Friday Food Finds - Waterloo Tropical Fruit Sparkling Water (and more flavors I love!)

Drinks Aisle | Rating: 5/5

Waterloo Sparkling Water - Tropical Fruit (drinks aisle): 5/5

I finally found a flavored sparkling water I enjoy!

FOR CONTEXT: years ago, when LaCroix was ALL the rage (and mostly the only option in the category), I truly did NOT like it.

I tried several flavors - all were just a NO for me. I didn’t get the appeal.

Fast forward to recently… Scott has been getting super into flavored seltzer waters lately, and he got one that smelled good to me, so I tried it, and boom!

This Tropical Punch flavor of Waterloo is a fave!

More sparkling water flavors (and brands) I love:

• Waterloo: Cherry Limeade, Grape (like grape soda), Lemon Lime (like Sprite), Guava Berry

• Trader Joe’s: Cherry Vanilla - tastes like Dr. Pepper to me, Pineapple (seasonal summer), Green Apple (seasonal fall)

• Spindrift: Passionfruit Orange Guava (we don’t buy these often, though, for cost reasons)

Here’s the wild thing about MOST of these drinks, though…

They actually are not really “flavored,” despite listing flavors in their ingredients lists.

The thing is, in order to truly taste something, it’s gotta work on our taste buds with either sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or umami.

These drinks basically just SMELL great, and taste like nothing. But, we smell while we drink, so it works to trick us into thinking they have flavor.

This is something I have understood more since reading Gretchen Rubin’s “Life in Five Senses,” which I really enjoyed.

Go figure.

Either way, I’ve been very much enjoying these.

If you try any of these sparkling waters, let me know what you think!

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My Food Finds rating scale:
1 - not good, would not recommend or buy again
2 - just okay, would not personally buy again, but could be good for others based on preferences
3 - good, but not really my taste and wouldn’t buy again for myself- would buy for Scott if he likes it.
4 - very good, would buy again, likely have gotten more than once before sharing and recommend.
5 - excellent, was either surprised by how good it was, extremely happy with the flavor for the price & convenience, or buy it regularly already and find it solid/tasty/useful