Beverage Seven: Bireley's Feeling of Fruit

What it is: OK, this one I'm kind of cheating on, as I've had it before, the first time in the break room at a modern art museum in Tokyo this summer. It was my first time buying beverages from the Japanese vending machines, and it was an eye-opener to how good Japanese drinks can be. It was much like my first trip to Europe, back in 2000, when I had coffee at the Van Gogh museum. It was an eye-opening revelation, how good coffee could be, especially the European style with the crema on top that I now am addicted to.
Anyhoo, Bireley's Peach Juice has water, peach, saccharide, stabilizer and flavoring. Not much, and it shows. It's thick, and pours like what you get if you crush a peach, nearly opaque but not totally. Heck, like the Amsterdam coffee above, it even has a little crema on top.

What it tastes like: Pure, refreshing goodness. This stuff will make you give up any other soft drink, it's that good. Sweet, but smooth, it balances that fine line between freshness and sugar-blast. And it tastes like a white peach does in the hint of summertime, just as it hits perfect ripeness, when it borders between smushy and rotten with its texture. With just a little bit of sourness to it, it tastes, and smells, like everything you want it to be, but without the fuzziness getting in the way.

What it would go with: The various funky French toasts and pancakes at one of my old stomping grounds in Chicago, the Bongo Room. Or after the deed. Or after a night of partying.