Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

Hello libation loving folks!  After another brief delay, I have returned with reviews.  Today, I have decided to venture back into the hit-and-miss world of low/no calorie beverages.  My last SoBe lean review taught a valuable lesson; that even large, adored companies like SoBe can screw up on occasion, and produce something few customers like. I’m still cautious, but hopeful when it comes to the new Lean line, so here goes nothing.

I crack open the plastic bottle  and give it the standard smell test.  The berry is the most evident scent, with a hint of lemons.  Good so far, but now comes the most important test.  The taste is mild and lightly sweet, lacking the sour tang of most lemonades.  The raspberry is there, but fades quickly.  The sweetness lingers, something I’ve picked up before on drinks using erythritol, is seems to stick to the back of your tongue.  This sports a paltry 2 g of sugar per 20 oz bottle, and a dash of vitamin C rounds out the benefits.

I find this an unoffensive,  but lackluster -ade, light on sugar but also on flavor, though it avoids the atrocious taste of the SoBe Honey Green Tea reviewed previously, an opinion our readers have reinforced in droves.  I can’t say I would ever go out of my way again to drink this, but the light flavor and low sugar may appeal to others, particularly those watching calories and looking for sweet refreshment.  SoBe did a better job of blending in the sweetness of the erythritol and reb A (stevia) than our previous encounter, which is good to experience, but it covers the sourness looked for in lemonade,and that I cannot forgive.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. A lemonade that gets an A for effort, but a C for execution.

– WiseGuise

User Reviews: (3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
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3-Star Reviews, SoBe Lean all natural, drink reviews

New plastic bottle!

Until now, I never really drank the SoBe Lean line of diet beverages, with their notorious use of Ace-K and Sucralose as sweeteners.  I found this in a local Maverik store and picked it up, excited to see that it has been switched to the erythritol/Reb A sweetener blend now used in all the LifeWater beverages.  After getting this home, I sat down at the computer and began to search fro information on this new packaging and sweetener change, and was dismayed to find a complete lack of any such information.  In fact, the only thing I found was a page on CostCo’s website where you can purchase it in bulk and a Pepsi website listed caffeine content in their drinks.  I called their customer service line, got the computer, and was eventually redirected to their website, which has no information on this product.  Thanks, guys.

Having given up on finding anything helpful about this product, I decided to just let my nose and tongue tell me everything I needed to know about it instead.  Cracking the seal, I am reminded of an iced tea, and don’t really detect any honey.  A look at the bottle and I can see why; it’s the last ingredient, and the amount in the bottle apparently so minuscule that it added no calories to the tea.  The flavor is not at all honey-like, although I can sense the presence of the stevia.  The tea flavor doesn’t really last long either, it is the third to last ingredient.  The flavor overall is sweet and temporary.  It is far better than the Swiss Premium Tea I regretfully experienced, but nowhere near the excellence that is HonestTea’s honey green tea.

I found this flavor surprisingly uninteresting and lacking for SoBe, who have become one of our favorite (despite their subsidiary status) drink companies out there.  The ‘honey’ and ‘green tea’ were difficult to enjoy amidst all the sweetness, and were some of the last ingredients in the bottle, not quite what I would like to see in a tea.  I was unimpressed with this beverage, but I might still be caught drinking it on a hot day in a pinch.

Score: 3 out of 5. No detectable honey and not much tea in this honey green tea and lots of  sweetness for a zero calorie drink.

– WiseGuise

User Reviews: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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3-Star Reviews, SoBe Lean all natural, green tea, Stevia