Upruit

by Upruit, LLC

Review: Upruit Combines Cold-Brew Coffee with Cold-Pressed Juice

Posted: Jul 05, 2017 at 1:21 PM (Last Updated: Jul 06, 2017 at 3:18 PM)

Covers Products: Sparkling Meyer Lemonade Cold-Brew Coffee, Sparkling Tart Cherry Cold-Brew Coffee

With a tagline of “Juice up your cold brew,” Upruit sets the stage for an approach to cold-brew coffee that offers a pretty unique twist from what’s on the market today.

It all starts with a base of organic cold-brew coffee, which they’ve sweetened with maple syrup and paired with cold-pressed juice. From there, they’ve added carbonation and are marketing the mix as a sparkling beverage.

Upruit is currently available in two flavors: Tart Cherry (90 calories) and Meyer Lemonade (100 calories). At 37 percent juice, Tart Cherry has the higher juice content of the two. Using tart cherry and Fuji apple, the product has a heavy note of fruit on the nose, but it’s actually quite balanced on the palate. The tartness of the cherry provides a nice complementary note to the coffee, while the apple and maple syrup hit your tongue at the finish.

This is quite different than the Meyer Lemonade, which, with 14 percent lemon juice, has a very citrus forward flavor. But it definitely lives up to the promise of being a lemonade, which makes for something that’s very refreshing and almost crushable. We also really enjoyed the touch of Himalayan pink salt that you’ll taste at the finish.

For both flavors, the added carbonation is a nice touch. However, this, along with the relatively high level of sweetness, does change the use occasion for this product. Specifically, this is not, unlike regular cold-brew, a replacement for your morning coffee or juice. Instead, it seems like something that’s going to compete more directly with other sparkling beverages, be they soda, sparkling water, or perhaps even an energy drink.

As for the product’s appearance, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Conceptually, we like the Upruit name, its visual treatment, and some of the messaging, which speaks to the freshness of the product. However, we feel as though the design needs a decent amount of improvement as the key elements -- namely cold-brew, cold-pressed, and sparkling -- feel somewhat disconnected from one another. The end result is that there isn’t a cohesive statement of what the product is -- and the emphasis seems to be a bit too much on the juice aspect.

In the end, we like the point of differentiation that Upruit is after as well as the execution of what’s inside the can. If they can give the brand a bit more curb appeal, we think they’ve got something that might have legs.


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