Product Review: Bawls guaraná soda

If you've ever known someone from Brazil, or at least someone who's spent a significant amount of time there, you've probably heard them praise guaraná as the paragon of all fruits. Guaraná is the Guaraní [1] word for "[fruit like] the eyes of the people".[2] And if you check out what guaraná fruit look like (see image to the right), that's no surprise at all. One notable aspect of the guaraná fruit is that it has twice as much caffeine as a coffee bean.[3] When I bought this drink, I was aware that guaraná had caffeine, but I was unaware it was so much. And then, to my surprise, Leann pointed out in the ingredient list that the manufacturers added even more caffeine. And then they put a warning on the bottle that said, "This product contains high levels of caffeine."

My verdict: Fortunately I didn't notice any ill effects of drinking so much caffeine (though I'm not sure exactly how much I got). The flavor of guaraná is okay, but I wouldn't call this the paragon of all fruits. This particular soda had a pretty watered down flavor. That, coupled with the needlessly excessive dose of caffeine, prompts me to pass this soda by next time.

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Notes:

[1] The Guaraní's name for themselves is Abá which simply means "people". The name Guaraní was given to them by Catholic missionaries and is of uncertain meaning (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani people#Name). The similarity between the two words (guaraná and Guaraní) is purely coincidental.

[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaraná#History and culture.

[3] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaraná.

Image attributions:

Guaraná Fruit is by Geoff Gallice, available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dejeuxx/5429688712/.