Hero Peach Nectar

I love peaches.

Hero is a Swiss company with a North American presence in Ocala, FL. They sell a variety of inexpensive nectars that can be found in many grocery stores.

I love peaches.

And so, today, we're reviewing the Peach Nectar from Hero. We'll also be trying the Peach Nectar in a modified classic cocktail later on.

The label says that this nectar is a product of Spain. As if to bring that point home, nearly everything on the label is bilingual. I know the Spanish words for apple and banana. Now I know the word for peaches: melocoton, with an accent on the last "o".

This one liter (33.8 oz) glass bottle should be thoroughly chilled and thoroughly shaken before pouring. The nectar is at least 50% peach. It is made with pureed peaches, water, sugar, and lemon juice. No added flavors, no added colors. It is not made from concentrate either. The nectar has been pasteurized, but otherwise no preservatives.

Presentation/Appearance - 7/10 You probably can't see it in the photo, but the tall glass bottle has a marbled pattern in the wider base to protect against slipping. There is a definite tradeoff between a tall bottle and a wide bottle. I prefer the former based on my refrigerator configuration. The nectar looks like a liquid peach.

Nose/Aroma - 6/10 The nectar smells almost like a slice of peach, but, likely because of the sugar and lemon juice, it has a Gerber baby food scent to it.

Taste - 7/10 There is no denying the peach. Not too sweet, but with a full mouthfeel. Very tasty without being cloying. This nectar must have many uses besides serving as a simple beverage.

Finish/Satisfaction - 8/10 I like the way this finishes. The aftertaste is like eating the fruit. Drink it cold, though. As it warms the acidity from the lemon juice can take hold.

Overall - 7.15/10 A nice alternative to fruit juice. If you enjoy peaches, and they're out of season (starting about now), a glass of peach nectar might just tide you over.

I'm looking forward to trying the other Hero nectars. Will the banana nectar bring back vivid baby food memories?

Adina Natural Highs Hazelnut Hook Up

The Adina website is a bit busy, it is full of information and giveaways and an aggressive sense of community and purpose. They have a fantastic monkey logo and a slogan - 'Drink No Evil!' Yet, the Hazlenut Hook Up can doesn't have the logo anywhere on it. And it has the more tepid slogan - 'Feel Good - Do Good'. Ah, well, that doesn't matter. This is the PW's first energy drink!

The Hazlenut Hook Up is a coffee-based drink best served chilled. The Colombian coffee and evaporated cane sugar are both organic and fair trade certified. I'm hoping the dairy cows were treated humanely, but nothing is mentioned on container concerning bovine welfare.

Surely, there must be an ingredient besides coffee, milk, and sugar that sets this drink apart from a cup of Joe. There is. It contains natural hazlenut flavor and guarana; the latter delivering even more caffeine than coffee.

Presentation/Appearance - 6/10 Nothing special here. A simple 8 oz (240 ml) can with text highlighting the fair trade and naturalness of the beverage. Without detailed explanation, the contents are declared the "antioxidant equivalent of 4 servings of fruit" as measured by the USDA. However, we know that coffee, like tea, contains antioxidants.

Nose/Aroma - 6/10 The sugar is easy enough to detect, along with the nuttiness of the hazlenut flavoring. I had expectations of a more significant coffee aroma, but it never materialized. This tells me that we're about to taste something sweet versus bitter.

Taste/Flavor - 6/10 And sweet is what we mainly have here. The purpose of this drink is to provide a non-evil way of delivering caffeine to the body in a harmless, if not especially pleasing way. Nothing bad here, but nothing exciting. Except for my pulse...which we'll cover in a moment.

Finish/Satisfaction - 8/10 The drink delivers on its energy promise. Perhaps I am unused to caffeine, but I can feel the surge. The coffee flavor does linger after the sugar and hazlenut have left, which makes this feel more like an iced coffee experience than an awful energy drink session. (As we'll see in future Potable World entries, we're not a huge fan of sweet tart tasting sugar blasts.)

Overall - 6.6/10 Tasty energy drink with a solid mix of sugar and coffee flavors. The guarana doesn't add much to the flavor, which works for me in this drink. The hazlenut flavors are plenty here. Somewhat expensive at $1.99 per can, but a visit to the website will bring you access to 2-for-1 coupons. Print them and use them. They have other flavors, too, plus fruit & herb drinks and some sweet latte/espresso offerings.

Hey, hey, I think I have a caffeine buzz. My hair is tingling. What's your favorite energy drink?

Hansen's Signature Vanilla Creme Soda

The Hansen Beverage Company is a maker of juices, natural sodas, and energy drinks. Hubert Hansen and his sons started juices to Hollywood back in the 1930s. By the 1970s, they were making natural sodas, too, including ginger ale, grapefruit, cherry vanilla, and root beer among others.

A few years ago, they made a "super premium" line of sodas they dubbed the Signature Series. The Vanilla Creme, reviewed here, was joined by Ginger Beer, Orange Creme, and Sarsparilla. The Potable World will get to those if we can.

Most Hansen's sodas are canned. The Signature Series is presented in 12 oz (355 ml) bottles with a twist-off cap. I know this one will be sweet, so let's get going.

Presentation/Appearance - 7/10 Serving in the beer bottle is a nice touch for a soft drink. The soda itself is crystal clear with a pale sand tint.

Nose/Aroma - 7/10 Sugar and honey dominate the smell. The carbonation adds a cleanliness, while the vanilla adds a cake frosting scent that makes the mouth water.

Taste - 8/10 So, one could complain that this isn't especially creamy, like say, Virgil's Root Beer. But that only means that this is first and foremost a soda. It is carbonated water with an excellently balanced flavor of vanilla. So, I am not complaining. The honey does add some fullness, but the point here is the presentation of the vanilla blend on a bed of bubbly carbonation. It gives this sweet (ah, blessed cane sugar) drink a dryness that helps it actually quench a thirst.

Finish/Satisfaction - 7/10 This goes down very easy, but it has strong enough flavors to leave a taste of sugary vanilla in your mouth. My only complaint is that when it warms up a bit, the honey becomes more prominent. I know the honey is added to fill out the beverage, but I wish it were a bit more subdued.

Overall - 7.5/10 Hansen's has a winner with this bottled soda. I need to find the others in this series, if they are still available. Anyone had the Sarsparilla?

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon - Rutherford, California

A couple of years ago, Costco, the big discount store that competes with Wal-Mart's Sam's Club, started selling wine and spirits under their Kirkland label. Where I live, only the wine is available at the local stores. We have yet to buy a wine that has disappointed us.

To be sure, Costco doesn't own a vineyard or a winery. They contract with winemakers all over the world, they aren't just limited to California and their home turf in the Pacific Northwest.

This wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley Rutherford, was purchased earlier this summer. The price points on these wines are quite reasonable. This was less than $15. According to the label, you can cellar this and enjoy to 2012. (This link might be short-lived. Go to costco.com for more info.)

The maker of this wine is the Adler Fels Winery, owned by the Adams Wine Group.

Presentation/Appearance - 7/10 Kirkland has a consistent label appearance, making their private label easy to spot in stores. The wine itself is a gorgeous dark garnet, not opaque, but with a purple sunset translucence on the edges of the liquid. Very appealing.

Smell/Odor/Aroma - 6/10 The nose is alcohol soaked raisins, a little burn on the nose hairs. Makes you think that this will be young and harsh. Fruit scents can't seem to top the boozy viny nature of the nose.

Taste/Flavor - 7/10 Spicy, light plums start it all but they quickly give way to some mild tannic flavors. There is the alcohol presence to the fore again, but it complements the tannic acids. The finish is lengthy.

Finish/Satisfaction - 7/10 I already said the finish was lengthy. The mouthfeel is full, hot spiciness lingers on the tongue. This is a comfortable, as in plush, cabernet, that is easy to drink, but never simple.

Overall - 6.85/10 A solid wine that is great value if you can find it at Costco. Drink some now and store some for later. We paired this with sirloin from Polyface Farms and were not disappointed.

Has anyone had the other Kirkland wines? We like the Australian Shiraz. I also enjoyed the Port. We have a Chateauneuf-du-Pape waiting in the wings.

I'm also curious about the scotches they've offered in partnership with Macallan.

Oolong Shot

Oolong Shot is a blue tea, as in, not green or black. This tea, according to the can, is semi-oxidized. It's darker than green, but lighter than black tea.

Dr. Andrew Weil is a big proponent of the Ito En brands of teas. His image appears on the cans and on the website.

This is a simple ready-to-drink (RTD) tea, made of purified water, oolong tea and some added vitamin C (ascorbic acid.) You get 130% of your daily value of vitamin C in a 6.4 oz (190ml) can. You also get 40 mg of caffeine. That's bit more than a 12 oz Coke, but about half of a typical coffee.

Like the merlot juice from earlier, the big marketing push here is for a healthy dose of anti-oxidants. In this case, polyphenols. Studies continue to determine the efficacy of ingesting polyphenols on human health. Can it hurt? I don't know.

I do know that this little can of tea cost $1.07. Not bad, but it is mainly water. At $21.40 a gallon, I'm expecting something special.

Presentation/Appearance - 6/10 Nothing

special in the appearance. This is a dark gold, nearly brown translucent tea. Clear, pretty, not homely. I served this in a rocks glass because I did not have a see-through coffee mug. I will remedy this situation shortly.

Smell/Odor/Aroma - 7/10 Earthy, just the way you would expect. There is something spiritual about this odor. It brings back memories the way grass, cinnamon, or hickory smoke do. It smells of autumn as leaves fall and rot. It smells of spring, when the earth is turned for planting. I should stop before I write an embarrassing poem. I've had other teas, fresh brewed that present this aroma more strongly. But for an RTD tea in a can, this is impressive. Spouse says it smells "dusty"...different noses, no?

Taste/Flavor - 5/10 The can was labeled best before April 21, 2010. I have no idea when it was canned. The earthly oolong flavor is there. The water is plain and simple, but I detect a metallic taste. I'm not enough of an expert on tea to know if this is natural for the particular leaf, or is this part of being canned in steel.

Finish/Satisfaction - 5/10 The metallic taste dominates the finish. The bitterness is even and would be near perfect is the steely finish wasn't in the way.

Overall - 5.35/10 This is not terrible by any means, but there are better tasting teas out there. Think of the Oolong Shot as a convenience tea, rather than a staple. It is worth spending the extra time heating water and brewing your own.

I'm going to continue to review Ito En beverages, including their other RTD tea: Sencho Shot.

Anyone have any recommended teas in a can?

Orange Grove - (Cocktail)

Here's a cocktail that my spouse found in the AUG/SEP 2009 issue of Food Network Magazine. This is a creation of Aida Mollenkamp, a host of one of their Saturday midday shows.

This easy to make cocktail is called Orange Grove. The website says it takes ten minutes to make. That must be the lowest amount of time they can enter, because it only takes a minute or two. (Follow the link for a recipe.)

The recipe also calls for fresh-squeezed orange juice. I didn't have any oranges, so the basic stuff will have to do. Rye is tough to find these days. Jim Beam is readily available, though. While it is not the most complex whiskey, it certainly is serviceable for a cocktail. (Maybe if this drink doesn't score well, I've just described the reasons: 1-no fresh orange juice and 2-no fine rye.)

The interesting ingredient in this cocktail is ginger liqueur. The only one that I know of is Domaine de Canton, which is a ginger infused eau de vie mixed with cognac. I'll save describing the particular merits of this liqueur for a later post. However, if you like ginger, and you like spirits, I recommend it.

I mixed all of this up in my simple Boston shaker and

strained it over ice in a rocks glass, in fact, it is the one pictured above and right here with its ingredients.

Presentation/Appearance - 6/10 This is a pale yellow grapefruity looking drink. No garnishes (which I don't mind, because they can be a hassle.) Mine looked to be the same color as the one in the magazine and on the website. Just a bit lifeless.

Smell/Odor/Aroma - 6/10 The whiskey and the liqueur combine to smell like a ginger highball. The orange is present but not strong. This is where fresh juice would have made a huge difference.

Taste/Flavor - 7/10 My spouse loved this drink. It apparently isn't my thing. Again, the quality of the orange juice could be a factor. Also, I wanted the rye to be more assertive. The ginger comes through spicy and warm without overpowering the drink. Maybe the cognac part of the liqueur was playing havoc with the rye. Tasted fine without being delicious. Nothing offputting at all here. I'll need to revisit with better ingredients.

Finish/Satisfaction - 7/10 Thirst-quenching, citrus finish, with a mild gingersnap and alcohol burn. It's nice to taste a drink that isn't overly sweet. In the magazine article, Aida pairs this with crackers and figs. This drink needs a snack to go with it, such as a cracker or French bread with an exotic fruit spread.

Overall - 6.8/10 A slightly above average orange juice cocktail with a little interest thrown in from the ginger liqueur.

Do the Food Network shows talk about cocktails much? They must mention wine at some point for sure, but aside from the magazine, I don't know if they've done much with spirits.

First Blush Merlot Juice

It is nearly impossible to dislike grape juice. In the USA, Concord grapes reign supreme as the common source of the sweet juice. First Blush, however, has added a wrinkle, rather than using vitis labrusca, the species of the Concord grape, they've chosen to use traditional wine-making grape varieties from vitis vinifera, including cabernet, chardonnay, syrah, and, the grape juice under scrutiny now, merlot.

I'm a bit nervous about whether or not this will work. Though, it seems to be popular enough. First Blush has a lot of magazine clips, mostly in women's health and wine periodicals. They definitely push the anti-oxidant angle, as most grape juice makers are likely to do.

I bought bottles for $3.19 a piece. They contain 11.5 oz of pure grape juice each.

Presentation/Appearance - 8/10 The bottles are colorful, with each variety sporting its own hue. They're slender, I think to appeal to women. They would fit into a bag fairly easily, though this is good for men, too. These would pose no problem for a briefcase. The bottles are plastic, PETE code 1 recyclable. The only problem I have is the tiny size, but we'll see why that isn't a big deal in a minute.

Smell/Odor/Aroma - 6/10 This is an aggressive odor for a grape juice. The website mentions cherries and plums. I'm getting cherries for sure, but they smell sour. I'm thinking that this will be one tart grape juice. Frankly, I'm almost dreading this. I give it slightly above average because it doesn't smell like sugar and it has its own character.

Taste/Flavor - 8/10 Excellent! Nothing like what I thought the nose portended. This is a silky

smooth juice. It's naturally sweet with dark fruit flavors dominating in the middle of the mouthful. If anything, it might be a tad too sweet. That is the reason they don't bother adding any sugar. I would've scored it higher had

there been even a hint of tannins or dryness.

Finish/Satisfaction - 7/10 This is a fine grape juice. With such strong flavors and powerful sweetness, I've concluded that 11.5 oz might be too much juice. A six oz glass was refreshing and tasty. This is a nice treat, not meant to be guzzled.

Overall - 7.4/10 A very good grape juice. Try it if you're curious what wine tastes like before fermentation. This would pair quite well with dessert. Makes me want to dip a piece of sponge cake into the glass.

First Blush has some interesting recipes on the website, including the simple First Blush Sparkler, which I will make and review at some future date. I am also interested in turning a bottle of this into a syrup. That would work with the sponge cake even better.

Yoo-hoo Chocolate

Practically everyone knows what a Yoo-hoo is, right? A simple chocolate drink, mostly sugar, cocoa, dry nonfat milk and some phosphates. This isn't a traditional chocolate phosphate though. Yoo-hoo is not carbonated.

Honestly, I haven't had a Yoo-hoo in about 35 years. I used to drink them as a change of pace from Coke or Pepsi. (Oh, yeah, I had cavities.) The drink discussed here is the original classic chocolate version. Other flavors include strawberry and double fudge(!) and a "lite" version of the chocolate with less calories.

Even when I was a kid, Yoo-hoo was an old drink. Created back in the 1920s in New Jersey by Natale Olivieri, a fruit flavor maker, the drink became a hit once Mr. Olivieri discovered a way to effectively pasteurize the concoction before bottling. The drink was heavily promoted by the New York Yankees championship teams in the 1950s. Today Yoo-hoo is produced by Mott's. Yes, the applesauce and fruit juice company.

Back when I was drinking Yoo-hoos, they were in glass bottles resembling the taller thinner soft drink bottles of the day. Today, Yoo-hoos are normally found in the squat glass bottles often used for juices or sports drinks. Though it can be found in cans and small juice box style containers.

I bought my sample at a local grocer, paying around $2.00 for the 15 oz container.

Presentation/Appearance - 6/10 The bottle lacks style and the drink looks like a decent glass of chocolate milk.

Smell/Odor/Aroma - 6/10 The chocolate is definitely there, but it smells more like a powdered cocoa mix. The water base is detectable, too.

Taste/Flavor - 5/10 Tastes like sugary cocoa water. The sugars (really corn syrups) coat the mouth, but not pleasantly. I wonder what this would taste like with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. If I remember correctly, I think I tried to make this with Nestle’s Quik, some table sugar and water when we had run out of milk when I was a kid.

Finish/Satisfaction - 5/10 The sweetness lasts longer than the chocolate. After a glass, I felt a little twinge in my stomach. Too sweet for me to consume too much. However, it does deliver a shot of milk chocolate flavor with every mouthful.

Overall - 5.2/10 Yoo-hoo is a kids' drink all the way. Simple chocolate taste delivered in a sugar water solution.

Someone has Yoo-hoo memories. Let’s hear them. What kind of snacks did you have with your Yoo-hoos? I remember Ho-hos and King Dons (Ding Dongs).