Gatorade Strawberry Lemonade Sports Drink: Tastes like a liquified version of watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Very little strawberry flavor, but the taste of artificial watermelon is strong. Contains no fruit juice but has both natural and artificial flavors. Curious what the natural flavors are. Purchased for electrolytes. 2.5/5.0
drinks gatorade strawberry lemonade sports drink 2.5
Real Coco Organic coconut water: I somehow managed to get the stomach flu, so to supplement a box of saltines, I purchased some electrolyte-rich beverages. The first was this carton of organic coconut water, which had a pleasantly neutral taste. It’s just sweet enough, and has a thirst quenching, clean flavor. I would drink this, even when not sick! 4.0/5.0
drinks recommended coconutwater realcoco organic coconut water 4.0
Happy Lemon Lemon black tea: Textbook mediocre black tea. Tastes like Lipton, and it probably is. On the plus side, the drinks contains an entire lemon, sliced into wedges. But the overall effect is black tea I can easily make at home. Good thing it was free (from the buy one get on free promotion during Happy Lemon’s opening weekend in Berkeley). 2.0/5.0
drinks berkeley happylemon lemon black tea 2.0
Happy Lemon Mango Yakult Smoothie with Boba: My favorite Taiwanese bubble tea chain made its way to Berkeley, located dangerously close to the Downtown Berkeley BART station. This weekend, they're celebrating their opening by offering a buy-one-get-one-free special, which has led to insane lines from Berkeley students. They even taped off a maze-like line on the floor to control the flow of eager lemon-drink enthusiasts. I ordered their mango yakult smoothie along with a lemon black tea (review forthcoming). Immediately upon receiv... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended drinks berkeley happylemon mango yakult smoothie boba 3.5
iTea Guava green tea with lychee jelly and boba: I can’t tell if the fruit teas are generally underwhelming or the quality of this bubble tea shop has just declined over time, but this guava green tea from iTea on Kearny in SF was too sweet, even at 30% sweetness, with a syrupy taste and no trace of green tea. Contains lychee jelly and boba, both of which were decent. Lines were incredibly long at the end of a weekday. Questioning whether I should just stop returning to this once-favorite place. 2.0/5.0
drinks bubbletea sanfrancisco sf itea guava green tea lychee jelly boba 2.0
YakiniQ Strawberry yuzu lemonade: A remarkably thirst-quenching summer drink, with strawberry seeds mixed throughout and citrus rind (in the same pulpy form as Asian citron tea) at the bottom. Well balanced; sweet and tart, and ultra fresh. One of the best beverages I’ve had in recent memory. Seasonal offering from this small cafe in the heart of Japantown in SF. 4.5/5.0
exceptional drinks sf japantown strawberry yuzu lemonade 4.5