Sparkling Punch

The classic, and still a favorite of ours. Cane sugar gives a clean, warm, smooth sweetness and a full mouthfeel, and it finishes clean, without the lingering aftertaste some sugar alternatives can have. It’s also good at softening the bitter notes some add-ins, such as B vitamins, can bring.

The trade-off is calories: sugar has just under 4 calories per gram, about 16 per teaspoon.

A good fit for classic styles like lemonade, punch, iced tea and craft soda.

Sucralose is a sweetener about 600 times sweeter than table sugar, so it takes only a tiny amount, and that tiny amount adds few or no calories of its own. The drink’s total calories depend on the rest of the recipe. It is not aspartame; the two are different sweeteners.

In our experience, it tastes the closest to sugar of the sugar alternatives we offer. Because it’s so sweet, we can build bold, sweet flavors without a syrupy, heavy mouthfeel, and it’s very good at covering the bitter taste of B vitamins and other add-ins.

A good fit for bold, sweet drinks with add-ins.

Stevia leaf extract comes from the leaves of the stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana, also called candyleaf), native to parts of South America, where its leaves have been used as a sweetener for centuries. The sweet compounds in the leaf, called steviol glycosides, are extracted and purified into a high-purity sweetener about 200 to 400 times sweeter than table sugar, so only a small amount is used, and it adds few or no calories of its own.

Next to sugar, it’s the new kid on the block: purified stevia sweeteners only became an option for U.S. foods and drinks in the late 2000s, and food scientists are still refining the taste.

Its sweetness comes on fast and fades quickly, and it isn’t quite as smooth as sugar. People with sensitive palates may notice a slight bitter aftertaste.

A good fit for mellow, lighter flavors without many added vitamins or other bitter add-ins.

Vitamins B6 and B12 are two of the eight B vitamins. Both are essential vitamins: the body can’t make them, so it gets them from food, B6 from foods such as fish, poultry and potatoes, and B12 mainly from fish, meat, eggs and dairy. Each can is made with 0.85mg of vitamin B6 and 1.2mcg of vitamin B12, 50% of the Daily Value for each. B vitamins add a slight chalky, vitamin-like taste, which we minimize and balance with our flavor levels and formulation.

Electrolytes are minerals that carry a small electric charge when they dissolve in water. Potassium and magnesium are two of them. Each can contains about 94mg of potassium and 8mg of magnesium, 2% of the Daily Value of each. Electrolytes have no distinct taste, and at our levels they typically leave no salty aftertaste.

L-theanine is an amino acid found naturally in tea leaves; both green and black tea contain it. Each can contains 100mg. It has a very neutral taste and dissolves easily, which makes it a good fit for custom drinks of almost any flavor.

Ginseng is the root of a slow-growing plant. Ours is an extract of American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), which is native to the forests of eastern North America, at 25mg per can. It has a very strong bitter, earthy taste, so we use a small amount that blends well with the drink. It may leave a slight sediment at the bottom of the can, which is normal. Please don’t shake it, since sparkling drinks foam over; if you like, slowly turn the can over once and let it rest a moment before opening.