Glucoholic - Sugar Free Snacks

We bet you’re probably thinking “sweet mother of pearl, is The Glucoholic about to go on another flavored water tirade?” Be of good cheer. We’ve finally found a flavored water that makes all the bad experiences with other flavored waters float on down the river. Vidration Lemon Lime Vitamin Water is one of the best flavored waters we’ve ever tested. Let’s start with the packaging. Vidration flavors come in simple bottles which highlight the appealing colors that represent each flavor. The color of the Lemon Lime water is an awesome neon green color that is so sexy that we wish we could paint the official Glucoholic team van* this color. Our only complaint with the packaging is that the ingredients list is very tiny. On the other hand, it’s got no carbs and tastes great. Do we really care what’s in it? OK, we care. The good news is that we like what’s inside as well.

Speaking of taste - Wow! This stuff is great. The Lemon Lime flavor reminds you of those great green colored FlaVorIce pops you buy in liquid form and put in the freezer. The sweetness is perfect, which should not be a surprise since this flavored water is sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium. It’s got 5mg of sodium and zero of everything else you don’t want. Add 100% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C and 20% for several B Vitamins, and you’re talking about a pretty healthy, very tasty flavored water. We can’t wait to try the other flavors.

*actual Glucoholic team van does not exist

Skinny water? Isn’t that redundant? It could be that we have too many flavored waters on the market. We keep trying them, hoping that something really different will knock our socks off, but it hasn’t happened in a while. It’s water with flavor added. We get it. Each new iteration adds some more vitamins, minerals, extracts, or catchy marketing. This one is no different. We were pretty impressed with all the B Vitamins and potassium. We were not impressed with how the lemonade somehow went missing. We were expecting Skinny Water Lemonade Passionfruit to have some hint of lemonade, but the passionfruit is too strong. If you like passionfruit you are going to love this drink, and if you don’t you are out of luck.

With loads of essential vitamins in every eight ounce serving it’s a shame that this flavored water doesn’t taste better. Here’s hoping some of the other Skinny Water flavors are winners, because adding essential nutrients without adding carbohydrates or calories is a good thing.

This week we’re taste testing the new Diet Cherry 7UP Antioxidant. The antioxidant comes in the form of ten percent of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin E. This is another fitness play that unfortunately falls short because Dr. Pepper/Seven Up chose to use aspartame to sweeten this drink. As the first drops hit your tongue you detect the familiar lemon and lime flavors of 7UP, and then the cherry flavor hits you and you’re sure you’re really going to like this drink. Then the aspartame rains on your parade with its favorite weapon - horrible aftertaste. This soft drink would have been so good with Splenda as a sweetener. If you are one of the chosen few that has been able to get used to aspartame aftertaste, then this sugar free drink is a definite buy. For everyone else, be sure to stay tuned for an upcoming review of 7UP products that are sweetened with Splenda.

Nutritionally, Diet Cherry 7Up Antioxidant is not bad. Each eight ounce serving contains only 30mg of sodium. The Vitamin E is a definite plus, but does not provide enough incentive to overlook the aspartame aftertaste.

Federal Trade Commission Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines Compliance Statement: Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. has in no way paid for this endorsement. No cash or in-kind payment was received from Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. by Glucoholic.com.

Over a year ago we reviewed Strawberry Powerade Zero. We’ve been drinking it pretty regularly around here, but lately have been trying to get out of several ruts at the same time. What better opportunity could there be to try another great Powerade Zero flavor? Well that’s just what we did. Grape Powerade Zero did not disappoint! This beverage had the same smooth, thirst quenching qualities as its strawberry sister. The grape flavor was excellent and less syrupy than some of its competition. We put the taste right up there with Grape Propel, and this is a good thing, since one or the other is usually sold out at our local grocery. Great taste with less despair - always a good combination.

The awesome quote on the shoulder of this bottle proclaims “Believe it. What you hold in your hand is indeed zero calories. Yeah, that’s right. You can stay hydrated with electrolytes + B Vitamins… without adding calories. How you like them strawberries?” This is ironic, since this flavor is grape. Marketing folks are so clever.

The nutrition information for the grape flavor is exactly the same as for the strawberry flavor. For review, the highlights are: zero calories, zero carbs, 55 mg of sodium, and 35mg of potassium.

Federal Trade Commission Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines Compliance Statement: Coca-Cola has in no way paid for this review. No cash or in-kind payment was received from Coca-Cola by Glucoholic.com.

Over a year ago we did a review of Archer Farms Diet Orange Cream Soda. We enjoyed that soda so much that we kept an eye out for more diet flavors from Archer Farms, and picked up a four-pack of the Diet Black Cherry Cream Soda flavor to review. After consuming half of a bottle we were horrified to notice that the back of the label reads BEST BY 23/AUG/2009. Awesome! It’s kind of difficult to fairly judge a product’s taste when all you can think about is that product tasting old, so we won’t try. A description of the product’s mature taste would be “not enough black cherry soda, and too much cream soda.” There was also some pretty bad aftertaste uncommon to sodas sweetened with sucralose, but maybe it was fermentation. We’re really not trying to knock Archer Farms’ products - we tend to like them very much.

However, the comments and emails we got in response to our review of the Diet Orange Cream Soda indicated that people get very frustrated with the hit-or-miss nature of finding well-stocked Archer Farms products in Target stores. It doesn’t seem to be improving since now you can’t even count on what’s on the shelves being fresh. Maybe we should have been more careful; but seriously, when was the last time you checked the expiration date on a bottle of soda?

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