Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

Mmm, fizzy

Hey there readers!  Sorry for my prolonged absence – I was being held captive by a group of militant penguin herders.  I managed to escape (I’ll spare you the story), and the first thing I did after getting home was reach into my fridge and grab a refreshing beverage.

It’s Fizz Ed!  They have officially jumped on the pomegranate bandwagon with the latest flavor, pomegranate cherry.  Like the other flavors, there is no sugar added to the drink.  This can’s 20 grams of sugar come from the fruit juice concentrate.  The can size is much more appropriate than your typical 12 or 16 ouncers – one can of this actually equals one serving. (Well, just over one serving.  It’s 8.4 ounces). It’s crazy.  I just take it for granted nowadays that any packaged snack or beverage I get is like 13 servings.  I think this movement towards smaller portions is absolutely critical for American health – we need to shift our focus from quantity to quality, from bulk bargains to gourmet goods.  If we shift our portion sizes down and instead focus on savoring the experience, not only will our waistlines thank us, our palates will, too.

But I digress.  Time to focus on the drink at hand.  The second I pop the tab on this can, I immediately smell a deep, tart cherry scent appropriate to the title.  Have you ever had pure pomegranate juice?  Or cherry juice, for that matter?  These are two tart flavors, so I can’t help but wonder what I’m in for when I take a sip, seeing as how Fizz Ed claims no added sugars.

And wow, the tartness delivers.  They use apple juice in the fruit concentrate to counteract the sour flavor, but the pomegranate and cherry still stand out nicely, with the apple flavor coming out in the aftertaste.  There is even some lemon juice in the fruit blend as well.  The flavor is intense and refreshing, and just right for the serving size.  The only thing I am not a fan of is the apple afterburn – there must be a less obtrusive background flavor to use in a drink like this.  What about a lychee juice?

Rating: 4.0/5 – a solid entry into Fizz Ed’s line of small serving, fruit-sweetened sodas.

-Danithius-

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4-Star Reviews, Apple and Eve, Fizz Ed

It's so . . . green.

In a mix of personal curiosity and a comment on a previous post from reader and BL friend kitty, I decided to pick up the green apple flavor of Fizz Ed.  I like these little four packs, except they tend to do strange things when you don’t have  a good hold on them.  After inadverantly emptying the box trying to take it out of the bag, I let the cans cool off whilst my anticipation warmed.

The smell is just like a fresh cut green apple, and the taste is spot on as well, sour right over the tongue and finishes with the mild apple-y sweetness of its namesake.  It is almost as if some mad scientist somewhere managed to carbonize apple trees, and then juiced the fruit right into this can.  I agree, this is really good

Only a gram more sugar than the raspberry flavor (apple and grape juices being naturally sweeter) and all-natural, with maybe the exception of the bubbles.  How DO they do that, anyway?

Score: 5 out of 5

– WiseGuise

**Danithius Review Rebuttal!**

Oh, it’s ON now.  I saw this at the store over the weekend, and I’m like, “hey, there’s the apple flavor of Fizz Ed.  I should get that for the blog.”  So I get a 4-pack, thinking I could even bequeath one to my fellow BL writer, WiseGuise, like he did for me with the Raspberry flavor.   Today I bring it to work, my mind all ready to post thoughts to digital paper, and what should I see when I load up Better Libations??  A giant green Fizz Ed 4-pack sitting there, mocking me from the front page!  Curses and lamentations!  Clearly we need another blog just to track what we have in our fridges.

OK, enough bitterness, time to get down to business.  This had a nice green apple-y aftertaste, but it lacked the initial cider-tang that I want from an apple drink.  I could also pick out the grape juice concentrate flavor, which became more obvious as I drank it.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d still give it a 4.5, it’s a great drink.  It fits wonderfully with our blog’s mission.  But I liked the Raspberry better.  Sorry, Kitty…

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5-Star Reviews, Apple and Eve, Fizz Ed drink reviews

I’ve been seeing this in the fruit-juice aisle of my local evil-conglomerate Wal-Mart for a while now, but haven’t been able to muster up the nerve to buy it until yesterday. It was $2.50 for a 4-pack, so that makes it about 75 cents a can, not bad. I stuffed it in the fridge until I got home from gorging on Thanksgiving food and cracked one open watching the news.

I didn’t expect too much when I purchased this, but it fit our guidelines quite well. Apple & Eve, a company that also produces Seneca fruit juices makes this, so it’s a smaller company. Check
It contains no HFCS, CF, or any other added sugar. Check
Sold at Wal-Mart, so it’s most likely available everywhere. Check
It’s 70% juice and carbonated water, so I ignored the ‘fizzical’ jokes and tossed it in the cart.

It’s not often I do a double-take when drinking something, but this one honestly got me. The smell is very much like a sparkling cider, but the taste is slightly better than that. The tangy-sweet juice hits your tongue right along with the carbonation, but it bubbles away and leaves the taste of the raspberry for you to relish, with an undertone of the black currant, lemon and acerola flavors. The sour tang of the raspberry lingers, and it isn’t at all unpleasant. After I finished the first one, I immediately grabbed another. Now I see why they pack them in four. Sneaky bastards.

This is possibly my favorite soda I have reviewed as of yet. 20 g sugar a can, not bad. Carbonation, not good for you, but just the right amount. May I have another?

Score: 5 out of 5, as long as you know it’s carbonated and oh, so delicious.

– WiseGuise

**Danithius Review Rebuttal!**
Wow, I’m impressed. This is awesome – great berry flavor, reasonable sugar. I’m in total agreement with WiseGuise, I give it a five.

Another thing that’s great about this is the serving size – 8 oz, an actual single serving size! Enough to refresh you, enough to give you a chance to savor the flavor.  Serving size does matter!  It’s not necessarily that Coca Cola is bad as a substance in itself (yes, I did just say that), but it is bad that you’re drinking two 64 oz super mugs full of it per day!  If you’re that thirsty, please, please, please do yourself a favor and just drink water!

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Apple and Eve, Fizz Ed drink reviews