I’m a big fan of Hansen’s Natural Sodas and a sucker for pretty packaging, so it was a no-brainer to pick up a couple of their new fruit-flavored sparkling waters. The tall, sleek cans are nestled four to a box and the predominately white color scheme and minimalist design is reminiscent of the iPod. Unfortunately, these drinks are more like the Zune of fruity sparkling beverages. The cranberry grapefruit tasted vaguely of grapefruit, nothing of cranberry, and didn’t have any of the refreshing tartness of either fruit. The dragonfruit fared little better with its sort of strawberry-kiwi flavor with an odd hint of floral. I’ve never had a fresh dragonfruit so I can’t vouch for its authenticity (or lack of it), but either way, I didn’t enjoy it. This also could’ve used some tartness to offset its almost cloying sweetness. There are two other varieties available — blueberry pomegranate and valencia orange — but the ones I tried weren’t impressive enough to make me want to sample the others.

Hansen’s Natural Sparkling Water touts its use of pure cane sugar, natural flavors with real fruit extracts, and only 90 calories a can, but Clearly Canadian, an oldie but a goodie, does almost the same thing to much better effect. Sure, it’s around 180 calories per bottle, but it’s also 16 ounces to Hansen’s 10.5. Another similar alternative is Izze‘s well-known line of sparkling fruit juices, which are 80-100 calories for 12 ounces, contain no added sugar, and are packaged just as attractively.