If you’re a perpetually dehydrated, very active person, you probably already know this, but there are a lot of Body Armor flavors. When you’re faced with 20-plus bottles of a particular hydration drink, you need to pick a good one and move on with your active-person life. Well, we taste tested every Body Armor flavor we could get our hands on so you can grab the best Body Armor flavor and get back to excessively sweating.
First thing’s first: If you’re not famils, Body Armor is a hydration beverage brand that’s been around since 2011 and is now owned by Coca-Cola. What sets Body Armor apart from, say, Gatorade or Powerade? From what I gather, the answer to that question is that it contains coconut water and antioxidants (in addition to the electrolytes you’ll find in other sports drinks). I’d never had Body Armor prior to this taste test, so I didn’t go into this with any preconceptions or biases. I simply wanted to find out which Body Armor flavors are the tastiest and most gulpable.
While we set out to taste all Body Armor flavors, there were six we weren’t able to source (you’ll find them listed at the bottom of this post). So we did our best and tasted most Body Armor drink flavors to find the best Body Armor flavor of them all. It’s a weird one! But now I love it!
- Strawberry Lemonade Lyte
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When we’re in the office and we taste something really bad, our first impulse tends to be to invite our fellow taste testers to try it, too. I made everyone take a sip of this stuff. As Body Armor flavors go, it’s really bad (most of them are good). Something about it reminded me of the flavor of buttered popcorn, and not in a good way. There are 15 better Body Armor flavors on this list (including lots of Body Armor Lyte flavors) and you should drink those instead.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Watermelon Strawberry
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Yikes, it can’t be good when your only notes about a Body Armor flavor are “very farty.” Not as offensive as Strawberry Lemonade Lyte, but still not good. Believe me, things really get better from here.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Peach Mango Lyte
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A nice thing about Body Armor flavors is that they aren’t super saccharine. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for most of the Body Armor Lyte flavors, which are sweeter than regular Body Armor flavors because they’re sweetened with stevia, which is 200 to 400 times sweeter than sugar. This Body Armor drink flavor is very peachy, but somehow stevia is the predominant flavor profile.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Dragonfruit Berry Lyte
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This reminds me a lot of the dragonfruit flavor of Vitamin Water, but much sweeter. Between the dragonfruit and the generic berry, it’s a bit neither-here-nor-there. There are better Body Armor flavors on this list.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Orange Clementine Lyte
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I think orange lends itself well to bevs that are sweetened with sugar alternatives. Our favorite diet soda of them all is an orange soda and our favorite Celsius flavor is Sparkling Orange, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that Orange Clementine is one of the best Body Armor Lyte flavors. This is orange minus the tang, but it’s nice and gulpable.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Blackout Berry
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This Body Armor flavor sounds like what you’re supposed to drink after a night of partying too hard, and I actually think it would be good in that scenario because the flavor is so mild. All in all, I don’t think the berry flavor makes much of an impression, but if you’re rehydrating after a rough night, I bet this is really pleasant.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Fruit Punch
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This just tastes like watered-down fruit punch. Is watered-down fruit punch bad? Nope. In fact, this is still pretty good, but it’s not one of the Body Armor drink flavors you should go out of your way for.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Strawberry Grape Mamba Forever
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If you like grapeade, you’ll like this Body Armor flavor. It’s nice and mild and doesn’t taste like grape cough syrup. It was created as a tribute to the late great Kobe Bryant, so it gets extra points for that (I’m in L.A., after all), but I couldn’t really detect much of the strawberry flavor, so it lost a few points there.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Tropical Punch
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Much like Body Armor Fruit Punch, this tastes like a watered-down tropical punch, but the tropical flavor profile works a little bit better. Something about the pineapple-forward flavor gives the mild sweetness a longer tail.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Cherry Lime
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Now we’re getting into the best Body Armor flavors. Cherry Lime tastes like limeade with a little bit of cherry juice on the finish, and it’s really good. I think it could use more tang, but I do like the way the cherry juice flavor—which tastes like actual cherry juice rather than cherry candy flavor—lingers on your tongue.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Blueberry Pomegranate Lyte
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I almost never like pomegranate flavored things. It’s barely a flavor; it’s just sweetness. But the combo of blueberry and pomegranate really works in this Body Armor Lyte flavor. The stevia sweetness works to amp up the mildness of the blueberry.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Strawberry Banana Lyte
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Spoiler: Strawberry Banana is the best Body Armor flavor. So it makes sense that Strawberry Banana is the best Body Armor Lyte flavor. If you avoid sugary bevs, this is a great substitute for the regular version.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Blue Raspberry
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This Body Armor flavor was another surprise. Frankly, a blue raspberry-flavored hydration drink sounds very bad to me. You imagine it will be like guzzling that candy gel that comes in a tube. But this is totally pleasant—it tastes like blue raspberry without tasting like sickeningly sweet candy. It’s funny to say a flavor is accurate when it’s based on a made-up fruit, but you’ll see what I mean when you try this.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Pineapple Coconut
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Body Armor is made with coconut water, so I’m sort of surprised there aren’t more Body Armor flavors that lean into that. Anyway, I’m glad they have this one because it’s really good. It tastes more like Piña Colada mix than coconut water. The pineapple juice flavor is bold, but the coconut is what lingers as you sip. This feels like a treat. If you aren’t all that worried about hydration, hell, go ahead and spike it with some rum.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Orange Mango
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Orange Mango seems to be a fan favorite Body Armor flavor, and I can see why. It’s not super citrusy in a tart way, it’s citrusy like mandarin oranges and sweet like mango nectar. It’s really interesting and really tasty. A real chugger.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Strawberry Banana
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Strawberry Banana is the best Body Armor flavor for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I just love the novelty of it. You almost never get to drink strawberry banana-flavored drinks that aren’t thick like juice or a smoothie. This is thin like water but tastes like a smoothie—it’s kind of a mind blower. Plus, the blend of flavors is spot on. The strawberry flavor may have come off as a little artificial, but the banana mellows it out so well. Of all the Body Armor flavors, this is the one I will for sure buy again.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
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Flavors we didn’t taste: Fruit Punch Zero, Orange Zero, Cherry Lime Zero, Kiwi Strawberry Lyte, Berry Punch Lyte, Tropical Coconut Lyte
I love banana/ strawberry body armor. It’s the only drink I can drink that doesn’t bother my stomach. Could you please send me some coupons.
Thank you K. Weiler