Sandows Cold Brew Can Variety Box

Would so much rather drink Sandows than gross energy drinks. The sodas are legit. Take a moment to get used to but now I love them. I crush a straight coffee in the morning and then a soda in the afternoon.

This variety box consists of 6 small 250ml cans of 3 Cold Brew Coffee flavours. The drink is made from (exactly as it says on the tin) cold brewed coffee, either flat or slightly sparkling, with or without added flavourings.Cold Brew Coffee Original - a flat, rather weak drink that has an oddly fruity tang initially and a bitter coffee after-taste, but which, somehow, manages to almost entirely avoid having any coffee flavour.Cold Brew Coffee Spice - this is very slightly sparkling, with an orangey, gingery spiciness to it which is OK, but again the coffee almost entirely fails to makes its presence known, other than for the bitter aftertaste.Cold Brew Coffee Citrus - the best of the three, or, as I said on my first sip "it's not terrible". Again very slightly sparkling with a definite fruitiness, and, surprisingly, some coffee flavour; although, as my wife described it "my insides feel cleaner now" as a result of the slightly detergent tinge.These drinks are just horrible and at £2.50 per small can I have no idea how the company will manage to stay in business. My son informs me that this cold-brew coffee is a bit of a hipster thing at the moment - "The Emperor's New Clothes" springs to mind, in fact I predict a future where children's fairy tale anthologies will contain the tale of "The Hipster and The Cold Brew Coffee" a warning of the perils of losing objectivity in favour of fashion.

Sandows Cold Brew 6 pack Variety BoxFirstly I have never heard of this brand of cold drinks, so I was interested to try them.1st Impressions:Nicely packaged in a sturdy branded box. The drinks came complete with a card which gives some information about each flavour drink.In use:• I first tried ORIGINAL COLD BREW. This is the Coffee flavoured one, and is truly AWFUL! One mouthful is all I could take before throwing the rest down the sink. It was so awful that I did the same with the second can of it, and I am not one who wastes food or drink. This drink was 'flat' and tasted like cold inferior instant coffee.• SPICE COLD BREW SODA. It says this contains ginger, orange blossom and black spice. This one is HORRID and only marginally less awful than the Original Cold Brew. Again I could only stomach a couple of mouthfuls before pouring this and the second can of the same flavour down the sink.• CITRUS COLD BREW SODA. Ah I thought, this has to be a nice one, after all it contains lemon, lime and grapefruit. This had some 'fizz' and was nearly bearable. Had I been in the Sahara or Gobi Desert with nothing to drink, then I would have drunk both cans. However I wasn't and there was no pleasure in this drink at all, so again, both went down the sink.The RRP is shown at a whopping £15.00 for just 6 of these little cans. Outrageous, even IF you liked them.These drinks deserve no stars but that is not an option so they have a very reluctant 1 star.

And I am really glad to see them making their way into the mainstream marketplace, it is disappointing that they remain something of an expensive designer beverage and acquired taste but as someone who regularly drinks cold brew and likes cold brew coffee its great to see an alternative to the overly sweetened brands put out by Costa, Starbucks etc. (I think that these are chocolatey tasting in their sweetness).I was supplied with six "stubby" cans, which are regular cans of beverage, much like any soda cans but different from the tall, thin can similar to early energy drinks which most of what passes for cold brew coffee are supplied in. I really like the stubby cans and much prefer them to the alternative. The cans themselves come in a hard cardboard branded box, it is very nicely presented by I do wonder if it explains something of the expense of the product, I'm not a big fan of style over substance, which this may be but I do think it is nicely presented. It is an improvement on the bottles I see others have received to review but I wonder if those were samples as opposed to the end produce.The cans have a nice attractive label, they are colourful and distinctive, its clear which are which from the three different varieties. I did think that these did make me think of the micro-brewery, small manufacturing, hip start up idea as opposed to a larger commercial enterprise, this kind of thing matters a lot to some consumers, so I mention it, but I think it may be in the area of the totally aesthetic for me (which matters just a little less). This will matter for some retailers or households/consumers though.Each of the beverages look similar poured into a glass or over ice, thankfully, which to me indicates that there are not a lot of additives or colourants in the beverage. None of them taste overly sweetened, which I really like and I also like the bitter coffee aftertaste that other reviewers have mentioned too. Specifically, as to the flavouring of each of the beverages:-Original- The tendency with cold brew coffee is for it to end up overly strong or overly weak, this one is perhaps on the weaker side but I really dont think it is tasteless and I really dont believe it is as bad as others have made out who I dont believe are cold brew drinkers. Cold brew is one of the better ways to taste the flavours of particular beans and regions they grew in and I think that is the case with this beverage. It is a still beverage and that should be no surprise either at all, it is cold brew coffee and not a new variety of soda or soft drink (I did like the attempt to create a bubbly beverage by Lipton, "Liptonice", but it was iced tea, which I think suits it better, but it was sadly discontinued).Spiced - As other reviewers have suggested this is a gingery beverage, I liked it but thought it was a departure from the coffee beverage. It was nice and definitely much, much nicer than other beverages advertised as "spiced" such as Chia tea (hot or cold) which I really disliked.Citrus - This is the closest of them all to an actual soft drink, which I think that much of the other reviewers were hoping for and wanting when they were supplied with these beverages. I do know people who have added lime or lemon to cold brew or slices of either of those fruits, it is not something I tend to do but it was a nice beverage.I think that any of the drinks are best served cold or over ice and it is a good idea to keep these refrigerated. I would not recommend that you add chilled milk to any of these, even the still/flat original coffee, or sweetener, cream or anything like that but I know people do. This is worth a try if you like novelty beverages but I would recommend it to you if you like cold brew especially.