REVIEW: Glaceau Tranquilo Vitamin Water

/ / Reviews / 16 Comments

Like all flavors of Vitamin Water, Tranquilo Vitamin Water promises to help you with some aspect of your life that is lacking. Need to boost your immune system? Drink a Defense Vitamin Water. Want something to help with your concentration? Consume Focus Vitamin Water. Need a jolt of energy? Tank an Energy Vitamin Water. Want to bring back someone from the dead so that you can play Resident Evil in real life? Pour a Revive Vitamin Water down their throat.

Tranquilo Vitamin Water helps you to relax and forget your troubles for a little while, like spending a weekend on the beach. But isn’t there another liquid that helps you temporarily forget your troubles much easier?

Alcohol? It somewhat does that, but not fast enough.

Homemade moonshine made with things found in a garage? Yes, it does have that ability, but it also has the power to “permanently make you forget your troubles,” cause you to become blind or make you imagine you’re talking to the 29th President of the United States Warren G. Harding about what’s on his iPod and being surprised that “Regulate” by Warren G is not on it.

What liquid am I thinking of?

Oh yeah, that’s right! Chloroform.

Tranquilo Vitamin Water looks like the water in a public toilet that hasn’t been flushed for days and it is flavored with tamarind and pineapple, although the ingredients list doesn’t directly mention them, but it does include the vague “natural flavor.” It’s also a decent source of vitamins, like A, C and E, but so is a serving of Cocoa Puffs, so that’s not really saying much.

The pineapple seems to dominate the scent and taste of the beverage, although to be honest, I have no idea what tamarind is and the first time I ever heard of it was when I picked up this bottle, so it might be the tamarind dominating the beverage. At first, I didn’t enjoy its flavor, which reminds me of a watered down Pina Colada Slurpee, but after drinking more of it, I began to like it. While it’s not my favorite Vitamin Water flavor (which is XXX Vitamin Water), it’s definitely in my top ten, which actually isn’t so impressive since there are only 13 Vitamin Water flavors.

So does Tranquilo Vitamin Water help me to relax and temporarily forget my troubles?

No, it doesn’t, because I’m getting totally worked up about the name Tranquilo. What kind of frickin’ name is that? Who just slaps an O at the end of something and makes a name from it? That’s just plain lazy.

Bah! Where’s my chloroform? I want to temporarily forget about that name.

(Nutrition Facts – 8 ounces – 50 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 milligrams of sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, 10% vitamin A, 40% vitamin C, 10% vitamin E, 10% vitamin B3, 10% vitamin B6, 10% vitamin B12 and 10% vitamin B5.)

Item: Glaceau Tranquilo Vitamin Water
Price: $2.39
Size: 20 ounces
Purchased at: Whole Foods
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Tastes decent after I got used to it. It’s got electrolytes. In my favorite top 10 list of Vitamin Water flavors. Contains vitamins A, C and E. Using chloroform to help me forget things. XXX Vitamin Water.
Cons: Tastes kind of weird at first. Lame name. Looks like water in a public toilet that hasn’t been flushed in days. Doesn’t help me relax and forget my troubles.

NEWS: One of Kashi’s Latest Veggie Pizzas Fails To Keep It Real

/ / Spotted on Shelves / 19 Comments

Some of the things I think about when it comes to delicious pizza are how unhealthy they are, how greasy they are and what my face looked like when I was 13 years old, but health nutty companies like Kashi and Amy’s are making pizzas a little bit healthier by not topping theirs with meat products. That’s great, but the new Kashi Sicilian Veggie Pizza has gotten me worried because it doesn’t have cheese.

The Sicilian Veggie is a stone fired pizza covered with caramelized onions, grilled eggplant, fire roasted red peppers on top of a balsamic infused white bean tomato sauce. But, again, there’s no cheese.

According to my computer’s dictionary, a pizza is, “a dish of Italian origin consisting of a flat, round base of dough baked with a topping of tomato sauce and cheese, typically with added meat or vegetables.”

See what it said? Pizza has to have cheese. Because it’s in a dictionary, I believe it to be fact, and my computer’s dictionary doesn’t lie because it has a picture of Spencer Pratt under the definition for “asshole.”

So, technically, the Kashi Sicilian Veggie isn’t a pizza, but Kashi’s other new pizza is one. The Mexicali Black Bean Thin Crust has a whole grain crust topped with a spicy black bean and tomato sauce blend, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, fire roasted corn, tomatillos, poblano peppers and red peppers.

Now that’s a pizza.

One-third of the Sicilian Veggie has 200 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 530 milligrams of sodium, 120 milligrams of potassium, 37 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber and 11 grams of protein. While a serving of the Mexicali Black Bean has 210 calories, 7 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 560 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber and 13 grams of protein. Both pizzas also contain 9 grams of whole grains and 340 milligrams of ALA Omega-3s per serving.

NEWS: Addition of New Tropical Smoothie Causes Jack in the Box Menu Board To Be Even More Crowded

/ / Fast Food News / 9 Comments

This week, Jack in the Box introduced their new Tropical Smoothie. It joins the Mango, Strawberry Banana and Pomegranate Berry Smoothies on the clusterfuck known as the Jack in the Box menu board.

The Tropical Smoothie is a blend of Minute Maid mango and banana fruit juices and purees mixed with nonfat frozen yogurt. I’ve tried all the other flavors and thought they were decent. I’ll probably try this one too just so I can tell my grandkids that I tried every Jack in the Box smoothie flavor and so that, as someone who lives on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I can find out if it captures the essence of the island lifestyle, which consists of getting up, going to work, eating lunch, going back to work, going home, eating dinner, watching television, going to sleep and repeating it all over again the next day.

The Tropical Smoothie comes in 16- and 24-ounce sizes for $2.99 and $3.99, respectively. A 16-ounce smoothie contains 325 calories, 0 grams of fat, 3 milligrams of cholesterol, 86 milligrams of sodium, 237 milligrams of potassium, 80 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 63 grams of sugar and 3 grams of protein.

Now here’s the commercial for the Jack in the Box Tropical Smoothie:

NEWS: New DASANI essence Only Gets to First Base With All-Natural Fruit Flavor

/ / Spotted on Shelves / 13 Comments

Like a Jonas brother wearing a purity ring, the new DASANI essence bottled water doesn’t go all the way. It only has a touch of fruit flavor and it accomplishes this without sweeteners, preservatives or calories. It’s the equivalent of just making out in the back seat of a Trans Am. The DASANI essence (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) is similar to the Hint Water we reviewed years ago.

Some of you might be thinking DASANI already has fruit flavored water, and you would be right, but that line of bottled water has a level of flavor that is equivalent to getting to third base in the back seat of a station wagon.

The DASANI essence comes in three flavors: black cherry, strawberry kiwi and lime. It’s being sold in 18.5-ounce bottles or 16-ounce bottles in a 4-pack.

An 8-ounce serving contains 0 calories, 0 grams of fat, 25 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of carbohydrates and 0 grams of protein.

NEWS: Krispy Kreme Minis Makes Doughnut Dining a Little Lighter

/ / Fast Food News / 11 Comments

This week, Krispy Kreme introduced a line of mini doughnuts that have all the sweet, addictive goodness of their regular doughnuts, but at half the size. The mini doughnuts come in three varieties: original glazed, chocolate glazed and chocolate glazed with sprinkles.

Why did you have to do this Krispy Kreme? It’s so hard to prevent myself from eating just one of your regular doughnuts. Sure it’s probably a way to help sell your doughnuts during these hard economic times, but if I eat one of your mini doughnuts, I’ll think it’ll be okay to stuff my face with another since two of them would equal about one of your regular doughnuts. Unfortunately that extra doughnut could lead to a domino effect, which could cause me to go through an entire box faster than one left in the middle of a police station’s break room.

Thank goodness the only Krispy Kreme location in this state is on another island.