IZZE Sparkling Grapefruit

Aroma: Yep, smells like grapefruit all right. Grape, apple, and lemon juices actually come before the grapefruit on the ingredients list, but you coulda fooled me.

Taste: This one is going to be hard to describe. Instead of having an immediate grapefruit taste, I would describe it as more of an aftertaste. The initial flavor is a nice blend of all the juices that went into this product backed by that little sparkling bite of carbonation. (More of a nibble, really. It's quite pleasant). The sweetness is well-balanced with the tart taste of the grapefruit and lemon. I personally like my grapefruit juices to jump up and smack me in the face (makes me feel more like a man), but they have done a nice job of making grapefruit accessible even to those who normally avoid it. (a.k.a. "pansies")

Price: $1.29 at local natural foods store. Available nationwide at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and a whole bunch of other national stores. You can't throw a stick without finding a store that sells it, it seems...

Ingredients: Pure juice from grape, apple, lemon, grapefruit, and orange juice concentrates, sparkling water, gum acacia [from acacia trees], red cabbage extract [color], natural flavors, ester gum

Other Comments: I looked over their site, and they had every indication that they were a smaller independent company. But when I wandered over to Wikipedia....
"On September 26, 2006, Izze Beverage Co was purchased by PepsiCo. PepsiCo has announced that it plans to leave Izze as is, only assisting with marketing efforts."
Hmm. So that's why they're so widely distributed.

Overall: The price is nice, and I like the 70% fruit juice, 30% sparkling water aspect a lot. But keep in mind that even though fruit juice offers much better nutrition than the straight HCFS and water you find in regular sodas, fruit juice still does have a lot of sugar. (37g per 12 oz. bottle in this instance - a 12 oz can of Coke has about 39g). So it's probably not a good idea to drink it like it was water. All in all though, it's a good-tasting, more nutritive alternative to regular soda.

Rating: 4/5 stars.