Appealing to health-conscious consumers, gut-friendly drinks — like those made by Poppi and Olipop – are believed to aid digestion, support immune function, and boost dietary fiber. They also come in a much more convenient package than other gut-healthy heroes, like kimchi, kraut, and kefir, and contain less sugar than classic sodas, which may account for their rocketing rise in popularity. Having said that, there’s one prebiotic drink that you should avoid at all costs: GoodBelly.
The loser in our list of 12 prebiotic and probiotic drink brands, ranked worst to best, we found this particular brand’s line of beverages to be artificial tasting, disappointing, and weak (we tasted three different flavors to get a balanced impression of each brand). The mixed berry and mango pineapple flavors were both unimpressive in different ways; the mixed berry had an artificial note to it and a muted character while the mango pineapple had an underwhelming quality and disproportionately veered on the pineapple-y side (even though it fared slightly better in the flavor stakes). However, the worst GoodBelly flavor by far was lemon lime, which tasted like pool water and had a bitter aftertaste. Though its ingredients list includes real fruit juice in the form of organic lemon and lime, it still had an artificial quality that we couldn’t get past.
The prebiotics in GoodBelly drinks comes from blue agave fiber
The prebiotic element in GoodBelly’s lemon-lime flavor comes from a polysaccharide called inulin, which is derived from blue agave fiber (the succulent plant native to Mexico that produces agave nectar). This non-digestible fiber feeds the good bacteria in the gut and encourages the promotion of healthy flora. However, there are plenty of other gut-friendly drinks packed with prebiotics and probiotics that have a yummier taste and have zero sugar, such as Chobani, Halfday, and Bloom. In our opinion, you’d be better off selecting a different brand that tastes good so that getting more prebiotics into your diet feels like a pleasure rather than a chore.
The winning brand in our taste test was Wildwonder and our favorite flavor was pineapple paradise. This tropical-vibed, sparkling beverage was so good that it tasted like a straight up can of fizzy pineapple juice, even though it’s made with a blend of pineapple, lime, and tangerine juice. It does contains 6g of sugar, unlike some of the other sugar-free brands we tried, but it wasn’t overly sweet, which could perhaps be attributed to the counterbalancing tingling heat of the Sichuan peppercorn extract in the ingredients list. We also enjoyed the peach ginger flavor, which boasted a warming, but not biting, note of ginger at the very start that mellowed out with the peach towards the end.
