Waterloo Sparkling Water Reviewed
The fizzy water craze is one I have happily thrown myself into. I’m not a fan of sugary beverages and plain ‘ol water can get a bit monotonous. But add some fizz and some flavor and water is exciting again. There are a lot of brands on the market now; I decided to give Waterloo sparkling water a try.
I’ve noticed a lot of new fizzy water brands tend to combine flavors. Which often produces a beverage with more complexity and can also serve to camouflage flavor flaws. But not Waterloo, they picked a flavor (with the exception of the lemon-lime duo) and got to work trying to make it the best.
So how did they do? Overall, color me impressed. Waterloo knows their fruit flavors. Good on you, Waterloo.
Waterloo continually changes their lineup - not all of the flavors reviewed may be available any longer.
*This is not a sponsored post. I purchased the products with my own $$$. All opinions are my own. All product links are affiliate - as an Amazon Associate, I may earn a commission from qualified purchases.
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NEW! Spiced Apple
Perfect for fall, Waterloo recently released a Spiced Apple flavor. I love the apple cider flavors that dominate that fizzy fall beverage, but the cinnamon falls flat. Literally. In foodstuffs and beverages where real cinnamon is used, you get this lovely warmth from the spice, but in Waterloo's Spiced Apple it just dissolves into artificiality. If this were just an apple cider fizzy water I'd be a fan, but the cinnamon is unsuccessful IMHO.
Limited Time! Cranberry
Maybe I'm in the holiday spirit but this Cranberry is hitting hard right now; it's tart and crisp and everything I'm wanting in a cold beverage this fall and winter. I think it edges out Bubly's cranberry flavor, but not by much as both brands put forth solid efforts on capturing the tartness of the cranberry flavor.
New! Summer Berry
The flavors of raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry combine in the newest Waterloo flavor to create a trifecta of tartness. If you're hoping for a sweet beverage you won't find it in Summer Berry. Tartness dominates, making this one of the more unique triple berry sparkling water beverages to appear on the market. To me, it tastes blackberry-forward and raspberry-finishing, with blueberry tying all of the flavors together. Available for a limited time, get it while you can.
Blueberry
The flavor leans tart blueberry over sweet blueberry. The fizz is less intense than other brands, which those who don’t love an intense zing will enjoy. The flavor is not overwhelming or underwhelming, just subtle and pleasing slightly tart blueberry. My favorite thing about drinking this flavor is the blueberry-scented burps that follow.
Peach
Similar to Blueberry this flavor wasn't particularly overwhelming or underwhelming. I was left feeling just whelmed. The flavor is more canned peaches in syrup than biting into a fresh, juicy peach.
Coconut (Discontinued)
Holy sh*t! Coconut is so [email protected]$ing good I just have to swear. It’s hard to nail coconut without an artificial aftertaste when it comes to fizzy water, but Waterloo stuck the landing. It tastes like coconut water, but with a delightful fizz. It reminds me of Vita Coconut water in flavor (which is also delicious AF). I have to keep reminding myself that there isn't actually any nutritional value, it just tastes good. I would be drinking this 'ERR-day! but it's sadly been discontinued :(.
Pineapple
Pineapple is one of those elusive flavors that often gets coupled up with coconut. I hadn’t encountered it as a stand-alone flavor until I came across Waterloo’s Pineapple. While I am impressed with the complexity that comes through - sweet, fruity, tart, tangy - I was left wanting the flavor to be bolder. And it doesn’t quite escape the artificial finish fate that plagues many tropical fruit sparkling water flavors. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy this again, however. But not gonna lie, I’m probably gonna mix it with coconut, aka the best Waterloo flavor.
Black Cherry
Drinking Black Cherry is a bit of an experience. It punches you in the tastebuds with tart cherry, then somewhere in the middle turns a pleasantly sweet black cherry with vanilla notes. It’s like the developers couldn’t settle on which cherry profile (tart vs. sweet) should dominate so they went with d) all of the above. I dig it. It’s a mature, well-executed Black Cherry, one that has been added to my fizzy water drinking rotation.
Grape
Remember those smelly markers? Mr. Sketch Scented Markers. Grape smells EXACTLY like those. It tastes like how I always imagined a Grape Mr. Sketch marker would taste, had the markers been edible.
The taste resembles a grape but not really. For me, it’s chasing those exaggerated grape notes as most beverages do. But it works here. It’s fun, it’s subtle, it doesn’t stray too far into artificial territory. It veers more tart than sweet. I wasn’t expecting much from this flavor to be completely honest, but I quite enjoy it. I’m surprised I enjoy it, which adds to the experience.
Strawberry
What kind of sorcery is this!? The best you can usually hope from me regarding strawberry-flavored anything is that I’ll tolerate it. But in this case, Waterloo has created a more than tolerable strawberry flavor. The strawberry flavor is clean, light, and actually resembles the taste of a ripe strawberry. The truly impressive feat here is that this beverage is absent of those overly saccharine notes that tend to serve as the industry standard.
Lemon-Lime
This is easily one of my favorites of the bunch. I don’t care if that makes me boring. There are so many lemon-flavored and-lime-flavored beverages out there that this being better than most is saying something. The only flavor duo of the Waterloo line, I can actually detect the flavors of both lemon and lime individually. The flavors are focused on the citrus, not the pucker, making for one refreshing swig.
Grapefruit
This one is definitely high on my list of favorites, on par with Lemon-Lime. The citrus grapefruit flavors are definitely there sans the bitter pucker of the real fruit. But it still has those sharp, tart, slightly bitter notes grapefruit is known for, just less bold and with a delightful fizzy finish.
Watermelon
Watermelon caught me by surprise. I have it in my head that replicating watermelon flavor would be fairly straightforward because the flavor doesn’t taste complex. It’s sort of like a fruit counterpart to a cucumber. I’ve had some terrible-ass tasting watermelon products before, but I’m happy to report that Waterloo's Sparkling Watermelon isn’t one of them. It has a nice watermelon flavor that captures the essence of the actual fruit.
New! Cherry Limeade
As amazing as it sounds! Cherry Limeade is one of those fun, youthful flavors I love. It's super well done here - you definitely get each flavor shining through in a well-balanced fashion. Not too sweet, not too tart, just perfect for summer.
New! Blackberry Lemonade
Blackberry Lemonade was a little bit of a letdown. Maybe it was the pairing choice but the flavor just seemed muddled. Instead of being complementary the lemon and blackberry both get a bit lost.
Orange
TBD - still need to find it!
Waterloo Sparkling Water Winners
Now you are going to expect me to pick a flavor champion, and I am happy to oblige by telling you I thought Coconut was the real knock-out; makes sense that they would discontinue it :(.
In lieu of Coconut, I think Lemon-Lime, Grapefruit, Black Cherry, and Grape are the best flavors of Waterloo.
But I can’t really dog on any of the other flavors because all were well executed. I could see myself drinking any of 'em and not being pissed about it. Go on and give your favorite fruit flavor a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Waterloo gets a gold star from me.
Manon says
I just bought a case at Costco and dislike the two flavour I just tried; cherry and strawberry, I guess I will be donating them unless I get an idea how to use them
Tk says
That is terrible I am reading this all too late. I just happened to Google where is Waterloo Coconut Sparkling Water? So saddened. SMH