A New Flavor I Don’t Want to Try Again, Ever

This is a green drink that tastes pink.

I love matcha. I also love cream. And I like carbonation. But apparently, I hate matcha cream soda. The ALIVE Mindful Matcha Cream Soda tastes like liquid Bazooka bubblegum.

I couldn’t place the flavor at first. Tamed matcha hits immediately. Then a cream soda callback comes through, and escalates into a pink, powdery bleh.

I would prefer the marine green bitterness of unadulterated ceremonial matcha over the sharp, sweet bite of erythritol and stevia. The vanilla extract also isn’t doing anyone any favors here.

GT’s site describes the flavors as “nostalgic,” but it’s bringing back memories of candy that nearly took a tooth with every bite.

The mushrooms are completely hidden and maybe that’s the point. But I would actually prefer the drink to taste healthier than this bafflingly sweet profile.

If you want to ingest these adaptogens, surely there are better vessels than GT’s Alive Mindful Matcha Cream soda.

Every Health Benefit, All At Once

The selling point for this $5 drink is that it benefits my mood and my mind, but ultimately it’s too muddled.

The calming green label wooed me. I yearned for the “Mindful Matcha Cream” so I could feel “Alive and Stress-Free” like the bottle said.

The problem with adaptogens is that it’s hard to tell if they’re actually working (and the science is still out on how effective they are).

Certainly, there’s a refreshing placebo effect. I had a headache before I started drinking GT’s Mindful Matcha Cream and I had slightly less of a headache by the end.

But was that because of the adaptogens or just the hydration?

I do know that the 75mg of caffeine worked its magic – at 2:30 am. I felt “ALIVE” and raring to write this article when I should have been sleeping.

The problem is that this drink is trying to do too much – both flavor and health-wise. It’s muddled. For example, the bottle says the reishi mushroom in it “promotes stress reduction and improved sleep,” but then the recipe also includes a coffee-cup’s-worth of caffeine.

The soda is supposed to help my stomach, lift my mood, clear my mind, help me sleep, and wake me up. In the end, I was just sad that they made ceremonial matcha taste bad.