Aquarius

When you think about it, it's amazing how much marketing occurs right on the bottle of your favorite beverage, from Alkaline Fulvic Trace Mineral Infused to Iced Bhakti Chai Coffee Blend. Clearly, marketers here in the States are really concerned that you know exactly what your beverage will taste like before you ever drink it. Names are never sleek and streamlined, no, we're stuck with GT's Enlightened Organic Raw Kombucha Multigreen instead. That's why this beverage, Aquarius (which is actually from Spain), is so interesting. The title explains nothing. The color explains nothing. The Catalan on the back that I can't read explains nothing. So what are we drinking here? Well, fortunately, the back panel does have some Spanish included on it, a language that I actually can comprehend. Turns out, it's a sports drink, made to complement athletes performance on the field. Who knows, maybe I'll turn into Messi after trying this! Yeah, I better just stick to beverage reviews.

Color: Cloudy but still translucent. There's certainly no color added, and I would imagine the cloudiness is just from those minerals the back panel mentioned. At least we won't be able to qualify the drink's flavor by it's color. (Hello, Gatorade? Cool Blue is not a flavor.)

Smell: Citrus. Perhaps not so much like a Lysol lemony fresh citrus, but more like a Sprite mixed with some tangerine citrus. Yes, it's good to know that I'm not about to drink disinfectant.

Taste: Tastes exactly like what it smells like: Citrus. However, unlike Gatorade, which is often so swamped with sugar that the fruit flavor (or blue flavor, it's still not a flavor) becomes totally irrelevant, this actually isn't all that sweet. The citrus flavor is light, and the whole drink is light, but the fruit really is prevalent. It's a well balanced drink overall, with just enough flavor to be enjoyable yet not overpowering.

Rating: ****

Even though the flavor isn't super strong and exciting, the light, refreshing flavor of Aquarius make it seem like the perfect drink during an athletic competition. I'd certainly drink it over Gatorade, if we had any of it here in the US. I wish I had saved some for my next basketball game, so I could channel my inner Pau Gasol!