Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade

I love lemonade, but am always disappointed by the varieties that come out of a bottle at the grocery store. While shopping at Whole Foods, I usually buy one of their fresh lemonades in the refrigerated section, but during my recent shopping trip they were out.

While heading towards the checkout, I glanced upon a large display of the Santa Cruz lemonades, which were on sale for $2 each (which seemed like an amazing deal, especially considering the large size and the fact that it's organic).

I was pleasantly surprised when I got around to sampling the lemonade. I tend to love lemon drinks where the entire lemon is used, and this lemonade had a very similar taste. It doesn't taste like just the lemon juice itself, but you can also taste the lemon zest and natural oils, and the settling at the bottom was oddly comforting and reassuring to me. The lemonade had a great flavor, and is definitely the best lemonade I've ever had that came out of a bottle. I will definitely be buying this again (as well as trying their other flavors) and will stock up on many bottles if I see it on sale again for such a great price.

Red Jacket Orchards - Joe's Summer Blend

Recently, my local Whole Foods began to carry a line from Red Jacket Orchards. They had about 8 different juice blends and ciders being offered, but I decided it would be best to try one, before convincing myself that I simply *must* try them all. While looking over the flavors, I noticed one called Joe's Summer Blend. Intrigued, I grabbed the bottle, and didn't think much else of it.

When I arrived home, after chilling it for a few hours in the fridge, I grabbed the bottle to try a small glass. The flavor was rather straightforward, a high quality apple juice blend, with some lemon. It was rather sweet, so out of curiosity I looked at the ingredients to see how much sugar was used. None. In fact, the only two ingredients were apple juice and lemon juice.

It's official, I'm in love. The juice blend is a brilliant cross between apple juice and lemonade, with the sweet apples taking the place of the standard sugar or sweetener. Suddenly, Summer Blend makes perfect. Sadly, the juice is already sold out for the season, and most likely won't be returning until next spring/summer. But I will definitely be trying the other Red Jacket Orchard juices and ciders while awaiting its return. As for the price  $2.99 for a 32 ounce bottle actually seems to be on the lower end for Whole Foods, especially when taking into consideration the quality and taste of the juice.