We Tried Two New Vitamin Water Flavors—Including a Chocolate One?

We’ve tasted a lot of water here at Sporked—sparkling water, still water, and water that has so many additional ingredients that continuing to call it water feels like kind of a stretch. Vitamin Water falls into that last category there. My colleague Jordan Myrick recently taste tested every flavor we could get our hands on, and it was a fun reminder that Vitamin Water really does taste good, even if it doesn’t resemble actual water.

In the early ’00s, I always had this stuff in the fridge, and the core lineup has largely remained the same since way back then—Essential (Orange), Revive (Fruit Punch), Energy (Tropical Citrus), etc. The brand has seen way more room for flavor innovation in its Zero Sugar line of drinks. This is where they’re taking bigger swings, case in point, their two new releases: Zero Sugar Forever You (Coconut Lime) and Zero Sugar With Love (Raspberry Dark Chocolate). Yep, chocolate flavored water. Is it crazy or crazy enough to work? We tasted both to find out.

Vitamin Water Zero Sugar Forever You (Coconut Lime): Coconut-lime sparkling water doesn’t sound all that weird. Coconut-lime still water? Gotta be honest: It’s a little weird! But the more I sipped this, the more I liked it. Coconut is the dominant flavor by a mile, but there’s a little bit of tang that suggests lime, even if it lacks actual, authentic lime flavor. It’s got a bunch of B vitamins, vitamin C, and curcumin, a buzzy substance typically associated with turmeric supplements. There’s a pretty pronounced fake-sweetener aftertaste, but if you’re used to drinking low-calorie bevs, I doubt it will bother you too much. Pack a few of these in the ol’ Igloo the next time you go to the beach and I bet you’ll be hooked.
Vitamin Water Zero Sugar With Love (Raspberry Dark Chocolate): I absolutely hated this when I first tasted it. The raspberry flavor was too cloying, and the hint of chocolatey flavor on the finish only served to make it sweeter. But then I stopped being such a brat, tasted it again, and warmed up to it a lot. If you’re drinking this because you’re genuinely curious what chocolate-flavored water would taste like, you’ve come to the wrong place. The raspberry flavor dominates, but it’s good for raspberry flavor—tart and tangy. The chocolate flavor just reads as a slightly warmer sweetness that rounds out the sharp sweetness of the raspberry flavor. I honestly doubt I’d pick this up again, but I can see why people would! All in all, it’s not bad.