One day I was casually walking through the beverage aisle, passing the typical cases of fruit punch, blue raspberry, orange, grape, and other ordinary drinks, when I spotted a cucumber drink!

It happened to be the cucumber flavor of Press Cocktail Soda, about which I knew absolutely nothing, so I did what anyone else would do – I bought a case to try it!

(There were a couple other flavors of this, but I had to go with the cucumber flavor, because how often do you see a cucumber soda?)

On the way to the checkout I did glance over the box and it said it’s not soda nor tonic water. Since I like drinks that are not soda nor tonic water, I figured I’d enjoy this.

Little did I know what I was getting into… After already buying a case, I went online to do some research. Here’s what I found on the company’s Myspace page:

Our vision is clear: to establish Press as the choice cocktail mixer for the sophisticated consumer. A reinvention and modernization of club soda and tonic water, Press grabs the attention of both young and mature consumers with its sleek image, crisp flavoring and nutritious recipe. As a mixer with a premium spirit, or even served alone over ice, Press is the unrivaled beverage standard. We didn’t invent the Press, we just perfected it.

Apparently I am a sophisticated consumer with a modern, nutritious drink that will be great when used as a mixer or just poured over ice. Great!

I guess I was totally oblivious to the whole “mix it with alcohol” idea because it clearly states “cocktail soda” on the can… and cocktails are mixed drinks… Duh! I thought it was just an exotic, healthy soda from a boutique brand.

Anyway, let’s move on to the taste.

This smelled and tasted like a mix of cucumber and honeydew melon. I like the smell quite a bit, and the matching flavor is enjoyable.

At first, it was very carbonated – way too many bubbles for me! But I let it sit opened in the fridge for a few hours, and then it was much better. The carbonation level was then on par with a regular soda.

Overall it had an interesting flavor, and it turned out to be refreshing.

I didn’t test it as a mixer (I don’t keep a fully stocked bar at home,) but I bet it would be pretty good for that. For gin and tonic drinkers, a “gin and cucumber press” might be up your alley.

But the nutrition information is kind of sketchy…

Since it’s soda, I don’t plan to keep drinking it. It looks a little bit healthier than soda until you read the ingredients list and see “42 HFCS” on there. That is another name for the evil known more commonly as high fructose corn syrup!

If it wasn’t carbonated, I’d consider drinking it more often, because the flavor is good. But carbonated beverages aren’t really for me. And it’s certainly not a health drink.

(I don’t like carbonated beverages, even if they contain green tea.)

My final verdict is…

The fresh cucumber taste of this drink is pretty good. I bet you could mix up some good drinks with it. Not that I’ll be using it though, for any purpose.

It’s not a sports drink, energy drink, or health beverage. It’s not healthy in any way. So you might as well avoid it.

Official website: drinkpress.com

With ordinary sugar-filled, calcium-sucking sodas finally losing some of their appeal, numerous manufacturers are stepping up with some sort of “natural” or “organic” soda, which is somehow supposed to be a healthier alternative to typical sodas.

I usually avoid these, but one did catch my eye – Steaz organic green tea soda. What interested me is that this soda contains green tea! I figured it would be something like a green tea with extra flavor and some carbonation.

Perhaps a “sparkling green tea” if you will. (Actually, even though my bottles say “green tea soda” on the label, the Steaz website seems to have an updated slogan, which is in fact “sparking green tea.” That sounds much healthier than “soda,” but the ingredients are still the same.)

So let’s start off by seeing if this is actually healthier than soda…

Steaz Ingredients and Nutrition Facts

At first I was impressed with the ingredients, because the list was nice and short…

RASPBERRY INGREDIENTS: Sparkling filtered water, organic evaporated cane juice, natural raspberry flavor, citric acid, fruit juice for color, sodium citrate, organic Ceylon green tea and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).

It’s basically water, organic sugar, green tea, and flavoring. So far, so good.

But once I saw just how much sugar was in one bottle, I cringed! Steaz have 23g sugar per 8oz serving, which comes out to about 35g of sugar per 12oz bottle! The sugar isn’t so bad, but that is quite a bit of sugar for one bottle!

To put that in perspective, an entire 16 oz bottle of Honest Tea has just 20g sugar!

At least there is no high fructose corn syrup!

Back to the ingredients list, Ceylon green tea is the second to last ingredient. That’s a little disconcerting, but according to Steaz, the amount of tea in each bottle is equivalent to one cup of tea. (It appears towards the end of the ingredients because by weight, the green tea powder used in the drink is minimal.)

So we have fairly healthy ingredients, but a little too much sugar.

Steaz Taste Test

Steaz is available in quite a few flavors, although I chose these three: key lime, orange, and raspberry.

Three should be plenty for me. I mean, I don’t drink soda. I don’t even like it. So this is from the perspective of someone who drinks water, green tea, and sports drinks…

Orange – This reminds me of regular orange soda, although there is much less carbonation (i.e. it’s smoother and easier to drink.) The flavor is pretty close to regular orange soda, although slightly less powerful. I couldn’t recognize the taste of green tea in there, although I could tell there was something different.

In the end it was alright, and I’d prefer it over regular orange soda (thanks mainly to the lack of carbonation.)

Raspberry – No surprises here, this one tastes like a raspberry soda. It’s pretty good, and I thought the flavor was much more authentic than the orange soda Steaz.

You know those bottles of sparkling juice? Sparking grape juice, apple juice, peach juice, pear juice, etc… Well, if they had a sparkling raspberry juice, it would taste like this. It’s pretty good, definitely sweet.

I’m not sure that I noticed the green tea in this one, either. It was really just like “sparkling raspberry.” It’s tasty, although easily forgotten.

Key Lime – Now this is the taste I was waiting for! This is what I’d expect to drink when I hear “sparkling green tea.” The flavor is light and mild and reminds me of cream soda, actually. But with a hint of key lime, of course.

It’s hard to describe. Imagine mixing a glass of green tea with a glass of sparkling water, and then adding a hint of lime flavor. And then dumping in some sugar.

This was definitely refreshing, and if I was to recommend a Steaz, it would be Key Lime.

Steaz is definitely more “soda” than it is “green tea.” I’m not sure why I bothered getting this; I guess I just wanted to see if there was a healthier soda option for anyone who does drink soda on a regular basis.

My final verdict is…

Even though this stuff tastes alright and does contain healthy green tea and natural cane sugar, there is still so much sugar that I can’t recommend this stuff. It’s OK for drinking on occasion to help ween yourself off soda, but that’s a lot of sugar in one bottle. (And one bottle of this will go down real fast.)

I wouldn’t want to consume that much sugar in one shot unless it was during a bike ride, and in that case, I’ll be getting my sugar from a drink such as Powerbar Endurance. If I want a casual drink, I’ll stick with brewing my own green tea.

If you’re weening yourself off soda, you could try this, although I’d still recommend Honest Tea or Honest Ade instead.

Official website: www.steaz.com