Just Drink Water. Or Juice.

The other day while at her favorite “Healthy Foods Store,” Enviro-Girl threw a couple new products in her cart.  One was bred of necessity–her middle son was whining complaining of thirst and while she didn’t like the idea of buying him an overpriced bottle of water (having none in her van–but she remembered to bring her own shopping bags, so cut her a break), she tried to placate him with juice.  If she’s going to spend money on a drink in a bottle, at least it should provide the benefits of Vitamin C and a full serving of fruit, right?

Middle son didn’t want the juice either.  Enviro-Girl spied a package of Wateroos.  “Juice flavored water!  Let’s try it!”  Middle son looked skeptical, but Enviro-Girl twisted his arm overruled his skepticism by ignoring it and tossed the 6-pack of Wateroos into the cart. They were fruit flavored water–flavored with all natural ingredients (no added sugar or juice, only fruit flavors and purified water).  Maybe it would be a nice change from regular water or juice boxes in their packed lunches, right?

After checking out, they drove home and Middle jabbed the straw into his Wateroo.  “Yuck!  This tastes awful.”

This, coming from the same child who thinks Chuck E. Cheese makes a great pizza.  Unconvinced of his palate’s capacity to appreciate good tastes, Enviro-Girl took a sip.

The kid was right.  Purified water tinged with the distinct mediciney faux berry taste used in children’s cough syrup.  Seriously awful stuff.   It tasted chemical and plastic, NOT like any berries Enviro-Girl had ever encountered in nature.  But Enviro-Girl had just drank coffee, so perhaps her taste buds were off.  She’s been known to have a similar reaction to orange juice just after brushing her teeth.  They  went home, ate, and Enviro-Girl took another taste of the Wateroo with a clean palate.  God-freaking-awful. She dumped it out and tossed the container into the trash.

Later that day Youngest son begged for a Wateroo.  Curious to see what he would think, Enviro-Girl handed him a fresh one.

“Yuck.  This tastes yucky.”

Three out of five people at Enviro-Girl’s house won’t touch these drinks with a ten-foot pole.  It pained her to toss the lot (she paid $3.39 for the six pack!), but her kids love to drink tap water and real fruit juice.  For the parent concerned about giving their kid more water and less fruit juice to drink, Enviro-Girl has this advice:  water down regular juice and don’t drink the Wateroos.

Enviro-Girl sez sip smarter and skip the Wateroos.