The Dirt:
We won’t lie. This drink doesn’t claim to cure ailments, detoxify all the vodka you’ve guzzled over the last year, or make your skin blemish free. Those are lofty expectation for anything that can be purchased over the counter. However, we think this drink is the perfect happy medium between water and juice. Now that we have all but given up on flavored waters or simply accepted that most vitamin-infused waters are more gimmick then quality, we can happily view Honest Tea’s Honest Ade Superfruit Punch as the perfect, lower-calorie juice and soda alternative, with just enough flavor.

We first encountered Yumberry through the innovative British berry-oriented superfruit juice company The Berry Company. But maybe we Americans have SunOpta to thank for their April 2007 deal with Zhejiang Yumberry that snagged them Chinese yumberry distribution rights in North America. Known in Mainland China as Yang Mei, SunOpta Executive V.P. expects it will follow in the footsteps of acai and pomegranate since it is tasty and contains vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin and carotene. A Nutraceuticals World article also sees yumberry joining the ranks of superfruits. After gulping countless bottles of Honest Ade Superfruit Punch, we know at least one thing—it tastes amazing.

Thinner than juice but with more substance than tap water, it is sweet but not sugary, thanks to the use of organic cane sugar as a sweetener. Though it features many juice extracts, including organic yumberry concentrate and organic goji berry extract, it is only 7% juice. Somehow that doesn’t concern us because the 100-calorie drink is addictive. The combination of flavors and the new Asia-derived yumberry, packaged in a 16.9-ounce phthalates-free plastic bottle is the perfectly sweet yet neutral drink. Maybe it is the white grape juice or maybe the mystic yumberry. Either way, we’ll be drinking it through and through. Away with the apple cranberry and all the fancy juice concoctions, this one is a keeper.

Where:
Honest Tea USDA organic Superfruit Punch retails for about $1.59. For more information on Honest Beverages, visit The Honest Beverages website.