In the Asheville Trader Joe's, a handmade sign by the bottles of Garden Patch juice says, "Just like V8!" I suspect the corporate overlords would disapprove of that sign, for both legal and competitive reasons. It's also not accurate. There's definitely a similarity, and I suspect the manufacturers were going for a V8 imitation, but didn't quite hit it.
That's a good thing, actually. I prefer this to V8. It seems to fall about halfway between plain tomato juice and V8. Since I strongly prefer the former to the latter, the fact that Garden Patch is less like V8 is a feature, not a bug. You definitely get a sort of generic vegetable flavor in addition to the tomato, and slightly more chunkiness than tomato juice--plus some zest. (The Trader Joe's Blandification Committee didn't do much to this product, apparently.) But I still prefer regular ol' tomato juice to Garden Patch.
Will I buy it again?
It's not bad, but the main thing it made me realize is that it's been too long since I had tomato juice. Ima get me some of that instead.
Nina's View
I, on the other, very much like V8. And thus, I find this juice
disappointingly falls short of the V8 signature distinctness of many individual
vegetable flavors. My main beef with V8 is that it's just a bit too salty. This
juice, on the other hand, could use a bit *more* salt.
It's not bad, just not my favorite.
I looovveee this juice! I think its a great veggie juice and an amazing value- especially when compared to how much the same size of v8 is. Yes it needs a smidge more salt- easy to add
ReplyDeleteI actually drink it over ice, or i use it for bloody marys :)
Note that in the winter it's instant awesome soup- just toss in some veggies and pasta and you're good to go.
Ttrockwood