Zevia - Natural Orange

Zevia on Maple, cir. 2008

I typically avoid diet sodas of any kind, but one sweetener has come to my attention more than once, and I've been looking around for a chance to try it. I heard about it first from an anecdote in The Four-Hour Workweek. It's called Stevia. It's South-American herb with the nickname of "sweetleaf" - extracts of Stevia can be 300 times the sweetness of sugar.

Stevia has been outlawed by the FDA as a sweetener, reportedly after only one anonymous complaint... probably by a corn industry executive...

The FDA's official stance is that "no one has ever provided FDA with adequate evidence that the substance is safe".

Psh. You've passed a lot more fishy stuff than this, FDA. Any negative studies you can find on Stevia are nowhere near as freaky as some of the fake sweeteners on your approved list! (You'll notice on their site that they are still defending Saccharin.)

Stevia has been used for 30 years in Japan and for centuries in South America with no reported ill effects. Google it, there's a whole mess of controversy out there.

OK, down to business. The makers of this soda get around the FDA by labeling it as a "carbonated stevia supplement". Smooth. It has Erythritol, a sugar-alcohol also contained in Sobe Lifewater. It can be purchased online at https://store.zevia.com/, and at the time of writing, they were having a FREE 6 pack sampler special. You only pay for the S&H. Hook it up, I don't know how long that will be good for.

This soda has a kind of mellow after-sweetness with a light orange flavor. (Think Sobe Lifewater's orange flavor, only carbonated and with a little less flavor punch). This is heavily carbonated - too much for my taste, but nothing to a hardcore soda chugger. The flavor and sweetness seem to grow on you as you drink it, but it never quite delivers the flavorful body I'm looking for. I have a feeling it will take more oomph to wean hardcore soda lovers (or diet soda lovers) off the bottle. Some intense herbs and spice will do amazing things for flavor, Zevia, just look at some of the totally non-sweetened drinks that we've reviewed!

This is an interesting entry, but not amazing. Yes, it is probably a lot better for you than teeth-rotting regular soda or the chemical sweeteners in the diet stuff, but that's not enough to make my buddy list. I'm prepared to make some small flavor sacrifices for big returns on health, sure. But to get the big points, you need to give me the Holy Grail, that perfect combination of both flavor and health. I must have it all!

Rating: 3.0/5

Danithius

Honest Tea: Green Dragon Tea

Yes, I am doing yet another Honest Tea review, but look forward to another Cascade Ice review soon. ;)
I know what some of you are going to say, and I don't care. Then you are going to say, how did he know that? None of your business. Now you'll say, this guy is kind of a jerk. Agreed. Can we move on now? Thanks.

I picked up this particular Honest beverage on discount. I had to shake it up, being a bit silty from the tea. At first smell, it reminds me of a fruity rolled-up type snack, but the high quality kind, not that crap from General Mills (another mega-food-corp). It's my first time trying this, so I wasn't sure what green tea with passion fruit would taste like. Interesting. There's a moment of sweetness, followed by a slightly bitter and dry taste, and ending with the exotic flavor of the passion fruit.

There is a blurb on the back that basically chastises the sweet tea industry for putting unnecessary amounts of sugar in their teas, noting that 'One teaspoon takes away tea's bitterness. Another adds a nice sweetness. That's where we stop.' And they're true to that, there's only 16 grams of sugar in the 16.9 oz bottle.

I can't say this is one of my favorites, but it was definitely worth trying. It is more of a sipping drink than a chugger, the tea's dryness catches up with you. Not a bad tea, but still not mind blowing.

Ingredients: Purified water, organic cane sugar, organic green tea, organic lemon juice, natural passion fruit flavor, citric acid.

Score: 3 out of 5. I would have enjoyed a little more sweetness than the 'tad.'

*Note: the variety in the plastic bottle is apparently discontinued, but still available in the glass bottle. Look in your local grocer or health-food store.*

Bomba - Original Energy

I successfully avoided the temptation to yank the tab off and throw this before I actually drank it. I purchased this grenade-shaped bottle at my local BigLots, more out of curiosity and amusement than actually hoping I would enjoy it, as I have sworn off energy drinks for well over a year. Also, they tend to not fit our guidelines, so you wont see many of them on here. That being said, this was the ONLY energy drink I found there that contained just sugar, which finally won me over. I found their quirky website (Warning: sexy PG-13 images), and learned BOMBAenergy is located in Austria, so how in the devil a box of these made their way to Utah is strange indeed. Possibly through their Arizona distributor. If you happen to see where these are sold, let me know.

Anyhow, after I resisted tossing this bottle through the window and diving for cover, I took a whiff. Oddly, it smells like Smarties, with a weird cheap-chocolate scent underneath. *shrug* And wouldn't you know it, it tastes like Smarties too. Very sweet and tart, it's also slightly carbonated. I vaguely reminds me of a certain crimson male bovine drink, but not tasting so much like rodent urine.

This small bottle (8.4 ounces) contained a whopping 33 grams of sugar (no HFCS), and excessive amounts of caffeine, taurine and several vitamins. Here's the rest of the contents, even of the bottle itself. I had to stop drinking this less than halfway through, it was just too much sugar for me. Being merely curious, this didn't break my heart too much, and I will never drink another one again.

Score: 5 for clever packaging, 1 for taste and sugar content.

-- WiseGuise