#taste

#taste

The 365 Gluten Free Fudge Brownie Mix is part of Whole Foods' in-house brand, known for its organic, budget-friendly products. Priced at $4.29 at my local Whole Foods, this boxed mix was pleasantly affordable and cheaper than familiar brands like Pillsbury and Betty Crocker. The batter was made with oil, water, eggs, and dry mix, but very quickly, I had concerns.

Let's start with the obvious: all four drinks-the strawberry glaze skin, the Malibu mango, the coconut cloud and the vanilla matcha-looked beautiful. The colors were magnificent, especially the blue and the green (which couldn't be said about the flavors themselves, but more on that later). The Time Out team immediately scooped up some of the blue coconut cloud smoothie ($24), made with almond milk, pineapple, banana, avocado, almond butter, coconut cream and enhanced with vanilla collagen and blue spirulina (all organic).

Aquafina bottled water is a PepsiCo brand, a direct competitor to Coca-Cola's Dasani brand, a similarly purified bottled water that isn't really all that different from other bottled water brands.