What is Sprite Zero Sugar Winter Spiced Cranberry?
To the delight of those who are already sweet enough on their own, Sprite has released a zero-sugar version of its Winter Spiced Cranberry soda! An admirable effort, considering the original contains 109% of your daily added sugars in one 20 oz bottle.
How is it?
I should let you all know that while I’ll chow or gulp down any food or beverage in the eggnog, gingerbread, or even Christmas tree (if you haven’t tried spruce beer, try spruce beer) family come holiday time, the combination of fruit and spice has my heart.
This Sprite does not have my heart.
Upon first pour, I smelled a burst of sweetness that was not easily identifiable as lemon, lime, cranberry, or spice. The scent was more like an orange or melon soda than something you’d reach for as you’re hanging up the holly.
The taste is equally indistinguishable. If you handed a mug of it to Santa, no explanation, well, he’d be cranky it’s not milk, but he also wouldn’t be able to tell you what flavor it’s supposed to be. Where the original Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry has defined flavors of fruit and spice, the notes feel muddled and thin in the zero-sugar version.
Also, I know you can’t make a sugar-free soda taste like it’s corn syrupy brother, but Sprite Zero Sugar Winter Spiced Cranberry really tastes like a diet soda. The cranberry flavoring that is so pleasant in the original version only heightens the unnatural sweetness of aspartame.
Anything else you need to know?
This soda was the pine needle in the haystack of holiday flavors, and it took me a very long time to hunt it down. I finally found it in a liquor superstore, which may be because the only way to enjoy this Sprite is to mix it with something else. If you’ve figured out the best beverage to add, please let me know in the comments; I was only able to find a 2-liter bottle and want to find a good use for the rest.
Conclusion:
As a two-time maker of a mulled wine pecan pie, I can’t sign off on this supposed spiced fruit item. If you want to try a Sprite winter soda, I can only recommend buying the original sugar-full (seriously, it has almost a quarter more added sugar than regular Sprite) version. Otherwise, let’s all hope Mtn Dew figures out a sugar-free version of Gingerbread Snap’d soon.
Purchased Price: $1.89
Size: 2 liter bottle
Purchased at: Total Wine & More
Rating: 3 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (12 fl oz) 0 calories, 0 grams of fat, 35 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.
Fireball would be good!
Ooh, thanks for the idea, PJ! I am fond of adding Fireball to Shirley Temples, I call it a Temple of Doom.
-1 point for like fireball
+10 points for adding fireball to what is specifically a virgin “cocktail.” (errr, now referred to as a “mocktail.”)
🙂
liking*
Rats! I’ve been on the lookout for this one and had high hopes. I did enjoy the review though! If you ever can’t find Fluff in your area it’s actually not too difficult to make at home (if you have the equipment). Wouldn’t do it all the time but it’s probably less challenging than a pie!
Thank you, Erin! I had high hopes, too, especially after the effort it took to track it down. Also, I am very intrigued by homemade Fluff, I’ll have to give it a shot!
“As a two-time maker of a mulled wine pecan pie”
Recipe, please ? 🙂
You got it! Just sub the corn syrup in your favorite pecan pie recipe with a mulled wine syrup. To make the syrup, mix together equal parts your wine of choice and sugar in a saucepan, cook over medium heat until it sticks to a spoon, and let cool. I added the mulling spices directly to the wine and sugar mixture before cooking and strained them out when it was done, since I assumed it would impart more spice flavor, but I imagine it would also work with the wine already mulled.
i cant find this anywhere
I hope you can find it soon! It was certainly a satisfying feeling to finally get it after weeks of searching.
where did you find it? literally every grocery store ive went to doesnt have the zero sugar one of it
Do you live somewhere with Kroger grocery stores? The ones in my area have had this for quite some time, and quite a lot…not moving…perhaps a reflection of this less than satisfactory review!
I am still willing to give this a try so I’m going to be on the lookout. Thanks for the detailed review!
Thank you! If you can track it down, let me know what you think 🙂
I guess our taste buds differ, because I bought a bottle to try and liked it so much that I bought four more bottles today (it’s been unobtanium since my first purchase, but not only did Safeway have it in stock, it was buy two, get two free). While I won’t say I recognized the cranberry as more than a general holiday fruitiness blend, the spices definitely tasted like the quintessential holiday spice blend. But then again, I’ve never tried the sugared version – I’ve been drinking sugar free soda for so long that sugared soda tastes awfully wrong to me.
Thanks for the review – it explained what you were missing in the flavors.
Oh good, I’m so happy to hear someone enjoyed it and was able to experience it the way Sprite intended! And I’m glad you stocked up, this stuff is elusive!
So what I hear you saying is that I should buy it up everywhere because it is in high demand on the black market…
My Aldi in Indiana had a pallet full of this, and I bought a couple this morning before reading the review.
For $1.25 a bottle at Aldi, I figure that at worst, it could mix with bourbon. We’ll see.
Hmmm…it might work? I bet that the vanilla bean bold Canada Dry ginger ale would be the best seasonal pop mixer for a bourbon cocktail on the market though. We should probably do some research and development…