Was visiting Sheng Siong the other day (getting supplies for the Apfelwein) and found this very interesting drink. Actually, the brand is pretty common in Singapore but I found this in a glass bottle! Isn’t it cool? So I being a very curious person decided to have a taste of this soya bean milk in a glass. The price is about S$0.75 per bottle and it contains about 300ml of delicious soya bean milk. Perhaps it is slightly more expensive than the same brand in those packs we see everyday but somehow I find that it taste a bit different. In fact, the milk seems to be thicker than what we find in those packets we see outside. I guess the reason is because in order to drink from the milk packs, you will need to suck through a small straw but for the glass bottles, you do not need to do so. You can drink it straight from the bottle. Yes yes, of course you can drink from a straw but the kind of straw used would be bigger as well. If you purchase the packets, you could be drinking diluted soya bean milk. I don’t have any proof and this is just from my observations and my thoughts. If you want to complain to Vitasoy, please don’t quote me.

Anyway, here are some of the photos I have taken.

Yes, this is the Vitasoy Soya Bean Drink in all it’s glory. Nothing spectacular though. I think it would be wise for them to improve on their packaging. A lot of Singaporeans don’t like buying drinks in glass, especially those that require a bottle opener. Lazy slugs these Singaporeans. The only way you can attract Singaporeans to buy your stuff is to make it look good like those Japanese ones.

A more detailed look at the front label. This soya bean drink is a good source of soya proteins, comes with no preservatives added, no cholesterol and is non dairy. Wow! Goodness all around, I think.

Some nutrition information and ingredients for you guys to enjoy.  Too bad, they have added sugar into the drink but all-in-all, I find this drink rather delicious. And no, it isn’t too sweet at all. And yes, it is thick, just like what real Soya Bean milk should be. Furthermore, it doesn’t have this “packety” taste which we normally get when drinking from packets of soya bean milk. Not sure whether that is just in my mind or not.

Made in Hong Kong, not China. Thank god. I don’t like being poisoned.

This is a shot of the milk I poured into a glass. From this photo, you can see that it is slightly viscous which means that it is thicker than what we normally find in the stores.  Nowadays even those hawker centre stores dilute their soya bean milk to the point that it taste and feel like drinking water. If you are old enough, you would have tasted such soya bean milk before. Now it is rare in Singapore.

Another shot of the milk. Looks yummy doesn’t it?

Wow, the glass is now empty? Guess what happened to it?

Well, this is my little review on the Vitasoy Soya Bean drink in a glass. Not expensive, taste great and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Just that it is rather difficult to find in Singapore. One of my friends said that you can find them easily in Malaysia though. Good luck and good drinking! And if you are looking for some online grocery store to buy your stuff, please take a look at the listing of Online Grocery Stores in Singapore.

I know, I am a bit slow to be reviewing Coca-Cola Zero. It had been in the stores for a while already but I wasn’t into reviewing drinks then. So now, I will review my all-time favourite beverage - Coca-Cola Zero. Apparently, Coca-Cola Zero is just like Coca Cola just that they have no calories. I suppose what they meant by that is there is no sugar in the drink? So it should be just like Coca-Cola Light? Or all those variations of Coca-Cola which doesn’t have any or less sugar in them?  And they claim that it is real Coca-Cola taste. Does that mean that the original Coca-Cola is fake? Wow, that means that we have been drinking fake Coca-Cola all these time. Their CEO must be from China.

Anyway, I know it is very confusing. Too many marketing gimmicks and what-not these Coca-Cola guys tend to come up with and we have no idea what goes into the actual drink. Worse, it seems that in different countries, they have different ingredients! I think that the main reason why they come up with so many slogans, logos, ingredients and variations is because the top guys, just like our government officials, are just too free. If you are paid big bucks and you don’t have anything to do, you will tend to think of new logos, slogans and shit to ply on to the consumers. What can I say but to just enjoy the great tasting drink.

 I have taken a few photos of the Coca-Cola Zero I bought.

That’s the PET bottle which the Coca-Cola Zero is being stored it. The label looks a bit different from the original Coca-Cola bottle but the beverage looks exactly like the original. If you expect it to be pink or yellow or even clear like Sprite, you are mistaken.

The nutrition facts of the Coca-Cola Zero. Apparently it doesn’t provide any energy, protein, fat or carbohydrate to the consumer. This must be some sort of miracle drink! And no wonder it is called “Zero“. And we should all note that although it doesn’t come with any sucrose (sugar), it does have artifical sweeteners, artifical flavourings and for those who like coffee, it contains caffeine. Wow, it is like all sorts of articial stuff mixed together to make a great tasting drink. I wonder what’s the recipe for Coke? I am just surprised that it did not contain rat poison.

That’s the Coca-Cola Zero poured into a glass. This is how the beverage should be drunk - in a glass. From a glass, only then can you appreciate the fine colour, smell the delicate aroma of delicious caramel and let it tickle your senses. I mean by looking at the above photo, doesn’t it make you want to grab the glass and gobble it all down? Drinking this Coca-Cola Zero is like drinking from a well in heaven. Maybe years later, you would thank the Coca-Cola company for hastening your trip to heaven, but that would be another story. 

This is another shot of the glass of Coca-Cola Zero. The amount of carbonation is just right for a drink like this. The development guys at Coca-Cola got that right. The amount of sweetness is also right. I don’t like my beverages too sweet anymore. And of course I would like to thank the Coca-Cola guys for developing a great tasting drink like this for all of us to enjoy. I really hope that they will make it cheaper because the price of everything is rasing in Singapore and with a beverage that is Zero in everything, it should be cheap. Plus unlike the ingredients in other drinks, all the ingredients in Coca-Cola Zero are artifical stuff unlike root beer, ginger ale and others, which again can be obtained cheaply. Please pity us poor folks. We just want to enjoy a fine refreshing beverage after a hard day’s work in the fields. Ok, ok, I work in an air-conditioned office but it amounts to the same thing.

Thank you for reading. And oh, for those who are curious, I am using the Coca-Cola Zero to clean my computer’s Heatsink. Apparently, it works very well in removing dirt and dust from hard to reach places in the heatsink. Wow, this stuff is just great!

I am again here to review a juice drink for you guys. Yes, it is easily found at our local supermarkets so you don’t have to search high and low for it which is a good thing. Don’t you just hate reading about something in the news only to NOT find it available at the stores? Although I won’t say that Minute Maid is a very common brand in Singapore, I am pretty sure that it can be found at our supermarkets. I tried a few supermarkets like NTUC and Giant, I did manage to find them. So if you look carefully, I am sure you can find them.

Anyway, this time round, I am reviewing Minute Maid’s Apple & Cranberry juice.  I am sure that Minute Maid has a variety of other type of juices and drinks, but those are better left for later.

Well, it is a “premium” juice. Please excuse the photos as this was taken at night. The colour of the juice actually isn’t that dark. It is definitely lighter and more reddish.

A little more closeup view of the Premium Apple & Cranberry juice drink. I find the plastic bottle of this juice quite nice. However, I don’t know whether this can handle carbonation. If it could, I will be using this type of bottle to fill my homebrew apple cider or ginger brew. But judging from the quality of the plastic, I don’t think it can handle carbonation at all.

Some more information on the juice at the back. Please note that this juice drink has added sugar (sucrose) so it is definitely sweet. But surprisingly, even with the added sugar, I don’t find this juice too sweet at all. Too bad, it does come with artificial flavouring, so I guess it is not true to the taste of apple and cranberry.  The taste of this juice is more close to sweetened cranberry. Even after drinking two cups of this juice, I still can’t taste any apple in it. With that said, I have to admit that this juice drink is very tasty and delicious. And with the right sweetness, you won’t get sick of drinking this even after a few big cups. Two thumbs up!

They even have information from the National Healthcare Group, which I am sure most of us never even bother to read. Well….

This shot shows the true colour of the juice. Very nice reddish colour.

Another shot of the juice. Please excuse the messy table. I normally do my phototaking at the kitchen table but it was “booked” for the night, so I had to settle for desk.

At first, I was thinking that this “premium” juice would be just like what you will normally find at the stores - very sweet, tastless and flat. But this Minute Maid Apple & Cranberry juice is not like that. You can taste the cranberries in the drink, although the apple taste is a tad weak. A simple recommendation would be to pump up the apple juice content. And I am guessing that if someone carbonated this drink, it would even be taster!

Not everyone have heard of the Ceres brand. This is because they are manufacturers of fresh juice and it is surprisingly that a lot of Singaporeans do not even know what the brand they are drinking, especially when we are talking about packaged fresh juice. I don’t know why is it so, but simply we just go to the local supermarket and pick one without even looking at it. Luckily, all the China made brands have been removed from our stores. This will surely help boost the confidence of Singaporeans when it comes to the consumers purchasing stuff.

Anyway, this is actually from South Africa and they have a various of different types of juice. I am trying out their Grape Juice. You can find it easily at all major supermarkets in Singapore like Shop N Save, NTUC, Giant and even Sheng Siong. However the price range from S$1.80 to S$2.15, so it is better for you to do some market research at your nearby store. Oh, by the way, I often see discounts for certain type of juice at certain periods at these supermarkets. You can save quite a bit if you purchase in bulk with discount.

Yes, 100% pure grape juice. The packaging itself doesn’t look tempting but I guess the most important is how it taste right?

This is from the Muscat grape family. However, it is important to note that the Muscat grape is usually not used for making grape juice but are commonly made into dessert wines. We normally get Concord grape juice which is supposed to be sweeter and juicier. And this is intriguing that we can find Muscat grape juice in Singapore as I am rather keen to make use of this Muscat grape to make some dessert wine. I know, I know, you think that making wine is going to the orchard and stomping on a few grapes to get the juice and the must and so on. But the truth is that you can easily make wine from juice. I have tried making a cider direct from these kind of packaged apple juice! It works the same as the sugars and the flavours of the wine does come mainly from the juice.

This is a glass of the Ceres Grape Juice. The colour look like what we normally get from other drinks. Light reddish tint. The photo above was shot in the evening, so the colour may look a bit off but I will tell you, your kids will like this grape juice. Anyway, the taste is quite nice. I had expected it to be a bit sourish since this has no added sugar or any additives but luckily it wasn’t. Of course, it wasn’t as sweet as what we would commonly find at our local stores these days, which is a good thing. I don’t like drinking stuff that is too sweet nowadays. Overall, the Ceres grape juice is a delicious and healthy drink. It should be served cold but undiluted. Not too sweet, very nice for a breakfast drink or even for an evening wind-down drink. In fact, I would say that it is good for all occasions. I drank mine (1litre pack) in just 2 seatings.

Have you heard of this drink before? I only recently heard of this drink from my local brewing forum. It seems that it is very very popular in Malaysia. People are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for 1 litre of such stuff. I mean, if they are not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on alcohol, but they are willing to pay that amount for some concentrated fruit juice, there must be something great about it. First of all, I am not sure what to make of this drink. Is it sort of a health drink? Or is it just another term for wine/mead? I have been reading up a on this subject on a number of websites, and most of which never mention anything about alcohol being produced. Either it is true and only enzymes are extracted and there is no alcohol, or this enzymes drink is actually wine or mead at the early stages. It is my opinion is that there should be alcohol in the drink.

These are the basic steps to make Enzymes drinks:-

1. Thoroughly clean utensils and glass container (must have a tight seal)
2. Ensure that the utensils are all dry and clean
3. Peel and cut fruits into slices (commonly used fruits include Papaya, Dragonfruit, Pineapple and apple)
4. Peel and cut lemon into slices
5. Place one layer of sliced fruits and lemon in the glass container and add raw brown sugar
6. Continue to add layers of sliced fruits and lemon with the brown sugar till the container is full
7. Seal the glass container and keep it in a cool, dark place for 3 days
8. Open up the container to let air escape
9. Stir the container
10. Let it rest in the container for 2 more weeks (however open up the container regularly to let air escape)
11. After the 2 weeks are up, strain the liquid and store in an airtight container

And there you have it. Enzymes drink. I think the process is like extracting the liquid of the fruits due to the high concentration of the sugar and this draws out the enzymes from the fruits. However, it seems that everyone is forgetting that there are always wild yeast present in the environment. Especially there are wild yeast present in the skins of fruits, some of which will be transfered when cutting the fruits. So the yeast will definitely consume the sugars and this will produce alcohol. Yes, the time period is short and the amount of yeast will probably be rather small but since there should be some sort of fermentation going now. So, don’t be surprised to find that this enzymes drink taste like wine!

Anyway, for my next brew, I may be making some enzymes drinks. Well, I would like to take care of my health and these few days I have been feeling a little down. Perhaps it is due to work or stress, but somehow I feel extremely tired everyday. Even blogging doesn’t perk me up anymore.

Yes, you can find them in nearly every coffee shop nowadays. I have been drinking this since I was very young. It seems to be getting more and more popular with the common folk like me and you, which in my opinion is a good thing. I mean it’s just good. Plain and simple. Of course, the apple flavour isn’t that strong like before, but it is still there. And it’s not too sweet but sweet enough for most people. One thing I have found with most Apple juice based beverage is that they are just too damn sweet. I really hate drinks that are over the top sweet. Perhaps those were meant for young kids, but even young kids won’t be drinking such sweet drinks everytime, they will get sick pretty fast.

Sure it has artifical colouring and preservatives but it claims to have natural apple flavourings. I am not too sure what that means, but I think it could be that it is based on Apple concentrates being diluted with carbonated water. And of course, it is watered down kind of apple “flavouring” but what do you expect from such a cheap drink? At least there isn’t any off taste in the drink. And it is carbonated! Which makes it great for a refreshing afternoon drink. It is light, refreshing, clean tasting and doesn’t have any aftertaste. Just right. Smell wise, not much Apple aroma. I mean once you open the bottle, you will definitely get an “appley” smell but after a while, it is gone. Even placing the glass next to my nose, I can’t smell much of the Apple odour. Looks wise, I think it is quite acceptable. Light golden colour, the colour Apple juice should be. Anyway, this has artifical colouring it in, so I guess it doesn’t really count. Anyway, it is cheap. You can purchase one bottle for 55 cents at Sheng Siong.

The China brand sparkling apple flavoured beverage in all it’s glory. Yes, that’s a picture of an apple on the right. Not a cherry.

Check out the ingredients. They have sugar added to it.

If you have not tried this drink before, I would seriously recommend you to have a taste. Extremely good as your lunch time drink too and take a break from your usual coke or pepsi.

Yes, this is one of my favourite non-alcoholic beverages. And no, I am not paid by Allswell to say good things about them. I don’t do paid reviews. But of course, if you would like to send me some stuff to review, by all means go head and send them to me and I will do my best to review it. The problem is that I will always give an honest review and there may be some negative reviews on certain products. But as you can see, the drink I am reviewing today I had purchased myself and again, this is an honest and truthful review.

I guess the reason why I like this starfruit drink is that it taste rather “salty” but unlike other starfruit drinks I had tasted, it is not too overpowering. I have tasted starfruit drinks which are so salty that I could swear I was drinking sea water. The sourish flavour is there but you can still taste the starfruit “twang” at the end. Well, yes, it is a bit too sweet but in all seriously, nowadays I doubt you can feel any soft drink which isn’t too sweet. This is best served cold - ice cold. You will love it immediately even if you are not a starfruit fan. Don’t get me wrong, I like starfruit. But I am not that crazy about starfruit. And that alone speaks volumes about how great this drink is. And when you drink it, you can’t stop. The reason is that it just feels great when the cold drink flows down your throat - very refreshing on a warm afternoon. In sunny Singapore, you can’t go wrong with this.

As you can see from the wordings on the label, there is no colouring or preservatives! Another plus for anyone who likes to keep the stuff they eat natural. The packaging itself isn’t that tempting I have to admit. But hey, we are drinking it not staring at it right? I heard that if you have a dry throat or no voice, this Starfruit drink works wonders. Seems that a lot of people swear by it.

Again, the colouring isn’t all that appealing as well. But yet again, I have to say that we are drinking it and not staring at it. Remember, this drink doesn’t have any artifical colouring, so this is in fact the actual colour of starfruit juice. Don’t you just love my mug? It has been stained, knocked around, chipped and man-handled but I am still using it. And don’t you just love being sentimental? I must be getting old.

You can find Allswell’s Starfruit drink at most supermarkets and convenience stores in Singapore. Even some coffee shops and hawker centers sell them to their customers. I bought mine for about S$1.00 at 7-Eleven. If you can’t find it, you may be living in Nigeria or Ethiopia or perhaps even Mars.