Tested: Fiva Health & Energy Drink

Healthy energy drinks aren’t going away anytime soon! The latest healthy drink I have found amongst the thousands of terrible drinks is called Fiva. It’s pronounced “five-ah” which originates from the phrase “five a day.”

That’s because you’re supposed to get “five a day” when it comes to servings of fruits and vegetables, but the majority of people don’t get enough. It’s just not convenient to make sure we get all our recommended servings when we have other things on our plates (pun intended.)

So we turn to energy drinks and energy bars, hoping that they provide us with valuable vitamins, minerals, and all the essential nutrients. Some people may think they are getting real food, but really, there is no comparison between an energy bar and a real plate of vegetables.

However, some drink manufacturers are catching on, and giving us healthy energy drinks – like Fiva! A glass of Fiva gives you the antioxidant equivalent of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, and it is a good source of fiber.

It’s convenient and healthy. Let’s look at the details…

Fiva Ingredients and Nutrition Facts

You may be wondering, “how can Fiva give you 5 servings of fruit and vegetables in one little packet?” The answer is in the ingredients:

Ingredients: apple powder, strawberry powder, pomegranate extract, raspberry powder, blackberry powder extract, blueberry powder, cranberry, broccoli powder, carrot powder, cauliflower powder, grape extract, bilberry fruit extract, and acerola cherry powder.

As you can see, Fiva is chock full of real fruits and vegetables! Even better is what it does NOT contain – artificial sweeteners, caffeine, etc. Fiva is all natural and something I don’t hesitate to put in my body.

The nutrition facts are nice too… Just 25 calories per serving, and 5g carbohydrates, 3g of which are fiber! The small amount of sugar is naturally occurring and Fiva is sweetened with stevia extract, which is a natural low-calorie sweetener (and way better than aspartame and sucralose!)

The Fiva Taste Test

Let’s open up some packets and get started with the taste test and complete review…

Smell. Fiva smells amazing! As soon as I opened it I could smell the powder, which reminded me of Sweet Tarts candy. Oh the childhood memories!

Taste and Texture. Fiva tastes good, but it didn’t match the scent. It’s kind of hard to describe, but the flavor is called “tart berry” and that is probably the most accurate word for it. It’s not sweet and powerful like Gatorade, and it’s not juicy like FRS.

The texture is real light and has that slight tartness to it. It’s definitely not thick, and it’s not chalky or powdery. The texture is fine (similar to a water-based drink like Gatorade) but I kind of like stronger flavors so I mixed mine to be a little more powerful than recommended.

I also tried other mixes, as the packet suggests mixing in water, yogurt, juice, or smoothies. First I mixed it in some plain yogurt and it turned out pretty good – Fiva neutralized the sour flavor of the yogurt and added the light berry flavor.

Next I mixed it in orange juice and that was an eye-opener! It was odd for the first sip but then I really got to liking it. Afterwards I added it to an orange julius (oj + milk) and it was good in that, too. So I’m sure it would go great in other juices and smoothies.

Mixing Fiva + Welch’s white grape peach juice (a combo of apple, white grape, and peach juice concentrates) was simply out of this world. All I can say is WOW! Juice like that is super high in sugar and calories though, so although it’s from natural sugar, it might not be the best ‘everyday mix’ especially if you are on a diet.

Who knows, you could even skip the ‘Red Bull and vodka’ and make a “Fiva and vodka” if you are a fan of those mixed drinks (and are 21 or older.) I’ll stick with Fiva and yogurt though, that was my all-around favorite.

Packaging. The Fiva packets are extremely easy to open, which is great news. Sometimes even “easy open” or “on the go” packets require scissors! (Or worse, some packages rip down the side and spill powder everywhere!)

My only complaint here is that the opening for the powder is tiny, so it takes a while to get all the powder dumped out. (Although if you are pouring Fiva into a water bottle with a small opening, this is actually a blessing.)

Ease of Mixing. Fiva is a very fine powder and mixes easily, but not perfectly. It will form a few clumps when mixed with a spoon in cold water.

But at least the instructions say “stir or shake until well mixed” – anyone who has used powdered drink mixes know it takes some effort to get them mixed well, and all the drinks that say “pour powder into water and it will dissolve easily” are a little too optimistic.

(If you want to get it real well mixed, try mixing it in warm water and letting it sit until it dissolves, then refrigerate until it is chilled. That will let you experience the full flavor of Fiva.)

Color. As you can see, it’s a dark purple or maroon color.

Energy Boost. This isn’t a typical energy drink, but there’s a possibility you’ll get an energy boost from it, especially if your body isn’t used to getting so many healthy antioxidants. With something like this, the less healthy your diet is currently, the bigger the boost you’ll notice when you drink Fiva.

I felt pretty good and slightly uplifted after drinking Fiva, although I wouldn’t call it an energy boost. (I’d rather drink it for its health benefits anyway, so that’s no biggie.)

REMEMBER: Just remember, this is a healthy drink, and it’s great to use it in place of unhealthy drinks like diet soda. But don’t use it to replace your fruits and vegetables! You should still at least try to get your five a day!

My final verdict is…

Fiva smells good, tastes pretty good, is healthy, and is easy to use. Overall it’s a good drink and one of the few I can recommend.

It gets a very high recommendation based on its health benefits, and the price (around $1 per serving) isn’t too steep, at least in comparison to other healthy energy drinks. I’m not falling head over heels for the taste, but the taste is neat, different and not too strong, so chances are you will enjoy it.

But no matter what you think of it alone, you can mix it in some juice or a smoothie and it will taste great, and you still get all the health benefits. And you have to give Fiva credit, because I never imagined a plate of vegetables tasting this good!

Official website: www.fivaday.com