SoBe Life Water - Cherry Pomegranate 'Zingseng'

I figured it was about time I review a drink I have been enjoying for some six or seven months this year, normally during or after one of my lengthy and exuberant workouts. Life Water has been on my radar since I noticed it does not contain any HFCS, CF, or artificial sweeteners. This does, however, contain erythritol, but I will get to that in a minute.

The first thing I noticed was the new label design, with softer colors and (wtf?) a color-blind test lizard. Next, I realized they had radically changed their formula from the previous incarnation of Pomegranate Cherry. I was then very happy to notice that this was a good thing, it tastes much better than it previously did, where the flavor didn't last and the drink seemed too watered down. Now it lasts and there is no watery cherry aftertaste. This drink goes down amazingly smooth, quite the quencher.

My cohort Danithius raised an alert on a previous post about erythritol, a sweetener used in this and other (and I'm going to assume, all) Life Water flavors. It is actually a natural sweetener, a sugar alcohol, obtained from glucose. This sweetener has been approved as tooth-friendly by the FDA, has very little calorie value, and is not even processed by your body, unlike fructose. I hope this sweetener is as good as it sounds, and I would like to know why in the bloody hell it isn't used more often in beverages. I am accusing erythritol of the enhanced sweetness in the drink, which I found to be perfect. There are 41g of suger in each 20oz bottle.

Ingredients: Filtered water, sugar, erythritol, natural flavor, monopotassium phosphate, citric acid, ascorbic acid (you should know by now that's vitamin C), calcium lactate, potassium citrate, mofidied food starch, , cochineal extract (color), taurine, vitamin E acetate, calcium phosphate, gum arabic, panax ginseng root extract, calcium pantothenate, niacinamide, elderberry juice concentrate (color), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12).
Note: This drink is NOT vegan friendly, it contains cochineal extract, which is a pretty red insect they grind up and use for coloring. Yummy.

This drink has the energy enhancers taurine and ginseng, though not in the frighteningly prodigious amounts like energy drinks have. SoBe Life Water has a nice but nearly useless website. And in case you forgot, SoBe is owned by PepsiCo.

I was so impressed with this improved version it gets 5 out of 5.

-- WiseGuise

Odwalla Super Protein: Original

I took a bit of a gamble here, this is another one I fished out of the back of my fridge. I exclaimed something foul when I say the expiration date, but I decided to go ahead and drink it anyway. Wish me some gastronomical luck.

After the first nervous sip, I relaxed and let myself enjoy this protein drink. It was a bit gritty, like pretty much all protein focused drinks, but not as much as most others. The fruit juice mixture (90%) was sweet, but not overpowering. The coconut really came through, there are actual coconut shreds in the bottle.

For a protein drink, this wasn't all that bad. As a fruit drink, eh. It has 18 grams of protein per 15 oz bottle, and 58 grams of sugar; that's a little high, but still could be worse. Odwalla has been around since 1980, but was 'acquired' by Coca-Cola in 2001. They pride themselves on being eath-freindly, and using no GMO (basically bio-engineered foods).

Ingredients: Apple Juice, Orange Juice, Banana Puree, Isolated Soy Protein, Pure Filtered Water, Citric Acid, Coconut, Tricalcium Phosphate, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Magnesium Phosphate, Zinc Gluconate, Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride).

Score: 4 out of 5. Better than most, and actually pretty healthy.

-- WiseGuise