Botanical tonic
Lemon + Ginger + Aronia Berry
Shrubbly · sparkling shrub (apple cider vinegar soda)
Vermont, USA
This sits at the bracingly tart edge of the botanical-tonic family, a sparkling apple-cider-vinegar shrub rather than anything resembling a sweet soda. The dominant note is a sharp, lip-puckering acidity from vinegar and lemon, framed by dark sweet-tart aronia berry and a clear, peppery lift of fresh ginger on the finish. With essentially no added sugar it drinks bone-dry and light-bodied, lightly carbonated, and reads more as an invigorating cocktail base or seltzer alternative than a dessert-style root beer or birch beer. Best appreciated by drinkers who already enjoy the vinegar tang of a shrub; the low sweetness and forward acidity make it polarizing rather than crowd-pleasing.
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The maker
Shrubbly is a Vermont-based maker of lightly sparkling functional drinks built around the shrub tradition, combining pressed fruit, apple cider vinegar, and botanicals ("shrub + bubbly = Shrubbly"). The company grows organic fruit, including aronia berry, on its own farm and presses it into shrubs that flavor sparkling water. The result is a low-calorie, zero-sugar beverage marketed to vegan, keto, and Whole30 diets.
Ingredients & nutrition
Carbonated Water, Organic Aronia Berry Juice, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Ginger Juice.
11.5 fl oz · 5 cal · 0 g sugar(per serving, as labeled)