Battle of the Crystal Light Bottles

Crystal Light has been a staple for dieters for years. Kraft Foods, the owners of this esteemed brand, have done two things to provide consumers with good options when considering a flavored water beverage purchase. First, they’ve started producing bottled beverages. Second, they’ve used Splenda to sweeten these bottled beverages. These two developments address two of the most commonly heard complaints about Crystal Light products – having to mix the powdered drink mixes and aspartame as the sweetener.

We put three of the Crystal Light bottled flavors to the test for this review – Classic Orange, Lemonade, and Raspberry Ice. The products were judged based on taste alone, as each of the flavors have practically the same nutritional information; save one flavor, which we’ll get to in a bit. Each bottle contains 16 ounces, which provides two servings. Each serving contains no caffeine, 5 calories, 10mg of sodium, and 0 grams of anything else of any importance. All three are sweetened with Splenda and acesulfame potassium.

All three flavors are actually quite pleasant. For flavored waters we have a tendency to provide better scores to those flavors that come closest to approximating the natural flavor they are trying to replicate. This battle produced a pretty clear winner based on this test alone, with one surprise in the judging. Here’s how they placed…

1st Place Lemonade
The lemonade flavor had a tart, natural taste that is quite close to real lemonade. This flavor also had the least aftertaste. Lemonade lovers should give this one a try.
2nd Place Classic Orange
The classic orange flavor was the real surprise in the group. Each serving contains 100% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C. It’s hard to overlook this fact, even when you’re saying to yourself “this tastes a lot like Sunny Delight.”
3rd Place Raspberry Ice
The raspberry ice flavor had a little aftertaste and seemed light on raspberry bite. This and a total lack of Vitamin C left this flavor the last place finisher.

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