Alive root beer

Background information: (from the website) "The story of GT’s does not begin with a business plan; it starts with a young man on a mission. Witnessing its incredible effects firsthand, a teenage GT Dave realized his purpose to share the gift of Kombucha in its purest, most potent form to help people everywhere live healthier, happier lives.

GT’s mom, Laraine, is diagnosed with a highly aggressive form of breast cancer and drinks the family’s pungent home-brewed Kombucha throughout her journey to recovery.

Inspired by his mother’s experience, GT begins bottling his small batches in the kitchen of his family’s Southern California home. Later that year, he sells his first two cases of Original to Erewhon, an LA health food store, making him the first to put Kombucha on shelves in the U.S.

(1997) GT launches his new SYNERGY line of Kombucha made with real fruit juices and purees, including Cosmic Cranberry, Strawberry Serenity, and Mystic Mango. (1999) GT starts selling his Kombucha in Whole Foods stores across California. (2005) GT expands and moves into a larger brewing facility in order to begin national distribution. (2010) GT introduces his new Enlightened line (now part of SYNERGY)—a reformulation of the original formula, which he now calls CLASSIC.

(2018) As his product portfolio continues to grow, GT forms parent company GT’s Living Foods to house the full family of offerings. (2019) Under GT’s Living Foods, GT introduces two new offerings—ALIVE, an adaptogenic mushroom elixir, and AGUA DE KEFIR, a non-dairy water kefir."

Product details: 16 fl. oz.  GT's Living Foods LLC, PO Box 2352, Beverly Hills, CA 90213. 20 calories, 5g sugar (~4g sugar per 12 oz.). Glass bottle with twist-off top. www.gtslivingfoods.com

Ingredients: Adaptogenic mushroom infusion (reishi, chaga, turkey tail), pu-erh tea, raw apple cider vinegar*, dark amber maple, root beer spices, erythritol*, and stevia leaf*. (Caffeine: 75mg)

*Organically produced.

Note: this ingredient list -listed on the bottle I bought- is completely different than what is shown on their website, so I'm not sure if they changed the formulation after I bought my bottle, or if what I got at the store (just last month) is the new formulation and the website is old. Here's the list of ingredients from the website: Purified water, raw apple cider vinegar*, cane sugar*, root beer extract*, reishi*, lion's mane*, KSM-66 Ashwagandha Root Extract™, L-theanine* (from green tea), Alpha-GPC (Alpha-Glyceryl Phosphoryl Choline), vanilla extract*, fruit & vegetable juice (for color), natural flavors, and stevia leaf*. *Organically produced. Caffeine-free.


My thoughts: I believe this is the first apple cider vinegar root beer I've seen and I'm not sure how I feel about it. This is a "healthy" drink, so I have the suspicion that it'll be more of a root beer inspired drink than a real root beer. I am, however, a big fan of this company's Synergy kombucha line, so maybe they have some magic up their sleeves but I'm not holding my breath on this one. Let's see if those suspicions are justified.

I'll just get this out of the way. It's not anything I could classify as a "root beer". There is a hint of that classic sassafras root beer flavor, but with a bunch of wintergreen mixed in. The main flavor profile is more of a slightly souring medicinal vinegar flavor. I sometimes get that from kombuchas, but they also have enough fruit flavor to balance it out while this one feels like the root beer is more of a tone and aftertaste more than the main flavor. Speaking of aftertaste, the root beer portion is overwhelmed by the wintergreen (or whatever mint).

Carbonation is pretty decent. Again, it's very kombucha-like, with very tiny bubbles that aren't too aggressive, but decently strong. They also persist through the whole thing. I think it's a pretty pleasant effervescent experience. This is a very low sugar drink, so there's really no hint of a sugary or syrupy feel. While it does use stevia leaf, I didn't find the impact on flavor to be of note. As for smoothness, it lacks any foam or creaminess and the apple cider vinegar makes it feel a little harsh.

Well, my suspicions were accurate, though I think it might be even less appetizing than I had predicted. The root beer flavor is quite weak and gets buried beneath the wintergreen and other aspects of this drink. If I'm going to drink something even remotely in this realm, I will go for the company's fruity Synergy kombucha. If I want a root beer, this will be nowhere on the list. Others have done the healthy root beer much better. I may try to find the alternative ingredients version of this drink, not because I want it, but for the sake of comparison.

Rating: F+
flavor: F
aftertaste: F
sweetness: C-
smoothness: D-
carbonation: B

poppi Prebiotic root beer (2026)

Background information: (from the website): "Back in 2015, Allison Ellsworth was ready to break up with soda—seriously. 😳 She didn’t love how it made her feel, but the taste? Now that she couldn’t quit.

She knew there could be a better way and got to work in her Dallas kitchen.👩‍🔬 Mixing fruit juices with prebiotics and sparkling water, she created the future of soda.🥤

She bottled her fizzy creation and took it to a local farmers’ market, where a Whole Foods buyer stopped by, took one sip, and instantly knew a soda star was born.🌟

Everything changed when she and her husband, Stephen, got the call from Shark Tank. Nine months pregnant, they boarded a plane to L.A. Next thing they knew, they were on camera making a deal with ‘The Brandfather’ Rohan Oza.🤝

After a bold rebrand and a fresh new name, poppi was officially born.👼

Now, poppi’s stocked in every major retailer nationwide, is expanding internationally, and has made some pretty cool friends along the way, including Post Malone, Hailey Bieber, Kylie Jenner, Billie Eilish, Russell Westbrook, Jennifer Lopez, Olivia Munn, Charli XCX, Alix Earle and more.

In 2025, poppi joined the PepsiCo family and the future has never looked juicier. With fruity and classic flavors, poppi's here to give you the freedom to love soda again, one can at a time. "

(from the can) "Here's the scoop: you're defff gonna want to pick up."

I reviewed this root beer back in 2023, but heard the formula has been changed, so am revisiting it to see if I have a different impression this time around.

Product details: 12 fl. oz.  Distributed by: poppi, Austin, TX 78702. 30 calories, 5g sugar. Aluminum can. https://www.drinkpoppi.com/

Ingredients: Sparkling Water, Cassava Root Fiber, Organic Cane Sugar, Natural Flavors, Apple Juice Concentrate, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Agave Inulin, Stevia Leaf Extract, Natural Tartaric Acid.


My thoughts: As mentioned above, this is a root beer I reviewed back in 2023. I'm not going to revisit that review until after I write up my initial thoughts, so I'll come back to that in the final section here. That said, my experience with probiotic root beers is a bit hit or miss (leaning more towards the "miss" side of things). Let's see if the new formulation for this makes an improved impression on me.

My first impression is that this is a decent root beer. It has a good rooty sassafras taste to it, though right off the bat I can also tell that it's a "healthy" soda, but not necessarily in a bad way. Along with the initial rooty flavor, there's a fair amount of wintergreen minty taste, though it doesn't reach toothpaste levels, instead making a good showing but then backing off fairly quickly. Under these two flavors, there is a hint of vanilla that grows stronger in the aftertaste as the wintergreen fades, leaving a good rooty vanilla taste behind. Oftentimes, these probiotic drinks have a little bit of a vinegar taste to them, but this one seems free of any of that. One note is that this uses Stevia as a sweetener and there is a hint of that taste, but as someone who really dislikes Stevia, I found it to be well hidden under the other flavors.

This isn't the fizziest soda, and the bubbles are more subtle and don't prickle on my tongue, but it doesn't feel flat. While I tend to prefer aggressive carbonation, this may align more with those that prefer a more subdued effervescence. Sweetness is pretty good, but as mentioned above it does have that Stevia taste to it. It does also have some regular sugar, so I think they struck a nice balance of sweetness without too much Stevia to dominate. Lastly, as most probiotic drinks feel a bit thicker and creamier, I found this to be quite smooth, with a satisfying texture to the drink.

Consider me pleasantly surprised. I generally don't care a whole lot for these types of root beers but I ended up pretty pleased with this. It has a good flavor, the Stevia taste is well controlled and minimized, and I like that it lacks that vinegary taste these can sometimes have. For a "healthy" root beer, I think this is quite good and an excellent option for those who are trying to keep their sugar intake low. I also think it's quite a bit better choice over the various diet root beers.

Looking back at my previous review, it looks like they have made some changes to the flavor, as I didn't note any wintergreen before, but did have a tangy vinegar flavor, something that is entirely absent from this updated version. I think all the flavor changes are improvements over the older formulation, and would certainly be more willing to recommend this now.

Rating: B-
flavor: B
aftertaste: B
sweetness: A-
smoothness: C+
carbonation: C-