Help Save Oogave

Today, there will be no review.

In its place, however, I would like to discuss an issue of personal interest and concern to me. Two years ago, I received my first email from a company offering to send me samples of their beverage to review on this site. Now, almost four years after their instantiation as an independent, health-oriented, organic beverage company, Oogave is in need of our help.

For those who are unfamiliar, Oogave is an independent soda company that produces a line of all-natural sodas sweetened with organic agave nectar. Oogave is a delicious, refreshing, and unique beverage in a market segment so often fraught with tiresome non-originality, and anyone who has the opportunity to try it should do so without hesitation. But while Oogave produces an amazing beverage, the company has found itself in a bit of a financial quandary this year, and has turned to the beverage community for assistance.

I don't want to belabor the point too much in this post, as Oogave has explained the situation in full in the description of their Indiegogo campaign, but the basic gist is this: Oogave needs $500,000 in donations (consider them "community investments, if you prefer) if they are to smoothly continue production into the next several years. For a small, independent packaged goods supplier in the United States, it takes about five years of sales to reach cash flow positive--business terms for sustained profit. Oogave has big plans for the next several years (signing on with major distributors such as Super Target and Sodexo), and if they can make it through this critical fourth year, they should be set to succeed in the years to come.

This, now, is where you come in. Oogave is currently a little bit short on cash in their plan for expansion into more major North American markets. Without the funds required to keep up with the costs of production, Oogave may be in danger of having to close their doors for good--something about which anyone who has ever tasted Oogave would be very upset. Oogave has estimated that they need approximately $500,000 in funds to reach cash flow positive, at which point they will be able to grow organically and continue seeking new opportunities for brand-building and expansion. If they can reach this goal, Oogave will stay in business and will continue to grace the beverage industry with their delicious products. If not, well...the future is very unclear.

If you are interested in helping Oogave reach this goal, head over to their Indiegogo fundraiser and take some time to read through their explanation of the issues at hand before determining how much money you might be able to contribute to the cause. Each level of donation does come with a corresponding reward perk, so if you are on the fence about bumping your donation up to the next level, just know that you will see some return on your investment (aside from a great company getting to stay in business, of course). If you are unable to donate, you can still do your part by sharing the information about the campaign with your friends, family, and social media networks.

$500,000 may seem like a long way off, but every little bit helps. If we all work together in donating and doing what we can to get the word of the campaign out to others, we should be able to help Oogave stick around for the long run.

For more information about Oogave and their products, please visit their website at: www.oogave.com. 
Help get the word out with Facebook and Twitter, and be sure to share the link to their Indiegogo campaign (http://www.indiegogo.com/saveoogave) wherever you see fit.

Hiatus: 10/2012

I know that I said on the Twitter feed last week that I would be posting a double review today, but this past week ended up being a lot busier than I thought. I have begun to look into graduate schools again, and in conjunction with a few other projects that I have going on on the side, that is taking up a good bit of my time right now. As I'm sure that I don't really need to emphasize, my grad school search is a very important thing that needs to have most of my attention and energy, and I think that it would best if I suspended as many distractions as possible for the time being. Weekends are really the best time for me to get a lot of school searching done, and having a big review to do right in the middle of everything just eats up more time than I can afford to spend right now.

So, starting today, Drinkable Review will be going on hiatus for the month of October. I need to really get myself focused back on my education, and although I don't necessarily want to stop posting here, I think that I need to take a bit of a break from non-school things and really get my business together over the next several weeks. I will, however, continue to post on Twitter (hopefully with increased frequency to compensate somewhat for the lack of reviews), so if you do follow Drinkable Review on Twitter, keep an eye out for new posts and thoughts about what I'm currently drinking.

Anyway, thank you all in advance for your understanding while I get my school situation worked out, and I look forward to returning to my regular schedule in a month or so. I wish everyone peace and good health in the meantime.

- Hayden

A Change in Direction

As I'm sure that many of you have noticed by now, I have been having a very difficult time getting my posts up on schedule recently. There are a multitude of reasons for this, some of which I may go into later once I figure out how to best address the issues. However, for the time being, I can offer a partial explanation as to why things have been so sparse lately.

Firstly, as I have mentioned before, I just recently started a new job. I work full-time now, and I have honestly just been forgetting to write the reviews in advance. I will often suddenly remember that I have a review to write as I am getting into bed for the evening, and trying to write the reviews immediately after I get home from work hasn't been working out so far. I need to get better at writing the reviews ahead of time, I admit, but the primary problem lately has been that I barely have anything to write about.

I moved back home after my graduation from university in December, and this town is not particularly well-equipped when it comes to shops that carry interesting beverages. I have exhausted most of the supply in the area, and I feel that I have officially just run out of new things to try. Right now, I have to rely on trips out of town to pick up drinks for the review, but I only ever find three or four potential review candidates per trip, and I can't really afford to make these trips every weekend.

So...there is the problem. But I do have a solution in mind: cutting down to one update per week. It's not a wonderful solution, and I don't particularly like the idea of it myself, especially after posting so frequently for the past several years. But I am going to be in this town for at least another year before I can (hopefully) go off to grad school, and I just don't see how I can keep up the same schedule as before when there are so few drinks available. I briefly considered shipping drinks in to keep myself supplied, but the cost involved in transporting cases of beverages is just too much for me to absorb right now.

While cutting back on my update schedule is not ideal, I do think that it will offer some benefits. Primarily, updating once a week (Thursdays) will allow me more time to spend on each post. I have started to enjoy researching and discussing the history, preparation methods, and cultural significance of the beverages that I review, and having an entire week to write each post will allow me more opportunity to make the posts a bit more in-depth and informative. Additionally, it will allow me more time to get into a stronger social networking routine. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are powerful tools for bloggers, and I feel as though I have not had a chance to really take full advantage of their effectiveness as of yet.

To sum up, the plan for right now is to temporarily drop down to one larger post every Thursday, rather than three smaller posts throughout the week. As I emphasized, this is only a temporary change forced upon me by the circumstances of my current living situation. I will hopefully be able to resume a more frequent update schedule once I am able to relocate next year.

I would like to thank you all for your patience over the past several months. I know that I have been incredibly inconsistent and that I have done a terrible job at keeping up my own schedule, but the past year has been a very busy time for me for a multitude of reasons, and although I have always tried to keep Drinkable Review fairly high on my list of priorities, there were just things going on that demanded my more immediate attention. Although decreasing my content output may seem like a step backwards, it is certainly better than always being overwhelmed and never posting anything, and I hope to make the new reviews worthy of their meager, weekly occurrence.

I look forward to focusing on the new update schedule, and I hope to see you all back here this Thursday.

- Hayden

Gevalia On Ice

Lemon-ginger iced Gevalia. Recipe at end of post.

Now that the weather is warming up, I have recently taken to drinking many of my teas and other typically warm beverages chilled, over ice. In the past, I have never been crazy about serving drinks chilled when they must be prepared hot, and actively avoided the practice whenever possible. I can't really give a reason for this, though, and I have decided that it was simply a strange tenacity on my part. Luckily, I was able to get over this peculiar mental block and start icing drinks like crazy just in time to experience the pleasantries of iced Gevalia. Kraft recently sent me a sample of Gevalia House Blend, along with several recipes, tips, and ideas to enhance the experience beyond simply putting the coffee in the refrigerator.

Before I get started on the iced coffee recipes and pointers, I should address the coffee itself, first. It has been a fair amount of time since my review of Gevalia's Traditional Roast, and I have not had it recently enough (I'm more of a fan of the Colombia blend) to warrant a highly detailed comparison. But, from what I remember of the original, the House Blend is a bit darker and richer than the Traditional Roast. The House Blend is a more robust coffee overall, and I like it quite well, but if you prefer the lighter flavor of more medium roast coffees, then the Traditional Roast may be a safer option. However, in accordance with the original intention of this post, the House Blend does make for an excellent iced coffee, as the flavors do tend to mellow out a bit when the drink is chilled.

Making iced versions of traditional beverages can actually be less straightforward than it seems like it should be. Hot drinks often taste a bit different when served chilled, and it can often take some trial and error and disappointment to determine how strong to make the original brew to produce the best taste upon refrigeration. Luckily, Kraft has offered some of their tips on the process to make the first few batches go a little more smoothly. 

For optimal taste, Kraft recommends using 12 sightly rounded tablespoons of coffee for every 8 cups of water. I reduced my first batch down to 9 tablespoons coffee (12 tablespoons is quite a lot of coffee for my medium-sized coffee maker) for 6 cups of water, and it still tasted just right. Kraft suggests using darker roast coffees, such as Gevalia's House Blend, French Roast, Or Espresso Roast, and I'm inclined to agree with them. Darker roasts do typically make for better iced coffees, as the flavors typically soften a bit when served cold, so it is best to start with a coffee with a more robust flavor profile. 

Sweetening a batch of iced coffee has been a bit of an issue for me lately, as I enjoy coffee both sweetened and unsweetened, depending on my mood. It is easiest to sweeten a drink while it is still hot and the sugar will dissolve quickly, but then you are committed to drinking sweetened coffee until the next batch. Kraft was ready here with another suggestion that, for some reason, I had only ever thought to use in alcoholic cocktails: simple syrup. 

Simple syrup is, as the name suggests, quite simple to make. Just mix equal parts sugar and water (I usually use one cup of each) together in a saucepan, and heat over medium heat (stirring occasionally) until the sugar has completely dissolved. Once the syrup has cooled, it can be stored in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to about a week. The mixture can then be used to easily sweeten each serving of iced coffee on the spot, rather than having to sweeten the entire batch at once. Simple syrup is fast, convenient, and it requires little more than a quick stir to mix in with your beverage. The only real downside that I can think of is that, being a liquid, it does have the potential to dilute your iced coffee a tiny bit. Normally, this would not be that big of a deal, but combined with the eventual dilution from the ice in the coffee, it begins to add up. And yet again, Kraft is on the ball with another solution so simple that it makes me feel sort of silly for never having devised it myself. To avoid dilution in your iced coffee, why not just make coffee ice cubes?

But of course...

If you're anything like me, once you've made a batch or two of standard iced coffee, you may start to get a little bit tired of the stuff. So why not branch out with a couple of recipes? Kraft relayed a few to me with the sample that they sent, and I have had the opportunity to try two of them so far, but the entire list of recipes (along with the rest of the tips) can be found here.

The first recipe that I tried was Gevalia's Mint-Mocha Iced Coffee. This one is pretty straightforward: simply melt two or three Junior Mints in a cup of hot coffee, and then allow it to chill in the refrigerator before serving it over ice. The Junior Mints require constant stirring and a bit of time to melt, but they will melt...mostly. Some small particles may remain unmelted, and there will likely be a layer of chocolate sediment at the bottom of the cup after pouring the mixture off, but this is fine. The coffee will still retain the mint chocolate flavor, and it is absolutely delicious. 

Next, I gave the lemon-ginger iced coffee (pictured vaguely at the top of the post) a run. Like the previous recipe, this one is relatively simple. Just combine 1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger, 1 tablespoon of lemon zest, and 9 tablespoons of coffee in the filter basket of your coffee maker, and brew using 6 cups of water. The recipe then says to mix 1/3 cup honey into the hot coffee, but I am really not a huge fan of honey and decided to leave it out. Then, let the coffee cool in the refrigerator and serve over ice. I drank most of the pitcher unsweetened (I did add simple syrup and creamer to a couple of servings, but not very many), and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The coffee absorbs the flavors of the lemon and ginger a lot better than I thought that it would, and the resulting beverage is an interestingly natural twist on the typical iced coffee.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience testing out Gevalia's House Blend. It's a great coffee that goes very well with ice, and I definitely recommend it as a good starting point for experimenting with iced coffee recipes this summer. As I said above, the recipes listed here are only two of several that were sent to me by Kraft, but the rest can be found on Gevalia's website. Feel free to stop by and leave your thoughts in the comments if you decide to try some of the others.

But in the meantime, just be sure to give Gevalia's iced House Blend a try. It is not likely to disappoint.

Samples provided courtesy of Kraft Foods, Inc.

To learn more about Kraft, visit their website

Or follow Kraft Foods on Twitter or Facebook

To Learn more about Gevalia, visit their website

Or follow Gevalia on Twitter or Facebook

Crystal Light Strawberry Lemonade

(Click for larger image)

Although Labor Day typically marks the end of the summer season in the minds of many, I thought that it would be a great day to keep the summer spirit alive by sharing with you all some wonderful Crystal Light lemonade punch recipes that I was recently sent by Kraft. Today's recipe marks the first of three that I will be posting to the blog this week, and it is a tasty and refreshing strawberry lemonade made with Crystal Light's Natural Lemonade flavored drink mix. I was recently sent a sample pack of Crystal Light Natural Lemonade by Kraft so that I could give these recipes a try for myself, and I was able to mix this one up early last week.

I really liked Crystal Light's strawberry lemonade concoction. The tangy bite of the Crystal Light lemonade lends itself well to the sweetness of the strawberries, and the two flavors just worked very well together, melding into one appetizingly sweet-and-sour taste. The drink did not blend up into the same thick consistency that is pictured in the recipe above, but that may be because I was preparing a double portion for some friends and the berries may have just not blended as well given the larger quantity of things in the blender. With regards to consistency, the resulting drink was more like a viscous lemonade with small chunks of strawberry floating throughout, but I actually really liked the extra texture provided by the bits of fruit floating around in the liquid.

Overall, this drink is an easy recommendation. It is easy to make, relatively inexpensive, and tastes great. This is definitely one to consider whipping up for your next party, cookout, or otherwise equally casual social gathering.

No posts this week.

So as the title of this post suggests, I will not be doing reviews this week. I have decided to take the week off for vacation, as I am leaving tomorrow to go to Washington D.C. for the weekend with some friends of mine. I am originally from the Baltimore area, so I have been to D.C. quite a few times in the past, but it has been a while since I've been back (almost seven years), and I am very excited to see how the city has changed since my last visit. I will hopefully be trying a myriad of different beverages while I'm there, and we are planning on recording a podcast or two during the trip.

I will be returning to the regular update schedule next week, and I am very much looking forward to investigating  new material for the site over the weekend. In the meantime, be sure to check out my review of CrazyDrops in the post below. L3 Home has developed a great product that definitely deserves your attention.

Anyway, those who are interested can keep up with my beverage-related exploits in D.C. by following me on Twitter or facebook, or just checking in with the sidebar widget. I am looking forward to sharing some of the good beverage news from D.C. with all of you upon my return.

Until then,

Hayden

Hey everyone. I hate to do this, but I need to move today's post to tomorrow. I've been out all morning running errands, and I've still got some things to do today, and I don't think that I'll be able to get the review up in a timely manner. Check back tomorrow for my review of Bundaberg Peachee.

Thanks,

Hayden

Coming Soon: Ambro Relax

I was recently sent a sample pack of Ambrosia Beverages's new Ambro Relax relaxation beverage. I received it yesterday afternoon, and I'm definitely looking forward to giving it a try soon (probably later tonight). The review will be up on Tuesday, but in the meantime feel free to check out Ambro Relax on its website, or through Twitter or facebook. 

Have a great Thursday, and I will see you back here tomorrow for my review of Malta Goya.

- Hayden

On disabling comments

As I'm sure many of you may have noticed by now, I made the decision earlier this week to disable comments on the reviews. It was a difficult decision on my part, because I always love hearing from readers, but I think that, for the time being, it will be better for the review to leave them off. This is a design choice that I've been struggling with for some time now, and a recent turn of events has made that decision somewhat easier on my conscious.

While I don't necessarily feel the need to defend my decisions about how I run the blog, I do feel that those who were not involved deserve an explanation. The short version of the story is that a discussion about artificial sweeteners and their positive and negative attributes was started recently in the comments of one of my posts. As per usual during an internet argument, some of the later comments turned a bit sour and condescending, and I decided once and for all just to disable the feature.

I don't particularly believe in internet censorship (within reason, of course), but I also don't feel that the comments section of my reviews are the best place for that sort of discussion, especially if the companies that I endorse are going to end up being insulted and accused of malevolence. I am not here to change anybody's mind about specific ingredients that are used in modern beverages. My primary intention with this blog is to inform readers of what sorts of beverages are available on the market and simply if I feel that they are worth your money. As a result, I feel that the reviews themselves are not necessarily up for debate, and having a big, long discussion about the benefits and detriments of a single element of the beverage in question directly under the post itself muddles the original intention of the review.

Now, all of that being said, I do sincerely enjoy the discussion. I am still in the process of moving the site over to its dedicated URL, but due to the heavy load from my curriculum this semester, that is not likely to happen until this summer. When I do get the site moved, however, I am hoping to implement a forum for those who are interested to discuss whatever sorts of things that they want to discuss about the beverage industry. Until then, communication between readers will unfortunately be more limited, but I am greatly looking forward to finally getting the new site together and hopefully being a part of these sorts of discussions in the future.

I thank all of you for your patience while I wait for a chance to get the site moved over to its new home, and I hope that each of you continues to enjoy and find useful the reviews to be posted in the coming months. If anyone has any questions, grievances, or comments, or if you simply want to talk about beverage news or experiences, I welcome you to send me an email at the address listed in the sidebar.

Again, thank you all again for reading, and I look forward to seeing you back here for next week's reviews. Hopefully I'll be able to recommend one of them this time.

-Hayden

Big Lots Trip: December 2010

My sister and I just ran out to Big Lots to kill some time on this restless Sunday afternoon. I had not been to the Big Lots at home in a while before this afternoon, and when we got there, I was shocked and excited to realize that they have greatly expanded their snack and drink sections. I walked down the freshly-stocked drink aisle, picking up just about everything that interested me. At $0.70 a piece, it's hard not to take advantage of the situation.

So, as you can see, I left with a pretty strong haul. And what was the best thing about today's shopping trip? All thirteen of these drinks cost a grand total of $9.50. I may do some extra reviews for the next couple of weeks in addition to the regular posts so that I can crank through a bunch of these, so keep checking back. I'll try to twitter whenever an extra review goes up as well, for those of you who follow the feed.

Today was super exciting, and I can not wait to try all of these.

The Wave

The Wave is a terrible beverage. I had been seeing the occasional poster for this drink for the past few months, and every time I saw one, I stopped at whatever store was displaying the poster and was disappointed by their peculiar lack of the product. After a month and a half of searching for this beverage, I finally procured one at a local convenience store on campus. And oh my goodness, this drink was certainly not worth the hassle. I was hoping for it to be different from the typical energy drink, as it claims to use all natural flavors (a claim which can almost always be ignored these days due to all of the marketing loopholes associated with the word "natural"), but it was not good at all. In fact, this beverage is worse than some of the other already well-established disgusting energy drinks. Besides Red Bull, of course. Nothing is worse than Red Bull.

The Wave is cherry flavored, which I find a little bit odd considering it's aquatic marketing imagery. Because of this marketing, I was at least hoping that the beverage would be a little bit more gentle than the typical energy drink, but it's not. The flavors are just as harsh as any other energy drink, and it is very acidic. It's sickeningly sweet without being tasty, and the cherry (or at least I think that it's cherry) flavoring is incredibly artificial and tastes like a children's vitamin tablet. There are drinks that intentionally have the vitamin taste, such as Dr. Enuf, but they are mild and manage to balance the flavors like a sensible beverage manufacturer would. I get the sense from this drink that this is yet another company just trying to cash in on the energy drink craze without really caring about the quality of their product. Definitely avoid this one.

Verdict: Not recommended

Purchased: The DCP [Columbia, SC]

Size: 16 fl. oz.

Price: $1.99

So the twitter feed isn't working. I'll work on fixing it later. For now, visit my twitter page.

[Edit as of 11/1/2010] Okay, apparently it isn't broken after all. Weird...it wasn't showing up yesterday.

Fluid Mechanics

I had an interesting experience with some sweet tea today at lunch. Although I am not a native southerner (or any sort of southerner, really), I do enjoy a glass of sweet tea from time to time. I typically prefer my tea hot and in a cup with a handle, but iced tea is a nice treat from time to time. Unfortunately, around here, sweet tea is more sweet than it is tea, and for someone who tries to consume minimal amounts of sugar, it can be tough to truly enjoy.

The school cafeteria here at USC is no exception. The sweet tea is essentially cold molten sugar, and it can be difficult for me to make it through an entire cup. So, typically what I do is concoct what my mother and I have affectionately dubbed "half and half." It's simply half sweet tea and half unsweetened tea.

Today, however, the two teas apparently did not mix well, so after my meal when I went to consume my beverage, there were pockets and layers of sweetness, rather than one dilute sweetness. In addition to that, I did not use enough ice, and there were pockets of warm tea surrounded by chilled liquid. I noticed this immediately, but decided not to mix the tea, as the constantly shifting fluid flowing across my tongue was intensely interesting.

I'm going to try to do it again tomorrow.

Jasmine Tea

In light of this post that I never followed up on, I made some loose jasmine tea tonight using my new tea ball. Pictures ensue:

This was delicious. There is nothing better than a hot cup of tea late at night when I have a paper (in this case a lab report) to stay up late writing. It makes me feel all cuddly inside.

A change of pace

I'm starting something new with this blog today. In addition to my regularly scheduled reviews, I am also going to start including "miscellaneous" posts througout the week of things that I drink that aren't necessarily procurable by the general public. The posts will include a picture of the drink (if I was able to take one), as well as a quick blurb about my thoughts about it or what I was doing when I drank it or what have you. I don't see much point in "reviewing" the drinks per se, as most readers may not be able to go out and try it for themselves for one reason or another (region, limited time, one-time occurance, etc.), so these posts will be more just a diary of interesting beverage stories. Today marks the first such post (unfortunately in place of the regular review):

Raspberry Tea

I bought this tea today at my school's farmer's market (held every Tuesday until 2pm). There was a stand selling jugs of locally made peach cider, but they were also selling cups of raspberry tea for a dollar on the side. I couldn't resist and bought one, sipping it as I sat in front of the school's coffee shop and conversing with a friend. It was so tasty, but made me a bit sad that the refreshing drinks of the summer are going to vanish for a while.

Oh well. Bring on the hot stuff.