Dr. Chao Raw Kombucha: Coconut Kombucha

This product, which is likely an effort to grab part of the coconut water trend, is a blend of raw kombucha culture, black tea, evaporated cane juice, and coconut. And by coconut, we’re pretty sure they mean flavoring of some sort -- the coconut flavor tastes almost candy like. Otherwise, there’s a fairly mellow kombucha flavor to this product. Unlike other products in the category, this variety lacks effervescence and is on the sweet side, despite the label saying it has only 30 calories and 2g of sugar per bottle (we honestly find this hard to believe). Ultimately, there’s just too much coconut flavor to this product to be credible or enjoyable as a kombucha. Visually, the 12 oz. fully wrapped glass bottle has some pop to it thanks to the bright red color of the label. The use of a coconut graphic makes it easy to figure out that this is a coconut flavored beverage. Our reservations with the design are twofold. First, we don’t like the use of “Dr.” in the name, which implies some sort of expertise on the functionality and reduces the perceived refreshment value of the product. Second, there’s too much text on the label, with some of it just not needing to be there (e.g. “Elixir of Life”). Overall, this is a good start, but “less is more” is a concept that would help both the flavor and branding of this beverage.