Hi-Ball’s sparkling grapefruit club soda—enhanced as an energy drink—is one of our favorite zero-calorie drinks. Add some grapefruit juice for an energy spritzer.

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January 2008

Product Reviews / Diet Nibbles / Diet Beverages

Great Zero-Calorie Soft Drinks

Treat Yourself To These No-Cal Drinks ~ They’re Worth Every [Non] Calorie

CAPSULE REPORT: Here are two zero-calorie carbonated beverages with great flavor that we reviewed in prior years. If you haven’t gotten to know them yet, now’s the time. We think they represent the best of their classes—classic soda (Boylan’s) and energy drinks (Hi-Ball).

• Boylan’s Bottleworks
• Hi-Ball Energy Drink

Often we have brought our favorite diet soda brand—Boylan’s—as gifts to people who live on diet soda. Some love it, and a surprising number prefer what we think is the punishing taste of one of the two major diet cola brands. If you drink diet soda to fill up and save calories—and you aren’t in love with the flavor of mass-marketed brands—we have some suggestions.

Boylan’s Bottleworks

Boylan’s uses a sweetener combination of sucralose (Splenda) and acesulfame potassium, a.k.a. Ace-K. It’s very expensive but eliminates the aftertaste associated with diet beverages, and allows the natural flavors to shine through. Boylan’s also works very hard on those natural flavors.

Boylan’s diet flavors are so fresh and exciting, they taste better, in our opinion, than the regular sugar (or, more accurately, high fructose corn syrup in mass brands, evaporated cane syrup in natural brands) sodas. Your taste buds will dance with new flavors. In the Diet Cane Cola, for example, you can taste cinnamon and nutmeg—spices that were in the original cola drinks, 100 years ago when Boylan’s Bottleworks first opened its doors. Read our full review.

BOYLAN’s Bottleworks Diet Black Cherry, Diet Cane Cola, Diet Creme, Diet Root Beer   Certified kosher by Kosher Technical Konsultants. 11.6-Ounce Bottle Suggested Retail Price $1.99 4-Pack $3.39 Zero Calories Available at fine supermarkets and specialty food stores nationwide, including FreshDirect and Amazon Prices and flavor availability are subject to change. BoylanBottling.com

Three of Boylan’s four diet flavors. Missing, our favorite, Diet Cane Cola.

Hi-Ball Energy Drink

Hi-ball’s naturally flavored sparkling waters aren’t sweetened, but are flavored club sodas with a bonus—the taurine and guarana plus ginseng, B-vitamins and caffeine found in other energy drinks. Instead of a cup of coffee, we love the refreshing flavors—Grapefruit, Lemon Lime, Orange and Wild Berry. For a low-calorie energy spritzer, mix the Grapefruit with some grapefruit juice. Read our full review.

HI-BALL ENERGY DRINK Grapefruit, Lemon Lime, Orange and Wild Berry   10-Ounce Bottle Suggested Retail Price $1.99 Zero Calories Available at fine supermarkets, specialty food stores, natural products stores and delis. There’s a store locator on the website, Hiballer.com. Prices and product availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. Shipping is additional. THE NIBBLE does not sell products; these items are offered by a third party with whom we have no financial or other relationship. This link to purchase is provided as a reader convenience.

Hi-ball calorie-free energy drink.

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