It’s no secret that the enhanced water thing pretty much started with Vitamin Water. What 50 cent, and the other keen minds at the company figured out is that there are plenty (millions) of people who’d like to cut back on the calories in soda, and other sugary drinks, but would still be willing to take in over 100 calories per bottle (who drinks just a serving?), so long as those calories were attached to things like vitamins, electrolytes, and other healthy stuff we consumers hadn’t heard about before 2004.

As is often the case when you’ve stumbled upon something good, the competition moves fast. Vitamin Water is no longer alone in what was once a niche market. While I could probably lists 20+ of those competitors, today we’re here to talk about Snapple, and so that’s what I’m going to do.

I’ve been a fan of Snapple pretty much as long as there has been Snapple. So when the good folks from Rye Brook, NY asked me if I’d like to try a few samples of their new antioxidant water (WA+ER), I was game.

Snapple antioxidant water is currently available in 7 flavors. Each of those flavors provides 1 of 4 distinct benefits to the body. I’ll go ahead and fess up to not checking my fridge to see if I’ve got all 4 covered. No matter. This post is all about Raspberry Acerola, which, as you can see by that picture to the left, offers the power to DEFY, which basically means it has Vitamins A and E, Grape Seed Extract, plus electrolytes that assist in refreshing the body and mind.

If the label is to be believed, Raspberry Acerola will give you all the energy you need should you happen upon an impromptu game of kickball (incidentally, I love the stories, trivia, and other little fun bits common to most Snapple bottles). At my age, that’s unlikely, and if it did, I’d like to think I could probably take on an entire army of 10 year-old kickballers without the need for a little something extra from Snapple, But hey, antioxidants (or anti-toxidantsas my mother calls them), and Vitamins are good for you, and 10-year old kickballers are bigger and badder than they used to be, so it’s probably just as well Snapple loaded their new water full of the good stuff.

I’m guessing you’re probably wondering what Raspberry Acerola tastes like right? Well, I was too (before I drank it), but I was also wondering what the hell an Acerola is. Well, according to Wikipedia:

Acerola (Malpighia glabra) or Acerolla, also known as Barbados cherry or wild crapemyrtle, is a tropical fruit-bearing shrub or small tree in the family Malpighiaceae, native to the West Indies and northern South America and also cultivated in India. It grows to 3 m tall, with a dense, thorny crown. The leaves are evergreen, simple ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 cm long, with an entire margin. The flowers are produced in umbels of 2-5 together, each flower 1-1.5 cm diameter, with five pink or red petals.

The fruit is bright red, 1.5-2 cm diameter, containing 2-3 hard seeds. It is juicy, often as much sour as sweet in flavor, and very high in vitamin C and other nutrients.

Oh..and it looks just like the Cherries at your local grocery store. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way (and you’re a little smarter than you were when you got here)…

I wish I could say I was blown away by the taste of Snapple Raspberry Acerola antioxidant WA+ER, but I wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s quite good, and I’ll probably drink it again, but it’s not “I want to drink 10 bottles of it every day” good. I can definitely taste a bit of Raspberry, but having no idea what Acerola tastes like, I wouldn’t know if I was tasting any or not. All in all, it’s just a tad sweeter than the watered down Kool-Aid your mom used to make…at least those batches she cut back on the sugar because she thought you were getting to be a little too hyper.

This is all by design though right? It has fewer calories than soda (135 calories/ 20oz. bottle). It’s not overly sweet. It drinks like actual water, so it doesn’t weigh you down like juice, and won’t gas you up like a diet soda. Unlike high powered energy drinks, it won’t make you twitch uncontrollably for hours on end. You can drink it before they gym, at the gym, after the gym, at lunch or with a snack. Not sure I’d drink it with a nice steak, but other than that, you can pretty much drink it anytime. If nothing else, score one for the versitility of Snapple antioxidant water.

Snapple’s new antioxidant WA+ER (water) is avialable at a store near you. Retail prices are listed as $1.39 to $1.59, although I’ve seen it as high as $1.99. Try it for yourself, and let me know what you think.

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