Spindrift

Pineapple is the latest line extension for Spindrift, a line of sparkling water beverages that are flavored with real squeezed fruit. 

In this case, the product contains a touch of pineapple juice from Costa Rican pineapples. It is, as far as we know (and as the brand has claimed), the first sparkling water made with real pineapple juice, one of just three ingredients along with carbonated water and citric acid. Each 12 oz. can contains 13 calories and 5 grams of sugar from the juice no added sugar).

When it comes to flavor, this might be our favorite Spindrift release to date. The pineapple flavor tastes super fresh and reflects the quality ingredients. And they’ve used just the right amount -- it provides a nice tease of flavor to the palate with just the faintest hint of sweetness to it. To put it simply, this drink is highly crushable.

On the outside, this product sticks with the same layout as the rest of the Spindrift lineup. We have no complaints, as the attractive design the company has been using is clearly working for them. In this case, the product gets a blue accent color and an illustration of a pineapple in the middle. It’s simple and clean, and a nice nod to what’s inside the can.

Overall, this is a truly stellar addition to the Spindrift lineup, and one we suspect will be a strong performer for the brand.

Spindrift’s latest flavor is its take on one of the cornerstone flavors of sparkling water’s cornerstone flavors: lime. Like its other flavors, Spindrift’s Lime variety uses real squeezed juice and carbonated water as the product’s only ingredients.

Containing 4 percent lime juice, the product has plenty of lime flavor to it. Spindrift has done a superb job of creating something that tastes fresh, flavorful and bright. In addition, it’s superbly balanced and doesn’t overpower your palate, as lime juice sometimes can.

Visually, the 12 oz. white and green can is well executed and attractive to the eye. The brand’s current approach to package design, which was launched a few years ago, continues to work well and this is no exception. Both the design and layout are simple, clean, and almost instantly intuitive.

However, we do wish that there was a bit more variation between the lime and the green accent. Spindrift’s Lemon variety, which has a blue accent color around an image of a lemon slice, has some great visual pop to it. This package, which uses somewhat similar shades of green, doesn’t have that same appeal.

Still, this is a relatively minor suggestion; in the end, it doesn’t change our opinion that Lime will be one of Spindrift’s anchor flavors. It’s one of those products that’s exceptionally well executed and has proven market appeal.

Overall, Lime is an excellent addition to the Spindrift family that gives the brand an answer to what is presently the most popular sparkling water flavor.

Spindrift’s latest creation, which was unveiled at the Natural Products Expo West 2018, is perhaps their most adventurous flavor to date in that it introduces an ingredient that they haven’t used before: tea.

The product, which is a riff on a classic “half & half” or Arnold Palmer, is a blend of carbonated water, fresh lemon juice, and black tea. The only thing missing is sugar, which has been intentionally omitted to create a product that’s true to the brand and drinks like a sparkling water.

To that end, we think they’ve done a tremendous job crafting something that is loaded with flavor but has 0g of sugar and only 5 calories per can. The use of fresh lemon juice definitely makes a difference -- it’s full bodied and almost tricks your palate into thinking that there’s sweetness to the drinks. Plus, they’ve added just the right amount of black tea and the product is nicely balanced.

Packaging follows the same format as the other Spindrift flavors. The product, which is packaged in a 12 oz. can, has a two-tone paint job with white on the top and brown on the bottom. The center area, which is used on the other flavors for a single fruit image, has a lemon with leaves on top of it.

While this format is almost instantly intuitive on their other flavors, it isn’t on this one. Instead, it takes a bit of reading and analyzing, especially to find one of the key selling points of “unsweetened.” Ultimately, we wonder if this product won’t require a slightly different approach to the graphics or placement of the copy.

In the end, we think that Spindrift has created something that is an innovative -- and very well executed -- addition to their lineup. While we suspect that a tea-based product will be somewhat polarizing to Spindrift customers, we are also willing to bet that this will prove to be a very worthy addition.