Eclipse Beverages Sparkling Iced Tea

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz glass
BevNET Review: We've sampled a few sparkling black teas in our day, and this one certainly hits the mark in terms of formulation. They've used a relatively simple formulation, which includes organic cane sugar, organic black tea, and lemon. It's clean and crisp, with a mild amount of carbonation helping to give the product some depth. Packaging is really the weak point for this product, with the product's name (which is "Eclipse") found on side panel rather than the front. That's a fatal mistake in our opinion, especially since there are conflicting elements that compete for the eye (we'd guess it's called "Sun Burst" in the absence of a logo). Overall, an enjoyable formulation, but the product needs a makeover.Reviewed on: 6/18/2008

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz glass
BevNET Review: Of all the flavors of Eclipse, this one seemed the most appealing to us. However, there's way too much sugar in this product. After consuming about 1/3 of the product, your mouth is coated with sugar, making it very difficult to taste the tea. Otherwise, packaging is the major issue for this product. Putting a tea product into a 12 oz soda bottle is a big risk, potentially alienating tea drinkers and putting the product into the declining CSD market. Plus, the placement of the logo on the side of the bottle is a big issue for us -- we think it will confuse consumers.Reviewed on: 6/18/2008

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Diet; Container: 12 oz glass
BevNET Review: For being sucralose sweetened and strawberry flavored (two things that are particularly hard to get right), they've done a pretty nice job formulating this product. There's a decent dose of tea flavor to the mix and almost no sweetener aftertaste. The light carbonation gives the product an adult style feeling in your mouth, while the strawberry flavor is extremely natural tasting (it's from "strawberries", which we're assuming means it's derived from actual strawberries rather than strawberry flavoring). Unfortunately, the product's main issue is packaging and positioning, which currently makes it look like a generic attempt at a premium CSD. We don't see any merit to the use of this bottle and the lack of a logo on the front panel is quite confusing. Hopefully these are issues that can be easily remedied in future versions of the product. Reviewed on: 6/18/2008

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Diet; Container: 12 oz glass
BevNET Review: Peach was our least favorite flavor of the lineup. While there's a nice tasting tea flavor to the drink and only minimal sweetener aftertaste, the peach flavor leaves something to be desired. It doesn't taste very natural, and when combined with the sucralose and the bitter finish to the tea, we're left with something tastes like a muddled mixture of competing flavors. Plus, the product shares the packaging issues cited in the other reviews. Reviewed on: 6/18/2008