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Starbucks Refreshers, Sparkling Energy Beverage with green coffee extract, flavor review

April 10, 2012 By 1 Comment
Starbucks Refreshers

Starbucks RefreshersLike most moms, I survived the new baby/full-time work phase with lots of caffeine. Coffee is my beverage of choice for "energy". Energy drinks are popular and most flavor chemists have made flavors and energy blends for these beverages. In early 2000, I copied Red Bull (TM) flavor for a successful bar drink. My flavor memory of Red Bull (TM) was cherry cough syrup. It is shocking to find out that Red Bull and Vodka is served at bars (combination of upper and downer drugs), but maybe not so different than the Cola mixed drinks I had become accustomed to. Through my career, I've created other flavors for energy drinks: passionfruit, orange, and melon; then I moved on to confection flavors. On a recent trip to … [Read more...]

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Activate Vitamin Performance Beverage, Fruit Punch review

January 9, 2012 By 1 Comment
after shaking

It's Monday and it can be difficult to get motivated and going.  The Activate Vitamin Performance beverage is a perfect choice for a review on a Monday. Activate Vitamin beverage has a unique delivery system: a powdered drink in the red cap that you must "twist, shake, activate". The tag line for Activate Performance beverage is "a turn for the better". The advantage of this beverage over typical vitamin beverages on the market is that the vitamins in Activate are held under dark, dry conditions. Vitamins dispersed in water and exposed to light are subject to degradation (reducing effectiveness). Activate Vitamin beverage is packed with vitamins. One bottle has the following nutrients: Vitamin A  37.5%     Vitamin E   37.5%     … [Read more...]

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Silk all natural soymilk, Mint Chocolate review

December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Silk all natural soymilk, mint chocolate

I'm a fan of Silk soymilk products. Silk's soymilk vanilla creamer is delicious and amazing in coffee.  Silk soymilk mint chocolate sounded like something my girls might like (since they love Westsoy's mint chocolate soymilk); so I gave it a try. I did not look at the ingredients or label closely and later realized that it was sweetened with Stevia. Stevia tends to be bitter and have a lingering aftertaste. I was hopeful that this product would taste good, since it was the Silk brand and it contained evaporated cane juice as well as Stevia.  Silk soymilk mint chocolate is pretty good as a cold beverage: creamy, sweet, nice mint flavor, low soy notes; but it is lacking in fullness & chocolate flavor. Unfortunately, my daughters … [Read more...]

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SoBe LEAN Honey Green Tea

October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Green Tea Honey

Fifteen years ago I was formulating green tea beverages for beverage manufacturers and trying out the natural high potency sweetener stevia extract(Reb A). I was working for a Japanese flavor company making prototypes for large beverage manufacturers in the United States and evaluating beverages sweetened with stevia that were on the market in Japan. Stevia has been approved for use as a natural sweetening agent in Japan for years. Recently, the United States deemed stevia safe for use in food and beverage. Honestly, I am not a huge high potency sweetener fan. They (aspartame, sucralose, Ace K, stevia, saccharin) all taste different from sugar. However, I am fifteen pounds more than I was before I had children and would like to lose that … [Read more...]

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