Customer Reviews

Zevia Natural Diet Soda, Ginger Root Beer, 12-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24)

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First, my household is a low-carb, low-glycemic index, and zero corn syrup household. We have been looking for alternative *natural* sweeteners for quite some time because our doctor has serious warnings (and lots of research) against chemical-based sugar substitutes like aspartame, saccharine, and splenda.

Stevia is our favorite sweetener - usually from a bottle, or as a raw leaf. The problem is, we can find very few products (like snack bars, soda, cookies, etc) which use Stevia.

So we were excited to meet the people from Zevia at the trade show in which they rolled out this product (2007)... and we were among the first people in the country to taste a stevia-flavored soda!

At the trade show, the company gave out mini-cans of selected flavors, and we were super impressed. The taste is different from mainstream root beer, cola, and ginger ale products ... but it was sweet, sparkly, and had a nice bite. No awful aspartame aftertaste!

We came home excited to order our first batch for home/personal use. To our disappointment, we found several discrepancies between their product & literature at the trade show, and the actual product rolled out.

First, they decided to add caffeine to many of the flavors (not the root beer), but this ruined most of the flavors for us & makes their "all natural" claim a bit disingenuous.

Next, we were told by company reps that the soda contains only purified water, stevia, and citric acid. To our surprise, when the ingredients were published on the can (FDA standards), we found that the PRIMARY sweetener is an artificial chemical called eurethrytol (2nd ingredient), not Stevia (5th ingredient). Drinking a 12 ounce can of ginger root beer flavored Zevia had the same effect on me as eating 4 maltitol-based chocolate bars (LOTS of stomach problems).

Finally, they claim this is a zero calorie drink, but erythritol does indeed contain calories - about 25 for the can. And at $1 per can, the price is just to high. This product was a disappointment all around.

SOLUTION!!

Ok, so you're wanting a safe, natural, great tasting soda without side effects? All you need are 3 ingredients: Seltzer Water, Bottle of liquid Sweet Leaf Stevia, and (secret ingredient) citric acid.

Seltzer water is widely available at any grocery store. You'll find the other two ingredients at your health food store (we buy citric acid in the bulk section of our local apothecary, under $1 per ounce).

For one serving of soda (12 ounce) add 15-20 drops of liquid Stevia, and just a *PINCH* (1/8th teaspoon?) of citric acid. The Stevia sweetens and flavors, and makes a very nice drink. But the citric acid adds that "bite" that makes a cola taste like a cola!

Our favorite Sweet Leaf flavors are: Root Beer, Cinnamon, Orange, & Apricot. This method is actually much cheaper than cans of Zevia, tastes better, broader variety of flavors, super portable (we travel with a little pouch of citric acid & a bottle of Sweet Leaf), and it's truly natural!

Three more notes for health-conscious people: (1) We have tried many off-brand bottles of liquid Stevia, and they are all just fine. HOWEVER, many of the off-brands use a grain alcohol base, which tastes awful in soda (unless you're used to that sort of thing! Ha Ha...). So other brands are fine for cooking, but at this time I recommend Sweet Leaf for mixing drinks (just purified Stevia + water).

(2) Aluminum cans are a disaster for the environment (takes one 12oz can of gasoline to melt down/recycle 4 new aluminum cans). So I recommend bottles of Seltzer water instead.

And, (3) artificial carbonation robs your body of magnesium & other things. Instead, opt for naturally sparkling water, like Pellegrino. We usually pay $1.15 for a 1-liter bottle of naturally sparkling mineral water, no additives, and it has lots of healthy minerals. GOOD LUCK in your continued journey for better health!

The Zevia Root Beer Flavor is one of my favorites of the Zevia flavors. It has very strong Root Beer taste which I find tastes a lot like my memories of A&W Root Beer back when I was growing up in Canada, back before they started replacing sugar with High Fructose Corn Syrup. I'm not sure if A&W Root Beer is different here in the US from Canada, as the food in the A&W restaurants here in the US is nothing like the food in A&W Canada restaurants.

In any case, I love that there's nothing but all natural ingredients here, and it's naturally sugar free. This summer, I often combined the Zevia Root Beer with Clemmy's Sugar Free Vanilla Bean Ice Cream to make my own Sugar Free Root Beer Floats (and sometimes with Orange Zevia instead of the Root Beer) and they were absolutely amazing guilt free Floats.

I finally found this soda at a local store. Not much on the shelf. I tried the zevia regular cola (bad aftertaste) the root beer one (this is my favorite) and the orange one (good). I didn't get the lemon/lime one. This rootbeer one is delicious. No aftertaste like the cola one has. I love rootbeer so I will continue to buy it. It is expensive at $1 a can and for the 6 pack it cost me $5.99 with no tax on it. It is a much better alternative to the diet sodas out there. I don't use artifical sweetners or have sugar in my diet except for stevia. I hope the price gets lower as other stevia colas come onto the market.

I am currently drinking my second can of Zevia Root Beer, having managed to sneak it away from my three kids. It's got a rich, full flavor and plenty of fizz--all our cans did.

I left a fuller review on their Cola entry, but everything I said there stands for this variety, as well. It's just as good as either sugar-full or sugar-free brands, but is not bad for you, and even good for you because of the stevia, which can help regulate blood sugar.

Makes a killer float, too, with my own homemade sugar-free artificial sweetener-free ice cream.

When I found out about this product from Jorge Cruise's site, I couldn't wait to try it. It took many visits to specialty stores (names obtained from the Zevia website) before I finally found one that had just two cans of the Ginger Root Beer in stock. I bought both cans, even though I never really drink root beer. After tasting Zevia Ginger Root Beer, I love root beer now! This is my favorite flavor, even over Cola and Orange (haven't had the Twist, yet).

Everything in the Ginger Root Beer is natural, and there's no caffeine (like the Cola, even though it's supposed to be natural caffeine). The cola is my next favorite that I have occasionally. I did not care much for the orange, it tasted artificial and not very orangy-tasting. I highly recommend the root beer flavor, though.

My wife and I have tried the four flavors of Zevia and we both have this as our favorite. Using Stevia instead of sugar or the common sugar substitutes is great. The price is OK. It would be nice if Amazon could make a deal with Zevia to offer "FREE with Super Saver Shipping" in the future. At this time the $9.89 shipping makes the price less attractive.

When we drink "traditional" soft drinks we mostly drink diet drinks. We get Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Pepsi (when available at places like restaurants) as first choices. I tolerate Diet Coke when I want a diet soft drink at a restaurant and none of the above are available. Although, I may also get a non-diet soft drink if that is the case. I included some of the other drinks we like, since taste is subjective. Hopefully if you like the above drinks, Zevia's Root Beer may be to your liking.

I've been trying to give up all diet sodas containing aspartame and splenda because of all the online research I've been doing on those sweeteners.

This root beer is the first Zevia product I have tasted.

It doesn't have a very strong root beer flavor - more like a mix of root beer and ginger ale - to it and it tasted a little flat.

For me, the flavor is just ok. My root beer happy 8 year old didn't like it at all.

I cannot compliment this brand enough. I've been purchasing all flavors of Zevia for the past few years and absolutely love it. There isn't an aftertaste at all, and it is simply delicious. Zevia's Root Beer is among my favorite flavors. My other Zevia favorites are black cherry and orange, however all their flavors are super!

My favorite things about Zevia are that they are sweetened with all-natural stevia and do not contain any harmful chemicals. Also, I love the fact that there are not any calories in it. There are no artificial colors or flavors either. Truly guilt-free!

The only Zevia flavor I've seen caffeine in is cola. All the others are caffeine-free.

I deducted a star from this product due to the pricey price point of Zevia. I still continue to buy it, but not as often as I would like to due to the cost.

I have emailed the Zevia corporate team and they are responsive, professional, and friendly. I trust this brand.

I hope you give Zevia a try. I think you will be pleased!

Really love the root beer. Also like the ginger ale, but think the root beer is my favorite.

I tried the orange and didn't like that very much.

There's a new one Dr. Zevia, that looks very good, like Dr. Pepper I guess, that has caffeine if you want caffeine, but I haven't tried that one.

I find the Zevia very refreshing and great. At first there was a very slight unusual taste, but I quickly got used to it and now really like it. Especially since it is zero calories and no bad things in it, like aspartame.

Not sure why some of the Zevia's qualify for no shipping and others have a large shipping fee. I always look for the ones with no shipping fee and that is how I tried the root beer.

These Amazonian demons got me hooked on this, and now there's none available at regular prices. Tried Hansen, and that's ok, but like this one better.