Are Fancy Health Drinks Actually Worth Buying?
I've been told Diet Coke will kill me, so before coming to the studio I stopped by Super Target to pick up a sandwich and some fancy health/energy drinks. I'm not really one to buy fancy drinks - I think froo froo Starbucks coffee drinks are a waste of money and many other drinks are popular mostly because they look aesthetically appealing.
Today I caved and bought some cute-looking energy and health drinks (yes, they were very cute-looking) - bai5 Sparkling Antioxidant Infusion Jamaica Blood Orange, hi*ball ENERGY Sparkling Energy Water in grapefruit and wild berry, and low-calorie Starbucks Iced Coffee.
After chugging the Starbucks Iced Coffee, I tested the bai5 drink (left). Its packaging is definitely super cool looking (that's the best and only way I can really describe it), but it almost feels and looks like a paper can because of the strange plastic coating (because we all know it's the coating that makes the difference). It has a bold, bubbly flavor that lasts. The bai5 was only $1.99 and despite containing 13 carbs, there is only 1 net carb in the can (sugar) - the other 12 carbs are erythritol carbs, which have no calories or effect on blood sugar, which, yay! Can all carbs be erythritol carbs, please?
Then I tried the hi*ball ENERGY Sparkling Energy Water in grapefruit. It's exactly what I expected being "sparkling water" - the flavor does NOT last more than 2 seconds before tasting like plain carbonated water. That's something I really hate - I should have seen the warning signs ("Sparkling Energy Water" really does mean sparkling crap, I guess). I have yet to try the wild berry flavor, but both hi*ball ENERGY drinks were $2.49 and the packaging is definitely cute-looking, though. I'll give it that. hi*ball has zero sugar, zero calories, is unsweetened, and loaded with niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, and organic guarana, ginseng, and caffeine.
So are these drinks actually worth buying? My mind says no, but my stomach and taste buds say, "hell yes, the bai5 is worth buying." I could do without the gross, more expensive hi*ball ENERGY drinks, though, and just go for caffeine pills and B12 shots.
If you have drink or food suggestions you'd like to give me, shoot me an email or tweet me @mollieonair.