No Sugar Added - 718 Reviews

I love Polar's limited edition drinks. I think there were a couple we missed but they are becoming our most reviewed product on the site, if they aren't there already. Let me investigate that...hold on a sec...the results are in and as of the writing of this review:

1. Arizona - 63


2. Polar - 48


3. Jones - 48


4. Honest - 44


5. Monster - 41

So it's tied for second. Great.

It's good. It says that it's black"bury" and cham"pain" because it's the Black version. There is also a Red version but I do not know the flavor of that one yet. I have it at home and hope to review it soon.

I don't know how accurate it is. I have recently eaten blackberries as of this week and I guess I can accept that is what it tastes like. I haven't had champagne since 1996 so I cannot tell you what that tastes like. I can tell you for truth that this tastes good, though. Nice, bold and fruity. A nice pick-me-up for the top of the morning. Find it while you can as these won't be here much longer. I assume they are leftover from Valentines' Day and since that was a month and a half ago, they, as well as us, are living on borrowed time.

As each one of my family members drank this we all said the same thing, "Smells like strawberries. Tastes like nothing." and that was absolutely true. Where did the flavor go? Was it stolen? Was it stolen to pay the price on someone who was a friend, family or coworker of the company's head? People can get into some sketchy situations and if you stick by your friends, you'll do some crazy things. While I'm not saying that Doreen from the accounting department isn't worth sacrificing 98% of the flavor of this tea, I might ask if Skip from accounts receivable might take one for the team so that we could have it back.

This tea tastes like nothing. It smells like fresh, real strawberries and then you take a sip and ask the age old question, "Am I dead?" It doesn't taste like anything, including the green tea base that should also be there. It might taste like the aftertaste of a strawberry. It tastes like memories. Sad memories of what could have been. Sad thoughts of what might happen to Skip so that you can enjoy unsweetened tea. We all have dreams. Skip might not for long, though.

I am done with winter. I'm sick of it. It's snowing yet again and it looks like more than a foot of the nonsense is going to pile up around my house yet again. Guess what? I am just not leaving the house today. Forget the world. It's not important anyway. I will just cuddle up with my cat, my dog and this bottle of sparkling tea. Not a typical cold weather drink I know, but it's here and it's tasty so it's what I'm clinging to underneath piles and piles of blankets.
Let me say I don't get the combo of peach and ginger. I have come across it in teas a handful of times, and I enjoy it, but it is always a bit strange. I love both flavors, but they don't mingle the way I want them to. Perhaps peach just shouldn't be mixed with non-fruit flavors. Still, this is quite enjoyable, even though it throws me for a loop a little. It's very peachy with the ginger hanging around the edges. There is no burn in here, which would have been a bit wild. I think it is ultimately better without it though.

I have grown to love these sparkling teas. They are a bit more than seltzer, but don't make me feel the guilt I've been getting from soda lately. Hey, I'm about to turn 40, and I've worked hard to keep myself slim and non-slovenly. While I do love a nice soda, I've learned that they are meant to be treats and not for everyday consumption (at least for me). This way when I have them I appreciate them a lot more. In the meantime I will consume mass amounts of water, seltzer, and unsweetened tea, both sparkling and still.

This bottle says that, “We live in a world of flavors buried in sugar,” and it is not wrong. Somewhere along the line companies realized they could use inferior ingredients and just dump in a ton of sweetener and no one would be the wiser. People may have noticed, but a majority of them simply did not care and the forced it all in the face holes and people's weight started to rise. I can't lie, I do like sugar. Sweets are a rough spot for me because I have little control if they are in front of me. I oddly rarely think about them if I am not exposed to them but once I see them my body craves the sweetness. In beverages that is not really a thing anymore though. I much prefer little to no sugar in my teas and sparkling beverages. I like to be able to actually taste what I'm consuming and not have it be masked. Sound understands this so they grabbed their shovels and went back to the before time, when sugar was a treat and not a constant. Their sparkling teas are near perfection. They don't skimp on the quality of their ingredients and you can taste them all. This is smooth, relaxing, and satisfying all in one gulp. The flavors are strong, but not overpowering. There is no sugar in here whatsoever, yet it still satisfies me in any sweetness that I may desire. This may not be for everyone but I have zero complaints and many accolades.

Oh well Meeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyy Christmas. What better way to share the joy that with minty fresh breath brought to you discreetly by water? Look, this is a fine drink. It reminds me of the date of Metromint, may they rest in peace. Wait, are they still a company? According to their website they are not. Bummer. That chocolate mint water was truly something special. Is this? Eh, I guess it will have to do since the forefathers of mint water are now dead and gone.

This is good. It really is. It's not "really good" but it's good enough that it passed the "doesn't taste like toothpaste" test which, you guessed it, is when you drink mint flavored drinks and they do or do not taste like toothpaste. It's a crucial but hidden, secret test that all our drinks have to go through. Think of it as bootcamp for drinks.

This is (probably) a limited time offer so if you like a nice minty drink, get it while the gettin's good. I got this at Target so you should have no problem finding it.

This was nice. I've got a head cold. I wish I could appreciate this more. Instead, it's just a flavored water. It's not super minty like Metromint. I miss Metromint. Man, that chocolate one was great. It doesn't taste like toothpaste which, while doesn't need to be said, should be noted at very least. The lemongrass, yeah, she's there. It's not strong but it's present.

Trader Joe's on a Sunday with your kid who just spit potatoes au gratin in your hands isn't the best way to close a weekend but this was a nice, pleasant way to kind of "round the edges" a little bit.

This is a flavor that delivers what it promises. What does it promise? Well, I can't say for certain, but I can say that this tastes like what I would expect berries that grow on clouds in a cartoon to taste like. I'm not saying that drinking this will turn you into a cartoon and let you walk around on clouds singing songs and talking to birds, but I'm not not saying that either.

Like clouds is the only way I can think to describe this. It's fruity without being fruity and floral without being floral. I'm pretty sure they captured magic and bottled it for mass consumption, but only for a limited time because there is only so much magic in the world and it will certainly run out.

VitaLife is another brand that falls under the Aldi umbrella. Years ago that would have meant that is was probably chock full of corn syrup and other nonsense, but since the company went organic awhile back you are generally assured that you are getting a somewhat quality product.

Now if you have been paying attention to American society in the past five years you are probably aware of the trend of cold brew (which I totally back). It's generally used for coffee and it makes the caffeinated beverage smoother. Some companies have expanded this practice into the brewing of teas as well, and it has similar results. This is a very smooth tea, especially since it is unsweetened. Okay, it has 3g of sugar in it but it comes from fruit and not processed sugar. This is so smooth that it kind of resembles a tea flavored water, but somehow is very flavorful. The thing is there appears to be no actual tea leaves used to make this and it it's all herbal tea, which really doesn't seem like tea to me. It has ginger, apple bits, hibiscus, papaya, rose hip, pink peppercorns, orange blossoms, rose pedals and peach juice concentrate in it. Overall it's delicious. I do wish there was a bit of actual tea in there to give it a little bite. The more I drink the more the smoothness makes it seem like I'm not really drinking anything. It's a strange beverage that I really enjoyed at first, but has diminishing returns. I will need to experiment more.

While I'm not stoked that the Northeast will soon be a frozen tundra and most of the joy in life will be stolen from me, I am very excited that the new Polar Winter line has been released. I wasn't even expecting it. I went down the water aisle in my favorite local grocer and there they were in all their glory. Right at eye level was this gem, Vanilla Zen. I've been saying for years that seltzer companies need to release more flavors that are not based on fruit (what happened to cinnamon? ) and while this is sort of fruity, it at least is mostly spice based.

From the packaging it appeared to me that Zen tastes like pomegranate drizzled with honey, or maybe some weird honey flowers. As far as I can taste though, it's just a combination of vanilla and pomegranates though., with the pom being very light. The gold kernels were a misdirect, and there is no honey to be found. I don't know how that could be pulled off without it being sweet anyway.

This isn't the second coming of the savior that I had hoped for but it's still really great and I will enjoy a lot of it while it's still on the shelves.

This seemed interesting. At first glance I thought, “This would be something good to get me through a long work day. No sugar. No calories. It's simply seltzer water with some caffeine added to it.” This had the potential to be a “healthy” morning beverage for those of us who do not drink coffee. Yes, the caffeine is derived from green coffee beans, but there is no coffee flavoring in here at all. In fact the downfall of this product is that there isn't much flavoring at all. Before you start to argue that seltzer isn't a very flavorful beverage by design, I very much know that, and I embrace the sparkling beverage for it. This can had minimal blood orange flavoring to it. It tasted more like a seltzer that had been left open for a long time and the flavor dissipated with the bubbles (this was still carbonated though). The natural caffeine also added a little bit of flavor around the edges, which I could have done without. Overall this was fairly bland and that is from someone who drinks seltzer, water, and unsweetened tea all day.

I'm New York City. Can you tell? Have you seen Jay and I taking the city by storm? We're truly crushing this place. We've eaten all day. We've walked basically one hundred miles. We've seen things, man.

We're eating and drinking and eating and drinking. After doing that for a day and a half, we needed to calm down and drink some seltzer.

You already know what it is, mang. It's black cherry seltzer. I can't believe we haven't drank it before. It's somehow smooth and is super refreshing. You care. You should care. These drinks are important. Who cares about your diet. You look great. Keep drinking seltzer.

Polar's Seltzer Jr line is back (from what I hear, to stay) and this time they brought two new friends with them. One of them is this little fella that goes by the name Pixie Lights. From the picture on the tiny can one would assume that the New England based company is insinuating that fireflies are really just little pixies, riding around on tiny lightbulbs. Don't worry though, they wear itsy bitsy crash helmets so it's all done safely.

Due to the name I really wanted this to somehow taste like Pixie Stix candy or you know like Red Bull without any sweetener added to it. I knew I wasn't going to be getting what I hoped before I even took a sip. Could something really taste like flavored granulated sugar though that has no sugar in it? In reality what I got was a lightly floral citrus taste that I can't really pinpoint. It's not lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit. Maybe it's something exotic like starfruit. Is starfruit a citrus? It could maybe be the seltzer taste/bubbles that keeps making me think of citrus. Whatever it is it's light and refreshing , which is what I want out of seltzer.

This is not what I expected. It's less bitter and bold than other matcha I have drink/drank/drunk. You don't get a lot of really anything. It tastes like "tea" and a watered down tea at that. It tastes like a green tea but it's only slightly bitter. I don't know about this, man. It's like they only had a little bit of mix and had to make a lot of drinks and they had to stretch it out. "Hey kids, I've got one pack of single serve Kool-Aid and there are four of us so we have to make due, alright?" While I don't mind, and have been known to water down my own drinks, this seems like a wasted attempt. Also, wut vanilla? It's not bad but it's also not much of anything and certainly nothing to write home about. Do we have to change that phrase? Are enough people writing home that we need to keep it? The alternative, which is unfortunate is something abysmal like, "This drink is nothing to text your daddy about." Begrudging and shuttering.

I think there should be an APB on the scientists over at Polar. How can one company come up with so many different flavors in such a short period of time? Surely there are unsafe work conditions and inhumane amount of hours. Flavors come out and, look; I've got my ear to the ground when it comes to new drinks, especially Polar. I can't keep up.

Pineapple pomelo. It was good. I say "was" because, much like the Hall and Oates song, she's gone. It wasn't the best. The pineapple was good and I might suggest that they have left it there. The pomelo didn't taste like much. It didn't add a whole lot of flavor. Side-by-side I might have been able to tell a different. It was not bad and I would get it again because of my love of pineapple, maybe just to pay more attention to where the pomelo lies in the mix.

This is good. Keep your jobs, wildly overworked flavor scientists.

Go grab your stocking cap and your eye mask because when you drink this you are going to want to melt into whatever it is you are sitting/laying on. You might as well pop on those novelty pajamas you got for Xmas a few years back that have “Nemo” embroidered on them, because you are going to be taking a trip to Dreamland. Okay that may be a bit of an overstatement. It's not like this drink is a magical potion that just knocks you right out, but it surely did make me feel relaxed and ay trouble I would have had falling asleep about an hour after I drank it were out the window. It wasn't like I was counting down from 100 before some dental surgery, but it got the job done.

The main ingredients in here are passion flower and mulungu, both of which have been used for hundreds of years for their sedative properties. They are the type of ingredients that would have been considered magic in olden times but nowadays are just herbs. Man, the world was, and continues to be a crazy place. People were possibly murdered for witchcraft, just for knowing that these plants could be used to help someone get to sleep. Magic is science and I embrace it all. Oh yeah, and on top of this being a bottled magic that works it also tastes delicious. It's perfectly sweet and floral tasting without any added sugar. It tastes like a more floral passionfruit mixed with apple juice, but not nearly as sweet. I could drink a gallon of this without batting an eye, but then I would probably fall into a wonderful, dream filled coma for an extended period of time. Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad way to spend next winter.

What we have here is an elixir (aka juice) that is made from herbs and such that are found in the Amazon rainforest. The end game is to put healthier, functional drinks into the hands of the public, or so I assume. What do I know though, the owners could have some secret vendetta against an old colleague and they could have built this entire company as part of some revenge plot, but let's just say it's for health.

There are other things in this elixir, but the two ingredients that Amaz is trying to shine a light on are guarana (a natural stimulant) and catuaba (strengthen and balances body function). Basically it's a natural energy drink of sorts. It tastes very tropical. The guarana is the main flavor in the beverage, which is overly fruity and borderline bubble gum tasting. I do get a slight hint of banana as well. That I am not a fan of, but I know I'm in the minority with that one. Also included are cupuacu, apples, caja, suma root, beets, green coffee, marapuama and camucamu. Iwould be a liar if I told you I could accurately describe each of those ingredients. Mixed together they most certainly bring to mind something that I could envision being a customary beverage in the rain forest.

This is a different juice, and I don't think it's for everyone, but I enjoyed it. As a bonus the company support ethical sourcing of ingredients and 1% of their sales goes to seeding the forests in the Amazon.

I've been putting this off. One simply does not enjoy bad mouthing Polar. They bring so much joy to my life and excitement to my taste buds. Unfortunately here I sit with one of the limited edition summer flavors for 2018, sipping away out of obligation and respect, but little enjoyment. Something about this just tastes artificial. It doesn't even have a medicinal cherry flavoring, it just tastes like some sort of chemical flavoring. It's not just the cherry either, the mango tastes off as well. There is just no bliss to be found in this beverage. Do yourself a favor and just grab a different flavor of Polar and enjoy. Lucky for everyone this is limited.

Normally I am on board with guayusa. It's a natural source of caffeine that I don't need to feel terrible about consuming. Sure, it's not my all-time favorite flavor, but it is by no means gross. It's just its own unique flavor. Normally the other flavors mixed with it mask it a bunch, and everything works out great. In here I would say this is 80% guayusa and 20% lime. For my liking it definitely could have done with more lime. Lime is a flavor that can be as strong as possible and I wouldn't complain. It's very faint in here and it seems to make the guayusa shine a bit more. It was weirdly a bit plain, which I didn't expect to use as a descriptor. I can imagine a world where this is what water tastes like and no one would bat an eye. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't entice me to drink more.

This is simply not for me. I am fairly disgusted by milk and all it entails, unless it's in ice cream form, because I am a child. The protein powders I get are derived from plants or soy. This tastes like someone took powdered heavy cream (if such a thing exists) and then I reconstituted it with water into a thick milky beverage that I could not get more than one sip down. Had I been in a different location in my house I would have probably spit it out. The thing is I can't really complain because it is exactly what it advertises to be, and I cannot fault them for being something that I despise. They are what they are and I am what I am, and I will avoid consuming it again until the end of my days. Those of you out there who love milk get on this train, because it's protein that you will be happy about.

So after saying the name of this beverage several times aloud to a friend they still thought that I was saying it was called Gringo and not Green-Go. Was that an intentional marketing plan? Perhaps it was an inside joke, you know a play on how the white people who live in the suburbs of America won't shut up about how such and such restaurant is completely authentic Mexican, when in reality it's like an Applebees that serves tacos. Those same people probably will never step into the hole in the wall taquerias that look filthy, but taste amazing, serving things such as nopal. In case you didn't know nopal is cactus and it is what is used to make this beverage. The folks at Green-Go puree the paddles of the nopal cactus into a beverage that is ridiculously refreshing. Think of it as coconut water's long lost cousin. When I describe what cooked nopal tastes like to people I always say it's like a cross between green beans and green peppers. This tastes nothing like that, thankfully…€¦I think? This tastes kind of like unsweetened aloe vera, but you know without being overbearing and resembling poison. It tastes plantlike, but it is very mild. It's the kind of flavor that grows on you the more you drink, and you will want to drink a lot when you see how hydrated it makes you feel. Take it from this gringo.