Unlike the previous two, my 3rd bottle of Snapple’s new antioxidant Water wasn’t consumed in a single sitting.  Instead, my bottle of Orange Starfruit has been a 4 day affair of sipping a little here and a little there.  It’s not that I don’t like it, or don’t really want to drink it.  The only reason why I haven’t downed every last drop is that I’ve been hitting the bottle up when I’m thirsty, but not necessarily in the best position to actually write a review.  As a result of I’ve had to go out of my way to avoid drinking too much before I could actually sit down and tell you about the flavor, which brings us to where we are now.

Like they did with the other flavors I’ve reviewed so far, Snapple has paired an every day supermarket fruit, with a less known variety; which usually sends me off to Wikipedia to try and figure out what the hell it is I’m actually drinking.  This time around it’s orange - and we all know what that is, mixed with some starfruit.  The starfruit, if you’re not already in the know is…

The carambola, more popularly known as star fruit, but also coromandel gooseberry, kamranga, or five finger, is a golden-yellow to green berry. When cut across it shows a 5-pointed (sometimes 6-pointed or 7-pointed) star shape, hence the name, “star fruit.” Star fruits are crunchy, and have a slightly tart, acidic, sweet taste, reminiscent of pineapples, apples, and sometimes kiwi fruit. The fruits are a good source of vitamin C. Its seeds are small and brown. They consist of a tough outer skin and a tangy white inside.

For what it’s worth, my local grocery chains actually carry starfruit from time to time, but I’ve never actually bought one.

Orange Starfuit antioxidant WA+ER has the Power To Protect (at least that’s what it says on the bottle - and who am I to doubt Snapple…they’ve never lied to me before).  Anyway, the Protection thing is Snapple’s way of letting you know that Orange Starfruit has “Vitamins A and E, electrolytes and a complete dose of Vitamin C help protect the body against free radicals”.

Based on what we’ve been taught about oranges, and what we just learned about starfruit, the Vitamin C thing makes a whole lot of sense.  Free radicals I’m not so sure about, but I have seen every episode of HBO’s OZ.  Those guys engaged in some pretty radical behavior, and I’d just as soon they not go free…at least not near me, so yeah…free radical protection sounds like a good thing too.

In my last review, I said that I was optimistic that I would find at least one of these Snapple antioxidant waters that I could really get on-board with.  Well, that was before I saw that one of my two remaining bottles was Orange Starfruit.  I thought, well, this isn’t going to work.  I’m not a big fan of orange juice, orange soda or orange drinks.  I do like the color orange, but that’s not the same thing, and is only going to get Snapple so far.  Let’s just say I was pretty sure the Orange Starfruit was going to fail my taste test miserably.

As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise”.  I really like this flavor.  Now I’m not going to hijack a truckload of the stuff, but it tastes really good.  The flavor hits in two distinct phases.  When Snapple Orange Starfruit first enters your mouth, it does taste a bit like a slightly watered down orange drink (maybe your pant-less brother-in-law is up to no good again).  Then, as if almost by magic, something happens to the flavor.  There’s a twist, a kick if you will.

Just like Wikipedia says, there’s a tart blend of apple and pineapple flavor that quite unexpectedly appears; seemingly from nowhere.   This must be starfruit, right?  Like I said, I don’t love oranges.  I do, however; love pineapple.  I will eat pineapple with just about anything.  It’s my favorite burger topping, along with Boursin cheese - you should try it.  The one problem (aside from the thorny skin) with pineapple is that it tends to overpower whatever it’s paired with.  Starfruit, on the other hand, gives you a bit of the same flavor, without feeling the need to step in and assume total control (like your mother-in-law at Christmas).  I can’t fully explain it, but it really, really works with the orange.

Snapple’s Orange Starfruit Antioxidant Water is far and away my favorite of the flavors I’ve tried so far.  In fact, I just finished off the last of my bottle of it, and I’m none to happy about it.  The simple fact that I’m annoyed that I don’t have any more tells me Snapple got this one right. I’d love to write more about it, but I’ve got a serious empty-bottle situation here, and I need to figure out what to do about it.

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