Sam Hughes Reviews

Caffeine Rush Joe Turbo Tea - Lemon


To kick off the beverage review tour, I tried my hands at a local favorite. Joe Tea was suggested by my colleague Scott Wiener and seeing as how I had never seen it in my part of the woods back in the Pennsylvania/Delaware region, I bought some while staying in Cranford, NJ. I'm not really an iced tea expert by any means because I honestly never had much of a taste for iced tea until very recently, but I think I've had my fair share since then to judge what I like. Anyway, getting to the tea. The packaging is solid. I could go for a smaller and less bold font on the front, but the red Joe Tea truck logo is nice. The packaging is nice and simple, something that many beverage companies do not understand these days. This is supposed to be a "turbo" beverage judging by its name and they certainly hype up that fact with their description on the label. I'm not sure if I buy into it though because afterall, I'm still drinking iced tea. If the people at Jolt put out an iced tea, they would have me listening, but I think Joe Tea is playing up the caffeine factor too much here. As for the taste, this is a nice tea. I like sweet iced teas a lot, and if you do as well, then you will be satisfied with this tea. As far as I can tell, the caffiene does not detract from the overall flavor which is a good sign, but I cannot help but feel that I'm missing most if not all of the tea flavor in this drink. The lemon comes through very strongly, and the tea counteracts this, but not quite enough for me to give this a very high rating. This is a good drink, but this is iced tea and the tea itself just doesn't present itself well enough. I'll leave you with a few words from the packaging : "Just because you're up - doesn't mean you're awake! If I had to describe this tea in one word it would be: VROOOOOM!" While I wish I could personally back up this sentiment, if I had to describe this tea in one word, it would be "AVERRRRRRAGE!"

Rating 6 out of 10 Bum Shacks

Providence was like a dream

So we are back at Cranford NJ where the Wiener family has been nice enough to put up with the smelly spinto boys for yet another day.

Tom, Sam, Jeff, Nick, and Scott all went to buy comics and Joe Tea iced tea... Joe and I are here to noodle around. Watched the end of Dawn of the Dead and decided I should fill everyone out there on our latest happenings.

THIS JUST IN: Scott called, THEY ARE OUT OF JOE TEA! oh man, could this be another Scott Weiner syke out? Only time will tell.

anyway- Last time I updated this I believe we were at the Paradise Lounge, since then the following events have occurred:

1. We spent the night in a Harvard dormatory lounge... comfortably.
2. We drove to providence
3. We ate pizza (hopefully Scott will fill you all in with a pizza review later)
4. played a show
5. Got a massive bag of 100 free bagels*
6. Were wowed by vocalist Seal**
7. Came to Cranford NJ

Thats about it. Things are developing on the August tour routes and I will fill everyone in as information arises.

* Regarding the hundred or so bagels we managed to acquire. Has anyone ever been to Dunkin Donuts at closing time? In typical Americana fashion, they perform extremely wasteful habits. They go tray by tray through their inventory of donuts, bagels, croissant, etc and whimsically throw them into the garbage. As a broke touring rock band with no money for food we attempted to bargain for these donuts at 11:45. The gentleman behind the counter was prepared to give us the donuts until his manager came by and said, "nope- sorry- we may get sued!" So at 12 o'clock we see the nicer of the two employees walking out with a garbage bag and a box of assorted dunkin donuts. We ate them in a heart beat, then Tom was like, "what the heck happened to the rest of the stuff." Next thing we know Tom is missing. Next thing we know after that, Tom is running back from the DD dumpster with a huge bag of something. We open it up and find all of the day's bagels. How glorious! We don't need to buy breakfast for the rest of the tour.

THIS JUST IN: 5 days after the Eatonia2005 Belly Flop Contest, Sam Hughes still has bruises on his chest from flopping! Stick around for a S.B.Hughes peculiar beverage review later today.

** After the Providence show we decided it would be best just to drive back to Cranford (approx 2.5 hours away... actually 4 hours). On the way, we thought we may try to request a song on the radio. Nick was dying to hear Seal's Kiss From a Rose and we were enjoying the all smooth all contemporary sounds of STAR 99.9FM, so we thought we would try to request it. Just as Nick had the phone in hand and began to dial, the previous song ended and what should come on next? guess... ok, give up- sure enough it was Kiss From A Rose! We almost crashed the car in amazement and then had a glorious sing along to the smooth voice of Paddington's own Seal.

So- tomorrow night is the TLA/Fire show in Philadelfee. I am most excited for that, so please come out. ALSO- we should mention that the PianoNYC show on Saturday is cheaper if you preorder the tickets. So maybe think about that because NYPD tells us that the Pianos show may draw the riot police.

nick wants to try: herding up gladabouts.

We are sitting in the Paradise Lounge in Boston MA right now typing up another entry. Seinfeld is on the TV Karl Denson's Tiny Universe is warming up in the Paradise Rock Club (seperate venue next door). Their tour bus is massive, I am jealous.
Nick says, "Don't be jealous... they're scrubs..." then taps me on the shoulder.

Food is 50% off after 8pm tonite. I may eat a meal with The Martha Dumptruck Massacre for that bargain.

Nick has something to say: How is good applesauce leftover? Perfect applesauce... leftover...

We played travel scrabble on the ride over here. Scott was manning the wheel while The Hughes bros, Nick and I competed in the word game. Nick won. Final scores are as follows:
Samuel Bradway Hughes: 115
Thomas Baird Hughes: 154
Jonathan Russell Eaton: 156
Nicholas "Klaus" Krill: 160 it was a close one

Right after the completion of the game, Scott pulled into a dead end construction zone and we had to back Killer up. Scott performed marvelously in spite of heckling from construction workers. Killer's intimidation factor is leveling off every time we pump her into reverse. Soon we will be backing trailers into you. Whoah!

What else-- I guess if you live in Boston tune into CN8 tomorrow (Wednesday night) as we will be interviewed and perform on NiteBeat.

Thats it for now, I have to go help set up the stage.

Go For Pro!!!!!

Jon

And so it begins!

We just got into Cranford NJ after a great day of tour fiasco. In typical spinto band fashion we waited until this morning to do a hundred things.

Nick says hi.

Tomorrow night is our first show in Boston. We are excited. Bubbling. Here is the necessary information: http://www.thedise.com/lounge.html - The Paradise Lounge:

Tuesday 6/14 - BPU showcase featuring The Spinto Band, The Bikini Carwash Company. Doors 8 PM 18+ $8

we don't know what the BPU showcase is YET.

Jeff's favorite cheese right now is Boursin. (Spelling reliant on Sam Hughes spellcheck.)

TRIVIA QUESTION:
the winner of this trivia question (just post your answer in a response to this blog post) wins a guest spot list at the spinto band show of their choice.

What 2 movies from 1987 had the same title and the same leading actor??

Today we made some rules to CD listening in the car. Here they are:

1. Driver has final say

2. Passengers may make suggestions

3. If driver doesn't play the suggestion within 3 minutes it is considered a pocket veto

4. Randomizers will be chosen by the passenger flipping blindly through a CD wallet until the driver says the word "STOP!" (no wammies!)

We want to take a moment to introduce a new temporary member of the band. Our dear friend Killer. Killer threatens coups and hatchbacks on turnpikes all up and down the east coast*. His 4 x 8 frame is what dreams are made of. His glory will reign until we find a better deal on a rental trailer.

I will check back in soon. Tom and Sam are trying to hustle the New Jersey transit authority so they can go see the Architecture in Helsinki show in Brooklyn tonite.

hasta la vista

Jon

*we do not know how Killer will fair in the midwest... only time will tell.