Zevia creamy root beer

Background information: (from the website): "Our mission is as clear as our Soda: Create a world of better-for-you flavor, better for people and planet. One can at a time, we’re cleaning up the beverage aisle with naturally sweetened, zero sugar deliciousness for all. Zero-compromise refreshment you can enjoy whenever, wherever, as often as your taste buds’ crave. Without a plastic bottle in sight.

The world is already pretty sweet, so we see no need to add sugar. So we are serving up a simple way to avoid added sugar by creating naturally sweetened, great-tasting, drink-as-much-as-you-want refreshment for everyone. It’s a knockout combo of better-for-you beverages and limitless enjoyment that’s accessible to all. We’ve got plenty of flavor for you, and not a single gram of sugar.

It takes guts (and smarts) to improve on a beloved classic. With Creamy Root Beer we’ve (re)created a classic root beer, but with a rich, creamy and naturally sweetened, zero sugar twist. ‘Velvety smooth and bursting with flavor’ some might say, even if they weren’t on our payroll. They might also comment on its clear color — in between pouring their ice-cold Creamy Root Beer into a frosted mug and adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream."

Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Distributed by: Zevia PBS, Los Angeles, CA 91436. 0 calories, 0g sugar. Aluminum can. https://www.zevia.com

Ingredients: Carbonated water, natural flavors, Stevia leaf extract, citric acid.


My thoughts: Okay, I'll be up front and admit I am not a fan of zero calorie soda, especially of the Stevia sweetened variety. But in my unflagging quest to bring you more root beer reviews, I'll take the hit and give it a try. Maybe it'll surprise me?

Okay, the smell is classic root beer. That's promising. Now the flavor. I can tell it's going to be wretched. I scrunch up my face, close my eyes, take a swig, and just like I thought this is completely disgus---hey wait...this isn't too bad. It has a pretty classic root beer taste. Now, don't get me wrong, it does have that telltale stevia sweetened flavor to it that I find unpleasant and also hides picking out the individual spices in the flavor, though I do detect some vanilla. Aftertaste leaves behind the dreaded stevia aftertaste, but again, not as bad as I thought. The strong rooty taste helps mask it a little bit, I think.

Carbonation is pleasant, starting out pretty crunchy and tapering off to a moderate bite mid-can. Fairly decent for a canned soda. There is a little bit of a creaminess to it, though it's not the most frothy and creamy root beer. As for sweetness, it's a decent level of sweetness but unfortunately this comes with a healthy dose of stevia undertones and aftertaste, which is a huge hit to my enjoyment of this root beer. I new going into this that it was a "zero sugar soda," so was completely expected. That said, with 0g of sugar, this is a good option for those that can't drink sugary beverages.

So this wasn't the complete disaster I was expecting for a stevia sweetened root beer. It's drinkable, which is more than I can say for some of the other zero sugar root beers I've tried. It's no Dr. Pepper Zero levels of decent taste (which is where I set the bar for "good" zero sugar sodas), but if I had to switch to a no- or low- sugar diet, I'd consider making this one of my root beer choices. Fortunately for me, I don't need to so I doubt I'll be picking this up again.

Rating: C-
flavor: C
aftertaste: D
sweetness: C
smoothness: B-

carbonation: B+