Review: Cell-Nique
The Cell-Nique drinks are a cross between green drinks and red drinks and, honestly, they are probably more on the green drink side. But most of the flavors are fruity from natural flavorings, so we’ve put them here in the RedDrinks lineup. Nutritionally, these are quite nice and comparable to a serving of just about any of the well-rounded green drink formulas listed on our GreenDrinkReviews site. The taste of these drinks is not strong and I found myself wishing there was more of a berry or fruit presence. At $3.17 per bottle, these are a decent choice for a healthy ready-made beverage, but if I were at home, I’d probably choose a green drink powder mix over these drinks if I really wanted a nutrition drink. The benefit of these drinks is that they are ready to drink.
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Sambazon is a berry juice for energy. In Brazil, we use to blend acai pulp with bananas to start the day. So the Mango Uprising mixture (with banana) is, in my opinion, one of the best acai juices because of that acai + bananas combination. Besides these two dominant fruits, the drink is “cut” with apple and grape juices (you have to cut pure acai pulp if you want a drinkable juice) and contains a little mango and soy lecithin. If you are looking for an energy drink, this might be the one. The acai is rich in antioxidants, iron, vitamins, protein, fibers, and minerals (calcium and potassium). The bananas are rich in potassium, serotonin and natural sugars. The mangoes are rich in carotenoids, vitamins and fiber. Although the fruits are high in sugars and acai is known to be high in calories, Sambazon has only about 170 calories per serving. All ingredients are organic and made from concentrate.
Berry Crush offers a blend of fruit juice powders (Amla, pomegranate, lemon, cranberry, cherry, black currant and blueberry, among others), plus a few great herbs and botanical ingredients, such as pine bark extract (one of my favorite superfoods), grape seed extract, and hibiscus. It also offers a couple of veggie powders (carrot, broccoli, tomato and spinach). In all, this is a decent mixture of ingredients for an excellent price. My only criticism is the addition of stevia, which is a natural sweetening agent that has no affect on blood glucose levels, but tastes like an artificial sweetener. If you have no problem with the taste of stevia, then this product is an excellent value!
