When someone says the phrase "comfort food," this generally brings to mind thoughts of things like macaroni & cheese, pot roast, or spaghetti & meatballs. All hot foods that make you feel good. While lemonade is not hot, this is a comfort beverage that is generally consumed in the heat. There's something comforting about getting out from the hot summer sun and enjoying a long drink of the lightly sugared lemon drink that cools and refreshes the whole body. Finding the perfect glass of lemonade however can be fairly elusive. Too acidic, too much sugar, not enough lemon, too much lemon; it's a fairly difficult balancing act. I'm going to take a look at Simply Lemonade and see if they come anywhere close to a perfect glass of lemonade… or miss the mark entirely.

Simply Lemonade is a brand of the The Simply Orange Juice Company, which is part of The Coca-Cola Company. The first thing you can't help but notice are the many bottle sizes. They start with the 13.5 oz "travel size," work up to the popular 59 oz, and finally cap out with the jug-like 89 oz. The small size is something you can easily fit in a lunch sack and somewhat mocks the larger 59 oz shape. A funny note here on pricing: The small size can generally be found for about $2.50 a bottle, the medium size anywhere from $3-5 dollars and most of the time the "jug" size can be found for about $5-7 dollars — at least as experience from a local sampling of grocery stores in the Houston area. So if you're looking to save money, go for the larger size for sure, but then again, the point of this review is to see if it's worth even buying in general.

All of the bottles let the color of the lemonade show through: it is a vibrant pale yellow that doesn't contain any artificial colors. The labeling has a white background with a picture of a large lemon on it. Lettering is in a black frilly font, spelling "Simply Lemonade" on the front with the phrase "all natural" in yellow across the top. The screw-on top is a nice solid green shade, reminiscent of the color of lemon tree leaves.

Looking at the contents on the back of the bottle solidifies what they say on the front about "all natural." Containing only "pure filtered water, natural sugar, lemon juice, natural flavors," this lemonade is also 11% actual lemon juice. (From my personal experience most lemonades stay in the 7 to 10 percent range). So right from the onset, Simply Lemonade is setting the bar fairly high. They don't hide their product behind colored plastic, they claim all natural ingredients, and you can only find it in the refrigerated sections (thus implying it'll go bad otherwise). An 8 oz. serving contains 120 calories, 15 mg sodium, and 30 g carbs (28 g sugars).

Let's pop the seal and see if it delivers on its promises!

The green cap is held in place with a green sticker that reminds you to "Shake Well," and once the green screw cap is removed there is a foil cap under that that needs to be peeled away. Once that is removed a faint hint of sweet lemon comes from the top. Pouring out the first few glasses provides a nice satisfying "glug" sound due to the concave nature of the neck of the bottle.

Simply Lemonade delivers on its claims: the lemon flavor here is strong, but at the same time (because of the natural sugar?) it isn't followed by a sickeningly sweet aftertaste. Another thing that amazes me is that it's not as acidic as I was expecting for 11% lemon juice. I've had lemonade that is 7% lemon juice that feels like a kick in the mouth. The "tart" flavor is held back very well and in fact it's one of the first times I have actually been able to refer to the more "fruity" nature of a lemon. It has a very clean finish due to the natural sugars and the taste is very smooth overall. This drink is almost the personification of "refreshing" in my book. They seem to have worked hard to perfect a lemonade recipe and it shows.

If you have been gun-shy about poorly made lemonade or it being too tart or acidic, I'd suggest giving Simply Lemonade a try. Its bottles don't hide the goodness they have managed to create and it might change the way you think about lemonade.

When it comes to mass produced ginger ale, Dr Pepper Snapple has a big footprint in the marketplace by having both Canada Dry and Schweppes in its flavor stable. The only other big player is Coke's Seagram's brand. This fact alone would seem to make Canada Dry a likely candidate for the "Ten" treatment, though I'd think it's also ideal because of the mixer element of the drink as well. Some innovative line extensions have been added over the years, including Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale, in hopes to expand the ginger ale offerings. Recently, the brand has been advertising that it's "Made with Real Ginger," despite that not appearing on the ingredients at all. Let's not fool ourselves here… Canada Dry isn't exactly a Reed's or Fresh Ginger-caliber product when it comes to the ginger experience.

Like the other 2nd generation "Ten" flavors, Canada Dry Ten borrows from the design cues of Dr Pepper Ten through the addition of a gunmetal grey color to the label. The color actually works pretty well as a compliment for the white/green scheme typically associated with the logo, though the way "Ten" is added to the logo, one might miss the distinction or associate this with Diet Canada Dry. As established in the "Ten" lineup, the packaging proclaims that Canada Ten offers "10 Great Tasting Calories," utilizing 3 sweeteners: aspartame, acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

The "Ten" lineup from Dr Pepper Snapple Group seems targeted at a demographic that isn't buying the "Diet" versions of said drinks, and in many cases, as noted by the Dr Pepper Ten advertising campaign, that would tend to be the male demographic. To best see if Canada Dry Ten could lure drinkers of full calorie Canada Dry, we compared Ten against Diet Canada Dry and regular Canada Dry.

When all three drinks are poured side-by-side-by-side, the first thing one notices is color. Diet Canada Dry is a darker yellowish color, while regular Canada Dry and Canada Dry Ten are lighter and look similar. The Diet iteration is also quite a bit more foamy/bubbly than the other two. Finally, the scent of Diet Canada Dry is quite muted, while regular and Ten have a somewhat sweet bouquet.

Regular, full calorie Canada Dry isn't a bad drink. It's sweet and has a hint of ginger flavor. It's light and works well by itself or with food. There's a certain HFCS-syupyness that lasts in the aftertaste. In contrast, Diet Canada Dry's artificial sweeteners are pretty obvious when you sample it, really being noticeable in the bottom part of the mouth with a strong fake experience. Which brings us to new Canada Dry Ten, which actually does a pretty decent job of mimicking the flavor profile of the original. It's sweeter than Diet and closer in overall level to regular. Like the other entries in the "Ten" lineup, it starts out strong tasting like the original namesake, only later having the artificial sweeteners kick in. But that first blast of familiar flavor goes a long way in making Canada Dry more palatable than its Diet brethren. I'd argue that it's a good lower calorie substitute for the original if you are watching your calorie intake.

The use of artificial sweeteners in this ginger ale lineup seems to be a bit more finicky than some of the more bold flavors in the "Ten" lineup. I think they are more noticeable overall. Therefore, while Canada Dry Ten isn't perfect in taking just like a full calorie version, I think it does a pretty darn good job shooting for it!

Canada Dry Ten
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, sodium citrate, malic acid, sodium benzoate (preservative), aspartame, natural flavors, acesulfame potassium, caramel color

A 12 oz can contains 10 calories, 115 mg sodium, and 2 g carbs (2 g sugars). Caffeine free.

For those interested in a comparison…

Diet Canada Dry
Carbonated water, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate (preservative), malic acid, aspartame, caramel color, natural flavors, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium EDTA (to preserve flavor)

A 12 oz can contains 0 calories, 120 mg sodium, and 0 g carbs (0 g sugars). Caffeine free.

Canada Dry Ten is a pretty well executed, low cal knockoff of the original. It's better than Diet and worth a try!

Now that the Super Bowl has come and gone, and with it, a bunch of new soft drink commercials, which did you like? It's your turn to put on the "BevReview Hat" and rate your opinion of the best and worst non-alcoholic beverage commercials!

We have two polls. Here's the first…

And don't miss the second poll….

Have something to say? Feel free to post in the comments! Also, don't miss our Super Bowl Beverage Commercial Archive (2008-2012)…

Watch:

Brand: Coca-Cola
Title: "Arghh"
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

The Coke Polar Bear trilogy wraps up with the Giants bear screaming disgust at the finish to the game… and then drinking a Coke.

Watch:

Brand: Coca-Cola
Title: "Catch"
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

Coke's Polar Bear trilogy continues with the Patriots bear pulling off an impressive bottle catch, but only after knocking out a lot of his friends on the ice.

Watch:

Brand: Coca-Cola
Title: "Superstition"
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

Coke's trilogy of Polar Bear commercials kicks off with one bear wearing a red scarf, representing the New York Giants, while the other wears a grey/blue scarf, illustrating the New England Patriots.

Watch:

Brand: Pepsi Max
Title: "For Life"
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day

Pepsi continues their attempt to get traction for Pepsi Max by dragging out Regis Philbin and the Coke Zero truck driver. Really? You spent your Super Bowl ad budget on this?

Watch:

Brand: Pepsi
Title: "King's Court"
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day

Elton John in a psychedelic, Alice in Wonderland-type sequence? Sure, that makes sense… and he pulls it off rather well. Of course, unless you were actually a viewer of Pepsi-sponsored The X-Factor, you probably wouldn't have known that the vocalist was last season's winner, Melanie Amaro.

As any soft drink enthusiast knows, root beer can be quite subjective. We all have our favorites and those, well, we don't like as much. Sometimes our decisions are influenced by the simple fact that a flavor can be found everywhere (see Coke's dominance of the fountain world and how they tend to always feature Barq's Root Beer). Others have more nostalgic audiences, such as can be found around the A&W brand. I know as a kid, I remember being on vacation and stopping at a A&W Drive In for food, root beer, and a great collectible mug!

As Dr Pepper Snapple Group looked at adding more to their "Ten" franchise, the choice of A&W was probably a no brainer, given that it's one of the "mainstream" root beer flavors that everyone is familiar with (heck, the company even owns rootbeer.com!) The fact that diet drinks are on a nice growth spurt while full calories beverages decline also probably factored heavy into adding A&W as a "Ten" brand.

Like the other 2nd generation "Ten" flavors, A&W Ten borrows from the design cues of Dr Pepper Ten, namely with the use of a grey color on the label. Though, unlike the rather odd juxtaposition found on Sunkist Ten and 7Up Ten, the addition of grey to the orange/brown color scheme of A&W actually works really well. It's a sharp looking package! As established in the "Ten" lineup, the packaging proclaims that A&W Ten offers "10 Great Tasting Calories." We've got 3 sweeteners at play here: aspartame, acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

As we have done with some of our other Ten reviews, we tasted A&W Ten side-by-side with Diet A&W, stacking both up against regular A&W to best gauge the differences. Part of the appeal of the Ten line is to lure non-diet drinkers (a.k.a. Men) into trying something low-calorie. Right off the bat, one of the notable changes is the amount of foam that is produced when the product is poured into a glass. We found Diet A&W to be quite a bit more foamy than both A&W and A&W Ten. On the other hand, A&W Ten had a sweeter scent than Diet A&W, but not like the sweet/bitter combo in original A&W. Diet A&W was mostly bitter in scent overall.

Regarding flavor, when you first drink Diet A&W, it's pretty obvious that it's an artificially sweetened drink. I find that those sweeteners compete with the root beer flavor a bit, producing a mixed taste message. On the other than, A&W Ten tastes a lot like the flagship when you first sample it, though the pleasant "harshness" associated with the original is muted a bit in the Ten iteration. A&W has always been on the sweeter side of root beers, and that's reflected here. That sweetness frontloads A&W Ten, delaying the realization that this isn't a full calorie drink. Your taste buds are like "hey, this is pretty good, wow… oh wait… hey, are you trying to fool me?"

In the grand scheme of things, A&W Ten is far superior to Diet A&W when it comes to tasting more like the full calorie original. It's not as "birchy" as regular A&W; rather, it's more creamy. The sweetness and flavor are great out of the gate, and only later do you realize that there are artificial sweeteners in play. Still, I felt that Sunkist Ten and 7Up Ten both did superior jobs of hiding the negative elements typically associated with diet drinks. A&W Ten tries, but doesn't succeed as well as its sibling Tens. Still, it's light years better than what Diet A&W tastes like, and presents a better entry point for a lower calorie alternative.

A&W Ten
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural and artificial flavors, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, malic acid, quillaia extract

A 12 oz can contains 10 calories, 80 mg sodium, and 3 g carbs (2 g sugars). Caffeine free.

For those interested in a comparison…

Diet A&W
Carbonated water, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), aspartame, acesulfame potassium, natural and artificial flavors, malic acid, quillaia extract

A 12 oz can contains 0 calories, 108 mg sodium, and 0 g carbs (0 g sugars). Caffeine free.

In conclusion, A&W Ten is better than Diet A&W when it comes to tasting closest to the original. It's not perfect, and the frontloaded flavor only fools your tastebuds to a point, but it's an appreciable effort!

7Up seems to be the product that can't catch a break these days. It's dwarfed by Sprite and Sierra Mist in U.S. sales, and seems to undergo a new formulation every other year. We're fans of the current version, which arrived in 2010, and seemingly brought back some of the distinctive flavor that set apart 7Up from the other lemon limes. New line extensions have been added with varying success, such as the decent 7Up Mixed Berry and the atrocious reboot of Cherry 7Up. I'm not not sure who thought it was a good idea to dress the brand up as a freak show with the release of 7Up Retro in cans (thankfully, the bottle was classy). Great taste there, just oddly marketed. With the mixed bag of quality execution, one has to wonder about the fate of 7Up Ten.

Like Sunkist Ten, 7Up Ten borrows from the design cues of Dr Pepper Ten, namely with the use of a grey color on the label. This provides a counterpoint to the expected green 7Up branding, but does a nice job of setting apart the drink from the existing original and diet versions. The addition of the "TEN" label is the same style at Dr Pepper Ten, though it doesn't thematically blend well with the existing 7Up look. As established in the "Ten" lineup, the packaging proclaims that 7Up Ten offers "10 Great Tasting Calories." Remember, this drink is not only sweetened with both aspartame and acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), but also high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), with the thinking that this allows for better, non-diet flavor.

So what about that taste? To better gauge the flavor and offer comparisons, we tasted 7Up Ten side-by-side Diet 7Up. Additionally, since the target audience for 7Up Ten is probably converting folks from full calorie 7Up, we had a bottle of that handy as well. When you pop the tab on 7Up Ten, you are greeted with a very sweet, almost candy-like scent. This differs slightly from Diet 7Up, which tends to smell just like the 7Up you expect. The look and color of the drink is the same no matter what version you choose… it's clear and bubbly.

The flavor itself is much different, however. While Diet 7Up has noticeable medicinal flavoring and obvious artificial sweetener aftertaste, 7Up Ten does a much better job of masking that experience. For one thing, it's a lot more lemony in taste, quite a bit more than even full calorie 7Up. The drink is also quite sweet, considerably more than Diet 7Up. The flavor profile is therefore slightly different than the 2010 reboot of 7Up, but in this case, it works. While you can still taste hints of the artificial sweeteners, it's nowhere near as bad as Diet 7Up. (It should be noted that the sweeteners became easier to pick out the warmer the drink got; we found the best results when cold). In effect, 7Up Ten creates an alternate reality take on a no/low-calorie version of the lemon lime classic. The increase in sweetness and lemon flavor make for an excellent drink!

7Up Ten
Filtered carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, potassium citrate, potassium benzoate (preservative), natural flavors, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium EDTA (to protect flavor)

A 12 oz can contains 10 calories, 45 mg sodium, and 2 g carbs (2 g sugars). Caffeine free.

For those interested in a comparison…

Diet 7Up
Filtered carbonated water and contains 2% or less of each of the following: natural flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, potassium benzoate (protects flavor), aspartame, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium EDTA (protects flavor)

A 12 oz can contains 0 calories, 45 mg sodium, and 0 g carbs (0 g sugars). Caffeine free.

I was skeptical when I saw another rebooted version of 7Up in the pipeline, but 7Up Ten does deliver the goods. If you can afford the 10 calories, it's far superior to Diet 7Up.