MiO, someone needs to sit you down and talk to you about product expansion control. Seriously, you're less than a year old. You started life with six babies and now you're up to ten? If you were a cat, I'd spay you faster than you could say "liquid water enhancer." Luckily, I'm a fan of gigantic product lines. (Call me, Octomom!) Like clockwork, Kraft and MiO have introduced two new summery flavors for the year, Lemonade and Blueberry Lemonade. As some of you know, I accidentally leaked this information a few weeks ago, unleaked it, and then announced a giveaway for two lucky readers to try the new flavors before their release in stores next week. And now, the night has come!
As I've seen in the past with MiO and MiO Energy, the two new flavors feature the same loveable teardrop-shaped bottle we know and love, and expands the line to include a more tart set of flavors, eschewing the standard juice, tea, and energy varieties we've seen in the ghosts of MiO past. In regards to flavor, it's basically going to appeal to one of two camps. If you're partial to freshly squeezed Meyer lemon lemonade hand-pulped by unpaid slaves with a sprig of organic, cruelty-free mint, you will likely not enjoy MiO's version of lemonade. If you're content to dump half a jar of Country Time into a bottle of water, this is definitely up your alley. I gave my slaves the weekend off to tend to their wounds, so I fell somewhere in between with this. It has a bright acidity to it, but not too bright- think a C average and 1100 on the SAT's, and has a soft, sweet flavor tasting of simple syrup first and fresh lemon somewhere in the hundreds, behind lemon-scented soap and Lemonheads. Pleasant, low in calories, and easy to mindlessly drink. Definitely as good as the original MiO flavors with a little more oomph.
As far as the Blueberry Lemonade goes, I'm always advocating for more inspired and clever flavor options, so this was a welcome change- I guess jalapeno lemonade wasn't on tap, but a girl can hope, right? I much appreciated the restraint in artificial coloring. Instead of resembling an overzealous toilet bowl, this was faintly blue and I wondered if MiO had taken a page from Vitamin Water and opted against using a deluge of Blue Lake #14 in their concoction. The flavor was distinctly diet, more so than the lemonade, and reminded me of other low-calorie berry-based beverages on the market, like Vitamin Water Zero and diet Ocean Spray, with a predominantly berry and Splenda-laced flavor and a very smooth finish completely lacking in artificial tang. Unfortunately, it lacked the tart acidity I expected from a beverage with 50% of its title comprising "lemonade". Had this been labeled as mixed berry or grapeade, I wouldn't have known the difference.
Overall, solid lineups to the MiO product line, if not my favorites of the lot. I like that MiO relies heavily on customer feedback to develop their new flavors and rotates their product selection on a regular, seasonal basis. It's definitely something I'll pull out when I hit the gym in the summer months and I'm really looking forward to see what's on tap for fall. (Please, please, pleeeeease let it be apple cider and pumpkin...)
And now, for the contest! Just for fun, I made graphs of the rating breakdowns on a My First Graphing site. It looks like people were more varied on the blueberry lemonade but gave it an overall higher rating than the regular lemonade. And nobody rated them lower than a 3! I rated both of them as a 6...four of you thought I would rate them as a 7 and a 6, and from those names my random generator picked Heidi and Rex! Congratulations, and I'll be in touch for your mailing addresses soon to get your MiO out to you. Thanks for playing and thanks again to Kraft and MiO for giving me the goods and hooking up my readers, too.
Labels: 6, beverage, diet, drink
As far as the Blueberry Lemonade goes, I'm always advocating for more inspired and clever flavor options, so this was a welcome change- I guess jalapeno lemonade wasn't on tap, but a girl can hope, right? I much appreciated the restraint in artificial coloring. Instead of resembling an overzealous toilet bowl, this was faintly blue and I wondered if MiO had taken a page from Vitamin Water and opted against using a deluge of Blue Lake #14 in their concoction. The flavor was distinctly diet, more so than the lemonade, and reminded me of other low-calorie berry-based beverages on the market, like Vitamin Water Zero and diet Ocean Spray, with a predominantly berry and Splenda-laced flavor and a very smooth finish completely lacking in artificial tang. Unfortunately, it lacked the tart acidity I expected from a beverage with 50% of its title comprising "lemonade". Had this been labeled as mixed berry or grapeade, I wouldn't have known the difference.
Overall, solid lineups to the MiO product line, if not my favorites of the lot. I like that MiO relies heavily on customer feedback to develop their new flavors and rotates their product selection on a regular, seasonal basis. It's definitely something I'll pull out when I hit the gym in the summer months and I'm really looking forward to see what's on tap for fall. (Please, please, pleeeeease let it be apple cider and pumpkin...)
