I just reviewed the Tropical Boost smoothie from Nature’s Nectar, so now it’s time to turn our attention to the other one available during the same Special Buy cycle: Multi-Vitamin Orange. I have yet to try this in the national brand, and so I really didn’t know what to expect of it before trying it. I mean, even amateur sleuths can see that it’s going to have something to do with orange, but given all the different fruits that go into these drinks, along with the assertion that there are “multiple vitamins” in the title, that can sometimes skewer the taste into something that’s only vaguely like the title suggests (just look at the tropical mess that the Tropical Boost turned out to be).

This one took me a few servings to really sink in and allow me to wrap my head around all that it has to offer. The first serving was all about taste, though that was kind of unfair, because I tried it right after sampling the Tropical Boost one above, which I really did not care for all that much. With this knowledge now bestowed upon you, it’s no wonder that I was ready to rave about this after nothing more than my initial tasting.

The next one took place the following day, as I was just casually perusing the refrigerator for something to drink. Remembering that this was pretty good, I took another swig…and without the fresh failure of the Tropical Boost in my mouth, was far less than impressed. I felt that it had a similar pepper aftertaste to the abomination that was Nature’s Nectar’s Mango smoothie. It wasn’t nearly as overwhelming (that stuff was undrinkable because of it), but I felt like it was still lingering unnecessarily in the background, and it was enough to kind of turn me off to this drink, relegating it to something I’d throw down once every other variety of refrigerated liquid in our house was gone. And in the refrigerator it stayed, untouched, for, like, three whole days.

Then I was starting to come down with a cold, which my wife had just gotten over.  I felt the stuffed nose coming on, the sniffling, and even slightly feverish, even though hers did not come with a fever. In an attempt to fight it off, I brought a carafe of orange juice with me to work…then forgot to bring it home with me. Still feeling like slight junk, with much more junk about to pile on, I aggressively started pawing through the fridge, looking for something with enough vitamin C to fight it off. And that’s when my wife suggested this.

We made eye contact, then I looked away, favoring some other beverage that I was using as mixers for alcohol. Not wanting to waste a mixer while sober, I decided to take a closer look at this Multi-Vitamin Orange that I had cast aside. Just how many vitamins did this thing have in it, after all?  I realized that I hadn’t even looked.  I expected the typical: loads of Vitamin C and maybe small amounts of a handful of others, but after just one glance at the label, I was blown away. 150% of Vitamins A, and C; 100% of Vitamins B6, B12, D, E, and K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, and Biotin. Less than 5% of calcium and iron. 32% fiber, 12% potassium. And all these numbers, of course, are per 8 oz. serving, meaning a whole bottle will multiply this by four. This wasn’t something that was just masquerading as a healthy drink…it literally was. I downed the rest in the hopes that it would completely stave off my cold, or at least knock it down to a manageable level, which it seemed to do.

So the moral of the story, it might not have the greatest taste (although the taste is predominantly orange and nothing bad), but what it lacks in flavor, it more than makes up for in vitamins and nutritional content. Even the sugar content (19g) is relatively low, especially when you consider that none is added. I think I would prefer this to something like Emergen-C, simply because it tastes better, has a more-rounded amount of vitamins, and is far cheaper, at $2.49 per 32 oz. bottle.

Moral of this long-winded review: taste isn’t always everything.

Overall: 7/10. At first I was turned off by this stuff, dismissing it as just an average-tasting orange smoothie. Why drink this when I could just drink orange juice? And after feeling the pings of an early cold coming on, that’s exactly what I did, taking my orange juice with me to work. Only, I forgot to bring it home. Frantically searching for something in the fridge that could fight this off, I kept ignoring this, until my wife suggested I give it a shot. Only then did I read the label, and only then were my socks completely blown off…this isn’t just a product that throws the word “vitamin” on the label to trick you into thinking it’s healthy when it’s not. It’s a full-on vitaminal attack, with at least 100% of 13 different vitamins, and lesser quantities of several others. All this, for just $2.49 per 32 oz. serving? That’s quite a deal, no matter which way you look at it. Despite my initial misgivings, I would definitely buy this stuff again. It works great as a vitamin drink, and to combat colds, and tastes good enough to do it without tasting like a medicine. I’ll get this again any time it’s available.