Sodee Pop is a new line of zero-calorie CSDs, which are being positioned as clean soda for kids. Sweetened with stevia, the line features two 8-ounce flavors: Orange Fizz and Root Beer.

A zero-calorie approach is certainly a bit of a departure from the 25-50 calories that we’ve typically seen from today’s upstart CSD brands. On top of that, there’s no prebiotic or probiotic content to add functionality. Instead, Sodee Pop promotes having antioxidants from added ascorbic acid (vitamin C). A touch of Himalayan sea salt at the finish adds a slight complexity to the flavor profile, and organic flavors are used in both products.

Here’s a deeper look into each of the two flavors:

• Orange Fizz: This flavor delivers a classic orange soda experience with a very sweet taste. Impressively, there’s no noticeable aftertaste, which is often a concern with stevia-sweetened products. This SKU stands out as a strong contender in the category, offering a flavor that kids will likely enjoy without the guilt of sugar content.

• Root Beer: This flavor, on the other hand, is not as sweet by comparison. While it does have the familiar root beer flavor, it’s clearly a reduced-calorie product, which might not appeal as strongly to those who are used to the richness of traditional root beer. However, it’s still  respectable as a healthier alternative.

On the outside,Sodee Pop’s playful and colorful packaging is clearly designed with kids in mind. The compact 8-ounce cans offer a smaller portion size than the 12 ounce cans used by a majority of Sodee Pop’s potential competitors. Each can features bright, eye-catching colors that correspond to the flavor inside — orange for Orange Fizz and brown for Root Beer — with a bold, fun font used for the brand name "Sodee Pop."  Plus, there’s a cartoonish looking soda character that has been created for each flavor.

Overall the design aesthetic is simple, creating something with appeal to kids without actually being called a kids beverage on the front of the can.  Instead, the can uses the tagline “the fizzy drink without the junk,” which is a pretty direct way of describing the product. 

Also, the front panel promotes “added antioxidants,” which, as previously mentioned, comes in the form of ascorbic acid.  More commonly known as vitamin C, this feels like a pretty weak callout considering that the nutrition facts panel points out that it contains 1mg of vitamin C, which is 0% of the RDA.  Instead, we’d love to see a front panel callout for the product having zero calories and zero grams of sugar. This would more directly help the product’s marketability.

As for Sodee Pop’s focus on kids, we feel as though this might unnecessarily pigeonhole the brand into a notoriously challenging category. There’s certainly a much larger base of drinkers for this product than just kids – and why lose those kid consumers when they grow older? Instead, this audience could be targeted with a bit more subtlety.

Finally, we do wonder about the choice of an 8-ounce can. While mega brands like Coca-Cola are successfully selling products in this format, they do it as a packaging choice and price-per-ounce play rather than as their exclusive offering. On top of that, all of the emerging CSD brands are in a 12 ounce can, which could put this brand at a competitive disadvantage  In the end, this feels like a risky place to differentiate and we’d suggest considering a larger format.

Overall, Sodee Pop’s first effort is a good start for the brand and does show the potential for an upstart zero-calorie CSD to deliver a modern, fun brand and very enjoyable flavor. However, we think they’ll first need to refine their messaging, and also consider a larger package size.