Nexba Better Soda review
Here we will give a hands-on, taste-tested review of Nexba Better Soda - a low calorie, prebiotic soda. We’ll look into the benefits, ingredients, nutrition and flavour of this sugar-free drink.
For this review we have taste-tested the passionfruit version.
Nexba Better Soda is available widely in Australian supermarkets.
Pack of 4
Ingredients of Nexba Better Soda
Nexba Better Soda is a sugar-free, low-calorie soda which means that it largely relies on natural flavourings and sweeteners for taste.
Are sweeteners bad for you?
Regular readers will know that I don’t love sweeteners - whether they are natural or artificial. This is because artificial sweeteners have been shown to negatively affect gut microbe composition - and so it could be that natural sweeteners also have a negative affect on your gut. There are other potential side effects of these natural sweeteners (especially around signalling to your body that sugar is coming when it isn’t), but more research is needed.
In any case, I’d prefer to avoid sweeteners altogether to be on the safe side. This is a personal choice though and essentially a trade off between sugar (which is not good) and natural sweeteners (which may or may not be shown to be unhealthy in future).
Read more about the current research done on stevia and erythritol - the two most common natural sweeteners.
The specific ingredients are: purified sparkling water, corn fibre (prebiotics), Nexba GoodSweet® Blend (erythritol, stevia), citric acid, natural flavours, vitamin C and natural colours (lutein).
As you can see, there’s no actual passionfruit in this drink (eg juice, concentrate or puree), just natural flavouring.
To me this feels manufactured, but this is how they are able to create a drink with no sugar ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Benefits of Nexba Better Soda
This drink comes with some health benefits. It is not as beneficial as other gut health products like kombucha or kefir, but at the end of the day it’s a lot better than soft drink!
Prebiotics
Prebiotics are essentially fibres which promote the growth of beneficial microbes in the gut. This drink includes a prebiotic in the form of corn fibre. It has an impressive 4g of dietary fibre in each can.
Read more about the benefits of prebiotics.
Low in calories
This soda has zero sugar and only 4 calories per 100ml. For context, a typical, non-diet soft drink would have 10x that amount!
Vitamin C
Vitamin C boosts the immune system, aids iron absorption and supports skin and joint health.
It is also a strong antioxidant which helps your body fight off harmful free radicals and reduce inflammation.
Appearance
It has a very vibrant almost fluorescent yellow colour to it. It doesn’t scream ‘natural’ to me - more like something radioactive.
Texture
Because of the corn fibre it has a thick mouthfeel for a carbonated drink - which is not unpleasant or strange by the way.
Carbonation
It has a good level of carbonation slightly under what you’d expect from a soft drink. The burps don’t build up too much.
Flavour
The aroma is of sweet passionfruit and not particularly strong.
Like many Nexba products, the taste is quite sweet (a bit too sweet in my opinion). There’s a general sweet fruity flavour which I guess is sort of like passionfruit. However, there is very little acidity as a I was expecting in a passionfruit drink.
In summary, the taste if fine. It tastes like you would expect something to taste which claims to be passionfruit but doesn’t include any actual passionfruit - no depth of flavour, not entirely convincing and a little underwhelming.
Cost of Nexba Better Soda
You can buy a 4 pack of 330ml cans in Coles or Woolworths for $8.75. Note that you’ll find it warm on the shelves, not in the fridges.
Summary
3.75 stars out of 5.
A low-calorie drink with lots of fibre. The taste won’t win any awards and it’s not perfect, but at the end of the day it’s a much better choice than soft drink from a health perspective.
Pros
much better for you than soft drink
very low calories
contains prebiotics
added vitamin C
Cons
no real passionfruit ingredients
taste is fine, but has no real depth
contains natural sweeteners (if that bothers you)
Your reviewer
This article was reviewed by Travis, the founder of this website, long-time gut enthusiast and passionate kombucha maker!
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