Olipop Classic Grape Sparkling Tonic

I opened this before class yesterday: 

 

Brand: Olipop Classic Grape Sparkling Tonic.

Origin: Oakland, CA.

Purchase Place: Kowalski's Market, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Stevia and their "olismart" blend.

Review: Interestingly enough, this can contained 45 calories whereas their "cola" that I had last winter had 35 calories. This one had more fruit juice concentrates, so that must have been the difference: the cola just had apple and lime juice, but this had grape, apple, and lime. (Which makes the sugar content go from 2g to 4g.) But it had the same NINE grams of fiber added to it!

This was pretty good! It wasn't an overly sweet child-like grape soda (or "tonic" I suppose I should say). It was still tinted purple, but the flavor was a little deeper and almost "herbier" than a standard grape - there was more depth to it. I didn't get a bad aftertaste from the Stevia which happens with some drinks. This was a bit better than their cola in my mind! I'll need to keep exploring these tonics!

Score: 7 out of 10.

Olipop Vintage Cola Sparkling Tonic

I was in Kowalski's with my family this weekend, and my wife spotted this: 

Check out that huge ingredients list!

Brand: Olipop Vintage Cola Sparkling Tonic.

Origin: Oakland, CA.

Purchase Place: Kowalski's Market, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Stevia.

Review: So this is marketed saying that it's a "soda that's actually good for you." Well, I don't really buy that, but they're just trying to add things to soda while not adding too much sugar. That's the simple version. There's just 2 grams of sugar (they used Stevia), and they've added prebiotics and fiber... yes, NINE grams of FIBER... to the can.

So how does it all taste? Honestly, better than I thought it would. With the prebiotics and apple juice and fiber and all of those roots, I expected this to taste a bit like licking a hippies armpit. Like a bad kombucha. But it had a lot of deep flavors. It was herby and almost a bit smokey at times. The cola flavor was similar to "Bottle Caps" cola, which is not a bad thing. I don't care for the aftertaste of Stevia, and maybe that was the biggest downside to this soda. SUPER unique, and I'll gladly try some of their other flavors even though I didn't absolutely LOVE this.

Score: 6 out of 10.