Review: 24C Water by Jones Soda

Before hubs and I were stationed at Ft. Lee Virginia I had never heard of Jones Soda. While we were stationed there we used to have an occasional lunch date at the Ukrops* near post (they had sushi!).

There in the refrigerated case near the cash register is where I first saw the brand. The thing that caught my eye were the unusual, photo style labels. They were very cool, a little edgy-the kind of label that makes you think YOU are one of the cool kids if you buy it (yes, I know, I am very susceptible to marketing, which is why I work so hard to be frugal! Do. Not. Succumb.)

The first kind we bought was cream soda. Oh. My. It was so good. I mean really, really good. The kind of good that makes you think-gee, this is decadent and must have a zillion calories**. So from then on Jones Soda (when available) became my “treat” soda of choice.

When I was contacted about doing a taste comparison between Jones Soda’s 24C and Vitamin water I jumped at the chance.*** I knew that Jones was a brand that I really truly liked, even if it isn’t particularly frugal.

We were sent a total of 5 flavors to test “head on” 24C vs Vitamin water. They were:

24C Tropical Citrus VS Vitamin Water Energy
24C Peach Mango VS Vitamin Water Endurance
24C Cranberry Apple VS Vitamin Water Defense
24C Berry Pomegranite VS Vitamin Water XXX (yes, that’s it’s name)
24C Mandrin Orange VS Vitamin Water Cranberry Grapefruit

The first thing I noticed as I took them out of the package was how boring the labels were. Bor. Ing. The Jones Soda bottles are so edgy and fun-these were just sort of blah. Very similar in color scheme to the Vitamin Water labels (which are a solid color, white accent and black lettering as well). Plus the nutritional information, which I will cover in a bit, was not very prominent.

I did my own personal taste test of all the flavors and then conducted a blind taste test with Buddy, Princess and Yankee Bill.

The results?

Well, we all had a marked preference for the 24C Tropical Citrus-it was just plain tastier than the competition.

Otherwise? My overall impression? Honestly?

They were about the same.

Really.

I mean, both were good.

If you really closed your eyes and concentrated I think that 24C tended to have a bit more flavor. Within the family we were evenly divided down the middle-for each flavor (minus the Tropical Citrus) there were 2 votes for each.

If you were just grabbing one off the shelf to chug I really don’t think you’d notice that much if a difference. I’d be just as happy flavor wise if I was handed either one after a workout or at a picnic.

So flavor wise, it’s a draw. 24C however kicks the pants off of vitamin water when it comes to the actual vitamins.

According to Jones/24C it takes 2 bottles of vitamin water to equal the vitamin C in a 24C–a full 500% of your RDA! Great for cold and flu season-much tastier than the chewable C pills I’ve been popping like candy.

It has 2X the B3, 5X the B6, and 10X the B12. It also contains addition vitamins A, E & B2, as well as Folic Acid-none of which are in Vitamin water.

So value wise, all other things being equal, I do think that 24C is a better bet. More vitamins for the same money!

*a fairly local upscale Virginia grocery store with a really nice eat in cafe section
**actually the calorie count isn’t too bad-average for a sugared soda.
It wasn’t until after I agreed to do the taste test that I found out we would be compensated for our time. I was willing to do it for free-but don’t tell them that.

Photos by Tak & 24C