Jamba Coconut Water

Product Type:Juice: Coconut Water and Juice; Container: 16.9 oz Pak
BevNET Review: The Tropical Mango flavor of Jamba’s Coconut Water Fruit Juice Beverages is, despite the clumsy name, the cleanest tasting flavor of the bunch. It’s made with a base of O.N.E.’s coconut water, while added fruit juice, flavorings, and a variety of other ingredients make up the rest of the formulation. The fruit flavor comes from a variety of fruit juices and purees (totaling 84 percent juice), including banana, apple, mango, pear, lime, and orange. The orange and apple hit your tongue first, followed by a heavy amount of the mango. The coconut water is in there, but it takes a back seat, resulting in something that tastes more like one of Jamba’s smoothies than a coconut water. Our biggest gripe with the formulation is the thickness and gumminess of the body (there’s added xanthan gum and pectin), which makes it feel heavy. That’s quite a contrast to other coconut water enhanced beverages that are out there today. Functionally, they’ve added a host of antioxidants, which are derived from green tea leaf, grape seed, pomegranate extract, and acai extract. It’s fine that they’ve added these, but we don’t see these as having a ton of influence on the purchasing decision. For packaging, the product uses a 16.9 oz. screw top Tetra Pak, a proven package when it comes to coconut water. The Jamba brand is definitely going to have some pull, but we think that O.N.E. got the short end of the stick (they are only mentioned in text, once on the front and once in the fine print on the side). Overall, the best of the three, but we feel as though the drink’s formulation feels more complicated than it should be.Reviewed on: 8/12/2011

Product Type:Juice: Coconut Water and Juice; Container: 16.9 oz PAk
BevNET Review: Made with an 84 percent juice blend of apple, banana, mango, pineapple, kiwi, pear, and lime, this flavor has the most complex flavor of the Jamba Coconut Water line. The flavor is also impacted by the addition of spinach, wheatgrass, and spirulina powders, which give the product a noticeable vegetable flavor. The coconut water seems lost in the shuffle, unfortunately serving as more of a filler and marketing move than anything else. And ultimately, the apple flavor is too strong for our liking. This was definitely our least favorite of the bunch. The 16.9 oz. Tetra Pak has a heavy amount of green to it, lacking the contrasting colors that are found in the designs of the other two flavors. Plus, there’s something about apple being the leading fruit flavor that seems unappealing for this type of product – it’s definitely not what we’d consider a premium flavor (why not lead with kiwi or one of the other flavors?). Overall, we feel as though this flavor would be a lot better if they downplayed the apple, both in the formulation and packaging. Reviewed on: 8/12/2011

Product Type:Juice: Coconut Water and Juice; Container: 16.9 oz Pak
BevNET Review: When it comes to smoothies, banana and strawberry is a combination that’s like peanut butter and jelly. That said, this is definitely the most mainstream oriented flavor in this line, and we think they’ve done a pretty decent job with it. The flavor has easily distinguishable notes of strawberry and banana, while added apple, lime, and orange juices add depth but don’t get in the way. The O.N.E. Coconut water, which is one of the key selling points of the product, is easy to miss, with the only note of coconut water coming in the midst of the drink’s finish. In addition to fruit juice and coconut water, the product is enhanced with antioxidants, but we have a hard time believing that these will impact the purchase too much. Packaging, which is a 16.9 oz. Tetra Pak, makes good use of the Jamba brand, but there’s something about this product that feels bland and incomplete. For starters, it seems like giving O.N.E. more involvement in the brand (there are two nearly nondescript mentions) would help the product seem like something with added benefit over Jamba’s normal product line. We’d say the same for the flavor, which, for being coconut water enhanced, really doesn’t taste anything like coconut water. Overall, we like the concept, but we think it can be improved upon. Reviewed on: 8/12/2011