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Test: The best soft drinks

If you want to freshen up with a drink in the summer, you have to take a close look at whether it pleases the environment and your health. Option has tested 32 soft drinks for taste, ecology and health.

Organic Beverages

It was a result of extreme sugar shock and brutal summer heat hard-worked knowledge: The perfect product is not synonymous with the soft drinks. We would like to have a refreshing drink that tastes sensational, but also provides for environmental and health aspects without a guilty conscience the right cooling. Nil, even though we came across some highly recommended products.

That's how we tested

Overall, 32 soft drinks from the domestic trade were blind tasted and graded according to three criteria. Since we only want to give positive recommendations, only the best drinks in the overall rating were presented. The basic requirement for the test was the absence of artificial additives.
Ecology - The environmental friendliness was evaluated according to the criteria of packaging, origin, organic, fair trade and recycling. For a base value of 5 plus and minus points were awarded. Example: To glass we stood neutral, aluminum cans and plastic bottles were given a trigger.
Health - The health factor was evaluated for sugar content / calories, ingredients, bio and fruit juice quality. For a base value of 5 plus and minus points were awarded. Example: From a calorie count of 35 kcal, there was a penalty, a plus for under 15 kcal. Direct juice or fruit juice without concentrate was also rewarded.
Taste - Six jurors assessed the taste in a blind tasting - without seeing any brand or packaging. The resulting average determines the taste rating. The highest score awarded was 9,7, the lowest 3.
The best soft drinks
The best soft drinks

The dilemma: The six judges enjoyed some lemonades during the extensive blind tasting, but they were often disappointing in terms of ecology or health. Role models based on our criteria found little approval from our palates. And then there were the extreme cases: drinks that suggest ecology or well-being, but are apparently sent halfway around the world or definitely do not correspond to a reasonably healthy consumption. Of course, tastes are different and the right ecological and health criteria can also be discussed. But: Long transport routes or even missing details of the exact country of manufacture? Aluminum and plastic? Added sugar? Juice concentrates? Pseudo-healthy sugar bombs?

The conclusion of our test: Above all, the packaging - whether aluminum, plastic, but also disposable glass (neutral rated) - ecologically unsatisfactory. Where are the big innovations? After all, some drinks use cardboard packaging (with plastic or aluminum seal) - but we simply did not like it.
Incidentally, Greenpeace was also deeply disappointed at the last market check: plastic bottles, cans and non-returnable glass bottles are increasingly displacing the environmentally friendly returnable bottle - whether for beer, mineral water, juice, lemonade or wine. In contrast to the reusable glass bottle, which can be refilled up to 40 times, the disposable bottles end up in the garbage. Among the 32 soft drinks tested, there was just one returnable bottle (Bio-Zisch from Völkl)! In the test, products manufactured in Austria were clearly at an advantage with an extra point due to the transport route problem. Just like organic and fairtrade products, not-from-concentrate juice, low calorie values ​​and health-promoting ingredients.

The final result presents the best 15 drinks according to the three criteria of taste, ecology and health, in any case without artificial additives. Let them taste good and refrain from traditional lemonades or supposedly eco-drinks. In any case, the purchase should be paid attention to the information: Does the content, what the packaging promises?

HERE YOU CAN FIND THE BEST ORGANIC BEVERAGES

Photo / Video: Option.

Written by Helmut Melzer

As a long-time journalist, I asked myself what would actually make sense from a journalistic point of view. You can see my answer here: Option. Showing alternatives in an idealistic way - for positive developments in our society.
www.option.news/about-option-faq/

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