I hate water. I believe I’ve mentioned this in no fewer than five previous posts, but the nonexistent taste just does nothing to entice me into drinking it. Yet, of course, we must get liquids somehow, and while I do try to force plain water down as much as possible, there are days where I just need some kind of flavor. Hell, let me drink out of an old wheelbarrow so I can enjoy the all-natural taste of earthen rust—even that would be preferred to the boring flavor of water.

Enter Fit & Active’s flavored water series, which offer up liter bottles of various flavors, all at a ridiculous $.59 price point. The lot of them are low in calories, low in sodium, and caffeine free, which of course can only mean one thing: artificial sweetener and flavor time! (Well, technically they’re “natural” flavors, which means that the flavor is derived from actual foods, but are still created in a lab and are considered no safer or better for you than artificial flavors.)

I think I’ve tried all of the available flavors in this line at some point, and the lemonade is by far the best one, with the artificial sweetener (and boy is it sweet), perfectly combining with the intense and accurate tartness, to create a flavor that’s pretty darn close to the taste of a lemon shakeup. In fact, both “sweet” and “tart” threaten to go off the scales—I could see this easily being too much of one, or the other (or both) for some. Ironically, I wouldn’t really consider drinking this while being “fit” or “active”, because the tartness is not very inherent to chugging: I find that it’s better enjoyed in small doses throughout the day, or even as an accompaniment to a meal.

If you’re getting déjà vu reading the comparison between this and a lemon shake-up, it’s probably because I compared one other beverage to the same taste in a previous review…and it was none other than the lemonade flavor of Fit & Active’s Drink Mix Sticks, the powder that you add to bottles of water yourself. Essentially, you’re getting the same flavor here as you do with those, only those are a much better deal, considering you get enough to make ten 16 oz. servings for a mere $1.29, compared to two servings here for $.59. On those grounds, if you like the flavor, you’re much better off getting the pack of sticks to stretch your budget further (even including the price of a 24-pack of PurAqua water, it comes out to around a quarter per 16.9 oz. bottle). But if you just want to give it a shot and see if the intense combination of tart/sweetness is for you, or you just want a quick beverage to throw down while on the go, this is still a great and inexpensive way to do so.

Overall: 7/10. Incredibly tart and sweet in equal measure, Fit & Active’s Lemonade Flavored Water Beverage will probably be too much for some, but I find its combination highly reminiscent of a lemon shakeup (and if you’ve never had one, head to your local fair immediately). Add to that the $.59 price point for a liter bottle (2 servings), and you have a pretty solid deal. However, it tastes almost exactly like the lemonade flavor of their own drink mix sticks, which come in 10-packs for just $1.29, or about the cost of two of these bottles, and that take the value proposition down slightly. But for people like me who can’t stand the boring, unsatisfactory taste of water, these still offer a convenient way to get life’s essential liquid, with the added benefit of actual flavor (and loads of questionable chemicals), without the added hassle of having to open up a packet of powder and dump it into a bottle of water. Who has time for that?