Trader Joe's Sparkling Pressed Apple Juice Beverage

The pros: Trader Joe’s Sparkling Pressed Apple Juice Beverage is new to the canned drinks.

The cons: This was not very sparkling or delicious.

The verdict: You when you pick up a product and have it in your head what it might taste like? I did. Here was what my imagination told me this would taste like: miniature sized cans of Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider. Small enough so that you don’t have to consume the whole bottle in one sitting. There are enough cans to enjoy over several days.

Best of all, I had visions of all the ways I could use this. A lot of it seemed to involve our favorite bottle of Jack Daniel’s Fire Whiskey or perhaps the forgotten bottle of Fireball in the back of our bar. In either case I was dreaming up cocktails for these cute little cans.

Now, I’m saddened to tell you that looks did not meet reality on this one. I really wanted to like this. My first clue should have been the fact that this is only 70% juice. My next clue was when I opened it, it seemed more like a can of soda that had been sitting for far too long.

Sadly, this wasn’t very sparkling at all. I love just about anything carbonated. Seriously, I’m really happy to drink just about any flavor of soda you put in front of me. I consider myself a recovering Diet Coke addict. This was only marginally fizzy.

How do you measure marginally fizzy? Leave a can of soda open for 12 hours and the come back and take a sip. There will be some sense of carbon dioxide, but no bubbly mouth feel.

Since they’ve added water to this, that vision I had might have also been paired with a really good apple cider like Trader Joe’s Honey Crisp Apple Cider would not come to fruition. The Honey Crisp Apple Cider is as close as you can get to the press as any bottled beverage can get. This was like drinking from a watered down juice box.

For $3.99 for six cans, this is one that maybe a kid might appreciate, but nothing special. As an adult, I’m wondering how long these cans are going to be sitting in my refrigerator.

Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:

The package of Trader Joe’s Sparkling Pressed Apple Juice Beverage: