Fruit2O Essentials Water - Sucralose Sweetness

After a 4.7 mile run in high heat and humidity The Emerging Runner and I were excited to sit down in front of six well-chilled bottles of Fruit2O Essentials water for a taste test. The flavors we'd been provided were exotic and broad-ranging. Each claimed that they acted as a substitute for one's daily recommended allowance of fruit, contained zero carbs from sugar, and offered electrolytes and vitamins ranging from phosphorus to B6. We each sampled all six flavors in moderate quantities. You can see our set-up in the below photo.

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As we tasted each flavor we jotted down immediate impressions on Post-It Notes, and after tasting all six, ranked all flavors in order of preference. Here's a sampling of our notes:

• Peach Mango: Strong fruit smell with decidedly more peach than mango. Too sweet to be refreshing. Neither strongly preferred nor disliked by either The Emerging Runner or Adventure Girl.
• Citrus: Smells like grapefruit. Tastes like lemonade. Most refreshing of all flavors. The Emerging Runner's flavor of preference.
• Strawberry Kiwi: Very mild aroma. Tastes like strawberry Jello. A close runner up to Citrus and Cranberry Raspberry.

• Blueberry Pomegranate: Fresh blueberry scent. Taste is too strong and complex for water, and hints of astringent. A runner-up to Cherry Acai for least preferred.
• Cranberry Raspberry: Milder scent than other flavors. Subtle, balanced flavor. Adventure Girl's flavor of preference.
• Cherry Acai: Smells like wild cherry cough drops and tastes like cough syrup or watered down cherry soda. Both The Emerging Runner and Adventure Girl ranked this flavor least preferable.

In conclusion, the drink's sweetener, sucralose, which is known to be 600 times as sweet as table sugar (it's the sweetener in Splenda), was just too cloying to be refreshing. Both The Emerging Runner and I will stick to water for now.

Finally, Fruit2O Essentials is sponsoring a driven young woman who is attempting to become the youngest woman to run cross country. We applaud Fruit2Os sponsorship of Katie Visco and her cause which she's dubbed Pave Your Lane.