The sun is out finally, Junk Food Nation! I guess all that umbrella talk helped.  And now for a full day of college football and prepping for TOMORROW’S opening NFL Sunday!  Wooooooooooooooot.  No dilly dallying; let’s get to the review!

Today’s Junk Food is another drink I found while scouring the rows of Target for Ting – Ocean Spray Diet Sparkling Pomegranate Blueberry!

The Money Shot

I know, I know, Junk Food Nation.  I rarely do “diet” snacks, drinks, etc. here.  Still after my review of the other 100-cal snacks, its not uncharted territory.  And who doesn’t love Ocean Spray?  Having manufactured cranberry juice and other fruit juice products since 1930, I was surprised to see the cooperative of juice growers venture into sparkling juices. Cran-Apple, Cran-Grape, Cran-Cran, Cran-Beef, Cran-Dorito, Cran-Obama, Cran-Prius, sure, that’s to be expected. But a soda-like product from Ocean Spray? That’s a new one.

Red Bull cans co-opted

The sparkling juice is being marketed in four-packs, in both the variety I’m reviewing today – the Pomegranate Blueberry – and in normal non-diet Cranberry. If you want a coupon to buy these drinks, you just click here.

The four-packs and metal can shape are reminiscent of Red Bull cans or other energy drinks.  No caffeine or horrible taste with this drink, however (yep, that was a dig at Red Bull.  It smells and tastes like nausea).

Artsy fartsy

Here’s a question: if you’re gonna put pictures/paintings of blueberries and split pomegranates on the box label, are the random green leaves also necessary? I know you love to push the fresh grown bit, O.S. – but give it a rest.

I like my taste buds tickled

Although I do enjoy the combo of pomegranate juice and blueberry juice, I wonder who came up with that combo first? It’s not the most natural combo…although I guess with added sugar or artificial sweetener, ANYTHING would taste good.

“This Cranberry Soy Sauce Cocktail is gross.”

“Just add some sugar – we’ll market it as a savory sweet alternative.”

Singular Money Shot

Such an aerodynamic can. By the way, is any company fooling anyone by calling their drinks Sparkling Juice? It’s soda, folks. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and tastes like a carbonated drink, it’s soda. Or something like that.

Good ingredients --- except for all those chemicals

The can felt good in my hand, and when I looked at the ingredients, I did appreciate that the first three ingredients were sparkling water, pom juice, and blueberry juice – NOT sugar or sweetener.  In fact, the sweetener (Sucralose, or Splenda) is one of the last ingredients.  Nice.

Lighter than expected

When dumped into a glass, it had a nice lighter red color, slightly dark pink.  It fizzed nicely, and had a nice smell. Very much the opposite of Red Bull (I really don’t know why I’m killing Red Bull. Of all the energy drinks, it’s probably the only one I ever have.  Monster tastes like liquid darkness).

Bubbly nubbly

I gulped down the glass, and here’s what I found – all I could taste was Splenda.  The blueberry flavored juice was very prominent, and there was a HINT of the tartness that Pom juice usually has… but after the initial taste left, the gulp, swallow, and aftertaste was ALL SPLENDA.  It tasted very artificial, unfortunately.  The carbonation was nicely done, with a fine crisp feel. However, overall, this was a drink beaten down by sucralose.

Sidenote: I’m guessing that the sugar version, the regular Cranberry flavored sparkling juice, is much better. I’ll find this out for you, Junk Food Nation.  Until then, follow me on Twitter @junkfoodguy!

Happy Saturday, JFN.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy