The Snapple brand has evolved significantly since its early days of glass bottles and twist-off tops. Known for a popular series of TV advertisements in the early 1990s featuring Wendy Kaufman (the "Snapple Lady") answering letters from Snapple fans, Snapple has become a household name. As of 2016, there are many different types of Snapple: tea (multiple flavors, such as lemon, raspberry, and peach, all of which come in original and diet), juice drinks, lemonade, and bottled water.
Recently, I had the opportunity to try and rank 10 of Snapple's most popular flavors. My ratings were based on flavor profiles, authenticity of ingredients, and nutritional information. The results were surprising, leading me to re-evaluate my perceptions of Snapple drinks.
The Criteria for Ranking
In my review and ranking of each item, I focused mainly on taste. However, within this category, I was looking for real flavors - nothing artificial. I was also seeking a harmonic, balanced flavor profile - nothing should be too acidic, sugary, or bland.
A Look at Snapple's History
Snapple is a brand of tea and juice drinks which is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, based in Plano, Texas, United States. An early apple juice product led to the company's name, Snapple. Golden, Greenberg and Marsh had created a carbonated apple juice. One of the batches of apple juice fermented in the bottle, causing the bottle caps to fly off. The original name of that particular apple juice product, Snapple, a portmanteau derived from the words snappy and apple, became the new name for their beverage company.
Snapple was known for a popular series of TV advertisements in the early 1990s featuring Wendy Kaufman (the "Snapple Lady") answering letters from Snapple fans. In an effort to counteract the Coke and Pepsi challenge commercials, Snapple began running a new line of advertisements in May 1992, which featured its trademark "Made from the best stuff on Earth" line in ads that spoofed earlier beer and sports drinks promotions; the ads received low marks from advertising industry observers. In addition, the company used its $15-million-a-year advertising budget to pay for a long-lived series of live radio commercials featuring controversial radio hosts Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh.
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At the end of the summer of 1992, Snapple conducted a five-week search for a new advertising agency that could better convey its corporate identity in preparation for a wider national push. Later that year, Snapple also signed tennis player Jennifer Capriati to endorse its products. By August 1992, Snapple had expanded its distribution to every major city in the United States and it signed new contracts with beverage distributors. The company owned no manufacturing facilities, but instead made agreements with more than 30 bottlers across the country. In this way, Snapple was able to keep its overhead low and its payroll short.
Thomas H. Lee, an American businessperson, financier and investor of Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL), acquired Snapple Beverages in 1992 on undisclosed terms. The three founders of Snapple, Leonard Marsh, Hyman Golden and Arnold Greenberg, said they would own about one-third of the new company and be involved in its management. Hellen Berry, vice president of the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a consultant in New York, estimated that Snapple, which had been for sale for more than a year and had $100 million in sales in 1991, sold for $140 million. Only eight months after buying the company, Lee took Snapple Beverages public and in 1994, only two years after the original acquisition, Lee sold the company to the Quaker Oats Company for $1.7 billion. Lee was estimated to have made $900 million for himself and his investors from the sale.
In 2009, a consumer lawsuit was brought against Snapple in California. In 2010, in a lawsuit against Snapple in the federal District of New Jersey, the court certified to the FDA for an administrative determination the question whether high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) qualifies as a "natural" ingredient. In 2010, the FDA responded by letter and declined to provide the court with the requested guidance. In 2011, a New York federal court dismissed a different lawsuit accusing Snapple of misleading consumers by labeling drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup as "all natural" when the drink contained no natural juice. After the lawsuit in May 2009, Snapple was made with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.
Snapple was able to acquire the contract in part because New York City officials did not want to encourage the consumption of sodas, which have been linked to childhood obesity and diabetes and are generally considered unhealthy. Dr. Michael F. Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, called the drinks "little better than vitamin-fortified sugar water." In addition, the concentrates used in the drinks, apple, grape and pear, are the least expensive and nutritious. The deal also gave Snapple exclusive rights to sell its tea and juice-based drinks in vending machines on all New York City properties starting in January 2004.
In the early 1990s, the original label graphic on the Iced Tea flavor, a depiction of the United States historical event the Boston Tea Party, was replaced due to misinformation espoused by protest groups claiming the ships on the packaging were slave trading vessels in New York Harbor. Snapple also fell victim to a rumor that the small K was either a representation of the Klan, or of an imagined Jewish Tax (augmented by the fact that all three founders were Jewish). The K on the products actually meant that they were certified kosher. Snapple initially tried to quell these rumors quietly, but ultimately had to launch a media campaign to squash them, pointing out it would be bad for business to support controversial issues in such a way as the rumors implied.
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Snapple is well known for printing a numbered list of Snapple "Real Facts" on the inside of their bottle caps.
Ranking the Flavors
Here's my ranking of the 10 Snapple flavors I sampled, starting with the least favorite:
10. Snapple Apple
Last on my list was Snapple Apple. This drink tasted artificial, unlike the apple juice remembered from childhood. The flavor and smell were sickly sweet and difficult to place. The ingredient list included filtered water, sugar, apple and pear juice concentrates, citric acid, vegetable and fruit juices, and "natural flavors." Despite the absence of high fructose corn syrup, the 16 ounces contained 47 grams of sugar, making it a definite no-go.
9. Fruit Punch
Fruit Punch tasted like cold medicine, with its amalgamation of weird, artificial fruit flavors. I couldn't discern any individual fruity notes, and the darker, richer notes were unappealing. While the ingredient list included apple, pear, and grape juice concentrates, the sugar count was again alarming, with 48 grams in 16 ounces.
8. Lemon Tea
I had high expectations for Lemon Tea, but it was far too acidic, with an unsatisfying artificial lemon flavoring. The tea got lost in the lemon base, resulting in a bad aftertaste from the citric acid. With 36 grams of sugar, it was also too sweet. A cold iced tea in the summer should be refreshing, and this one wasn't.
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7. Snapple Elements Rain
The Rain option from the Snapple Elements line featured agave cactus and was crisp and refreshing. It was sweet without being overpowering, but also somewhat boring compared to the other flavors. However, it had a better nutritional profile, with only 25 grams of sugar in 15.9 ounces.
6. Half n' Half Lemonade Iced Tea
Moving ahead of its Lemon Tea cousin was Snapple's Half n' Half Lemonade Iced Tea. This flavor had too much lemonade and not enough tea. While the flavors weren't artificial, the acid and sugar combo made it difficult to drink a lot of. Half n' Half featured the most sugar in the bunch: 51 grams in 16 ounces.
5. Kiwi Strawberry
This one was sweet, didn't taste fake, and was super refreshing. I liked that there was a good balance of berry flavoring, too; a real mix of kiwi and strawberry that you could clearly decipher. The main drawback was the label. This one featured 44 grams of sugar in 16 ounces, and it also had some weird ingredients in the mix, such as acacia gum, vegetable juice concentrate (for color), and ester gum.
4. Mango Madness
Mango Madness took fourth place in this competition, and gave me a new perspective on mango drinks. It tasted like real mango juice, as if I peeled and juiced the fruit myself. With 44 grams of sugar, it's another teeth killer on the list, but it was truly a delicious option. This was another one with some weird ingredients, like vegetable juice and beta-carotene (for color). Overall, I was surprised by how much I liked this one and how real it tasted.
3. Watermelon Lemonade
The Watermelon Lemonade option was more sweet than tart, but that sweetness didn't scream sugar. It was very refreshing and light, leaving me wanting more. While it did feature 34 grams of sugar in 16 ounces, it was one of the lower sugar counts on the list, and didn't have that teeth-shattering taste.
2. Peach Tea
The taste was great, too, offering a solid tea-flavored foundation, along with mild hints of peach. But with 40 grams of sugar and no actual peach in the ingredient list, it had to take second best.
1. Raspberry Tea
Coming in first place, and offering me the most shocking find in this taste test (and beyond) was the Raspberry Tea flavor from Snapple. The black tea base tasted homemade, and the addition of the raspberry smelled and tasted real, too. No artificial notes here. I also appreciated the lack of sweetness in this tea. It wasn't overloaded with sugar in the profile, even though it still had 36 grams in a 16-ounce bottle. However, that's one of the lower sugar counts on this list.
Other Snapple flavors
- Snapple Elements Fire: The intended flavor is, cleverly enough, dragon fruit. This vibrant Snapple drink is super tangy, a little bitter, and not nearly as sweet as the others, which I appreciate. All the Snapple flavors market themselves as “refreshing,” but this one actually is refreshing.
- Snapple Zero Sugar Raspberry Tea: It has a bitter, earthy appeal.
- Snapple Peach Tea: The peach itself is nice and mellow. The juice tastes less tangy than the other Snapple flavors, which I like-but good golly, Miss Molly, it’s still an instant sugar high.
- Snapple Zero Sugar Peach Tea: It’s downright pleasant-if you can get past that pinch of artificial sweetener aftertaste.
- Snapple Kiwi Strawberry: This is the most refreshing Snapple drink out of all the full-sugar beverages.
- Snapple Apple: It tastes exactly like a bag of pre-sliced apples you find on a produce shelf but in liquid form, and it’s amazing.