Flavor Roulette Exposed
Grabbing a Bubly at the store feels like a gamble when you haven't tried every flavor in their lineup. One can might become your new obsession while another sits abandoned in your fridge for months because nobody wants to finish it. The brand's hit-or-miss track record is legendary among sparkling water fans. Here are 10 of Bubly's worst flavors, and 10 of their best.
1. Cherry
The Cherry flavor was launched as part of the original lineup in 2018, but it quickly became one of the most divisive options on shelves. This sparkling water tastes like cough syrup mixed with an artificial sweetener, despite containing zero actual sweeteners.
DaraKero from Tokyo, Japan on Wikimedia
2. Cranberry
Most people expect cranberry-flavored beverages to have some tartness, but Bubly's Cranberry version is aggressively bitter without any balancing sweetness. Many critics describe it as grapefruit-like in its sharpness but without the juicy citrus finish.
Caroline McFarland on Unsplash
3. Apple
Yes, the concept sounds promising—crisp, refreshing apple essence in sparkling water form. Sadly, the brand’s execution falls flat. This flavor tastes like someone dissolved a green apple Jolly Rancher in carbonated water and then removed all the sugar, leaving behind only the artificial flavoring.
4. Peach
This flavor has an oddly dusty quality that tastes nothing like biting into a fresh, juicy peach from a farmers' market. Released in 2019 as an expansion flavour, Peach was meant to evoke summer sweetness, but instead, it delivers a one-dimensional taste.
5. Blackberry
The murky, almost muddy flavor profile of Bubly's Blackberry makes it one of the brand's least appealing options. What's particularly off-putting is a bitter, seed-like aftertaste that lingers long after you've finished drinking—ironic since there are no actual seeds or plant materials involved.
Kateryna Moskalova on Unsplash
6. Watermelon
Watermelon should be one of the easiest flavors to get right. After all, it's mild, universally loved, and screams summer refreshment. Yet somehow Bubly managed to create a version that tastes like watermelon rind rather than the sweet, pink flesh everyone actually wants.
7. Raspberry
The problem stems from how raspberry flavoring is typically created. Most manufacturers use compounds like alpha-ionone and raspberry ketone, which in concentrated form can taste soapy and perfumed. Customer reviews frequently mention a "floral" quality.
8. Strawberry
Launched as part of the original 2018 lineup, this flavor tastes overly sweet in perception despite containing no sweeteners, with an artificial edge that dominates every sip. The finish has an unpleasant chemical burn. It makes you want to rinse your mouth out immediately.
9. Bounce (Blood Orange)
Bubly's Bounce line was introduced in 2021 with added caffeine (35mg per can) to compete in the emerging energized sparkling water category. While the caffeine isn't the problem, the Blood Orange flavor profile absolutely is. The flavor has an odd bitterness.
10. Blueberry Pomegranate
Combining two fruits doesn't automatically make a flavor better, as Bubly's Blueberry Pomegranate painfully demonstrates. This mashup creates a confusing taste experience in which neither fruit comes through clearly, instead producing a generic "purple flavor" reminiscent of children's cough medicine.
1. Lime
If you're going to buy just one flavor of Bubly, make it Lime. This is the gold standard that all other sparkling waters aspire to reach, delivering a bright, authentic citrus punch. Lime became a bestseller when Bubly launched in February 2018.
2. Grapefruit
The polarizing nature of grapefruit as a fruit actually works here, because people who love grapefruit absolutely adore this flavor. Its bright effervescence lifts the citrus notes and makes it especially suitable for hot weather.
3. Mango
This one transports you straight to a beach vacation. The flavor chemistry here is remarkably well-executed. Mangoes contain over 400 volatile compounds, including terpenes and esters that create their characteristic tropical sweetness, and Bubly has somehow captured that essence without it tasting artificial.
4. Pineapple
Pineapple stands out as one of the most universally loved flavors, and for good reason. It delivers a bright, tropical sweetness that feels lively and refreshing without any actual sugar or calories. The flavor opens with an immediately recognizable tropical punch.
5. Orange
Compared to the Blood Orange disaster in the Bounce line, regular Orange gets everything right by focusing on the bright, sunny essence of fresh-peeled citrus. The flavor profile closely mimics Valencia oranges—sweet, slightly tangy, with none of the bitterness that can plague orange-flavored products.
6. Lemon
Simplicity can be brilliant, and Bubly's Lemon proves that sometimes the most straightforward approach yields the best results. This flavor tastes exactly like what you'd get if you squeezed lemon wedges into premium sparkling water—clean, tart, unmistakably lemony, with that characteristic citrus brightness.
7. Passionfruit
Passionfruit represents the brand at its most adventurous. Unlike some fruit flavors that taste muted or one-dimensional, Passionfruit makes a bold impression from the first sip. It has a lively tartness reminiscent of fresh passionfruit juice, paired with a subtle underlying sweetness.
8. White Peach Ginger
While regular Peach failed miserably, White Peach Ginger succeeds spectacularly by adding ginger's spicy complexity to balance the fruit's delicate sweetness. The ginger component adds a gentle warmth and slight bite that prevents the peach from tasting flat or artificial.
9. Bellini (Peach & Mango)
Named after the classic Italian cocktail, Bubly's Bellini flavor is a masterclass in blending fruits successfully. The genius here is that peach and mango share similar flavor compounds, so they blend harmoniously rather than competing for your attention.
crazybobbles from London, England on Wikimedia
10. Triple Berry
This flavor was Bubly's answer to consumer requests for more complex berry options following the success of single-berry varieties, such as competitors' excellent standalone raspberry offerings. The formulation uses natural berry extracts in carefully calibrated proportions.
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