Cheribundi Tart Cherry Juice

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Cheribundi's Cocoa Cherry juice, and although I found the mixing of flavors to be a bit strange, I did enjoy it, overall. Since that review, Cheribundi has sent me a variety pack containing several of their other flavors: Tru Cherry, Skinny Cherry, and Ginger Cherry. I have finally had a chance to try all three of them, but in the interest of length, I will be saving the ginger cherry for my next review.

One of my only complaints with the Cocoa Cherry was the strange way that the chocolate and cherry mixed together. It was a bit hard to get a grip on the actual taste of the cherry juice with the chocolate "interfering" in the olfactory, so I was glad to see that Cheribundi included some of their Tru Cherry flavor in the sample pack, as it gave me an ample chance to realize how good their core offering is. The ingredients used in the Tru Cherry flavor are very simple: tart cherry juice, and apple juice from concentrate. There are no added sugars, fillers, preservatives, or anything else of the sort, and you can really tell in the taste. Each 8 oz. bottle contains the juice of 50 cherries, and the drink tastes mostly how you would expect: like freshly juiced cherries. Cherries are a naturally tart fruit, so it is only logical that Cheribundi's Tru Cherry is fairly tart, as well. However, the apple juice really helps a lot in cutting the tartness down to a more consistently enjoyable level without interfering with the natural taste of the cherries. While I do like the tart taste of fresh cherry juice, I often find it overwhelming and hard to handle after just a few sips. While I am sure that some would whine and complain that "it's not really 100% cherry juice," I think that Cheribundi really has the right idea with the added apple juice. The two juices are mixed very well, and the apple taste is fairly minor in light of the drink as a whole. Cheribundi's Tru Cherry juice is a wonderful approach to cherry juice, as it offers all of the positive elements of the taste of fresh cherries, while minimizing the tartness of the fruit that would normally make this sort of drink a bit inaccessible. It is very good, and I definitely recommend it.

Much like the Tru Cherry, Cheribundi's Skinny Cherry offering is another very straightforward cherry juice drink. The Skinny Cherry is different from the Tru Cherry in that it is a cherry juice cocktail rather than 100% cherry juice. However, the ingredients list is almost as simple: tart cherry juice, water, and Reb A (natural stevia leaf sweetener). In favor of offering fewer calories per serving, the Skinny Cherry is only 65% juice (due to the added water), and contains only 40 cherries per bottle. Additionally, Reb A is used to sweeten the beverage rather than apple juice. I was glad to see Reb A on the ingredients list, as it is potentially the only stevia variant that I actually like. It still lends the drink a tiny bit of that odd stevia aftertaste, but it is so minor that it is very easy to just overlook. All in all, the Skinny Cherry and Tru Cherry juices aren't vastly different in taste. Both of them have a strong cherry flavor with a single flavor additive to reduce the tartness, and although the Skinny Cherry does not contain apple juice, they are still too similar to draw any sort of truly meaningful comparison. The Skinny Cherry essentially just tastes like a more dilute and generally less powerful version of the Tru Cherry, so if you are looking for a tasty cherry juice that isn't too strong (or if you are watching your caloric intake), then the Skinny Cherry is an excellent alternative that sacrifices very little of the original taste. 

Overall, both of these are excellent drinks. If you are new to the superfruit beverage scene (or if you are just looking for a new one to try), Cheribundi's plain cherry juices are a great place to start. You will not be disappointed with either of these.

Verdict: Recommended

Samples sent courtesy of CHERRYPHARM, Inc.

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