Bawi is a recently launched, Texas-based brand of sparkling agua fresca beverages. The initial lineup features three flavors, including La Piña, El Limón, and Maracuyá.

Bawi uses a simple list of clean ingredients that includes water, fruit juices and sugar. The product markets itself as using “cold force carbonation” (force carbonation of the entire product rather than just the water), which is why it lists water rather than sparkling water as an ingredient. The fruit juice content ranges from 11% on El Limon to 48% on La Piña (Maracuya has 18%) and it serves as both a flavoring and, in the case of the added lime juice, to acidify the products. 

The end result is some of the best tasting fruit drinks that we’ve had in a while. We especially love La Piña’s high juice content, which, at 48% juice from pineapple and lime, has a really fresh and accurate fruit flavor and, unlike the other two SKUs, has no added sugar. El Limón is a classic limeade style beverage while Maracuyá is made with passionfruit and lime juices and has a pretty enjoyable tropical flavor to it. 

Also noteworthy is that the products are relatively lightly carbonated, presumably from using force carbonation rather than making the product with sparkling water.  Regardless, we like that the drinks aren’t super fizzy, as this helps them not stray too far from a traditional agua fresca. 

Bawi is packaged in a 12 ounce can with a white shrink sleeve label. Much like the flavors, the labels f have a strong Mexican feel which helps achieve an authentic and high quality appearance. The label structure goes from top to bottom with the Bawi logo, a callout for “sparkling agua fresca,” , an illustration of the hero ingredient, the name of the SKU, and a final callout at the bottom for the product’s calories. There’s one more front label element at the top, which is a small ring around the top of the can that highlights real fruit juice, organic (although the product does not display a USDA Organic seal), and “cold force carbonation.”

We like the design; Bawi’s packaging has sensory visual appeal to the senses, but we’d suggest considering putting the names for the fruits in English somewhere aside from in the ingredient list, as we think that it would be helpful for Maracuyá (the others are pretty obvious). Otherwise, we don’t think we’d change anything about what we see on the front of the can.

Overall, Bawi has done a really great job of creating products that are high quality, use clean ingredients, and look and taste great.  Between this and the fact that the products are sparkling, we think that Bawi is some of the best tasting aguas frescas out there. This feels ready for primetime.