Petal
by Petal Beverage LLC
Review: Petal
Covers Products: Lychee Rose, Mint Rose, Original Rose
Petal is a USDA Organic zero calorie sparkling beverage that features a blend of botanicals in each of their three flavors.
These flavors, which include Original Rose, Lychee Rose, and Mint Rose, are, as the flavor names suggest, rose flavored and feature both rose water and rose flavoring. In addition, the products are lightly sweetened with erythritol and stevia, which is, at least at the time of this review, one of the best approaches that we’ve seen to delivering a clean, aftertaste-free flavor using zero calorie sweeteners.
Rose is typically somewhat of a polarizing flavor, capable of overwhelming the palate, but Petal has done a really nice job of creating something light and refreshing, with a mildly floral flavor, and a touch of sweetness.
The Original Rose variety of course has the most rose flavor of the trio, while Mint and Lychee feature an even softer rose flavor thanks to the addition of other flavors. For our palates, mint is a really nice pairing and the one that we think will have the most appeal due to its broad familiarity. Lychee is a bit more exotic (in terms of its relative level of awareness) and something that doesn’t appeal to the senses the same way that mint does, but it’s still pretty tasty.
Packaging is a slim 12 oz. can that has a sleeve label. It’s bright and bold, with a white background and a large Petal logo front and center. There’s a whimsical graphic at the top, which incorporates roses into the design, while the bottom half of the can is dedicated to a small amount of copy describing the liquid. It’s definitely a pretty straightforward and easy to read approach.
We do wonder if the product wouldn’t benefit from a bit more copy to describe the product’s purpose and position. Is it a replacement for a sparkling water, a CSD, an herbal tea, or something else? Refreshment is likely its most marketable benefit and we wish that came across a bit more. As it stands right now, Petal has some good visual appeal but you’ll really have to pick it up and read it to figure it out.
All in all, this product is a pretty solid first effort for Petal. There’s some room for the company to continue to develop and refine, but we think it’s punching above its weight out of the gate.