When it was acquired by Peet’s Coffee in 2018, Revive was focused on making refrigerated kombucha in glass bottles. But after releasing a shelf-stable line in 12 oz cans in 2019, the brand has discontinued kombucha altogether. Under its new brand identity of Revive Drinks, the company is looking to reintroduce itself with its debut product: sparkling probiotic sodas, available in Cherry Cola and Root Beer flavors.

Both of the SKUs, which are packaged in standard 12 ounce cans, contain 35 calories and 5 grams of added sugar each. The drinks are sweetened with a blend of allulose, cane sugar and stevia and are caffeine free.

From a taste perspective, both of these products are, compared to other mid-calorie sodas, pleasant tasting. They have a modest amount of sweetness and only a slight amount of sweetener aftertaste. The soda flavors are straightforward and accurate tasting and are pretty much what we’d expect from a reduced calorie cherry cola or root beer. However, they lack the depth of flavor that you’d get from a full strength soda and, in the case of the Root Beer, the signature creaminess. 

That being said, both of these are fine products that will likely please consumers interested in a low calorie soda. 

Taking a look at the packaging and branding, this product makes prominent use of Revive’s existing brand equity. This starts with the Revive logo, which is unchanged since its days as an  exclusively kombucha brand. In addition, there are two color bands on each can, which is something that feels like an evolution of the more narrow bands of color found on their probiotic seltzer and kombucha labels. 

The biggest departure from Revive’s prior approach to labels is the use of photo illustrations in the form of cherries (for Cherry Cola) and a mug of root beer (on Root Beer). These are certainly helpful visual cues.

While the design is well put together, the biggest question for this product is whether or not Revive's credentials as a kombucha brand can be effectively repurposed for soda. Yes, Revive had soda flavors for its kombuchas and this product similarly does have probiotics, but it still doesn’t feel like a perfect fit.   And with the market becoming somewhat saturated with probiotic or prebiotic enhanced low calorie sodas, we’re not sure that Revive Probiotic Soda has a good point of differentiation just yet. 

We’re definitely wondering if this is an opportunistic move or something to which the brand will really commit. If it’s the latter, we’d love to see the lineup expanded to include a bit more variety, which we think will immediately help Revive’s cause.

In the end, there’s definitely some room for this two-SKU line to evolve, but they are enjoyable products that tick many of the expected boxes in the low calorie soda category. It’s definitely worth a try and we’re curious to see how it further develops and differentiates itself.