While perusing my local Deal$ store (company owned by Dollar Tree that carries most Dollar Tree products, as well as those with price points higher than a dollar) for powdered beverages to aide in forcing me to drink water at work (how I loathe the clear stuff, unless I’m playing hockey or otherwise active), I came across something I’d never seen before:  Global Brands Shake ‘n Go drink mixes.  While most, if not all, of Dollar Tree’s name brand offerings in this area (Hawaiian Punch, Wyler’s, etc.) all give you 8 packets for $1, Global Brands gives you a whopping 14 (well, normally 12, but this was a bonus pack).  Fourteen servings for a dollar?  Sign me up!  Eagerly, I grabbed a box of the lemonade flavor.

Now, don’t get me wrong:  I definitely had some reservations heading into this purchase.  First off is the company name:  Global Brands.  Wow, there was certainly a lot of thought put into that.  There was also just as much thought put into the packaging, which is a bland illustration of the mix being poured into a water bottle, while pictures of whatever fruit the mix is supposed to taste like (in this case, obviously lemons) right next to it.  In other words, if it weren’t for the very low price point, I would have walked right on by and never even given it any sort of thought whatsoever.

I can just sum up the experience by saying that I will probably never ever buy another Global Brands product again…that’s how terrible this mix is.  The taste is so ridiculously fake that it doesn’t recall fresh lemons as much as it does lemon cleaning products, which is also ironically what it smells like.  Seriously.  Out of the fourteen packets, I think I used three over the course of a couple weeks, trying to give it a fair “shake” (embarrassingly poor pun intended), but I could never even finish drinking one full bottle of the stuff.  Needless to say, the rest ended up in the trash can.

Not surprisingly, ever since I bought this stuff a couple months back, I don’t recall ever seeing it again on repeated trips to Deal$, so maybe they’ve already gotten the hint and pulled it off the shelf.  Either that, or I have selective sight and am just subconsciously overlooking it.  Whatever the case may be, you’d be doing yourself a favor to ignore this stuff, and stick with the name brand drink packets, which offer a great taste:value ratio that this stuff can’t even come close to matching.

Overall: 0/10.  Though a zero may seem a little harsh, I really can’t think of a single positive thing about my experience with Global Brands Shake ‘n Go Lemonade.  In fact, the mere thought of the taste is literally enough to make me cringe (and that is honestly not an exaggeration).  The packaging is boring, the stuff tastes and smells like lemon cleaning products, and I couldn’t even finish a single full bottle of the stuff, despite multiple attempts.  Sure, the dollar price point is rather enticing, but if it’s undrinkable, that certainly does me no good.  Skip this and stick with the Hawaiian Punch and Wyler’s drink mixes, which offer much better value (and excellent taste) for the price.