Review: Passion Fruit Yerba Mate

Fizzleblitz Passion Fruit Yerba Mate is a “sparkling fruit juice tea” that is made with 5 percent juice. The flavor of this product is reminiscent of other sparkling fruit juice beverages that we’ve had in the past. It has a somewhat sweet-tasting body (it’s sweetened with cane sugar), with a decent amount of passion fruit flavor. The company also added yerba mate, which contains caffeine. However, this doesn’t appear to do much in terms of the drink’s flavor (the passionfruit still wins out) and they don’t disclose (at least on the bottle) exactly how much caffeine is contained in the bottle. That being said, it’s somewhat unclear as to what the manufacturer is trying to achieve by adding this ingredient. Adding to the confusion is the product’s packaging and branding, which features a 12 oz. stock glass bottle and a space-themed label motif. We’re not quite sure who would identify with the branding as it currently stands (kids?). Furthermore, it seems at odds with a yerba mate-based sparkling fruit drink -- as does the prominent mention of Nantucket Island. While there’s certainly a market for a product of this type (albeit a niche one), we think that they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to better communicate, both in text and graphics, what this product is all about. Overall, it’s a tasty product, but we feel as though it needs refinement if it hopes to be a brand that has more than limited appeal.