Flavored water with two full servings of fruit

in each 18 oz. bottle

I don’t usually drink my required 64 oz. of water every day, but because of my new quest to improve my lifestyle, I figured that increasing my water intake would be a simple change to make… but water bores me and I am a soda addict. Plain old water? Only if there isn’t a Diet Dr. Pepper in a 5-mile radius, thank you very much.

I’ve tried several add-in powders to flavor my water, but they’re packed with sugar and many of them turn my tongue funny colors. I’ve tried several pre-mixed flavored waters and while some of them are tasty, they’re nowhere near good for you because of all the sugar, even if they do pack some extra vitamins. High fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient kind of kills the health benefits of drinking more water.

When I heard that Fruit2O had a new flavored water on the market called Fruit2O Essentials and that it didn’t contain sugar, my first thought was “Thank God!” and my second was “Oh wait. No sugar? This is not going to taste good.”

Taste:

I’ve tried five out of the six flavors now and I am absolutely stunned by the taste of this water. Blueberry Pomegranate is my favorite, with just enough of very natural-tasting flavors and nothing overdone. I love blueberries and they have a hard flavor to fake, so this particular water flavor really impressed me. Peach Mango was the one that tasted most obviously like the summery fruits it is named for. I’d buy a case and drink it by the pool. Cranberry Raspberry was another gentle flavor, with a slightly tart kick like a real cranberry. Although it was not especially to my personal taste, a random sampling of this flavor with the people in my office suite garnered several “Can I have some more?” and “Wow!” responses.

I was prepared to be underwhelmed by Kiwi Strawberry because I just usually don’t care for that flavor in anything, and by Citrus because I hate lemon-flavored waters. But they were both quite nice – I actually enjoyed the mild, accurate flavor of the Kiwi Strawberry (which, by the way, had a very pleasant aftertaste like real fruit does) and I think the Citrus flavor was well-balanced with notes of lemon, lime and grapefruit. There is also another flavor, Cherry Acai, which I did not have the opportunity to sample.

The Kicker:

Flavor is the first thing that comes to mind when testing out anything edible or drinkable. But the real stunner in these drinks is not that they taste good without tons of high fructose corn syrup (this product has sucralose, better known as Splenda, near the end of the ingredient list), but that they are so jammed full of vitamins and minerals that each 18 oz bottle packs in two full servings of fruit. Although there is no fruit juice in the drinks, the vitamin content meets FDA standards for what constitutes a serving of fruit. How they do the flavor with no fruit juice is beyond me, but whatever it is, it’s good. As much as I do love a good peach now and then, Peach Mango water is a lot easier to take to a meeting when I need a little bump in the work day.

Double-whammy! Almost 1/3 of my daily water needs, AND two servings of real-tasting fruit into the bargain? Yes, please.

Are You Thirsty Yet?

You can check out the Fruit2O website at http://www.fruit2o.com for full nutritional information, coupons, and information on where to buy Fruit2O Essentials water near you.

THE GIVEAWAY!

You know you want to try this yumminess! I’m giving away a 12-pack of your chosen flavor of Fruit2O Essentials to one lucky reader.

To enter, do one or both of the following:

• Leave a comment on this post, admitting one of your nutritional shortcomings (chocolate? pizza? BEER?).
• Blog or tweet this giveaway and leave the link in a separate comment. Each time you tweet it, you can enter again, up to 5 times!

You must put a valid email address when you enter the comment.

The winner will be chosen using a random generator and will be notified by email. All entries must be in by 11:59 pm on Sunday, April 23rd.

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This review and giveaway are sponsored by Fruit2O Essentials.