Gevalia Iced Coffee with Almond Milk Caramel

As the warm weather comes, it is time to start bringing out the iced coffees, iced teas and everything else that will cool us off and give us a nice caffeine boost. Gevalia Iced Coffees just hit the market in the US with several flavors packaged in neat cardboard containers, which I was able to procure at a Target somewhere in New York state just this past weekend. No word whether or not these will make their way north of the border to our beautiful Canada, yet, but one can always hope.

Taste

First off, do not pour this into a glass. I made this mistake to see what the aroma would be like since I couldn't sense much through the narrow opening on the box, and I regret it. This iced coffee looks like dark beige mud and its color is nowhere near the light brown/caramel color on the package. But looks don't count, eh? It is all about the taste.

Ignoring the color, the aroma is actually very inviting with bold coffee at the front and rich caramel notes all throughout and just a hint of almonds. Very good, indeed. The taste is much more subtle, though. The coffee flavor is very light and I can barely taste it while drinking, the almond milk is also very subtle for most parts, but the caramel is present and noticeable all throughout sweetening up the beverage. The finish is where the flavors truly emerge and you can clearly taste coffee, the almond milk and the caramel. The first few moments are delicious, but after that the aftertaste becomes gets pretty rancid like with any other iced coffee.

The beverage is veeery easy to drink. It goes down even quicker and easier when poured in a glass. When I first tried a "few" sips, half the beverage was gone. It was that smooth.

Energy

The one thing I like about these iced coffees is that the caffeine content is clearly listed on the back - 155 mg in the container. In my opinion this is a very respectable amount for a 330 mL container. That equals 0.47 mg/mL of caffeine, whereas the can of Rockstar I had yesterday clocked in at only 0.34 mg/mL. Not too shabby Gevalia!

The energy effects are more similar to those of a cup of coffee than an energy drink since there are no added energy ingredients. I felt a sudden rush within 15 minutes and for the first few minutes I felt my legs shake uncontrollably. About another 15-20 minutes later the caffeine was coursing through my veins and I was feeling energetic and even sort of focused when the jitters died down. The effects lasted for 2.5 to 3 hours and I didn't experience a crash. Not a bad iced coffee.

Aside from the color, I really liked this iced coffee with its easy drinking nature, decent taste and a great kick. I cannot wait to try the other flavors.

Scores:
Cost - $2.39 from Target
Taste - 8.5/10
Energy - 7.2/10

Overall - 15.7/20...smooth, good taste, great kick