Product Spotlight: Refine Mixers Margarita Mix

Photo by Gamma Nine

Making  your own sweet and sour is ideal. But let's face it: who wants to? Especially when there are so many good ready made mixes available. Although I'm fairly certain I've found the perfect store-bought mix from Trader Joe's, I'm always interested in trying something new.

This weekend we used the Margarita mix Refine, a product out of Berkeley, California. I usually stay away from products with a radio-active yellow glow, but the glass bottle, green leaf in the logo, and exclusion of HFCS closed the sale.

What I didn't notice until I'd downed half my Margie, is the zero calorie element. This part makes me nervous. I've read enough about sugar to know that it's a slow poison that may doom the human race. But make believe sugar really frightens me.

I did a little research and Refine uses Stevia, a natural sugar derived from the Sunflower family. I'd heard of the sugar substitute before but never used it. Apparently it is 300 times sweeter than sugar, which could explain the extreme sweetness of this mixer and my only critique of the product. It's slightly too sweet for my liking, overpowering the citrus flavors. There's also a little aftertaste that falls more into the chemical category than the all-natural.

Refine offers several other mixers and I'm eager to try them. I'll also give the Margarita mix a few more tries. I'm thinking positive thoughts.