Courtside is a new line of sparkling hydration beverages that were designed for daily use rather than to help athletic performance. The product line uses coconut water as its base ingredient (and source of electrolytes) and contains no added sugar. Courtside is available in three varieties, packaged in 12 ounce slim cans.

The initial three flavors include Coconut Lime, Berry Lemonade, and Mango Passionfruit. All three SKUs contain 50% juice (from organic juices), which includes the coconut water and the other juices that are used to impart flavor. The products have between 45 and 50 calories and 6 to 8 grams of sugar.

When it comes to flavor, all three varieties of Courtside are enjoyable. There are three core elements to each flavor — carbonation, coconut water, and fruit juices — and they have done a superb job of incorporating them in a way that’s subtle, lightly sweet, balanced, and crisp at the finish.  We’ve had plenty of coconut water-based drinks and it’s an ingredient that often overpowers the other ingredients. That’s definitely not the case with Courtside.

The Coconut Lime variety, which is the closest thing to an “Original” flavor that Courtside has, is clean and simple. It loosely resembles the classic lemon-lime flavor that’s found in every sports drink line, but the flavor notes are subtle and natural and the finish is crisp thanks to the carbonation.

The other two varieties, Berry Lemonade and Mango Passionfruit, offer more complex flavor profiles and contain more juices in their blend. Berry Lemonade, which features strawberry purée, blueberry juice, and lemon juice in addition to the base of carbonated water and coconut water, has notes of strawberry and blueberry but not much in the way of lemon.  If it’s a berry lemonade they want this to be, we think it needs more lemon — although the formulation is certainly pretty tasty as is.  Mango Passionfruit, which contains added mango purée, passionfruit juice, and lime juice, has a very enjoyable tropical flavor. It’s subtle rather than in your face thanks to its restrained sweetness.

The product’s hydration functionality is certainly lower than a sports drink or straight coconut water, but it’s got more natural electrolytes than a standard sparkling beverage that doesn’t contain coconut water. This seems like a fine approach considering that this product isn’t really trying to replace either.

As for the branding, the name “Courtside” evokes an emotion of watching rather than partaking.  The graphics take a softer approach than the typically more technical sports drink category.  The labels use a one color design (with a different color for each flavor) and feature illustrated graphics of the hero ingredients as well as a large Courtside logo that runs vertically from the bottom up.  The flavor name is easy to spot, having been placed directly below the fruit illustrations. 

The rest of the label copy is somewhat small and hard to read. This isn’t a big deal for the copy around the top portion of the can, which calls out different use occasions for the drink — things like roller skating, pickleball, and beach days — but the product’s descriptive statement (“Hydrating coconut water beverage”) is small and easy to miss. We’d certainly like to see this increased in size and we also think it’s pretty imperative that they directly state that the drink is sparkling or carbonated. Otherwise, we really like what they’ve created.

The above being said, Courtside feels like something that fits in the better-for-you set of carbonated beverages that’s beginning to pick up steam as an alternative to zero calorie and full calorie beverages. It’s not directly marketed as a soda, but this seems like the place where it might presently have its best shot. Especially if the brand can connect with consumers who are looking for beverages with a clean and short list of ingredients.

Overall, we really like what Courtside has created with their initial lineup. The products are both cool looking and enjoyable tasting — and we think that the products’ super clean ingredients are something that should resonate with consumers of mid-calorie sparkling beverages.

Rating 4 for all