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Review: Zevia, the Soda With Stevia
--Read More In: Better Living Through Chemistry | Nutrition | Reviews | Vitamins/Supplements | Weight/Fat Loss
Okay, this one’s been on the shelf and now the hot weather is officially here, I thought it was time to send it out.
Awhile back, I noticed a google ad here on the site and thought, “Soda with Stevia? -NO WAY!” -I immediately shot out an email & Stacey Fujimura + the good folks at Zevia sent us out a sixpack of their soda.
If you hadn't read them before, we've had a few posts here on HFCS and its many evils. (though, to be fair, not the monster HFCS==Armageddon post I've been promising for months)
So, in the effort to always find a healthier Alternative/Substitution for Anything, I set up a taste-test between the Regular, Diet and Zevia versions of Orange, Lemon/Lime, and Cola sodas.
(FYI: I also took care to rinse out with water inbetween and not bias any of the tastes.)
Result: The clearest winners were Sunkist regular and a tie between Sprite and Sprite Zero, on taste and sweetness, with Coke as 1st runner up in the aroma category.
To clear up the scope of gustatory experience:
I’ve traveled a bit, used all kinds of wacky supplements in the pursuit of muscle gain and fat loss, and at times eaten or drank some mildly strange and questionable stuff in various european countries and with the odd mad european dignitary.
***That said, like the most recent 3 'Star Wars' movies, Zevia gets an A+ for concept and a D- for taste & execution.
Every single one of their sodas were under-flavored, under-sweet, under-perfumed, flat, watery and had a vague chemical smell & taste ranging between a whiff of formaldehyde and the Bottom of an Elephant’s Foot. (I assume the Elephant’s Foot was the Stevia. (or a circus near the factory))
The only notable exception was the cola which had an Extremely Lemony note in addition to a Metric Asston of acid that seemed to be added to match that same bite in Coke that feels like it’s peeling the enamel right off your teeth.
To be honest -up until the test, for me Zevia was Jessica Simpson as a film actress. I was absolutely DYing to give 'er a good review because of the awesomeness as an Idea.
But now, there is just no way I’d recommend it to anyone; -even the French.
-And I’m not even a typical American jaded soda drinker who’s used to the neutron-bomb sweetness of Coke.
Given the fact that at my local Royall Grocery Purveyours, where they dole out abalone half-teaspoonfuls of osetra caviar to every 10th visitor, charges about $6.00 for a six-pack, that makes an even better case against it.
On a food-chemistry note:
I have no idea if regular sugar (-or Stevia for that matter) doesn’t react to the acids in soda the exact same way HFCS does, but right now the only sodas I’d take a risk on would be Boylan’s and Jones.
Maybe one day in Utopia when Zevia gets some more: Flavor, Sweetener, and Olfactory Artillery into their sodas, and Severely cuts the acid in their cola...
Instead of merely wheeling trollies of carbonated water through a room that Used to house flavorings, sweeteners and perfumes at some undisclosed date in history...
->Then, Maybe we’ll have a better alternative to the ravages of HFCS, Aspartame and their alchemical ilk, but for now it’s just sodas with straight sugar.
Sorry, Zevia; -back to the drawing board.
It really does taste like the stuff that came from old health food stores. -And by that, I mean it tastes like it’s made for sickly post-hippies who’ve burned out their tastebuds & nostril hairs freebasing spirulina sometime back in the 60’s.
*** Also: mV receives no compensation of any type, before or after this post, from Zevia at all. The only thing we got was a six-pack and a cardboard box.
Posted by Will on 07/15/08 | Comments (2) | Email to a friend |
Comments
I SO Agree with you on this post. I so wanted to like Zevia - and was looking forward to giving them all a try. I just reviewed the Cola one ( the only one of theirs with caffeine) and pretty much everyone here thought it was an abysmal failure...
Posted by: bigred boots at October 3, 2008 03:37 PM
Yeah BigRed!
-Just the BIGGEST Letdown Imaginable. I can not communicate how Psyched I had been about this soda. Just URRRRRRGGGGHHH!!!
Oh well, it's back to Boylans and Jones for me. Not wasting my $$, don't waste yours.
Check in & hit me back either in Comments or Contact if you find another soda that might make good on the promise of Zevia.
(++ I'm still having a forensic dentist re-plate the enamel back onto my teeth that the Zev Cola stripped off ;P )
Cheers!,
W
Posted by: Will at October 3, 2008 03:56 PM
