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.

Sprite Lymonade is the classic lemon and lime-flavored Sprite mixed with some lemonade. Okay, not exactly lemonade because the beverage itself isn’t an ingredient. It gets its elevated citrus flavor from, according to the bottle, clarified lemon juice from concentrate. I imagine Sprite Clarified Lemon Juice From Concentrate would’ve been a horrible product name.

It has ONE PERCENT real juice. And, somewhere, Mtn Dew Amp Game Fuel is laughing because it’s made with five percent juice, which is still not a lot, but much more than this.

It tastes like a cloudy Sprite that’s ever so slightly more lemony than the original. It’s definitely not carbonated lemonade, and it’s definitely not just Sprite. If you like the classic lemon-lime soda, I imagine you’ll also enjoy this because it isn’t a dramatic change from the original.

The “lemonade” portion tastes the part, adding a little more lemon flavor and sourness, but thankfully it isn’t as sour as a test batch made by aspiring young first-time lemonade stand proprietors.

Like with all Sprite varieties, it has no caffeine. Seriously, Coca-Cola, if you want to sell a little more of your popular drink, make one with caffeine. People love Sprite. People love caffeine. Do the math. I know you’ve probably done it in the lab, and the caffeine messes with the crisp, clean lemon-lime flavor, but I’d buy more if it had some. No pressure, Coca-Cola.

Sprite Lymonade is crisp, refreshing, citrusy, and any other adjective used to describe a good lemon-lime soda, but to be frank, it’s an unexciting variation. We have cherry, cranberry, and whatever Sprite flavors are available at Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers, so pardon me if I feel this is a little boring, I mean, in Sprite spelling, boryng.

Purchased Price: Way too much from someone on eBay
Size: 20 fl. oz. bottle
Purchased at: eBay
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bottle) 220 calories, 0 grams of fat, 110 milligrams of sodium, 59 grams of carbohydrates, 57 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.