I tried all the flavors of Olipop prebiotic soda I could find and ranked them from worst to best

• I tried all the flavors of Olipop prebiotic soda I could find and ranked them from worst to best.

• I was surprised by the banana-cream, lemon-lime, and strawberry-vanilla flavors. 

• Of all the flavors I tried, the cream soda was my favorite.

Over the past couple of years, Olipop and other brands of prebiotic soda have surged in popularity. In 2023, Olipop was set to pass $200 million in sales and was listed as one of the 10 most popular brands among Gen Z.

The popular prebiotic-soda brand claims to support digestive health through the use of prebiotics, plant fiber, and botanical extracts.

At just 45 calories or less per can, I decided to find out what all the hype was about and try it for myself. I picked up 16 flavors of Olipop at my local supermarket and ranked them from worst to best.

Here's what I thought of the flavors I tasted.

Of the 16 varieties I tried, watermelon-lime was the only flavor I found to be off-putting.

I was really excited about Olipop's watermelon-lime flavor — until I took my first sip. Out of the 16 flavors I tried, this was the only one I found to be truly off-putting.

In my opinion, it tasted like watermelon that had been put in the fridge after sitting out in the sun all day. This flavor also overpowered any lime notes that may have been in there.

To be honest, I disliked it so much that I wondered if maybe I had gotten a bad batch. After trying another can from a different store, I found it tasted the same as the first one.

My wife tried both cans and didn't care for it either. Maybe this flavor is more of an acquired taste.

Olipop's crisp apple tasted like a green-apple lollipop.

Anyone who chooses green apple when presented with a variety of lollipop flavors will enjoy this soda. I happen to dislike green-apple candy, and that's mostly what Olipop's crisp apple tastes like.

Every can of Olipop has a description of the flavor, and this one claims to blend "sparkling apple juice and gummy apple rings." However, I tasted a lot more of the latter.

The cherry cola tasted slightly medicinal to me.

Throughout my taste test, I was surprised at how few of the sodas tasted medicinal. However, the cherry cola was an exception.

In my opinion, it had an unpleasant aftertaste and a cherry flavor that seemed more artificial than other Olipop varieties.

I expected the banana-cream flavor to be my least favorite.

I expected to rank banana cream dead last — I love bananas, but I'm not sure I've ever liked anything banana-flavored. In that context, the banana cream was surprisingly drinkable.

The banana flavor was definitely more reminiscent of Runts candy than an actual banana, but it wasn't too strong or sweet. It made for a soda that was at least interesting, if not particularly good.

The classic root beer didn't leave me wanting more.

Olipop's take on root beer definitely had some of the familiar, sweet, herbal taste. However, it didn't pack much of the spicy bite the best varieties offer.

In my opinion, root beer typically translates poorly into diet form — maybe because it's traditionally so sugary — and Olipop's decidedly tasted like a diet root beer. It wasn't unpleasant, but it didn't leave me wanting more.

Olipop's orange squeeze tasted like a traditional orange soda.

The can says that Olipop's orange squeeze is "a bright twist on the nostalgic classic" and incorporates clementine, mandarin, and lemon juices. However, in my opinion, it tasted more like traditional orange soda.

I'm not particularly nostalgic for orange soda, and while this had plenty of citrus flavor, it didn't have much of the associated tartness.

I wished the cherry-vanilla soda had a better flavor balance.

Unlike the cherry-cola flavor, the cherry taste that shined through in the cherry-vanilla variety is tart with acidity. I found it to be closer to the flavor of real, fresh cherries than maraschinos.

However, the distinct cherry flavor was a little too assertive for my tastes, and I would've liked more of the familiar warmth of vanilla to balance it out.

I thought the Olipop ginger ale had a strange aftertaste.

At first sip, I thought Olipop's ginger ale might rank first on this list. It had the flavor of real ginger — just enough to give it just a touch of spice. It also had a nice, citrusy tartness, which made for a brighter and more nuanced flavor than you'd find in most mainstream ginger ales.

However, there was something oddly biotic about the aftertaste that brought this one down the list.

Olipop's Doctor Goodwin didn't taste like Dr. Pepper as I'd expected.

Based on the name and packaging, Doctor Goodwin is presumably Olipop's answer to Dr. Pepper. Diet Dr. Pepper is my go-to soda whenever it's available, but Olipop's version tasted nothing like it.

That being said, this soda wasn't bad at all in its own right. It had a more palatable dose of the same cherry flavor from the cherry-vanilla variety. However, it was balanced out by an indistinct sweetness. To me, Doctor Goodwin might viably pass as a cherry cola.

The vintage-cola flavor reminded me of Diet Pepsi.

At the first taste, I was impressed by how fizzy the vintage cola was. I was also surprised at how accurately it mimicked the flavor of familiar diet colas like Diet Pepsi.

It was sweet, had a touch of bite, and no noticeable aftertaste. If I lined it up with other diet colas in a blind test, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell which one had 9 grams of fiber.

I found Olipop's lemon-lime soda to be refreshing.

Lemon-lime seems pretty ho-hum as far as soda flavors go — so much so that this was the last of the 16 sodas I tried. However, I was surprised by how much I liked it.

Unlike with any other lemon-lime soda I can remember, I could taste the distinct flavors of lemon and lime instead of a vague citrusy sweetness. It was pleasantly sour and shockingly refreshing after I'd sampled 15 other flavors.

The strawberry-vanilla soda had a better flavor balance than the cherry-vanilla version.

Strawberry vanilla was another flavor that surprised me. Based on the cherry-vanilla variety, I thought this one would be too heavy on the strawberry flavor.

But while the sweet, tangy taste of strawberry was certainly present and obvious, this one had a much more noticeable hint of vanilla, which served as a warm counter to the strawberry.

I found Olipop's strawberry-vanilla reminiscent of a flavored cream soda from an old-timey soda fountain.

Olipop's classic-grape flavor tasted like real grapes.

Despite its name, Olipop's classic grape didn't taste much like classic grape soda.

Instead, I found it tasted more like actual grapes. More specifically, it was reminiscent of the fancy sparkling grape juice that comes in glass bottles and is served to kids when the grown-ups are having cocktails. It was tart, not too sweet, and a little winey.

The most noticeable flavor in the tropical punch was pineapple.

The biggest shock of the taste test came when I poured some tropical punch into a glass. I expected the liquid inside to be red or pink, but instead, it was yellow.

This made a lot more sense once I discovered the most noticeable flavor in the soda was pineapple. However, it wasn't nearly as thick or cloying as straight pineapple juice, and the pineapple's sweet acidity tasted brighter and lighter from the carbonation.

This felt like it was begging for some rum, though I'm not certain prebiotic rum is the best idea.

I enjoyed the spice of the ginger-lemon flavor.

The ginger-lemon had even more ginger flavor than the ginger ale.

The flavor was strong enough to make the soda a bit spicy and taste like ginger beer, but it also had just enough sweetness to take the edge off the spice.

And most importantly, it didn't have the same unpleasant aftertaste as the ginger ale. I did find that the ginger flavor overpowered the lemon, but I liked this soda so much that I was OK with it.

Olipop's cream soda was my favorite.

In general, I typically find cream sodas to be bland. However, there was nothing bland or boring about Olipop's cream soda. It was rich with vanilla flavor but not too sweet.

It was definitely on the milder side of the flavors I tried, but it absolutely captured the nostalgic soda-shop taste of cream soda — without anything to indicate it's also loaded with fiber.

Read the original article on Business Insider