Day 299 - Tangerine Juice

Before I start this review, let me express my happiness and appreciation.  Another reader sent me a TJ’s bag and honey!!!!!!!!  Can you even believe it?  Peoples’ generosity really makes me smile!! 

  

LOOK!!!  Another box in the mail from a blog friend!!

This one came from Robert, a reader who also has a Trader Joe’s blog (something I didn’t know existed until I was well into this project – note to self:  Google before starting huge projects!!!).  He got me a bag from the Ashville, NC Trader Joe’s store and it is SO CUTE!  We have used it several times.  The other night our cashier, Carole, at the Clarendon VA store noticed it and loved it!  Carole had a great idea:  people should be able to buy and collect the TJ’s bags from all the states!  She said that she for one would start a collection.  Hey, it would be more useful than those Disney collectible pins, my collection of squished pennies, or some of the other things people collect, wouldn’t it??  She thought the NC bag was awesome, and so do I!  We have not tasted the honey yet, but it came in a delightful jar that made it look as if your Great Aunt Tilly made the honey for you instead of a store.  As soon as we finish one of the honeys we have open this one is next on deck!  Robert’s blog also reviews Trader Joe’s products and is very fun.  You can find it at: Exploring Trader Joe's blog

Look!!!  An adorable NC bag and a jar of HONEY!  

Robert recently reviewed TJ’s Tangerine Juice.  Here is his review that I saw, which piqued my interest in this product:  Exploring Trader Joe's Tangerine Juice review .  Tangerine juice was something I had not tried before, and Robert liked it, so I figured, “Let’s give it a go!”. 

Here's the bottle - 32 fl oz of straight tangerine juice

Ohhhh Robert, Robert, Robert…  What path did you lead me down???

OK, so at $3.29 for a 32 oz bottle, this was not a cheap drink.  It was more of a “splurge” for a bit of excitement, or a health food splurge if you will since the ingredient (singular) is just TANGERINE JUICE.  I thought this would be a nice treat.  I was wrong.

It is very BITTER.  The first drink was horrible.  Bad, bad, bad….  The second drink (this is going to sound weird I know, but I am being honest here) tasted like colonoscopy prep stuff…  If you have ever had a colonoscopy you KNOW the taste I am talking about.  I must have had orange or tangerine flavored prep one time because when the second drink of this tangerine juice hit my taste buds I had a colonoscopy flashback!  (Note:  this is not really a flashback you want to have.)  I was a bit afraid I might have to excuse myself to the bathroom if I continued to drink this juice, but I convinced myself that this was not, as my sisters and I like to call it, “Go All Nightly” (colonoscopy prep stuff).  I steeled myself to take another sip.*

Looks pretty in our juice glasses, eh?

The 3^rd and 4^th drinks got a little better.  Not GOOD mind you, but BETTER.   To me it tastes like Tang.  I don’t remember ever having Tang at our house growing up but I must have had it at a friend’s house, because this makes me think TANG!  To me, the only thing cool about Tang was the idea that actual real live astronauts up in space might have drank it.  The taste, to me, is not cool…   I wasn’t sure what the actual FLAVOR of Tang was, so I Googled it.  Consensus seemed to be that it was supposed to be ORANGE, and I was going to go along with that.  Only, in the middle of the night I had an “Aha!” moment – HEL-LO!  Tang?  T-A-N-G…  Tang.  Umm, those are the first four letters of TANGerine!  Obviously the flavor of Tang is tangerine, it is just tricky in that we pronounce it differently than you would expect!  So Tang is basically a covert astronaut drink.

First taste

Reaction....

Of this TJ’s Tangerine juice, David says, “I agree.  The taste is very bitter at the beginning.  It gets better – I guess you get used to it.  The tangerine taste itself is nice – it is very “tangerine-y”. It’s just I think they made the mistake of squeezing the tangerines a bit too hard so you get a lot of the rind taste, which is a bit bitter.”

The color of this juice is unnaturally bright orange.  It is a very pretty color!  We have a wall this color.  But I would rather see this color on a wall I guess than in my juice glass.

See, our wall is the same color!  New Year's Eve tradition - eat 12 grapes in one minute at the stroke of midnight!  (As you can see we were drinking an excellent Beaujolais Nouveau reviewed waaaaay back on day 2 of this blog!  Review here )

We both gave this juice a 2.5 rating.  The upside is that it quenches your thirst.  Then again, water can do that, too, and it is not as expensive or nearly as bitter.

If you WANT Tangerine Juice, get it at TJ's - it was much
more expensive at Safeway

Sorry Robert, we need to agree to disagree on this one.  J  It is a good example of how some things taste great to some people and “meh” to others.  But THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the gifts!  I love them!

*Note from David:  Susan has a bit of PTSD about colonoscopy prep, so expressions of her feelings on that issue may appear larger than in your rear view mirror.

Price - $3.29

Rating – 2.5

Day 163 - 100% Cranberry Juice

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, nah, that isn’t gonna happen, I am not buying this juice again. 

Here is what to be on the lookout for...  

Let’s just say, when this label says 100% CRANBERRY JUICE, they ain’t a kiddin’…  The little part that says “No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives” basically means – NO SUGAR OR ANYTHING ELSE TO MAKE THIS JUICE PALATABLE – DRINK AT YOUR OWN RISK! 

I guess I am spoiled.  I see the words “Cranberry Juice” and I must just expect COCKTAIL.  Even though this label clearly does NOT say cocktail and clearly DOES say 100% juice, I did not know what I was getting myself into!  I am not sure who drinks this juice…  It is as bitter, tart and sharp as the night is long.  It is pure, unadulterated squished cranberries.  We could not even get through a shared teeny tiny juice cup – I asked David if he wanted to add some San Pelligrino bubbly water to it to try and cut it to make it better and he said, “NO!  I don’t want to waste any Pelligrino!!  I will dump that juice out!”.

Not a good way to start your morning....

WHAT THE WHAT IS IN THIS JUICE GLASS????

So we dumped out half a cup of juice, and I am now going to dump out the rest of the (almost untouched) bottle.  Sigh.  What a waste.  But we are leaving Florida tomorrow and need to clean out the fridge, and I cannot imagine the neighbors would be thankful to us for dumping this juice on them. 

It is hard to RATE this product.  I mean, I guess I have never had “real” cranberry juice, only the Welch’s Cranberry Juice Cocktail kind…  So maybe, if you are into pure cranberry juice, this stuff is the bomb…  However, for my taste buds, this stuff just totally BOMBED.   So I am sorry to say I am going to have to give it a zero…  I mean, not even being able to drink a small juice glass has to equal a zero, right???  If you are a 100% cranberry juice drinker, try this.  Maybe it is good.  But if you are more on the cranberry juice COCKTAIL side, steer clear.

P.S. – my partner points out that this juice IS, in fact, what it says it is, PURE JUICE.  So perhaps the score should be higher.

P.P.S. – this stuff tastes like #^&*, I stick by the 0.  J

Price – $3.99

Rating - 0