Columbia Gorge Organic Apple Cider
Price: $2.50
Serving: 12oz., 1 bottle
Servings Per Container: 1
Calories: 180 per serving
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 3%, 67mg
Protein: 9g
Carbohydrates: 15%, 43g
Fiber: 7%, 2g
Sugar: 39g
Weight Watchers Points: 3 Points
Columbia Gorge says: Unparalleled in the world of apple ciders. We blend several different kinds of apples to achieve the tart yet sweet flavor of this cider. Making it from soil-enriched grown organic apples is the best way to taste the real apple flavor.
Abi Says: In Washington State, Fall means apples and apples mean cider. Okay, cider and apple sauce and deliciously cinnamony pies. But this is not a pie blog.
During a six-day visit to Seattle I figured that I’d just drink my way across every coffee shop in town. This is a good idea in theory, but in actuality it means jitters, possible tooth stains, and peeing all the freaking time.
In order to avoid the uncomfortable side-effects of diuretics, every noontime I switched to juices. Sometimes it was the blackberry version of an Izze sparkling soda and other days I turned to one of these adorable bottles of juice from the Columbia Gorge Juice Company.
The organic cider was lighter and clearer than I expected, a forewarning that the drink would exhibit few of the qualities of farm-fresh pressed cider. Columbia Gorge delivers a refreshing drink, made simply with organic apples. However, their cider walks a line between juice and true cider.
So, if you’re looking for something to mull with spices and wine, or spike with a bit of Jack Daniels and you have lots of cash to burn, you can’t go wrong with this cider.
Filed Under All Natural, Apple, Columbia Gorge Organics, Fat Free, Five Stars, Four Stars, High Fructose Corn Syrup Free, Juice, Juice Cocktails, No Genetically Modified Organisms, No Preservatives, Organic, Three Stars, United States, Vegan
Naked Just Juice Orange Juice
Price: $3.58 (including tax - yikes!)
Serving: 1/2 bottle, 8 oz.
Nutrition info below is per serving, not per bottle
Calories: 110 per serving
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 0%, 0mg
Protein: 2g
Carbohydrates: 8%, 25g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 25g
Naked Juice says: Okay, so our OJ is just OJ, as defined by: Just the gorgeous, pristine, oh so sweet juice of the amazingly perfect orange, with tons of Vitamin C and sensational antioxidants to ruin a free radical’s day. It’s also just O-J, as in 9 oranges just picked, squeezed, bottle and rushed to your eager, orange-juice-loving but preservative-loathing self. So just shake, just chug and just say “I just love this stuff.”
We say: We had a brief moment of worry upon consuming 9 ORANGES in twenty minutes. My God, if the people who ran those eating competitions also allowed juicers, we might be able to beat the Black Widow of competitive eating, Sonya Thomas. Of course, if she also had a juicer than the edge would be moot.
While it seems a bit cliché to rate the first drink review a 5-star drink, we have to say that the only way you could possibly get better orange juice would be to travel to Florida and drink freshly-squeezed juice. Oh, you say that you can make better fresh orange juice at home? Well, you are wrong because it is not possible.
Filed Under All Natural, Fat Free, Five Stars, High Fructose Corn Syrup Free, Juice, Naked Juice, Orange
Burger King Coffee (aka BK Joe)
Price: $1.69 plus tax
Serving: 10 oz.
Calories: 5 per serving
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 0%, 4mg
Protein: 0.6g
Carbohydrates: 0%, 0g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 0g
Caffeine: 200-300mg
Burger King says: Wake up with the King
Abi says: I don’t know about you, but waking up with the King would scary the holy bejeezus out of me, prompting such questions as “Oh my Lord did someone slip something into my beverage last night?” and “Wait, did my fiance turn into the Burger King King? Is this some kind of sick joke?”
Fortunately for my liver, I don’t wake up with the King too often, preferring instead to wake up with my Keurig coffee maker (still in the testing stage because I’m not quite sure I can do a lifetime of weak coffee). But sometimes you find yourself at the San Jose airport at 7:30am and you’ve already consumed a tall soy chai and even though it only took you 5 minutes to get through security (incredible, eh?) it took 25 minutes to get through the Starbucks line and aside from that, nothing in their little pastry cage looks worth $3.00. So you notice that folks everywhere are drinking Burger King coffee and you figure that they must be getting through the line in an expedient manner.
Via the BK, I ate a Croissan’wich (bad idea, am never doing again, discarded partially eaten), home fries (mmm, potatoes), and studiously avoided the coffee. You see, it had to last me for the entire pre-boarding process. And since I was in the Southwest Cattle Call B group (on a smaller regional jet this means ‘last and sitting in the middle, sucker’), I figured that the styrofoam-encased BK Joe would last me at least 45 minutes.
It didn’t. I finished the piping hot coffee in about 20 minutes. More delicious than gas station coffee, but not quite as good as the brew at McDonalds (I can’t believe I just complimented McDonalds), with half a packet of equal and a bit of fresh half-and-half I was happy to sip my Burger King Joe and watch the hum of the airport while my brain awoke. Then I spent the rest of my wait time trying to read my neighbor’s New York Time in an inconspicuous manner. This is difficult because they use such small print.
The next time I’m at San Jose International, I’ll probably skip the Starbucks line and head straight to Burger King for some simple, fresh-tasting (I have no idea how fresh it was, rumor says they use pre-brewed liquid coffee) coffee and maybe this time I’ll try some of those French Toast Sticks.
Marques de Caceres Rioja Reserva 2000
Price: €18.99
Nutrition Information*
Serving: 5oz., 1/5 bottle
Calories: 105 per serving
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: <1%, 7mg
Sodium: 0%, 0mg
Protein: 1g
Carbohydrates: 1%, 3g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 23g
Weight Watchers Points: 2 per serving
Wine bottle says: Marques de Caceres GRAN RESERVA es un vino de alta calidad y reconcido prestigo. De distinguido aroma, aterciopelado y generoso al paladr, ha sido envejecido en barrica de roble y largamente afinado en botella para obtener un gran vino de calidad exceptional.
Abi says: Yes, I know: that is an enormous glass of wine. It was modest until I decided that certain people in my home should be studying economics rather than drinking wine. Thus, I would finish the bottle of Rioja.
My decision to start reviewing wine on Imbibable.com led to a near-argument with my fiance (and not just because I took the last of the wine). He claimed that there were many people out there with much more significant (okay, real) qualifications out there who were better qualified to write about Temperanillos and Chiantis and Pinot Grigios.
I agree with him. Those people all have better palates. The problem with them is twofold threefold:
- Availability. When you read about a wine in Wine Spectator or Bon Appetit, how easy is it for you to walk over to your local wine store and pick up a bottle of that wine? It isn’t. It sucks. You basically have to call people to ask if they have what you want and then you feel sort of like an idiot for being the person that requests the wine that they talk about in a magazine. You might as well wait until InStyle comes out every month before you do any shopping with your own judgment. I’m going to talk about wines that are available, wines that you pick up at Trader Joe’s and your local grocery store and Total Beverage and BevMo and Costco. The real wine of the people.
- Price. Sure, you get six servings in a 750ml bottle of wine, so overall a bottle is a good deal. But is it really a good deal? Is that 92 point $28.99 bottle of wine significantly better than that 83 point $12.99 bottle of wine? Most of us can’t tell. I’m going to make an effort to drink wines from a crazy-insane price range (yes, including Two-Buck Chuck) so that I can find the best wine for the money.
- Nutrition Information Who is going to tell you that port is full of calories or that a glass of Bordeaux is just 2 Weight Watchers Points while giving you actual opinions on the taste of the wine? Only Imbibable.com, that’s who.
So, What do I have to say about this wine? Well, before I ever looked at a description of the wine, I noted that it had notes of spice, red fruits, and a heavy, almost tongue-coating mouthfeel. Compared to some younger Chiantis I’ve been drinking recently, this wine seemed to have spent quite awhile in oak.
Now, what did the Winemaker’s Notes from Wine.com have to say?
Spicy, rich, complex Rioja drinking beautifully right now. Deep ruby in color, it is full and intense with a complex bouquet and a depth of ripe fruit which later matches its elegance, richness and full flavor. Marques de Caceras Reserva Red is produced from grapes that are specially selected in certain years for their outstanding quality. It spends just over two years in oak and at least three in the bottle before release.
I am a wine-reviewing genius.
So, will this bottle be available to you? Who knows. I bought it in a duty free shop in the Madrid airport as I was trying to shed the last of my Euros. I spent the equivalent of US $30.00 on this bottle and I can heartily say that I’ve had just as good wine for half that price. Don’t feel like you need to spend $30.00 on a bottle of wine. Even if your friends can read Spanish, they probably won’t mind if you break out something a bit less overpriced.
*Obviously, there’s no ingredients or nutrition label on the wine to let you know about calories and fat and all of those things, so we at Imbibable have taken the liberty of using a variety of data sources (including the U.S. Department of Agriculture) and wineries (when they answer our emails) to get a fairly accurate read on the ‘nutrition’ information in a glass of wine. We might be off by a few calories now and then, but most of the time we’ll be pretty darn close.
Filed Under Alcohol, Fat Free, High Fructose Corn Syrup Free, Marques de Caceres, Three Stars, Wine
Izze Sparkling Blackberry
Price: $1.69
Serving: 12oz., 1 bottle
Servings Per Container: 1
Calories: 135 per serving
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 1%, 30mg
Protein: 9g
Carbohydrates: 10%, 33g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 33g
Weight Watchers Points: 3 Points
Izze says: In some folklore blackberries symbolize generosity, in others, grief. Ancient Europeans used blackberrie in spells to create wealth, and in old England, a walk underneath blackerry runners was said to be curative. All very interesting, but we just love them because they taste so good.
Abi says: My mom gives me a hard time for drinking soda. Specifically, I have a Diet Coke problem. According to her, the carbonation leaches calcium from my bones and makes osteoporosis and broken hips much more likely in my future.
It turns out that non-caffeinated beverages are not the culprit in bone loss, thus it is safe to continue drinking Izze’s Sparkling Blackberry Juice. This vibrantly colored beverage is available at the following places: coffee shops.
Yes, that’s all. Okay, okay, so once I also saw it in a bar. But I did not order it. Thus it may or may not have existed. Izze beverages are the Schroedinger’s Cats of the juice world.
With a barely discernible blackberry flavor, this Izze juice lacked the tart punch I expected from such a prickly cane berry. Fortunately, the carbonation gives the drink additional zing, rescuing what might otherwise be described as watered-down blackberry juice and elevating it to the ideal mixer for a cheap white wine cocktail.
Filed Under All Natural, Blackberry, Fat Free, Four Stars, High Fructose Corn Syrup Free, Izze, Juice Cocktails, Soda, United States
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