Maria Jola Sangria (Red AND White)

This is an unusual review, in that I am going to actually review TWO products in ONE review.  But I feel I must put them together, to save you the sadness that befell us.  Therefore, this review will cover:

RED Sangria

and

WHITE Sangria

Consider this a Public Service Announcement…  In my mind, SUMMER SANGRIA SEASON IS NOT OVER YET.  I refuse to believe that autumn is right around the corner.  So read these reviews, then rush to TJ’s and stock up on (red only) sangria.

BUY THIS BOTTLE!!
(Well, not THIS bottle, we already drank this one, but a bottle that looks just like this one!)

Let me say this right off the bat – we loved the red Maria Jola sangria (which I shall review first!).  We loved it so much, that after we drank it, the next time we were at Trader Joe’s and saw the WHITE version, we thought, “Hey!  The red was soooo tasty, the WHITE kind has to be delicious too, right?”.  Oh man, were we suckers.

First review – RED Maria Jola Sangria

We lugged a bottle of red sangria with us from Virginia down to Florida (land of “no Trader Joe’s near where we stay…”).  One lovely Florida day we swam in the ocean, rehearsed David’s show on the back patio (which makes a great “stage”), then I capped off the day by making a pitcher of SANGRIA!  I put the bottle of red sangria in a pitcher and added fresh orange slices, fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries, and a little bit of Meyers lemon from our very own fruit cocktail tree (whose name is Trixie!).*  I refrigerated the whole shebang for a while to let it chill.  My opinion is that the longer the fruit is in the sangria the better the whole thing gets (though our opinions might have been skewed by the increasing amount of sangria we put into our systems as the night wore on…).

Us on the BEACH!  (This was pre-sangria, we were not day drinkin'...)

And speaking of the fruit, it tastes super delicious to munch on after it has stewed a while!  When you pour this make sure everyone gets fruit in their cups!  It is like a healthy (??) little serving of fruit with your drink.    

Anyway, this red sangria is really good, especially if it is very cold.  It is a great summer time drink. 

Trixie the Fruit Cocktail Tree loaded down with Meyer Lemons

It may LOOK like a lime but it is a Meyer Lemon

David’s take on it: “I agree with what Susan said completely.  This is much better than I expected.  I have had a lot of sangrias that just take like not very good wine with fruit thrown in them, but this is (maybe because of how Susan prepared it!) very, very nice and fruity.  It is the way I think a NICE sangria you might get somewhere in Spain or Europe somewhere would taste, or at a nice restaurant.  It tastes very summery – the strawberries and lemons taste fantastic, too!   I like that it isn’t too strong – it lets you drink more of it!!  (Editor’s note:  the label says the alcohol content is 7%.)  I give this red sangria a 4.25.”

Susan:  I agree with that score – a 4.25.  It is not too sweet, it is not chemically tasting…  It tastes a bit PUNCHY (and, we both agree, if you drink enough of it, YOU GET A BIT PUNCHY!).

Price – $6.99

Rating – 4.25

* If you do not a fruit cocktail tree to pick your own Meyer Lemon off of, you can find them in season at Trader Joe's!  Excellent review of them from day 3 of this blog here: Meyer Sweet Lemons 

Second review – WHITE Maria Jola Sangria

I added raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and orange slices in this sangria.  As you just read above, we really dug the red sangria, so I was excited to have this white one!   I like white sangria when we order it at restaurants!  We thought this bottled version of white would be juuuust as tasty as the red one.

(I hate to keep bringing up the RED SANGRIA, but geez Louise,
it is yummy!  We brought it to a dinner the other night...)

We were wrong.

When David first tasted it he said it was “perfume-y”, and I think that is the right term.  There is too much “perfume”-like scent to it.  When you raise your glass to take a drink, it smells too much like PERFUME, and then you TASTE the perfume…  And somehow, to my “sophisticated palate”, that “perfume-y” taste makes it takes like BATHROOM CLEANER.

To be perfectly transparent here, I have never drunk bathroom cleaner.  And I am not saying this product tastes TOXIC or anything…  It just tastes too much like it smells…   Do you know what I mean?  It is hard to describe.  I would say you need to taste it to understand what I am trying to explain, but that would mean you have to actually taste it, and I don’t want you to have to do that!

I give this a 2.25 rating.  I MUCH PREFER the red version.

Obviously I get excited over the red version....

David’s opinion: “This white sangria is too sweet and too perfume-y so it overpowers the fruit.  I can’t even really taste the fruit as much as I would like.  I think would be a better sangria if it were made with a more “transparent” white like a vino verde or something.  It is WINE, and it is not UNPLEASANT, but if I went shopping for sangria again I would get the RED instead of this one. I would give this white sangria a 3.5.” 

Price – $5.99 (a dollar cheaper than the red, but spend the extra buck, trust me!)

Rating - 3

Day 353 - Refresh Citrus Body Wash (with Vitamin C)

Remember when I tried Trader Joe’s “Nourish” shampoo back in November??  shampoo review here  It was amazing and such a pleasant surprise!  I loved it.

So I was really looking forward to using this “Refresh” Body Wash.  The label extolled so many virtues that I could barely contain myself! 

·         “With our unique aroma-therapeutic blend of orange blossoms and grapefruit”

o   Ahhhh, that must mean it is gonna smell INCREDIBLE! 

·         “More than just a body wash, this cleansing formula was developed to nourish and moisturize, leaving your skin tingly clean and silky smooth.”

o   TINGLY CLEAN???  I am in!

·         “This citrus blend is sure to energize you on even your most tired of days.”

o   Helllll-o, who doesn’t need energizing every now and then??

Trader Joe's Refresh Body Wash

So I tried it.  And took the most carefully staged photos of this year long project.  J  I wanted you to see the product in action, mind you, but I didn’t want you to see the USER, if you know what I mean…

Body wash on pouf - here we go!

We are in Florida for the holidays and our house here has an outdoor shower in the backyard.  It is nothing fancy, but it is a greeeeeat place to shower.  Look, here is my view while I wash!!

View from the outdoor shower.  Note:  shower was not ON when I took this photo.  :)  Didn't want to break my camera!

I always beg David not to trim the trees in the backyard too much, cuz I want it to stay private and “enclosed” and greeeeen.  This panorama photo of my shower view also shows 2 of our pride and joys – TRIXIE, the magical fruit cocktail tree we planted this summer who surprised us when we got here this week by having not only BLOSSOMS but A REAL LIVE PIECE OF FRUIT (which I think is a Meyer lemon, my favorite kind of lemon that you can get at TJ’s if you do not have one in your backyard and was reviewed in this blog here ), and you can also see AVA, the avocado tree (not yet giving avocados, she may be barren…) that we grew from a pit and is now taller than me!!

Ava - grown from an AVOCADO PIT - it is working - she is turning into a real tree!!

David and TRIXIE, the Magical Fruit Cocktail Tree.  She is going to actually produce real live citrus fruit!

Trixie blooms

A bee pollinating some of Trixie's blooms.  Lovely!  Nature in action.

FIRST EVER CITRUS FRUIT GROWN BY US!

Teeny tiny fruit-to-be s.

You can see photos of Trixie when we first got here and she apeared in this blog here.  My has she grown!!!

Anyway, let’s look at the product:  I didn’t fall in love with this body wash.  From all the hype on the label, I thought it would smell FABULOUUUUUUS.  In truth, it doesn’t “smell” nearly enough (for me anyway).  It is just sorta slightly citrus, but no “bam” scent.  The NAMES of the scents sound incredible, the label lists:  sweet orange blossoms, succulent pink grapefruit, herbal extracts of chamomile, ginseng, ginger, Echinacea, pure jojoba oil, vitamin b 5.  I mean, all of those scents sound like they if they were poured upon my shower pouf and rubbed into my skin I would float away on a olfactory voyage.  But, alas, it just sorta smells vaguely citrusy.  I don't like my body wash to make me SMELL after I use it, I might want to put on perfume and I don't want my soap scent to compete with that.  But I like it to have some scent as I lather up.  

Not too smelly (as in, not quite enough smelly)

And it didn’t bubble up as much as I would like, either.  It just sort of bubbles instead of BUBBLING!!!  Do you get my drift? 

And not many bubbles, either...

The good stuff about it is it cleans my skin.  It is not tested on animals.  It is quite cheap.  And I presume it is good for my skin, too.  oh, and it’s not expensive.

As for scents, I will continue to go out every day and sniff the citrus blooms on Trixie (the magical fruit cocktail tree) and keep wishing there was a way to bottle that glorious scent and bring it home with me. 

As far as this body wash, I don’t love it like I did TJ’s shampoo.  But I don’t hate it.  I guess I just expected more.  But, like they say in the movie “Babe”, “It’ll do, pig.”

If it made more bubbles and had more scent, I wonder if they would up the price?

Price – $2.99

Rating - 3