15 Ninja Thirsti Flavored Water Drops, Ranked

If you consider yourself a soda or seltzer hound, you know how much money you can "throw away" on cases of drinks. But, there is a solution that may save you money and offer on-demand beverages to quench your thirst. 

Brands like SharkNinja have joined the likes of SodaStream and released a soda machine onto the market. Its Thirsti Max (and pared-down model, the Thirsti) allows users to select their desired carbonation level, plug in a flavor cartridge (or two), and brew up their favorite flavors with the click of a button. The one caveat to this machine, though, is that it only takes Ninja's line of flavor cartridges. So, it can be a bummer to order a cartridge or a multi-pack and realize you don't like the flavors inside. 

To help you decide which Thirsti flavors are worth stocking up on, I — a Thirsti Max owner — tasted several of its concentrates, including selections from the seltzer, Fruiti Chill, Fruiti Chill+Caffeine, and zero-sugar soda line to see which ones were the easiest to sip on, most refreshing, and most accurately delivered on the flavor promised on the label.

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

I'll admit that a hard person to please when it comes to seltzer. This was the first of Ninja's seltzer flavors that I sampled, and I could already tell that the brand had some work to do. Seltzer brands like Polar offer a bubbly effervescence and strong flavor that makes it clear what flavor they're supposed to be getting across. This Thirsti seltzer just missed the mark on all fronts.

Yes, while the "hint of lime" label means that the flavor won't inherently be as strong as normal seltzer (instead resembling something closer to a LaCroix), I still wished that I got a fresher mouthfeel here. I sampled it first on low, just for kicks, and found myself missing out on any and all flavors. When I bumped it up to the highest flavor setting, I got something lime-ish, but it was only there for a few seconds. The flavor wasn't particularly zesty or bright — kind of like I licked a lime that had been sitting out on the countertop all day. It's uninspiring, boring, and certainly not what I want from my carbonated beverage. 

Never have I been as afraid to try a beverage as I was with Ninja's Fruiti Chill berry burst. When I opened the bottle of flavoring, my nostrils were immediately set alarm by the smell emulating from it. It smelled exactly like a raspberry Crystal Light concentrate — you know, the one your parents didn't let you drink as a kid because it was loaded up with every artificial coloring and flavoring under the sun. The odor of the flavoring wasn't the only big red flag either; its color was reminiscent of blood swirling in water. Let's just say this flavor and I didn't get off on the right foot. 

Its taste wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn't as body-less as Crystal Light powder, just jammed with as many artificial sweeteners as possible. Yet at the same time, there was no sweetness or body to make it juice-like. It would appease a 10 year-old on a sugar high, but that's about it. 

I've never been a big fan of orange anything, so I was a little apprehensive to sip on this orange-flavored Fruiti Chill flavor. The color was a little confusing, as it had a slightly, urine-like hue to it, rather than something bright orange and punchy. When I sipped it, I couldn't really point out the flavors in it. Something citrusy, maybe. Could have been pineapple — just without the bite on the backend. In other words, orange would not have been my first guess. 

If you have childhood memories of Tang, fear not, because this beverage doesn't have nearly as bold of a flavor as the infamous drink mix. However, it still hovers in drink mix territory because it lacks that authoritative juiciness that I've come to expect with orange-flavored things. 

I was initially a little skeptical of the Fruiti Chill dragonfruit concentrate, as the wild berry one I had tried before it was so noxious and overwhelming that I didn't know if I wanted to run the risk of having another flavor just like it. But, I was glad to see that this flavor boasted a slightly less cloying aroma when I popped open the lid. Once the beverage was made, I noticed that it had a very punchy and fruit-forward flavor. 

But, do I think that flavor was in-line with what I think of when I hear "dragonfruit?" Definitely not. Vague berry, strawberry, or possibly cherry? That's much more like it. The artificial sweetener flavor was stronger on this one than I would have wanted, which put it into the Crystal Light territory yet again. It lacks enough body and oomph to make it worth sipping on and to clearly mark it as a dragonfruit-flavored drink. Though, its color was still more attractive than the lower-ranked orange Fruiti Chill, which gave it a little leg up. 

When I opened this flavoring, I was immediately greeted by a smell akin to Mango Tango cleaning solution. It unabashedly screamed "plastic mango essence" right in my face. But when I took a sip, it felt like I was putting on my noise cancelling headphones and muting the noise out entirely. 

Ninja certainly relies on the "hint of" label closely here, though I found that this hint of mango seltzer had a far better and more prominent flavor than the hint of lime. The smell of the mango seltzer was a little more prominent than other mango-flavored seltzers I've had in the past, though the flavor itself is quite mild and dialed back. There's a little bit of coolness and sweetness on the palate, and I think, combined with the aroma, it would be clear that this seltzer was trying to get at either peach or mango. It's refreshing enough, but not so much that I would drink it on a regular basis. 

Any soda connoisseur will tell you that not all colas taste the same. So, if you dive into a Shasta Cola thinking it's going to taste like Coca-Cola, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment. And I've learned with this Thirsti flavor, in particular, that you can't assume what it's going to taste like because it's guaranteed to throw you for a loop every time. 

The diet soda certainly has a diet soda flavor to it — meaning artificial sweeteners up the wazoo. But, it also has some weird anise and licorice undertones, which I took note of when I tasted them in my original Thirsti Max review. They're dark and foreboding, just as the color of this cola is, and they turn the beverage into something honestly more akin to Moxie than classic cola. Now, I like Moxie, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that sentiment doesn't apply to most people. This concentrate had more flavor than the lower-ranked cartridges, though I can't quite say it was a good flavor. 

I was initially very confused by this seltzer flavor. When I smelled it, I was met with a fragrance like if all the Thirsti flavors were cooked together in a pot. It was fruity, soda-like, and obnoxiously sweet all at the same time. But, the sip itself was so mild and inoffensive that made me overlook its troublesome aroma. 

I find that cranberry is a difficult flavor for many seltzer brands to master, as it's tart, sweet, and floral. But, Ninja put up a valiant effort with this "hint of" flavor. It was slightly tart, thanks to the lime, but also had the approachable fruitiness of the cranberry. If I had to drink one of these seltzer flavors, it would probably be this one, just because it has a better and more well-orchestrated flavor than the other seltzers that I sampled. 

This is far from the best seltzer I've ever had, and I doubt I would even drink it when I could just carbonate plain water with my Thirsti Max and drink that. It just wasn't outwardly horrendous, which earned it a middling spot in this ranking. 

The regular Fruiti Chill wild berry was nothing short of a flop, but I am happy to report that its caffeinated cousin was slightly more of a success. When I opened the flavor cartridge, I was hit with a wave of that berry essence, though it definitely wasn't as pronounced as it was with the non-caffeinated one. I noticed that my Thirsti Max seemingly dispensed slightly less syrup than I expected (despite using the same settings for everything I made with it), so that may be to blame. 

The flavor of this caffeinated pod is a little less syrupy and medicinal as the original. The bubbles spread evenly across the palate and, unlike the other wild berry variety, it doesn't weigh your palate down nearly as much. Though, Ninja still didn't really make it clear what this wild berry flavor is supposed to taste like though, and it comes across as an incoherent mess of berry-adjacent flavors. 

I was honestly excited to try this peach mango flavor from Thirsti. Its original mango Fruti Chill had a flavor that teetered on the edge of being peach. But after trying this peach-mango concoction, I'm a little bit more clear about what was supposed to be mango and what was supposed to be peach mango. This caffeinated flavor has a very clear peach flavor, though I think it cheated out the mango component a little bit. It smells like a peach ring candy, and its flavor is similar. I found it slightly more cloying than the other Fruiti Chill+Caffeine flavors that I sampled for this review. 

I would really like to bottle up this concentrate and use it in a refreshing, summery iced tea. I don't think I would go back to sipping on it as a seltzer-ish beverage, though because it has that drink mix flavor, and sipping on it gets a little stale and old after a while. I found it more agreeable than the caffeinated wild berry pod, which is why it ranks higher. If you consider yourself a fan of peach and/or mango, you could probably get past its drawbacks, but it was ultimately why I wouldn't sip on it in the future. 

Does lemonade need to be carbonated? Maybe it's a matter of "should it be," here. I like lemonade and find that it can be a refreshing drink on a hot summer day, but I don't really know if I want to get bubbles involved.

I am surprised to admit that this lemonade isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It brewed up a hazy color and it certainly smelled like lemonade. It was heavy on the lemon, from the aroma to the taste, and it's one that I think any sipper, young or old, could appreciate. The one thing I will say about it that was a letdown, though, was the fact that its flavor and sweetness were very artificial. It had that clear diet soda aftertaste, which gave me a little bit of a headache. Granted, the artificial flavor was a persistent issue in this ranking. The one merit that this flavor has, that was not the case with others, is that it would be delectable brewed up side-by-side with one of the more acquired flavors in this ranking, like the dragonfruit or the wild berry Fruiti Chill. 

I tasted the lemonade Fruiti Chill, the lemon lime Zero soda, and the hint of lemon seltzer before I tried this lemon lime Fruiti Chill+Caffeine flavor. Of all of the lemon-adjacent flavors, I expected the caffeinated one to taste most like the lemon lime soda. But, I was surprised to see that it came out the same hazy shade as the lemonade. 

On the first sip, I found that this product was more flavorful and more balanced than the lemonade, and I appreciated that the diet soda aftertaste was not a major factor in its flavor. In fact, I quite enjoyed that this flavor wasn't too sweet, nor was it too tart. It was like a lovechild between the lemonade and the lemon lime soda. 

However, the one drawback that I found here was that it just didn't have the body and unique juiciness that I would have wanted. It had a drink mix flavor to it in that it tasted like lemon, but lacked oomph that would make it taste like it was made with real fruit. While not refreshing, it was still tolerable. 

It's hard not to reach for a Sprite on a hot summer day — especially when it'ss mixed with grenadine (and perhaps a little booze). I can appreciate the flavor of Sprite from time-to-time, and I can say confidently that Ninja got really close to it with its zero-sugar lemon-lime soda. When you take a whiff of the flavoring container, you won't be able to pull much from it. Maybe it's a little lemony, but its the cloying sweetness on the taste buds that clearly distinguishes it as a soda, rather than a seltzer or a juice. 

The profile of this soda is sweet, balanced, and approachable. It does have the slight artificial sweetener aftertaste on the back end, but for the most part, it is just as straightforward as a lemon lime soda can be. Ninja played it safe with this flavor, and by this point in the ranking, I was glad it did. 

Dr Pepper has never been my soda flavor of choice — not that I'm even much of a soda drinker. Since Ninja's pods are specific to the machine, the brand had to come up with its own spin on Dr Pepper, which it, not-so-creatively named "Dr Thirsti." 

Diet Dr Pepper tastes like cherries to me, which is what I expected. And I was totally right. The smell was like cherry cough drops, which is good news for me because I love the tast. If you aren't acquainted with cherry in a soda, though, you may not like this selection. I also found it to be quite syrupy and sweet, though it was not as heavy as some of the other soda flavors. It masked the artificial sweetener better than the lemon lime soda, and I found its flavors were more cohesive than the Fruiti Chill flavors. But, I still was left wanting something more refreshing, which my top picks were able to offer. 

I like orange juice and perhaps a lightly-flavored orange seltzer from time to time, but if you see me sipping on an orange soda, just know that something is very, very wrong. Even during my childhood, that synthetic orange flavor, compounded with a whole bunch of sugar, never really appealed to me. It still doesn't, but I put my brave face on to try the Thirsti Zero orange soda. 

This soda takes on the color of a traffic cone, so you'll want to proceed at your own risk. Luckily, I didn't find it to be particularly sweet. Orange, yes, but sweet, not necessarily. It just tasted like a more syrupy version of the orange Fruiti Chill, which I'm not entirely upset about. I found this orange soda easier to drink than other brands I've had in the past, and I didn't think that the artificial sweetener flavor played a starring role, either. I was pleasantly surprised, but ultimately, there was just another flavor that I found a bit more refreshing. 

I consider myself to be a big fan of root beer, and I find there isn't much flavor variations across different brands. Ninja went big on flavor with its root beer, and I can say this is the one time I'm glad it did. There's something indulgent about a chilled root beer, served in a frosted glass, that's deeply indulgent. And honestly, Thirsti's take fits the bill. 

I didn't notice as much of a diet soda aftertaste with this one as I did with the cola (nor did I find any of those odd licorice profiles milling about). It was certainly syrupy and heavy, and one of the few flavors I would recommend people use a lower syrup setting for. I could easily foresee sipping on this root beer with a slice of greasy cheese pizza in hand no doubt about it. 

The one thing I will note here, though, is that it has a more sarsaparilla-like flavor than other root beers I've sampled, so try to be open-minded when you sip it. And, if you like a less-in-your-face root beer, it might not be the Thirsti pod for you. 

I brewed up each of these flavors on the maximum concentrate setting and with the same, medium level of carbonation. I chilled the water down for each brew to maximize the effervescence and tasted them right after they were finished brewing to best assess their flavor and how refreshing they were. The top-scoring pods had a flavor representative of the packaging and a satisfying taste that sent me back in for a second sip.