Feel Good Drinks Review

I was recently sent a case of drinks from the Feel Good Drinks Company to test and review on Splodz Blogz. I’ve now tasted all six flavours I was sent (I had two bottles of each, although my other half “claimed” the second of each of the six flavours)… so here goes the review.

My case of Feel Good Drinks chilling in the fridge

Feel Good is a premium soft drinks brand producing still and sparkling fruit juice drinks. They promote their drinks as being 100% natural with no added sugar or artificial “nasties”, and have five golden rules:

Use natural ingredients
Fruit not sugar
Make sure they’re fruity and gorgeous
Quality is king
Be planet friendly

I am a big fan of good quality soft drinks such as J2O, Innocent Smoothies, Fentimans, Coppella, Shloer, Appletiser and so on. But I admit to normally buying the usual Coke, Lemonade, supermarket own brand fruit juices and so on – simply because of cost.

A 750ml bottle of Feel Good Sparkling Cloudy Lemon costs £1.99 at Sainsbury’s at the moment, which compares to the same size Shloer at £2.03 and Appletiser at £2.40. Feel Good drinks also come in the smaller 375ml bottle (also glass), which is what I was sent to test and I found costing £1.19 in a local petrol station. These are ideal to sip straight from the bottle at home or on the move, or pour over ice of course.

The flavours I was sent to taste test definitely sounded good:

Cloudy Lemon Sparkling Juice Drink
Orange and Passionfruit Sparkling Juice Drink
Cranberry and Lime Sparkling Juice Drink

Cloudy Lemon Juice Drink
Apple and Blueberry Juice Drink
Orange and Mango Juice Drink

Out of all of these I have only ever tried the Cranberry and Lime Sparkling Juice Drink, and that has been on the odd occasion it has been on offer in my local Sainsbury’s – so I was looking forward to giving all the drinks a try. I made sure they were well chilled – always the best way to enjoy a soft drink – and had each drink direct from the bottle. I will say now I was expecting to like these drinks because I know this is the sort of thing I enjoy, but was trying to test them properly by thinking about the flavour, comparing them to other drinks I’ve had and considering when I might best enjoy a Feel Good drink.

I’ll take each flavour in turn:

Cloudy Lemon Sparkling Juice Drink

This was the first drink I tried and as a fan of “proper lemonade” I had high expectations… and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed. I found it to be a really good quality lemonade aimed at adults with just the right amount of fizz (or maybe more of a sparkle) that it was a pleasure to drink. I could imagine sipping on this drink whilst sitting in my garden on a hot summers evening, or sat in a park on a picnic rug watching the world go by. I had this drink on its own (without food) and I felt that was the right way to enjoy it – it didn’t strike me as a drink to have with a meal. I admit to comparing this to what is probably my favourite soft drink – Fentiman’s Victorian Lemonade, and while it didn’t quite match the sharpness of that particular drink, it did pass as a very good quality lemonade that I would happily have again.

Orange and Passionfruit Sparkling Juice Drink

This one definitely reminded us of something we have had before. Not sure if it was Lilt or something else? It had that “tropical” and “exotic” feeling to it. Definitely refreshing, and once again had a good flavour. I did have this with food and it was perfect with my lunchtime sandwiches – great for a summers day picnic or barbecue, or even to put on the table to go with dinner. Feel Good Drinks have definitely got the amount of fizz right, it is great to drink without fizzing up or making you feel bloated!

Cranberry and Lime Sparkling Juice Drink

As I mentioned above, this is the flavour I had tried before, and I definitely still enjoyed it. It is perhaps not an obvious combination of fruits but it works very well, making it thirst-quenching, ideal for outdoor-drinking. Out of the three sparkling juice drinks I tested I think this was my favourite, and is the one I will definitely be adding to my shopping list on a more regular basis than before. It is also the one I couldn’t compare to another drink I have had before.

Cloudy Lemon Juice Drink

I tried this drink during the afternoon of a busy day at work. It was really nice and cooling, perhaps even revitalising! I do enjoy proper American (still) lemonade with the bits in, but this wasn’t that. This wasn’t over sweet, had a fabulous lemon flavour although wasn’t bitter, and was very refreshing. It was really the perfect thing for that moment in the office and I can see me treating myself to this on similar occasions, but I could tell how it would be even better over ice sipped in the garden on a summers day – yes please!

Apple and Blueberry Juice Drink

This is definitely a “juice drink” rather than a “juice” – it is quite ‘thin’ in terms of consistency (it has of course been mixed with water) but that makes it a better thirst quencher than otherwise. It has a very strong fruity smell as soon as you open the cap which is inviting, and when you sip it the flavour doesn’t disappoint – although I think perhaps “blueberry and apple” might be a more appropriate order for the label as the blueberry taste is stronger than the apple (which isn’t a bad thing). The only thing that worried me about this one is the wide cap on the glass bottle meaning dribbles are likely… and the colour of this would almost certainly stain – perhaps much safer to drink this through a straw or from a glass! Having said that, I didn’t struggle with my big gob though!! 🙂

Orange and Mango Juice Drink

The last of the drinks I tried was this one, and I’m sorry to say it was my least favourite of the six. It was still a really nice refreshing drink, it just had some stiff competition! The flavour was strong, and it went perfectly with dinner. It had a very clean taste which was pleasant, but needed an extra bit of ‘oomph’ from something, maybe the addition of some apple or maybe pineapple?

Overall Opinion

Feel Good Drinks have really got something good going on. They’ve pitched themselves alongside other premium soft drink brands but with the addition of a 100% natural philosophy. In my opinion, the no added sugar or artificial “nasties” is a real bonus, both for the health aspect (this is becoming more and more important to lots of people, me included) as well as for the taste – the drinks taste fresh and clean and really are a pleasure to sip.

If you haven’t had a look at the Feel Good Drinks website you should pay it a visit. There’s a great little doodle site for kids too, which will kill some time on a rainy day (and make adults smile too!). They are also a great company to chat to on Twitter – Feel Good Drinks have really got the idea of social networking sorted by using it to interact with its customers and chat to them about just about everything.

Feel Good Drinks can be found…

on the web: http://www.feelgooddrinks.co.uk/
on their blog: http://www.feelgooddrinks.co.uk/app/webroot/blog/
on their doodle site: http://doodle.feelgooddrinks.co.uk/#/home
on Twitter: http://twitter.com/feelgooddrinks
on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/feelgooddrinks

I did want to end this review by summing up these drinks in one word… perhaps refreshing, fresh, thirst-quenching, natural? My other half said “slurpilicious” – I’m not sure that is a real word, but it does work!

If you’ve never tried Feel Good Drinks before why not give them a go? I would certainly recommend them. Try the Cloudy Lemon Juice Drink and the Cranberry and Lime Sparkling Juice Drink first. Next time you want a decent soft drink for a meal or special picnic, get Feel Good Drinks instead of Shloer or Appletiser. And when you have tried them, let me know what you think and if you agree with me!

Thank you very much to Feel Good Drinks, who sent me the case of drinks to review. If you would like to see a review of your product on Splodz Blogz, please get in touch.