A Review of Zevia All-Natural, Zero-Calorie Soda Sweetened with Stevia

All the Taste and the Carbonation WithOUT the Sugar or Artificial Substitutes

For many years, I really was hooked on diet soda. I probably drank, on average, two cans or, more often, two larger bottles each day -- sometimes more, sometimes less -- for years unless I was backpacking. But we've all read and heard about how those zero-calorie colas can backfire when it comes to weight loss, not to mention the long-term ill effects of aspartame and other artificial sugar substitutes. So I eventually gave up the diet soda cold turkey and didn't touch a can or bottle of the bubbly stuff for nearly a year.

During that time, my husband and I decided to try going sugar-free altogether -- no more cane sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, molasses, or artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame -- the exceptions being the natural sugars in fruit and other foods, a little honey for baking, and stevia, which is made from the leaves of the plant species Stevia rebaudiana, a green plant from the sunflower family, also related to the daisy and ragweed. Though it's 200 times sweeter than sugar, Stevia has a no effect on blood glucose, so it's much better for those who are hypoglycemic or diabetic than cane sugar. My husband was, at one time, diagnosed as pre-diabetic, so he knew had to make a change, and I decided to join him.

Over the months that we've been going without the types of sugar and substitutes I mentioned above, we've been reading lots of labels (it's amazing the things that sugar, by any of its many names, is added to!) and learning to cook and bake in a new way. We've also discovered some great products that use the few exceptions I've mentioned above in their lists of ingredients and taste great too. One of those is Zevia, which is a brand of calorie-free sodas with made with stevia and a little added monk fruit -- also a natural sweetener with no effect on blood sugar -- to enhance the taste.

Available in 15 flavors in both cans and bottles, Zevia has now become a welcome treat in our house. While I haven't gone back to drinking two sodas a day, it's great to have a cold, refreshing zero-calorie soda that not only doesn't have artificial sweetener but also doesn't have a bad aftertaste at all.

Our favorite flavors are the rootbeer, cream soda, the basic "Coke" flavor (which comes in both caffeinated and decaffeinated varieties) and the cherry coke. While you find Zevia in specialty and natural grocery stores, it's also now carried in many mainstream markets, like Safeway here in Arizona, and also on Amazon.com.

I've purchased this product at our local Safeway stores as well as Sprouts and even Target. As it seems to be getting more popular, it and other drink products sweetened with stevia have been popping up in more brick-and-mortar locations.

Zevia is also available on Amazon, in this variety pack or as individual flavors.

There are plenty more where these came from, including ginger ale, Mountain Zevia, cherry cola, lemon-lime, strawberry, grape, black cherry and more. You can also try the Zevia Rainbow Pack with 24 12-ounce cans, so you can sample many of the 15 flavors.

Rootbeer

Rootbeer floats, anyone? Yes, I know, ice cream has sugar. But we make our own ice cream here at home, using either liquid or granulated stevia instead. Zevia's rootbeer flavor is now free of color additives, so it's a clear, colorless soda while still having the same great taste.

This is so much better than the diet cream sodas with artificial sweeteners that I used to drink. Those left a funky after-taste. Not so with Zevia's version.

Like the rootbeer, the cream soda is also now free of color additives.

Zevia Cola tastes more like regular Coke than it does Diet Coke, so if you're used to the taste of diet colas or actually prefer that taste like I do, this will be a bit different. This flavor comes in both caffeinated and decaffeinated versions.

Like the other flavors I've tried, there's no strange after-taste.

Zevia is Vegan, Kosher and Gluten-Free

Hear from the CEO of Zevia, Patty Spence, about their product, their company, and their key ingredient: stevia.

Spence completely quit sugar 11 years ago but was still consuming about 1,000 calories a day in other sweeteners. Today, stevia is the only sweetener used in his household.

Visit the Zevia website for lots more background about these products and the company. You can look for coupons and discount codes there as well.