Snapple's Acai Drink Just Pear Juice And Corn Syrup
Of all the ridiculous Acai schemes we've seen involving overpriced miracle elixirs, Snapple wins hands down—their Acai Blackberry drink is high fructose corn syrup, pear juice, and "natural flavors," which Consumerist reader LS points out could be "a spoonful of blackberry jam from Aunt Sally's root cellar and a puff of acai-laced breath from the health food girl in accounting." Or more likely, just some flavoring extracts from a company similar to this one.
(from the bottle) "Filtered water, High fructose corn syrup, pear juice from concentrate, citric acid, natural flavors, vegetable extract (for color), acacia gum."
We know, Snapple isn't doing anything illegal—we're sure they confess everything somewhere on the label. The funny thing, though, is that nobody is touting Acai as a flavor to be sought out. It's all about the supposed health benefits, so the only reason to slap it onto a label is to attract health-conscious or Oprah-watching consumers. And can you imagine a less healthy drink than something that lists HFCS as the main ingredient after water? (Well, yes we're sure you can, but you get the point.)
Update: According to some of our commenters, Acai is a delicious flavor.
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Comments:
I stopped drinking Snapple after Coca-Cola bought them up.
Good job, douchebags.
"Made from the best stuff on earth" they used to say...
I feel like nobody reads labels anymore. Hopefully if enough of these stories get out people will start to become more aware of what they put into their bodies.
I can't tell from the photo and I am curious: Does it say anywhere on the label "Contains 0% juice" or something like that? I seem to remember that some orange drink makers do something like that. Use to drive me nuts when I would see products like that in the orange juice section.
Snapple was good when the Marsh family owned the company, and Wendy used to do their "best stuff on earth" commercials on TV (with the extremely high counter tops)
Since the Marsh family sold the company, it's been downhill...
For whatever it's worth, most "Juice Cocktails" are mostly apple, grape and/or pear juice and sweetener.
Something unhealthier? There are lots of products (BBQ sauces for example) that have HFCS as the first ingredient, then water. Figure that out!
How about using SKIM MILK in Go Bananas? I didn't realize you needed milk to add a banana taste. They really should make that a higher emphasis on the label, especially because there are a lot of lactose intolerant people, like myself, that may have tried it and not known it can cause extreme stomach pain. And don't forget the people with milk allergies too.
It says "Juice Drink" right on the front, that should be anyone's first clue.
buy a juicer, thank me later!
@Parapraxis: Coke never actually purchased them, they're owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group which is an offshoot of Cadbury Schweppes who purchased them in 2000.
Snapple always was, and always will be, waaaaaaaaaay too sweet. Personally, I don't have a vendetta against HFCS - I avoid it because everything that includes it uses TOO MUCH. There are very few bottled drinks that have less than 36 grams of sugar (HFCS) per serving. Honest Tea is one of the few, but it's like $2 a bottle. I'd drink snapple if they'd halve the amount of HFCS they use. but then again, it would probably reveal what we knew all along - that without all the sweet it basically tastes like sewer water.
@bilups: oh, I excluded "Diet" drinks - even though they have no sugar, they usually taste even sweeter than the regular drinks - and they usually have a horrific plastic aftertaste to boot.
Does Acai berry juice naturally make people corrupt? Are there any products related to Acai that aren't fraudulent in some way?
Hasn't the herbal supplement industry been preying on dumb people for years with stuff like this? Eat a piece of fruit or some vegetables and you don't need this snake oil.
@azzy: In a world where chicken eggs are made of cheap chocolate filled with sickly sweet frosting, high fructose corn syrup IS the best stuff on Earth.
@bilups: Thats one of the reasons I like Jones Soda.
They use sugar instead of HFCS in their drinks.
@cynical_bastard: If you ever have the chance, most HFCS beverages in North America have real sugar in Europe, where the sugar lobby is more powerful than the corn lobby.
I swear a Coke in England tastes a lot better than in the states, but maybe that's the $4 price tag talking (500ml).
You know what they say about HFCS!
What do they say about it?
... God those commercials make me die laughing.
My wife bought the kids some orange drink called Tampico from the local FoodMaxx. I read the label and one of the ingredients was:
Vegetable Oil
At this point I informed her that she was not to buy this for the kids any longer; she agreed.
What the hell is everyones problem with high fructose corn syrup? Its a sweetener made from corn, I don't understand why everyone is so agianst it.
They're producing a good tasting drink. Thats whats advertised. I don't see anything wrong with this at all
@Troy F.: Yeah, especially apple juice, I think that comes in a close second to HFCS for most unexpected ingredient in juices. At least apple juice is healthier...
@bilups: True dat. If I'm willing to drink soda, clearly I'm not super-concerned about what kinds of ingredients I'm ingesting, but I refuse to drink diet soda because it is way too sweet and just tastes NASTY.
@TheWillow:
Yeah I wish I had a chance to respond.
"What do they say about it?"
The unnaturally high amount of fructose screws with your insulin levels. It makes you fat, because your body can't store much fructose, and to get your blood sugar level down, the body converts the fructose to fat.
That it's subsidized by taxpayers.
That it appears from studies that it promotes increases in body fat more than regular cane sugar, probably because of the above.
That it's in almost every food product, so it's difficult to have it moderation, unless you eat only raw foods.
Is there any way to figure out what these "natural flavors" are?
It seems like some sort of newspeak.
wtf is Acai?
@humphrmi: As I was typing this post, I thought, "Poor pear juice, it's the carrot juice of the juice drink world." But you're right, apple juice is greatly abused too.
@Starfury: IDK if it is really going to be an ingredient or not.
I remember a while ago, someone reporting an oily skin on their coca cola, but it was just food grade oil that helps lubricate the filling machines...
isn't Snapple basically flavoured water anyway? Their products have an awfully low juice content.
It's a berry from South America. Sort of looks like an unripe coffee bean.
It's supposed to contain ungodly amounts of anti-oxidants, and is the latest fad in health juice drinks.
However, this stuff from Snapple is just ridiculous.
I love Kiwi Strawberry Snapple, but I stopped drinking it because ever since I tried to cut back on HFCS, I swear to God I can taste it when I do drink it. It tastes vaguely like corn. I bet this stuff tastes almost identical to every other Snapple anyway.
@chris_d: Don't forget that it's chemically different from sucrose and your body absorbs it more readily rather than expending the energy breaking it down.
@Troy F.: It's not just the juice, it's the whole apple that's being bastardized by the food industry!! Check out what the "strawberries" are in the Quaker Strawberries & Cream oatmeal packets. (I think this applies to the peaches kind, also). Somebody needs to make this madness stop!
@TVarmy: "Are there any products related to Acai that aren't fraudulent in some way? "
No. That's what makes health scam snake-oil fads. If there was legitimately something to Acai, it wouldn't be a fad :p
Shouldn't they be required to call it "Pear" something?
Did they always use HFCS? I could have sworn that back in the day (when Snapple was independent in the early 90s) they used better ingredients?
@BurnZ_:
You sound like those ads. Read chris_d's post above:
""What do they say about it?"
The unnaturally high amount of fructose screws with your insulin levels. It makes you fat, because your body can't store much fructose, and to get your blood sugar level down, the body converts the fructose to fat.
That it's subsidized by taxpayers.
That it appears from studies that it promotes increases in body fat more than regular cane sugar, probably because of the above.
That it's in almost every food product, so it's difficult to have it moderation, unless you eat only raw foods. "
or formatc's response:
"Don't forget that it's chemically different from sucrose and your body absorbs it more readily rather than expending the energy breaking it down."
Also what's "wrong with it" is they are calling it an Acai drink, and not putting any significant amount of Acai in it. It's like the supplements that have 1 ppb (parts per billion) of the supposed active ingredient, and you'd be lucky to get one molecule of it in the entire bottle.
@BurnZ_: Health issues aside, it's subsidized by US tax dollars while the rest of the world enjoys cheaper and better tasting sugar. If we lifted the embargo on Cuba and imported their sugar, it would cost less to use that than HFCS. Ignoring Cuba, We tariff the heck out of sugar to keep the corn artificially cheaper. We also give federal tax dollars to corn growers to supplement their income, artificially increasing the corn supply above demand. It gives the farmers unnatural incentive to grow corn instead of crops that would be more environmentally friendly or provide more nutrients to lower-income families. Growing the extra corn lowers supply and increases the price of non-corn crops.
Man has lived for thousands of years without Acai as a major part of its diet. Why start using it now (real or otherwise)?
We should all farm corn. After all, look at what it's used for: HFCS (big time), ethanol (in our gas), alcohol (grain alcohol anyone?), cornstarch, powders, livestock feed, etc. The list just goes on and on. And to make things even better, the U.S. government subsidizes it on top of all of this!
@DePaulBlueDemon: Always somebody there to find fault and not answer the question. Well then does it say "Contains 0% Acai juice" or something like that? Guess I will just venture down to the local supermarket at lunch and try to find out for myself.
In reality, Acai is not that good for you. It's not a magic food. Nothing is. However, it is delicious, and if the super food craze keeps bringing delicious new tropical fruits into the U.S, I'm into it.
HFCS is shit because its worse then suger ,super sweet and pretty much u have to worry about gettin diabetes super early but as is the trend with everything in US good luck trying to avoid it , its in EVERYTHING, as for all this acai stuff,wel its a bunch of crap to, i have heard there there really any evidence that anitoxidents actually do anything more for u. people need to start doin researchor listeing to science podcasts or whatever, not just trusting all the crap they read or hear or see on mainstream media sources and especially oprah.
@Troy F.: Especially the ones marked with pomegranate or any of the other trendy flavors. Super deceptive. If the style of juice is the top ingredient, it shouldn't be called that.
@humphrmi: Well China exports 43% of their apple juice. So what could be cheaper than apple juice concentrate from China?
Not doing anything illegal? Certainly deceptive...