Simple, just like this beverage

Hello fellow libation connoisseurs, I bring you the last in our new series of Zevia reviews, just as Danithius promised.  This last round has been fun, and what a better way to end it than with a caffeine-free diet cola!  I’ve always been a fan of colas, and I have recently (last year or so) attempted to gain an appreciation for the diet version, trying to cut the excess sugar out of my life.  When I tried  Zevia’s Natural Cola, I was pleasantly surprised. It had a few things mainstream colas don’t (like no sugar) and has a pleasant taste.  It is only fitting that Zevia compliment it with an uncaffeinated version for those who don’t imbibe this stimulant.  It comes in a bright blue can, and honestly, I like the new design; it’s simple but stands out in the crowded soda aisle.

This has a light cola effervescence, lacking any strong olfactory kick, which works for a diet cola.  The soda is nice and fizzy, without being too much so, like the rest of their line.  A kola flavor is very evident, without taking over the tongue enough to obscure the citrus background flavors and the spicy sweetness given to it by the nutmeg and stevia.  I’m rather fond of this flavor combination, removing the caffeine doesn’t seem to have effected the taste in any noticeable way.

As with all the other Zevia beverages we have reviewed, this is made from all natural ingredients, has no calories or sugar, being sweetened with erythritol and stevia.  I’m seeing them in more and more stores that I frequent, which pleases me.  I would highly recommend this to anyone trying to kick a sugary cola habit, or looking for an alternative to those mainstream diet colas loaded with artificial sweeteners and preservatives.  And on the plus side it tastes great, I may like it even more than its caffeinated comrade.

Score: 5 out of 5. A pleasing and flavorful alternative to sugary, caffeinated colas.

– WiseGuise

User Reviews: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Stevia, Zevia all natural, Stevia, Zevia

Mountain Zevia: The most EXTREEEEEEME Zevia of them all

Hola Libationeros!  Today I’m bringing you my review of Mountain Zevia, the last on my list of new Zevia flavors to try.  (There is still one more to come from WiseGuise though, so keep your eyes peeled.)  This time I’m looking at Mountain Zevia, the company’s contender for the caffeinated citrus tongue-blast category.  But can Mountain Zevia outdo the citrus power punch of the “real” thing?  Let’s find out!

Aroma: Zevia, you limey bastards.  No wait, that just kind of slipped out.  But it does have that sweet intense lime scent that I remember from Mountain Dew.  Let’s see how it washes out in the flavor.

Taste: The citrus flavor packs a punch that might just be the most potent out of any Zevia I’ve tried so far.  The limey-sweet aftertaste is a dead ringer for Mountain Dew.  Of course, using Stevia and erythritol makes it largely impossible to mimic the sweet up-front mouthfeel that HFCS or sugar-sweetened Mountain Dew offers.  But that’s a sacrifice that I’ll gladly make every time if it means ridding myself of the tremor-inducing 46 grams of sugar per can. 

Health Factor: Huge points for giving me a version of Mountain Dew that I can drink without feeling dirty all over.  Healthy to the EXTREEEEME!

Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5 – for a perfect Zevia-fied version of Mountain Dew.

-Danithius-

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5-Star Reviews, Zevia

Today's model, Edel the corgador.

We’ve reviewed a surprising number of grapefruit-themed beverages on this site (search it if you don’t believe me) and I am pleased to see this flavor being tackled by Zevia, one of out favorite soda companies.  The mainstream attention to this complex flavor is sparse, limited to just about Fresca and Squirt; however, the independent companies seem more keen on their attempts to master it, so we’ll see how this one fares.

The scent is thin and citrusy, like being in a room where someone is cutting open citrus fruits. The taste is suddenly tart and vaguely citrus, with a very light hint of something like  grapefruit, but it fades quickly, leaving me with the iconic sweetness of stevia and just a memory of the flavor.  In fairness, the word ‘citrus’ is bigger than the word ‘grapefruit’, but  I was still hoping for more of a grapefruit taste.

The overall impact of this on my taste buds was less than I had hoped, despite its still unique flavor, and left me wanting the dry, tart, sweet taste of a grapefruit.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still tasty and refreshing, with a perfect fizz factor, it’s just not what I was expecting.  For those not fond of lemon-lime sodas but still crave a fizzy citrus beverage, this might be right up your alley.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Citrusy for sure, but misses the mark on the grapefruit.

– WiseGuise

User Reviews: (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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**Danithius Review Rebuttal!**

Hmm, I agree with WiseGuise on this one.  It is vaguely citrus-y, but if you blindfolded me with a gun to my head and asked what this tasted like, the last words out of my lips would be “Diet Sprite?”  I don’t pick up on the grapefruit much at all, but I wish I did – I’m a big fan of a good grapefruity drink.  I think this one could use a trip back to the lab.  I’ll give it the same score as WiseGuise.

3-Star Reviews, Zevia all natural, drink reviews, Stevia, Zevia

Hi there, fellow fizzy liquid-lovers!  It’s time to take a look at Zevia’s brand new grape flavor.  Now as we all know, grape soda is viewed by traditional society as the beverage equivalent of Donny Osmond.  Typically the only people consuming it are sweet-toothed kids and a few adults that are waxing nostalgic.  However, I’m curious to see what Zevia’s twist will be on this classic soda flavor.

Aroma: The second I pop it open, a rich n’ tangy grape scent explodes out of the can and assails my nostrils.  I definitely sense an element of the traditional grape soda aroma in here.  (You know, that classic American invention that is something between grape kool-aid and concord grape juice).  But this is deeper somehow.  It smells very intense, maybe more so than any Zevia flavor that I’ve done to date.  Now I’m REALLY curious how this stuff tastes.

Taste: Unexpected!  Because of the intense fragrance, I was preparing myself for an all-out grape assault on my tongue.  But such is not the case!  This flavor is much more delicate than I imagined.  It’s light, fruity, and fizzy.  Strangely, the grape flavor really comes out in the aftertaste, floating around on your tongue like a sweet reminder of grapey goodness.  I have found this to be the case with many of Zevia’s flavors, due to their love of natural oils and extracts as their main flavoring ingredients.  This works surprisingly well with the grape flavor.  It’s different from the norm, and yet still delivers satisfying grape-y flavor.

Health Factor: If you haven’t yet gathered that we dig Zevia’s all-natural sugar/calorie-free sodas, then you clearly haven’t been paying enough attention.  Zevia’s sodas are a great way to get fizzy satisfaction from the flavors that you love without exploding your calorie intake.

On a related note, grape soda is one product category that could REALLY use a “diet” alternative like this.  As a general rule, fruity sodas pack a serious sugary punch, and grape is no exception.  Grape sodas usually clock in at around 45-50 grams per 12-oz can.  So, kudos to Zevia for targeting this area with a much-needed health bomb.

Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5 – for a light, refreshing Zevia-stlye twist on traditional grape soda.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Zevia

Why hello there, Libationers!  Today I’m happy to announce that we have just received a new shipment of Zevia flavors.  And it looks like the flavor engineers over there have been working overtime!  In the coming days, look for Zevia Grape, Decaf Cola, Grapefruit Citrus, and more to grace our pages.   Welp, let’s get crackin!

Aroma: This entry is rather light on the aroma side, but if I inhale deeply I can sense a pleasant vanilla-cream note.

Taste:  The second this liquid hits my tongue, I am washed over by a sweet-yet-gentle vanilla-caramel flavor.  It’s surprisingly sweet for a Zevia beverage, in fact.  But that works just fine for this flavor – the smooth-sweet taste brings back memories of old fashioned cream sodas at the pharmacy.  (OK, I’m not that old.  But it’s what I imagine the memory would be like…)

I notice something on the back end of this flavor, though – about 7 seconds after I take a sip, there is a lingering sourish note, like I just ate a grape skin.  I know stevia/erythritol-sweetened drinks have a sense of sweetness that differs somewhat from regular sugar, but this isn’t it.  It’s the first time I’ve encountered this taste with Zevia’s drinks, so I think it has to do with this specific flavor.  It’s not altogether unpleasant, but it just seems a little out of place for a vanilla-cream soda.

Health Factor:  As regular readers will know, we only review drinks that are naturally sweetened (or sometimes not sweetened at all).  That’s why Zevia made such a splash on our blog.  After the FDA’s O.K. on stevia-sweetened products, Zevia made it possible for us to review drinks from the “diet” soda category, which had previously been dominated exclusively by artificial sweeteners.  Stevia-sweetened drinks have a sweet taste that can satisfy your cravings, zero calories, and are 100% natural – as far as we can see, the best of all worlds!

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – for a delicious, naturally calorie-free cream soda that will totally satisfy your sweet tooth.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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4-Star Reviews, Zevia

Now this is something completely new to me, but has been around for a few years, and maybe has just barely made its way into out little burgh in the mountain valleys of Utah.  A company called Rising Beverage Co. has released this Activate “performance beverage.”  This is the first completely unique bottle design we’ve seen in a while, so I’ll get into that first. The cap of this bottle has a pouch of vitamins in it that you are supposed to ‘release’ prior to drinking to ensure their freshness, which I’m not entirely sure is just a gimmick or actually plausible.  The design of the bottle itself is colorful and clean, and the square bottle is usually easier to keep a hold of in extreme drinking situations.

Okay, so now that I’ve sipped the design elements, it’s time to try the contents.  I’ll have to stop typing for a moment release the vitamins . . . the powdered vitamins dropped and after a vigorous shake the bottle went from mostly clear to yellow.  Awesome.  With a whiff I am convinced that the flavor is actually going to be lemon-lime, the tartness is almost palpable.  The taste isn’t as extreme as the scent, but still gives your taste buds a good smack.  A distinct sourness gives way to the sweetness of Stevia, which enhances the citrus flavor nicely.  A crisp water taste is the background to this, which fades into a minute sweet-sour aftertaste.

The calorie count is only 5 per bottle, with zero sugar thanks to the Stevia.  Vitamin counts are 100% for B6, B12, Niacin and Riboflavin, my personal favorite.  50mg of caffeine (derived naturally) is added for a kick, and with that you have Activate Energy.  Even if the fresh vitamin trick is a gimmick, it’s a good one, and I’m impressed.  The flavor and taste are about right for this type of drink, which should compete well with the likes of SoBe Lifewater and its bastard cousin vitaminwater.  No contest with Gatorade, this is far superior, but only lacks electrolytes (a gimmick so blatant it was made fun of in the movie Idiocracy).  I can bet you might see me drinking this one again, maybe on my next trip to the gym.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. A sugar-free sports type drink that may make its way into the healthy beverage pantheon.

– WiseGuise

User Reviews: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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4-Star Reviews, Activate, Stevia drink reviews, energy drink, independent company, Stevia

Greetings, Libationers!

Today I’m trying out V8 fusion for the first time.  I’ve heard from many a fellow foodie that these are tasty little elixirs, and the sugar content isn’t bad.  It’s 15 grams per 12 ounce bottle, less than half of Coke’s sugar content.  And that sugar comes from juice!  (It looks to be about a 50-50 juice/tea combo.  Well, what are we waiting for?

Aroma: A deep, deep raspberry aroma jumps right up to greet my nostrils.  It smells a whole lot sweeter than I expect it really will be.  I’m not getting even a small trace of tea in this scent – it’s all raspberry.

Taste: Wait… this tastes way sweeter than it should… and a little artificial… what’s going on here?!  Oh no, don’t tell me…

Sucralose.  Dammit.  All tucked away on the bottom of the ingredient list.  Dammit V8, you didn’t need to do that.  It has a nice flavor beneath all the fake sugar taste.  You know what, I’m not even going to finish this review out of spite.

Health Factor:

Overall Rating:

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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V8

Hi there Libationers!  Today I’m looking at this entry from Adina, a company that has been grabbing my attention more and more from the store shelves of my local health food depository.  Their funky monkey design and intriguing flavors are more than enough to pique my curiosity.  Today when I was doing a bit more background research, I discovered that Adina’s mantra is “Drink No Evil”… damn, I wish I had thought of that!  It grooves very nicely with our whole health-focus on this blog.

From what I could tell about Adina, they take their motto seriously on every level.  They’re all about fair trade, organic, and gluten-free ingredients, and of course there’s the lower sugar level aspect.  They really look like they fit our criteria for a great drink, so it’s high time to start reviewing them.

Aroma: I’m not picking up much coconut from this drink, but I am getting a nice strong tang of tropical guava.  And perhaps a dash of lychee-grape.

Taste: Wow.  This is everything I hoped it would be.  They nailed the sweetness level perfectly – it’s a nice delicate nectar that doesn’t overwhelm your tongue (or leave you wanting).  It blends the tropical guava/lychee flavors and puts them in front of a delicate coconut backdrop.  The coconut definitely isn’t the main player here, but it is still ever-present, providing a balance and foil for the sharper foreground flavors.  It’s light and refreshing enough to chug the whole bottle, and yet the flavors are distinct and good enough to sip.

Health Factor: Points for all natural, organic, etc. etc. ingredients.  But of course the big factor that we look at is sugar content.  Adina offers 15 grams per serving, which is quite the improvement over a typical can of Coke, which is 26 grams per serving.  The whole 16 ounce bottle packs 110 calories.

Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5 – refreshing, flavorful, low sugar, and environmentally-friendly.  This stuff was practically made for us.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews, Adina

Hi there, fellow seekers of the illusive low-sugar liquids!  Today I have another entry from GuS, the (somewhat pretentiously named) soda company that specializes in lower-sugar “dry” versions of popular soda flavors.  And since ginger ale is usually fairly dry all by itself, I don’t know what to expect from this stuff!  But I’m all for sugar-lowering as long as they can still deliver a primo flavor.  Let’s see how this stuff measures up.

Aroma: Spicy ginger pops right up to tickle your nostrils, just like a good ginger ale should.  There is also a light background of a honey-sweet scent.

Taste: This stuff takes your tongue on a flavor roller coaster, with both its requisite highs and lows.  It starts off nice and sweet/spicy, just like you’d expect from a good ginger ale.  But that first sweet punch fades quickly to a rather thin seltzer flavor that leaves your tongue feeling a bit betrayed.  But don’t give up on it yet, because there’s a warm lingering ginger spiciness that comes out to keep you company till well after you’ve swallowed.  All in all, I’m not a huge fan of the seltzer flavor, but both the beginning and the finish are solid.

Health Factor: Like the label suggests, this stuff does come with a big reduction in sugar content over traditional sodas.  In fact, this stuff has a fairly slim 22 grams in its entire 12 ounce bottle, which cuts the traditional can of Coke’s sugar content almost in half.  And along with the scant cane sugar, you’ll also find some ginger root extract and natural flavors.

Overall Rating: 4.0 out of 5 – significantly reduced sugar scores the big points, with a nice spicy ginger flavor to back it up.  One point is knocked off for a seltzer-y flavor, which I am not a fan of.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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4-Star Reviews, GuS

Greetings, fellow libationers!  Today I’m going to have a look at C2O pure coconut water, a beverage that has been popping up at health food stores all around our fair desert city.  The laundry list of health benefits on the front of this particular can were enough to catch my attention: 100% natural, balanced pH, fat free, and unsweetened!  A quick look at the back showed the sole ingredient to be 100% natural coconut water.  Sold!  I’m confident that this will be good scorer of the health meter.  But how will it stand up to the flavor test?

Scent: Mmmm, coconutty.  It’s like you just cracked one open and took a big whiff.  But this coconut has a bit of a green edge to it.  I guess that’s fitting, because coconut water is taken from still-green coconuts. 

Taste: This almost tastes like a raw cane sugar-sweetened beverage.  It has that tropical edge, like you just bit into a piece of fresh sugar cane.  (Which doesn’t mean that it’s super-sweet; straight fresh sugar cane is actually pretty mellow).  But the overtones are clearly coconut, offering that nutty-sweet tropical flavor that is quite refreshing.  It tastes surprisingly sweet considering the scant 11g per serving of sugar.

And it’s addicting.  Like, real addicting.  It’s watery and thirst-quenching, and the delicately sweet coconut flavor keeps you coming back again and again.  After the first couple of sips, you’re hooked.  Even as I write this I can’t keep myself from taking a drink break every 10 words or so.

Health Factor: This is definitely a winning beverage in the health factor category.  Only 11 grams of sugar, one natural ingredient, gluten and preservative-free, low glycemic index score, good pH balance, and the list goes on.  I saw it touted on one web site that coconut water is nature’s sports drink, and I can totally get behind that.  I’d take a can of this stuff over a bottle of the regular sports drink crap any day.  Still undecided?  Let’s see, a great-tasting 100% natural coconut drink, or an HFCS-sweetened neon-blue sports drink that tastes like watered-down Windex?  Hmmmmm…

My one and only concern about this is an environmental one, because inevitably with tropical products like this comes loooong shipping routes and a potentially huge carbon footprint.  This stuff is a product of Thailand, so it came a long way to be here!

Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5. What can I say, I really liked the stuff.

-Danithius-

User rating: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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5-Star Reviews