Ooya

Tried this one at the same time I tried Ooya’s Original flavour.

I definitely think this is really tasty – it’s got a similar light, effervescent, and sweetly refreshing profile. Not something I would call heavy or cloying at all. The watermelon was stronger that the raspberry to me, but I got a bit more of the tartness of the raspberry in the finish.

I’m glad I had the original next to me to do that side by side though, because I don’t really taste the guayusa in this RTD at all. If I didn’t have the Original as proof that (when they want to) this company can actually highlight the natural flavours of the Guayusa in a very balanced and authentic way then I would probably have been less impressed with this company overall just based on this drink alone. It’s tasty, but almost a little too polished and commercial to be nearly as interesting/noteworthy.

At least to me personally.

I met this company at SIAL earlier this year and they were just absolutely kind and pleasant to talk with! Also, I swear they had the busiest booth out of the whole trade show – Marika and I had to wait like twenty minutes for a moment to sneak in and talk with them! It was worth it though.

I’ve tried a lot of Guayusa/Yerba Mate RTDs and they tend to range between “gross” to “kinda just fine”. This one was impressively good! I think the best part about it was that on top of just being pretty light and refreshing it was also just genuinely very well balanced. Like, equal parts an effervescent sweet and just slightly tart natural lemon/citrus flavour with that trademark “rainforest” flavour of the guayusa. A little grassy and earthy with that sweet rain/petrichor finish. I just adored how true to the flavour of the Guayusa the drink was without any of the mineral/metallic taste I often get with Guayusa RTDs. It’s also rare to see one of these trendier RTDs focused around clean energy that doesn’t shy away from tasting like the thing it’s deriving that energy from!

You could easily crush a full can of this without even thinking about it! I am definitely going to be keeping an eye on this company within the RTD space!