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