Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

Today we have another SoBe Lifewater contender up on the chopping block: Strawberry Dragonfruit.

This is another 0-calorie “Lean Machine” Lifewater sweetened exclusively with Stevia and Erythritol.  The other lean machines have surprised me with a depth of flavor and lack of obnoxious aftertaste that I have yet to find in other “diet” products.  As regular BL readers know, we stay away from any artificial sweeteners.  But because Lifewater uses Stevia (a sweet herb) and Erythritol (a natural sugar-alcohol), they make the cut.

Fragrance: Smells like a sweet-tart tropical fruit with a hint of bubblegum.

Taste: Like all the other Lifewaters, this is pleasant and chuggable.  The sweetness level is just right, and it delivers some moderate tropical/floral notes.  But it lacks the distinct flavor profile that I’ve come to enjoy from its fruity brethren.  All in all, it just isn’t enough to make me stand up and take notice.  I expect more from the flavor-formulators over at SoBe!

Summary: Sure, dragonfruit sounds cool.  I mean come on, it’s dragonfruit.  The only way to get a cooler-sounding piece of produce would be to invent ninjafruit or something.  (I’m trademarking that, by the way!)  But the thing is, dragonfruit is one of those items that sounds cool in principle, but then fails to deliver in practice.  I’ve had it fresh; it was like biting into a cardboard-and-poppyseed muffin.  It’s bland.  They could have compensated for its lack of flavor in this Lifewater with a more pronounced strawberry taste, but unfortunately it was nowhere to be found.

Rating: 3.0/5 It has the pleasant sweetness of its brethren, but falls short in the flavor department.

-Danithius-

User Ratings: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

3-Star Reviews, SoBe Life Water drink reviews, SoBe lifewater

Love the new ergonomic bottles.

In keeping with our current deluge of calorie-free drinks, I bring you the erythritol sweetened, ‘lean machine’ SoBe Life Water Fuji Apple Pear flavor.  There is also stevia in this drink, the PureVia brand Reb-A.  This means it’s still sweet, just without the calories of regular Life Water, which are low to begin with.  Life Water is getting quite popular, they even have their own Facebook page.  Way to stay natual and hip, guys.

I would be surprised if it didn’t smell like apple-pear, Life Water is great at getting its flavors spot on.  The pear takes over a little in the scent, but shares tongue-space fairly with fuji apple.  There’s only a minute hint of stevia under the flavors, everything blends quite well, leaving no aftertaste, just a lingering sweetness on your tongue.  I noticed this with Zevia as well.  For the pear lover, this would be an ideal refresher for those hot, pear-less afternoons.

It looks like Life Water is going to remain a big contender to the behemoth sport-drink companies, who cannot seem to break themselves of their HFCS and CF addictions.  I see a lot of Gatorade (or are they just going by ‘G’ now?) on sale, and always pass it up.  Honestly, I never liked it to begin with.  I’ll be sticking with SoBe for now, since they have taste and nature on their side.

Score: 5 out of 5. Another tasty hit from the people at SoBe Life Water.

– WiseGuise

**Danithius Review Rebuttal** I agree 100%.  This is delicious, with fresh apple flavor and a delicate sweetness that absolutely blew me away – I thought it would never be possible to get this kind of taste from a completely sugar-free beverage!  5 Stars.

User Reviews: (3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
 Loading ...

5-Star Reviews, SoBe Life Water all natural, drink reviews, SoBe lifewater, Stevia

Return of the Best of 2008 2nd Place winner, SoBe LifeWater!

It was only a matter of time before another SoBe made it back through the fridge rotation and onto our site, since this is only the 7th out of the 11 current flavors.  Although I am still a fan of this line, I am perturbed to find tat they are becoming a little too mainstream, running ads during the Superbowl, and such.  I guess you still have to take the inherent commercialism when you’re part of an international super-conglomerate.  Sigh.

This flavor is subtitled b-strong, and it contains d-ribose, which may or may not aid in endurance.  I love inconclusive studies.  Other then that, there is some guarana and several vitamins, but no other tangible supplements.  Sugars come in at 25g for the 20oz bottle, but carbo’s add up to 42g.

The passion-fruit scent is strong with this one, with a sweet, citrus undertone.  The taste is almost identical, with a sweet tang that tapers off to the back of your tongue.  This is yet another Life Water that I enjoy slamming after a righteous workout just as much as sipping it on the back porch staring out contentedly over my azaleas.

Score: 5 out of 5. It’s Life Water, what can I say?

– WiseGuise

User Ratings: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

5-Star Reviews, SoBe Life Water drink reviews, enhanced water, SoBe lifewater

Just as good in the great iron bowels of a cruise ship

OK, I know all of you have been just foaming at the mouth waiting for our next drink review.  But we had a good excuse for being absent!  Mr. Wiseguise, myself, and a couple trusty female comrades were on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera all last week.  Don’t worry, we still love you, dear reader.  You were always in our thoughts.  We just needed some me-time.  And tropical Mexican beaches just don’t have good wi-fi access.  :p

We drove to California, and on the way I found this new (and very fitting for our trip) flavor of Lifewater – Agave Lemonade.  I snapped that up, and later downed it in the safety of my room inside the ship.  It has an upfront agave-lemon tang with a lightly sweet finish similar to the other LifeWater’s.  It sticks to the back of your throat a little, but hey, it is lemonade.  This is a great addition to the LifeWater lineup.

And by the way, here’s a link to Pepsi’s pledge to lower their environmental impact.  (Pepsi owns Sobe… and approximately five billion other brand names, give or take).  Pepsi, while I am glad to see that sort of language, I’d have to be pretty naive to think the green leaves and eco-friendly light bulbs on your site were based in any kind of altruism.  If they were, you would have been doing these things from the start.  Instead it seems you’re just jumping on board with the “green” movement and hoping for some PR.  I just hope your new commitment is more than just a fashion of the hour, to be discarded like last year’s fad when “green” fades away as a PR buzzword.

Rating – 4.5/5 Simple, refreshing, and the agave flavor keeps it interesting.

-Danithius-

***Review Rebuttal!***

I snatched the other Sobe away from Danithius at the last moment, stashing it behind a bottle of rum in the in-room mini-fridge.  I knew he’d never look there!  Anyway, I must agree with Sir Danithius on this review, though I didn’t find it very lemonade-y, it was still pleasant, and I love agave.  Another hit from Sobe.

– WiseGuise

User reviews – (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

4-Star Reviews, Rants, SoBe Life Water drink reviews, lemonade, SoBe lifewater

Not that we really need to do another review on Life Water, but it bears repeating, this is good stuff. And please make sure you never confuse this with Vitamin Water, which contains Crystalline Fructose, and such drinks are banned from site. *Submission guidelines here.*

Again I must mention that I enjoy these even more now that SoBe has changed their formula, this one having a sweet, berry-grape flavor and matching smell. I should probably sip and enjoy it, but I usually just chug the stuff, it sure goes down easy.

Sugar comes in at only 24 grams a 20 oz bottle, and they threw in some L-Theanine and yerba mate for their ‘herbal content.’ No surprises in here, it’s all the good stuff you expect from Life Water, just behind a pretty purple label.

Ingredients: Filtered water, sugar, erythritol, natural flavor, citric acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), black carrot juice concentrate (color), calcium lactate, potassium citrate, mofidied food starch, , l-theanine, vitamin E acetate, calcium phosphate, gum arabic, calcium pantothenate, yerba mate exteact, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12).

Score: Would you be surprised if I gave it 5 out of 5?

– WiseGuise

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

5-Star Reviews, SoBe Life Water drink reviews, SoBe lifewater