Sparkling water is a product that seems to have gained a lot of popularity over the past few years, and it makes sense. We’re all looking for tasty foods and drinks that offer low or better yet no calories! Costco offers two very different kinds of Kirkland Signature Sparkling Water. Both come in three flavors; one is a more traditional fizzy, clear drink in cans while the other is almost more like diet soda and comes in bottles. Is either one the perfect, refreshing, zero-calorie beverage to quench your thirst?
Other beverages from Costco are the Fresh n’ Pure Guava Juice, Kirkland Signature Iced Tea Mix, Naked Smoothie Variety Pack, Good Host Raspberry Lemonade, Blue Monkey Sparkling Juice Drink, Kirkland Signature Organic Juice Boxes and the Kirkland Signature Lemonade.
Location in Store
Both varieties of sparkling water weren’t located in the same section in Costco. The canned sparkling water was by the deli section and the bottled flavored sparkling water was with all the other beverages like soda. The item numbers are 835484 and 4164501 and I bought them at the Kalispell, Montana Costco.
Taste
I wrote notes for each flavor of sparkling water I tried. I’m going to start off by sharing my thoughts on the canned essenced sparkling water that doesn’t contain any artificial sugars.
Lemon – This isn’t at all sweet, it has a distinct real lemon flavor that doesn’t taste artificial. It’s bubbly but not super bubbly. I think it would mix well with vodka and some additional slices of lemon
Grapefruit – Has a strong noticeable fresh grapefruit flavor. Once again not at all sweet, more bubbly tasting than the lemon.
Lime – Very limey! Lots of lime flavor but zero sweetness. It’s really bubbly and quite refreshing.
Let’s move on to the colorful bottles of sparkling water that are more like diet artificial juices or diet sodas.
Kiwi strawberry – This is extremely sweet, way too sweet for my liking. I took a tiny taste and was immediately turned off by how sweet and artificial it tasted. It’s not a natural kiwi strawberry flavor at all. I could see kids liking this because it tastes like candy.
Orange mango – It’s hard to taste the orange or mango flavors distinctly because of how sweet this is. One sip is all I can handle. Orange seems like it may be an easier flavor to make taste a bit more natural but Costco doesn’t succeed at that with this sparkling water.
Black raspberry flavor – This one is probably my favorite flavor, it’s bright and flavorful but still tastes over-the-top sweet and artificial. I may enjoy this if I did a ratio of 3/4 unflavored sparkling water to 1/4 of this flavored sparkling water.
Cost
Both cases of sparkling water cost the exact same, $10.99 USD. The flavored sparkling water case has 24 503-milliliter bottles. The essenced sparkling water case contains 36 355-milliliter cans.
Convenience
The best-before date listed on the bottled flavored sparkling water is eight months from when I purchased it and the canned sparkling water has a best-before date that’s about 11 months from when we purchased it.
The canned non-sweet sparkling water is great for anyone who doesn’t love plain water and wants a bit of flavor and bubbles. They’d make low-calorie cocktail mixes as well.
The bottled carbonated flavored sparkling water is just like a fizzy juice or soda in my opinion so if you want something very sweet and artificial tasting, you may like this.
Nutrition
Calories
All three flavors of the canned sparkling waters contain zero calories as well as zero grams of fat, sodium, carbohydrates, sugars and protein.
All three flavors of bottled sparkling water contain zero calories and zero grams of fat, sodium, carbohydrates and protein.
Ingredients
The canned Kirkland Signature Sparkling Water contains only two ingredients. Carbonated water and natural flavors.
The bottled carbonated flavored water contains a lot more ingredients than the canned version such as green tea, sucar;pse and a ton of other preservatives and chemical ingredients as well as vitamins. Personally, I think the healthier option is the canned sparkling water.
Scoring
Taste: 7/10 for the canned sparkling water without sucralose. 3/10 for the bottled flavored sparkling water.
Cost: 8/10
Convenience: 10/10
Nutrition: 10/10 For the canned version. 5/10 for the bottled version. The bottled one is low in calories, but I don’t love the ingredients.
Overall
Give it a try for the canned sparkling water and walk on by for the bottled sparkling water!
The canned sparkling water from Costco is good, but I personally don’t love citrus flavors. I think if you like citrus and bubbles without sweetness you’ll like them.
Kids might appreciate the candy-eque sweetness and artificial flavors of the bottled Kirkland Signature Sparkling Carbonated Flavored Water, but they aren’t my cup of tea.
Have you tried these sparkling waters before? What do you think of them?
Where does the sparkling water et it’s sweetness?
Artificial sweeteners.
This stuff gave me wild diarrhea.
I am 73 years old (not a kid) and I loved the bottled flavored waters. Good full bodied flavor in the drinks sweet but not too sweet. Try them you will like them.
Laurel
Hilarious! These canned “flavored” waters taste like the fruit has been waved in the general direction. The flavor is non existent, that’s why I returned the waters to Costco.