I’m Not Sure What Spindrift Soda Is Trying to Be
The 2% milk of the soda world.
I am an avid drinker of sparkling water, but Spindrift has never been my favorite brand. Many of the flavors remind me of drinking lemon juice straight from the bottle. However, I was very intrigued when I heard Spindrift was making "soda," so I had to try it.
If you're unfamiliar with Spindrift, it's just sparkling water that has been flavored with fruit juice. Spindrift Soda is pretty much the exact same thing, but they've doubled the amount of fruit juice. I like the idea of sparkling water with more flavor and a bit of sugar as sort of a "2% milk" stop gap before going all the way to "whole" soda. But is it any good?
There are five flavors of Spindrift Soda. Let's rank 'em.
5. Spindrift Ginger Ale
32 calories, 5g sugar
I'm from Michigan, which means ginger ale (thanks to Vernors) is one of my favorite drinks. Unfortunately, I think Spindrift forgot the ginger in their ginger ale. All I was getting was harsh bottled lime juice flavor. Not at all what I hoped for.
4. Spindrift Shirley Temple
43 calories, 7g sugar
The Shirley Temple flavor was a similar story as the Ginger Ale. I expect a Shirley Temple to taste like sweet pomegranate and cherry with a bit of lime to balance it out, but this was very lime-forward again.
3. Spindrift Orange Cream Float
38 calories, 7g sugar
Okay, now we're getting somewhere. I still wouldn't say this tastes like what the name implies, but it at least tastes good. If you like orange juice you will like this flavor. That's really what it tastes like—slightly watered-down, bubbly orange juice. Not bad!
2. Spindrift Concord Freeze
40 calories, 7g sugar
This is what I was expecting from Spindrift Soda. The Concord Freeze flavor packs a nice grape punch. For some reason I've come to appreciate grape soda more as an adult than I did as a child. I liked this flavor a lot, though I did realize it's really just sparkling grape juice in a can. I'm okay with that.
1. Spindrift Strawberry Shortcake
32 calories, 4g sugar
I never would have thought Strawberry Shortcake would be my favorite flavor. There's so much fake strawberry flavor in the world that you forget how delicious real strawberries can be. Unlike the other flavors, this one took me out of the world of plain sparkling water a bit more. Very refreshing and full of flavor. The clear winner!
All in all I found Spindrift Soda to be pretty underwhelming. None of the flavors were bad, but they also weren't crazily different than just plain Spindrift. I wasn't expecting, like, Mountain Dew levels of sweetness—nor did I want that—but I was hoping for something more. I think I'll stick with good ol' sparkling water.
