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
Zico Coconut Water: For a while, I tried different brands of coconut water wondering what all the fuss was about. At the end of the day, most tasted about the same. But then I purchased this relatively inexpensive bottle from the vending machine and realized that coconut water can taste bad. This bottle had a strong slightly metallic flavor. Not good. 2.0/5.0
drinks avoid zico coconut water 2.0
Thirsty Buddha Sparkling coconut water with watermelon: Wa interested in trying this Canadian carbonated coconut juice brand, but the watermelon flavor tasted like liquid Jolly Rancher. Artificial taste, with none of the refreshing qualities of coconut water. 2.0/5.0
avoid drinks thirstybuddha sparkling coconut water watermelon 2.0
Bickford’s Creamy soda: In hindsight, there were a few warning signs: 1) the label has “with artificial flavors” in fine print, 2) the flavor is creamy soda and not cream soda (I thought maybe it was an Australian thing), and 3) when was the last time you saw a red-colored cream soda? Turns out it’s red because of Red 40, which of course impart no actual taste to the drink (also ironically the packaging states “a century of purity”). What I got instead was an overly sweet, mediocre cream soda. It just goes to show... (read more) 2.0/5.0
drinks avoid galcos australian bickfords creamy soda 2.0
La Croix Cran-raspberry sparkling water : Generally, I think La Croix is pretty good. But this cran-raspberry flavor has a medicinal quality to it, reminding me of children’s medicine masked with candy-like flavors. Would not drink again. 2.0/5.0
drinks avoid lacroix cran-raspberry sparkling water 2.0
Purple Kow Lychee slushie: I usually opt for milk tea or fruit teas when I go to bubble tea shops, but this time I went for the lychee slush at Purple Kow, a Bay-Area-based chain. Their drinks are served in a single-size short, fat bucket with substantially more than your typical cup. Their generosity was unfortunate in this case because even at 25% sugar, the drink was far too sweet, reminding me of the lychee mini jello cups you get at asian grocery stores. If you don’t like sweet, artificial flavors, don’t order th... (read more) 2.0/5.0
drinks berkeley purplekow lychee slushie 2.0