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-