Suja Elements Holiday Edition: Call Me Pumpkin

Suja’s “Call Me Pumpkin” is part of the company's new Elements "Holiday Edition" sub-line. It blends a bevy of ingredients, including many that are far from what you’d expect to see in a product of this type. They include sweet potato, carrot, maple sugar, pumpkin, pecans, coconut, black strap molasses, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove and salt. At a glance, we were expecting something that was somewhat in line with all of the “pumpkin spice” products that are being sold this year. In addition, we expected the beverage to be overly sweet. Fortunately, neither of these is the case. What you have inside this bottle is a smooth and slightly rich blend that delivers fall flavors in much more sophisticated way. The ingredients combine quite nicely, with a taste profile that skews more towards salty and savory than sweet. There is some slight sweetness to the product (we might like a bit more), but it’s something that hits you on the finish rather than the start. All in all, we appreciate the uniqueness and execution of this blend. On the packaging front, Suja has done a nice job of adding a callout without making it seem chintzy (a problem for many brands that go down this path). However, that might make it a bit harder for it to catch the consumer’s eye as they pan the already expansive set that Suja currently has. Overall, we really like this approach to a seasonal line extension, and we think that Suja has done a great job of creating something that feels like a real flavor rather than a gimmicky holiday treat.