Review: Cherry Lime Flavor Shines In Bloom Nutrition Sparkling Energy Drink Line

Bloom Nutrition is largely known for its green powders and supplements, but it is now branching into the energy drink world. Sold exclusively at Target stores, these sparkling energy drinks utilize green coffee bean extract and other ingredients to create (according to Bloom) an energy boost that will not lead to a crash later in your day.

Bloom's new line of drinks joins the already quite long list of energy drink products available from Target and other big box stores, so its competition is anything but minimal. The brand has released four flavors: peach mango, strawberry watermelon, raspberry lemon, and cherry lime. As an avid energy drink customer, I typically enjoy one sometime around mid-afternoon. Naturally, I was eager to sample this new addition to grocery store shelves. Knowing the drinks contain zero sugar, I was also curious how they would be sweetened to help balance the flavors.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

You will find Bloom sparkling energy drinks at your local Target stores. Each can costs $2.69, though that may vary depending on your location. When researching prices, I noticed that Target was running a special. When you purchase three cans of Alani Nu or Bloom energy drinks, the price would be $7, which comes out to about $2.33 per can. Both of these brands have drinks at $2.69, so I can imagine their products being paired together in the future for other such promotions.

In addition to this deal, if you visit Bloom's website and click on "shop at Target," a promotion pops up that allows you to purchase two cans of the energy drink, text a picture of your receipt to Bloom, and get reimbursed over PayPal or Venmo for the purchase of one of those cans. It doesn't appear to be a widely advertised promotion outside of the website, and it may only be around until the initial buzz of this new drink wears off, but it's an interesting marketing campaign nevertheless.

All four flavors of Bloom's sparkling energy drinks have the same metrics on the back of the can. In each 12-ounce can, there is 180 milligrams of caffeine. Compared with the caffeine content of various popular energy drinks, this number ranks toward the high end. Even though the varieties are highly fruit flavored, they contain no fruit juice. Each drink does, however, contain several extracts, including green coffee bean, lychee fruit, and green tea.

For the sweetener, Bloom doesn't add any real sugar but instead uses sucralose. You may know this sweetener by its more common name, Splenda. In terms of calorie content, each drink is pretty minimal at 10 calories. The only other numbers of note on the nutrition label are 2 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of dietary fiber.

Even though there isn't a whole lot of evidence supporting the claim that apple cider vinegar benefits your health, many take it as part of their daily diet. Those who regularly enjoy apple cider vinegar may be piqued by the inclusion of this ingredient in these energy drinks.

My least favorite of the four flavors of Bloom energy drinks was the peach mango. At first sip, the mango had a stronger presence than the peach, but the peach did seem to linger a little bit longer on the palate. I found it was more in the aftertaste than the initial few sips. This one tasted almost too sweet and felt like a fuzzy navel that went a little too heavy on the sweetener. Seeing the sucralose on the ingredients label, I was nervous about how pronounced it might be. With this flavor, it comes through very strongly.

Typically, I think of peach flavors as eliciting a summertime feel, but I don't get that quite as strongly with this drink. Rather, it's more of a peach mango like you might find in the flavoring of a jelly of sorts rather than a freshly squeezed, refreshing, poolside drink.

You don't often see strawberry and watermelon paired together. Strawberry is such a bright, rich fruit, while watermelon is such a, well, watery fruit that the two don't do much to support one another. With this in mind, I was curious how this pairing would go.

The first thing I noticed was that this flavor had a little bit of an odd smell as soon as I cracked open the can. It dissipated a little bit as I continued to drink, but I still felt unclear about exactly what the scent was. It almost smelled like a watermelon that had been sitting out maybe a little too long, so I wondered if what I smelled was the apple cider vinegar aspect.

The taste of sucralose wasn't as strong here and seemed muddled by the strawberry. The strawberry was definitely the predominant flavor in this drink, but the watermelon played a part, too. Rather than being a fresh-cut watermelon taste, it was more of a candy watermelon flavor.

I absolutely love fruity lemonades, so if there's a fruity lemonade on the menu, I typically go for it. I was hoping the raspberry lemon flavor from Bloom would be something like that, but, in all truth, it tasted a little bit more like an iced raspberry tea than a raspberry lemonade.

The lemon flavor definitely took the back burner in this energy drink while the raspberry dominated, but it was not a fresh raspberry flavor. Instead, the taste was more in the vein of that raspberry you tend to get from Snapple or a similar brand. This energy drink also had a more of a fizzy feel to it than the other three flavors had. The sucralose taste was pretty strong here, as well, but it thankfully wasn't as strong as in peach mango, even if it was more prominent than in the other two.

Cherry flavors are almost always my favorite option. Candy, drinks, dessert, and everything in between — cherry is always my choice. For instance, regular Coke has never been my bag, but a cherry Coke will forever have my heart. I have found that to be true with these Bloom sparkling energy drinks, too.

While the other energy drink flavors felt a little bit off from what I hoped, the cherry lime was much more enjoyable. The cherry tasted like the flavoring you get in other drinks or sodas, and the lime added just enough bite to help mask the sucralose flavor, which I found pretty mild in this variety overall. This was one of the more refreshing options, and with all of its brightness, it felt like more of a summer fun-in-the-sun kind of drink than the other options. I can imagine reaching for the cherry lime flavor over the others without giving it a second thought.

This was my first time trying anything from Bloom. I don't particularly enjoy powdered greens or wellness powders, which is what Bloom Nutrition is known for, so I entered this taste test with a little bit of skepticism. However, since I love energy drinks, I am always willing to try new offerings.

Unfortunately, I found that the zero-sugar element definitely makes this brand a little bit less enjoyable for me. The sucralose comes through pretty strongly in most of the Bloom flavors, except for the cherry lime. While I did enjoy the raspberry lemon a little bit more than I thought I would, the peach mango and strawberry watermelon definitely left a lot to be desired. One thing Bloom definitely has going for it is its name recognition, which gives the brand the benefit of a built-in customer base. With these drinks, though, unless someone is used to that sugar-free flavor, they're probably not going to enjoy these energy drinks as much as one with full-powered, no-aftertaste sugar.