I'll be honest, normally I pass right over these pre-bottled "iced coffees" in the grocery store. Starbucks has them everywhere and I would be a liar if i said I didn't go through a phase where I was drinking them all the time. But i have grown since then as a coffee lover and tend to feel like a strung out addict just looking for a quick and cheap fix buying them anymore.
But when I found out my first love, mi amor, Caribou Coffee was coming out with iced drinks, then i had to check them out...
Basically long story short, I started out in the *working* coffee world when I got hired on at Caribou Coffee in Denver. I didn't have a clue before then about coffee making, other than brewing a pot at home. So that is where I cut my teeth as they say. And look at me now!!
Anyway I do have to say I like the bottle. Not that it really matters what kind of packaging it's in, I just think it's good it doesn't look anything like Starbucks. On the side of the bottle it reads 'all natural ingredients' so I am hopeful for a natural coffee tasting experience.
Looking the ingredient list it says: Coffee, red fat milk, sugar, sodium bicarbonate, natural flavors and carrageenan (no idea what that last one is, I'll have to look it up later)
Opening it up, it smells...well...like Yoohoo. I don't know how else to describe it! To me it smells just like a Yoo hoo...
And how does it taste? Well... like coffee. Not too sweet and not too milky, just coffee. I mean a really WEAK coffee with a hint of aluminum (I *might* have to take back my previous comments about the packaging), but coffee all the same. There is a Vanilla flavored one that I'm sure is sweeter, so I'm glad the grocery store was out.
Perhaps the front of the bottle says it all, " Coffee drink with a splash of milk".
A far as the nutritional info with 120 calories, 210mg of sodium, 24g of sugar and 1.5g of fat ( or 3 pts for you WW peeps out there) it's not the WORST out there.
This isn't the drink you want to buy if you are jonesing for a fix of caffeine. It's the drink you buy at lunchtime if you have a low caffeine tolerance, and you need a little pep in your step.
All in all I say this drink is...ok. Better than those *other* iced coffees that you purchase at your local grocery store, but not the kick someone like me needs when I am seconds away from falling asleep at the wheel. I can't put it down Caribou TOO much though, it's just something in me that when i see that little blue Caribou on the label, I can't help but save a little space in my heart for it:)
But I can't finish my drink so perhaps that says something too...
