Review: CalNaturale Products (The Mommy Juice Boxes)

by Tara.

Disclosure: I received sample products to try in order to write an honest review. There was no financial reimbursement.


I'm not a mom--not a traditional one, anyway. My kids are of the four-legged variety, but they can still be a handful, so I was pleased to see they have a "mommy juice box" for us now...so on one of those hectic days, I can grab myself something fortifying and drink it at the dog park.

The best part: Some of the "juice boxes" contain wine! And I'm a wine addict.

Introducing CalNaturale Wine. It comes in two wine vintages: Cabernet Sauvingnon and Chardonnay.

Pros:
--It tastes like it should, and it's 13% alcohol, unlike those weak 9, 10%s you buy in your local liquor store. Yea, I look at that before I buy any wine. I mean, why drink wine if it has no effect? I like to get a little buzz on or at least enough intake to get sleepy. Thus, the term nightcap.
--It's disguised. You can drink this just about anywhere. NO, I don't recommend ever drinking while driving or working with machinery, but as I said above, you can take it to the park and no one be the wiser. After all, nobody expects wine to be in a cardboard container.
--It's made with Organic grapes.
--It can be thrown in a basket and taken on a picnic without worrying about breakage or spillage or making the basket unbearably heavy.
--The carton aka Tetra Pak is made from paper, renewable, comes from trees, recyclable.
--The carton also requires less than half the energy consumed in the process of making glass bottles.
--This is truly the most environmentally friendly wine you can buy.

Cons:
--Like most wines, it contains sulfites. Be sure you don't have an allergy. If you are able to drink just about any wine you buy from the store, however, you should be good with this one.

Once you drink all your wine, depending on how much you imbibed, you may need a pick-me-up the next day. ;)

Introducing CalNaturale Svelte protein/energy shakes. The protein comes in four flavors: chocolate, vanilla, cappuccino, spiced chai*. The last one is slightly different from the previous three.

They all taste fabulous as cold as possible. I find I preferred them before I worked out. Did they give me an extra boost? Hard to say as I wasn't very tired to begin with, but my treadmill time didn't feel as long or as unbearable as usual, and I certainly loved the taste.


Pros:
-If you're lactose intolerant, like me, these were made for us. NO MILK.
-Organic
-Same tetra boxes mentioned above, grab it, throw it somewhere, open when convenient, recycle.
-Contains organic complex carboyhydrates that metabolize over a longer period, meaning sustained energy, not a quick burst. This could be why I wasn't sure. It's subtle, but it's there.
-Can be a meal replacement. (I love food way too much to attempt that. LOL)
-The spiced chai one contains 16 grams of protein to the 11 grams of the other three.
-GLUTEN-FREE
-20% of daily fiber aka "keeps you regular". You don't to carry that around all day, you know.
--Each drink has a positive message for women. You grab the container, you read it, you smile.

Cons:
-If you have a strong aversion to soy milk, I don't think you'll like these. They do have the soy milk texture and aftertaste. For me, as I said above, this was a good thing though. As a lactose-intolerant person, I drink soy milk.

As you can see, the pros far outweight the cons. My personal favorite in each category: I loved the vanilla protein and the Chardonnay wine. And I have to add, as someone with extreme food allergies, I had no negative reactions for any of the drinks listed above.

I recommend these products.

Disclosure: I received sample products to try in order to write an honest review. There was no financial reimbursement.