Health-Ade

by Health-Ade

Review: Health-Ade Plus

Posted: Sep 11, 2020 at 10:27 AM (Last Updated: Sep 11, 2020 at 1:14 PM)
Health-Ade Plus

Covers Products: Plus: Beauty, Plus: Belly Reset, Plus: Chill, Plus: Immunity

Health-Ade Plus, which was announced in mid August, is a line of USDA Certified Organic kombuchas that are enhanced with functional ingredients. 

We sampled four of the line’s seven initial SKUs: Belly Reset, which features ginger, pineapple, and extra probiotics; Beauty, which features biotin and silica; Chill, which contains passion flower, vanilla, and lavender; and Immunity, made with turmeric, ginger, and black pepper. 

The functional component of the brand is an interesting one to market for a product type that already is viewed as a somewhat functional, living product thanks to its probiotic content. 

Belly Reset, which doubles down on this by having added probiotics, seems like the most straightforward and will require the least education. We’d say the same for Immunity, which also feels very much in line with what kombucha is all about. Chill and Beauty are effectively new functions for kombucha. We can’t speak to how efficacious these products are (and neither is going to provide an immediate noticeable benefit, unlike perhaps their forthcoming Energy SKU), but we think that the somewhat subtle manner that they’ve executed these flavors will help consumers give them a try.

When it comes to taste, there’s no mistaking any of these for anything but a Health-Ade kombucha. The base flavor and level of quality is exactly what you’ll find from their flagship line. That being said, Health-Ade Plus doesn’t have something that strongly distinguishes the taste from the core lineup. That’s not a bad thing -- we just think that they’ll largely be interchangeable with the rest of the flavors.

For our palates, the standouts were Belly Reset and Immunity. Both of these have some nice ginger spice to them and this is, in our opinion, still one of the best flavor pairings with the lightly fermented flavor that kombucha naturally has. From there, these flavors diverge, with Belly Reset having a subtle pineapple flavor and Immunity featuring turmeric as its secondary flavor. 

In addition, we also really liked the vanilla note that you’ll find in Chill. There aren’t all that many kombuchas that are flavored with vanilla and it’s a surprisingly good combination. Lastly, there’s the strawberry and rose flavored Beauty. This is a perfectly fine entry, but we preferred the more assertive flavors of the other three.

Health-Ade Plus is packaged in the same 16 ounce brown glass bottle used on their flagship kombucha lineup. However, this product line has a much more minimalist style to it. The label’s background is a single flat color (there’s a different color for reach flavor) and a large plus sign is featured on the front of the bottle. 

Inside this plus sign is the Health-Ade anchor, the Health-Ade Plus logo, and the SKU name.  In the lower left portion of the plus, you’ll find the text “Kombucha+” followed by a list of core ingredients. We found this somewhat easy to miss on Belly Reset, which uses white text on top of a yellow background, but on the other three it definitely caught the eye and was straightforward.

While we really like the look of the plus design, we do have one bit of constructive feedback: we’d like the flavor to be a bit more prominent. This feels like something that you have to piece together by looking at the small featured ingredient list. , We also feel as though there’s enough room on the front of the label to help fit this in.

Ultimately, we think that Health-Ade Plus is a really nice line extension for the brand. These are really well executed flavors and we think that they give the brand a place to offer some more focused and potent formulations. 


Product Ratings