5-10 calories. No sugar. No alcohol. But it kind of tastes like a cocktail? Or maybe potpourri?
Welcome to the lightning review of Hella Cocktail Co’s canned beverage: Bitters & Soda.
Wrapping 2022, I knew I would take a break from alcohol. Not because I felt too heavily doused in hops and whiskey through the holidays, but more as an easy way to cut out excess calories and to experiment with its effects on my sleep.
I don’t drink soda or juice more than a handful of times a year, but I wanted to include a bit of variety into my day-to-day hydration routine. I tested a handful of non-alcoholic concoctions but found them to be either too sweet, or too needless complex in attempting to recreate a cocktail. Greg from How to Drink has a great rundown of these here.
But Hella’s offering hit differently. Each flavored can is heavily carbonated, and despite the different labels, the core taste is consistently aromatic bitters.
This dry, tart flavor carries an unexpected depth that I’ve found to be the perfect replacement for my usual alcohol-consuming activities. Specifically over dinner, when playing D&D, and before bed. The cumulative nothingness in their nutritional value has had me grabbing one from the fridge far more often than I did for an actual beer or Post-Meridian old-fashioned (my favorite canned cocktail).
The cost is a bit prohibitive at roughly $3 per can, so it still fills that spot as an occasional treat versus traditional beverages.
Aside from the far too sweet and sugary “spritz” flavor, I have to give the Bitters and Soda a big thumbs up. Five out of five stars for indulgent refreshment.