Product: Poppi Prebiotic Soda
Description: Twelve-ounce cans of sparkling, filtered water flavored with fruit juices, apple cider vinegar, low amounts of organic cane sugar, and Stevia.
Named “Poppi,” the sodas were invented by a husband-wife team out of Texas and first took hold at farmers markets in Dallas. They contain naturally occurring prebiotics from the vinegar. The strawberry-lemon flavor contains only 4 grams of sugar and 15 calories per can; the orange contains 5 grams and 20 calories. The company produces a total of nine flavors.
High points: It tastes almost like soda, but without the evil ingredients and staggering volumes of sugar. The infusion of apple cider vinegar means you’re ingesting some level of prebiotics, which are a food source to the good bacteria milling around in your gut.
Thus the benefits of prebiotics ushers in such marketing inferences that the beverage aids in digestion, restores your skin’s pH balance, lowers cholesterol, and promotes weight loss. Maybe it does, but there are no studies on the website backing up those assertions.
Nevertheless, the tang is mild and fruity—exceedingly more tolerable than throwing down pure apple cider vinegar. The carbonation is pleasantly moderate, and the product overall could potentially help soda-pop junkies quit.
Low points: It contains Stevia, which is a natural alternative to sugar derived from some bushy shrub in South America. But for many it still leaves a distorted aftertaste. We vote to replace the Stevia with just a couple more grams of regular sugar. Oh, and the soda is pricey when it isn’t on promotional sale.
Average retail price: $2.99 per can; or $17.04 per six pack
Availability: Target, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Ralph’s, Walmart, Sprouts, Jewel-Osco, Kroger, Amazon.com
Down with bushy shrubs! 🙂
Stevia is a no go!!! I’ll stick to vinaigrette’s