthy as other premium bottled juice products, Nothing superlative nutritionally, Tastes terrible.
The Basics: Managing to make pomegranate even less palatable, POM Coconut 100% Juice Blend thoroughly disappoints those who love coconut beverages!


Not very long ago, I reviewed my first POM Wonderful beverage, their new POM Mango (reviewed here!), and I received a few messages from people wondering why I had never reviewed anything from the company before. Sure, I had reviewed the Morgan Spurlock documentary Pom Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (that’s here!), but after that, I was not inspired to pick up any POM Wonderful Pomegranate juice. The reason for that is exceptionally simple: I am not a huge believer in “super fruits:” individual fruits or fruit combinations that supposedly fix all manner of ailments. If simple fruits did such things, I figure it wouldn’t have taken hundreds of years to figure it out and/or the label on products made from “superfruits” would contain a lot more vitamin and nutrient information that could be measured and quantified by the FDA.

Oh, and pomegranates suck.

Pomegranate is a fad fruit that is just awful tasting, so I had no incentive at all to check out POM’s previous beverage line-up. But, with them expanding their line to things like POM Coconut, I felt much more of an incentive to explore some of their products. Sadly, POM Coconut did not bolster the company’s reputation with me!

Despite how cute the bottle was and my general enjoyment of Coconut juice (or coconut milk), I found the POM Coconut thoroughly unimpressive both by taste and nutrition. And, given the expense, I found it impossible to recommend.

Basics

POM is a fruit drink brand, trading on the properties of pomegranates. This is a fruit juice that is surprisingly light on nutrients. POM Coconut comes in a 12 fl. oz. plastic bottle that is curvy, smooth and squat that takes up an odd amount of space by volume. The #1 recyclable bottle is filled with the opaque rich purple liquid, which looks much like wine or grape juice. POM juice products is a comparatively new, trendy brand and the Coconut 100% Juice Blend is part of their new line released this very summer. Right off the bat, it felt pretty expensive at more than $2.50/bottle!

The 12 fl. oz. bottle gives consumers a full serving.

Ease Of Preparation

POM Coconut 100% Juice Blend is a liquid in the 12 fl. oz. bottle and is a ready-to-drink beverage. So, preparation is as easy as opening a plastic bottle. Coconut has a plastic cap that easily twists off and can be put back on in order to reseal it. It is important to note that this is supposed to be refrigerated, so quality of the beverage will degrade if it is left out at room temperature before or after the bottle is open. This has a pretty standard security seal ring around the lower half of the cap and informs the consumer as to whether the product has been opened by cracking off when the top is twisted.

Taste

The Coconut POM smells surprisingly strongly of coconut. In fact, even more than coconut water or coconut milk, this drink has an aroma that smells sweet, buttery and light like actual coconuts. Opening this bottle up, one gets a scent almost identical to a coconut scented candle, it is that delightfully aromatic.

Unfortunately, on the tongue, the POM Coconut is not nearly as flavorful. The initial flavor is a slightly sour fruit flavor, not distinctly pomegranate because the milkiness of the coconut flavor quickly cuts the sourness. Instead, this beverage is generically fruity, more like a cherry juice than a pomegranate beverage. The generically fruity flavor is cut then by a watery and sour flavor that lingers on the tongue for about twenty seconds. It is after that that the coconut flavor asserts itself and that assertion is more a hint in the aftertaste. This is not a strongly coconut flavored beverage by any stretch of the imagination.

The coconut aftertaste lasts for only about a minute before the aftertaste transitions into a generic sour flavor that lingers on the tongue until one puts anything else in their mouth.

Nutrition

As a healthy fruit juice, POM Coconut 100% Juice Drink is designed to fill in some of the nutritional gaps one might have in their diet, but this beverage falls woefully short of that. Nutritionally, POM Coconut is a fair option for those who are dieting or are trying to improve their health. Coconut is primarily composed of Coconut water from concentrate, pomegranate and pineapple juices from concentrate and “natural flavors.” It contains nothing bad, which might be why it expires so quickly. It is Vegan compliant, gluten-free, and soy-free, but not certified organic.

One serving of Coconut has 140 calories and no fat. While there are 33 grams of carbohydrates, the beverage has no cholesterol and no protein! There is a negligible 10 mg (less than 1% RDA) of sodium in each serving. Outside the 640mg Potassium, the only nutrients this drink has are 4% RDA of Calcium.

Storage/Clean-up

POM Coconut 100% Juice Blend comes in a plastic bottle and it keeps for only a few weeks. The bottle I bought at the beginning of July had an expiration date of September 7, 2013 (I consumed the one I bought well before that!).

This drink is a fruit product and an opaque purple. If this gets on clothes, it will absolutely stain them, especially light clothes. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

POM Coconut 100% Juice Blend is not enough to bring anyone around to pomegranate and almost enough to sour one on coconut!

For other coconut products, please check out my reviews of:
Celestial Seasonings Sweet Coconut Thai tea
Coconut M&M’s
Coconut 3 Musketeers
Coconut Jelly Belly jelly beans
Coconut Jelly Belly Dips
Stash Coconut Mango Oolong tea
Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Coconut
O.N.E. Active Cranberry Grapefruit Coconut Water
Graeter’s Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Haagen-Dazs Coconut Macaroon Ice Cream

1.5/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Middling, Poor For The Price, POM Mango Fails To Impress.

The Good: Tastes all right.
The Bad: Expensive, Not nearly as healthy as other premium bottled juice products, Nothing superlative nutritionally.
The Basics: POM Mango 100% Juice Blend is a healthy, trendy fruit juice that is not worth picking up.


Summer is here and as such, my reviews of beverages are making the shift from hot drinks to cool bottled beverages. I am always pleased when my reviews of bottled drinks land with readers and when I saw that POM had released some new drinks to the market, I thought I could be useful in providing readers with something of a summer drinking guide. To that end, I picked up the POM Mango 100% Juice Blend.

Despite how cute the bottle was and my predilection toward mango juice, I found the POM Mango thoroughly unimpressive both by taste and nutrition. And, given the expense, I found it impossible to recommend.

Basics

POM is a fruit drink brand, trading on the properties of pomegranates (which I view as one of the worst culinary fads of the last decade). This is a fruit juice that is surprisingly light on nutrients. POM Mango comes in a 12 fl. oz. plastic bottle that is curvy, smooth and squat that takes up an odd amount of space by volume. The #1 recyclable bottle is filled with the opaque rich purple liquid, which looks much like wine or grape juice. POM juice products is a comparatively new, trendy brand and the Mango 100% Juice Blend is my first experience with the brand. Right off the bat, it felt pretty expensive at more than $2.50/bottle!

The 12 fl. oz. bottle gives consumers a full serving.

Ease Of Preparation

POM Mango 100% Juice Blend is a liquid in the 12 fl. oz. bottle and is a ready-to-drink beverage. So, preparation is as easy as opening a plastic bottle. Mango has a plastic cap that easily twists off and can be put back on in order to reseal it. It is important to note that this is supposed to be refrigerated, so quality of the beverage will degrade if it is left out at room temperature before or after the bottle is open. This has a pretty standard security seal ring around the lower half of the cap and informs the consumer as to whether the product has been opened by cracking off when the top is twisted.

Taste

The Mango POM smells like mango and a generic berry, like raspberries. The aroma is strangely neutral, with an overall fruity scent that is more vague than specific to the major fruits that are in this beverage.

The flavor is very sweet, mostly mango and raspberry. The berry flavor dominates the initial taste in the mouth with a sweetness that tastes more like raspberries than mangos. The aftertaste is slightly sour that tastes very distinctly like mangos and it is delightful.

The sour mango aftertaste remains in the mouth for another two or three minutes and it is not unpleasant or overwhelming.

Nutrition

As a healthy fruit juice, POM Mango 100% Juice Drink is designed to fill in some of the nutritional gaps one might have in their diet, but this beverage falls woefully short of that. Nutritionally, POM Mango is a fair option for those who are dieting or are trying to improve their health. Mango is primarily composed of pomegranate and mango juices from concentrate, mango puree from concentrate and pear juice from concentrate. It contains nothing bad, which might be why it expires so quickly. It is Vegan compliant, gluten-free, and soy-free, but not certified organic.

One serving of Mango has 210 calories and no fat. While there are 51 grams of carbohydrates, the beverage has no cholesterol, and only a single gram of protein! There is a negligible 10 mg (less than 1% RDA) of sodium in each serving. Outside the 640mg Potassium, the only nutrients this drink has are 2% RDA of Calcium and Iron.

Storage/Clean-up

POM Mango Superjuice Drink comes in a plastic bottle and it keeps for only a few weeks. The bottle I bought at the beginning of July had an expiration date of September 19, 2013 (I consumed the one I bought well before that!).

This drink is a fruit product and an opaque purple. If this gets on clothes, it will absolutely stain them, especially light clothes. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

POM Mango 100% Juice Blend is not incredibly nutritious or flavorful, but it is expensive, making it easy to pass by.

For other healthy beverages, please check out my reviews of:
Bolthouse Farms Strawberry + Yogurt + Granola Smoothie
Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango
O.N.E. Active Cranberry Grapefruit Coconut Water

4/10

For other food reviews, please visit my index page for a complete listing by clicking here!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Glorified Citrus Fruit Punch: Dole Orange Peach Mango Fruit Juice Is Flavorful And Worthwhile!

The Good: Tastes good, Vitamin C benefits
The Bad: Comparatively expensive, Not as nutritious as a fruit juice could be!
The Basics: I return to Dole 100% Juice for Orange Peach Mango juice, a flavorful citrus blend that is worth tasting.


A few weeks back, I threw my hat in the ring with a juice review, which was uncharacteristic of me. The truth is, though, I've been enjoying juice lately when I can get it cheap enough and when I managed to get a container of Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango juice for free, I figured that, like the Dole Sensation Natural Guava Juice (reviewed here!), I had to review it! A bit more nutritious than the other juice, Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango juice impressed me by not being at all sour. The other big surprise for me was that it tastes not at all like orange juice. Outside the coloring, this is likely to surprise orange juice and citrus juice drinkers.

My wife and I had a coupon for juice at our local grocery store, which is how we managed to get the juice that is regularly $3.49 for a 59 fl. oz. carton for free. Outside the nutrition not being all I might have wanted from a fruit juice, that $3.49 strikes me as a little high for juice. Even so, it is worth it!

Basics

Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango juice is a refrigerated juice put out by Dole. The blue, pink and white carton is like a standard half gallon milk container and is found currently in the refrigerated juice section of most major grocery stores. Dole 100% Juice has been around for a while, but I am unsure how long Orange Peach Mango has been part of the line. The Orange Peach Mango juice is a light yellow-orange juice like liquid sunshine . . . or a slightly dark pineapple juice. The half gallon cardboard carton has seven servings in it.

Ease Of Preparation

Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango 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

In the glass, Orange Peach Mango juice is aromatic and dominated by the scents of the peaches and mangoes. Those two fruits have complimentary aromas and here they synergize to drown out the scent of the orange juice that one might expect from a juice where that is the third ingredient.

On the tongue, Dole's Orange Peach Mango juice is surprisingly mild, but flavorful. This is not a forceful or sour beverage, instead it embodies a subtle sweetness that brings out the flavors of mangoes and grapes. Grape juice is one of the last ingredients, but it is one of the flavors that is richest in a juice that ought to have a citrus tang to it. Instead, this has a lightly sweet, richly fruity flavor like a citrus fruit punch infused with grape juice. The mango and peach flavors are strong enough, though, that anyone buying this because they like the blend of those two fruits is likely to be quite happy.

Nutrition

Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango juice is closer to what I have come to expect from juices than some of the other Dole products. Even so, when my wife's health took a turn and I actually had to start looking at ingredients and labels, I discovered so many (usually ridiculously expensive) juices that were far more nutritious even than this one. One eight oz. serving has 120 calories, none of which are from fat. In fact, this drink is fat free (which makes some sense) as well as cholesterol free and calcium free. Rather impressively, Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango juice has 100% of one's daily required Vitamin C as well as 9% RDA of potassium. As well, it has 27 grams of sugar and 10 mg of sodium.

What also surprised me was that it could credibly call itself "100% Juice" when the primary ingredients are filtered water, apple juice concentrate, and orange juice concentrate. I have less of a problem with the added citric acid and natural flavors at the bottom of the ingredient list than the filtered water up front. Regardless, this is not the worst fruit juice on the nutrition front!

Storage/Clean-up

Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango 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, though it was near the end of its October 28, 2011 date. Because it is all natural with no apparent preservatives, it does expire quicker than some juices.

Cleaning up Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango 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 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango juice is a pretty wonderful alternative to orange juice and despite its expense and limited shelf life is a worthwhile alternative to orange juice.

For other drinks, please visit my reviews of:
Bigelow Raspberry Royale tea
Land O'Lakes Chocolate Graham hot cocoa
Yogi Ginger Organic tea

6.5/10

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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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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