A couple of months ago I was wandering around Wegman's when I beheld something called Blossom Water. To quote the bottle, this product is, "Water inspired by Nature. Pure water infused with natural fruit & flower essences, lightly sweetened and finished with natural colors. Blossom Water is a healthy beverage that is uniquely flavorful and aromatic. We think you'll find it refreshingly sophisticated." So how could I resist a pitch like that? They had three kinds for sale, so I snatched them all up. Specifically, I got the plum jasmine, the grapefruit lilac, and pomegranate geranium.
The company website (drinkblossomwater.com) contained quite a bit of info. Many testimonials about how people loved them. Even an excellent review from the Today Show's Food Trends Editor (yes, that's a real title, and job) Phil Lempert. Evidently, business is booming. Blossom Water is listed as being available in 35 U.S. States, including the Northeast, Mid Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, and the Pacific Northwest. So about everywhere except parts of the Great Plains and Alaska and Hawaii, apparently. It's also sold in Ontario, Canada. Aside from Wegman's, other huge supermarket chains which carry it are Whole Foods and Kroger.
Founder/CEO Steve Fortuna was (and presumably still is) an avid gardener, and while doing this at his home in the Berkshires, Massachusetts, he came up with the idea of adding flower and fruit essences to water. He took further inspiration from historic examples, such as rose water (which dates back to the 9th Century) and adding jasmine to green tea (as they've been doing in China for at least 1000 years). Together with his wife, Trish, he began experimenting with various flowers and fruits, until he came up with several combos he found winning. (Currently, along with the three I tried, there's also a lemon rose flavor.) As the site explains, the key is using steam distillation to get the flower and fruit essences, rather than using "natural flavors," or other commonly occurring flavor sources that mimic flower and fruit flavors. The company is also staunchly anti-sugar (a recent post on its blog around Halloween was about sugar's alleged link to depression). Instead they use erythritol as a sweetener. This is a naturally occurring sweetener found in fruits like grapes, watermelon, and pears. The folks at Blossom Water claim that erythritol is superior to stevia (with its alleged bitter aftertaste), and other sugar substitutes, although it is costly to derive. They also use agave (more on that in my September 13, 2015 post). Furthermore, this product is Non-GMO verified, gluten-free, kosher, and vegan. Surprisingly, it's not organic, however. The Fortunas began marketing their drinks in 2013.
After all this buildup, the natural question is, how were they? Here's what I thought. All of these came in 16 ounce (474 ml.) glass bottles, and cost between 1-2 dollars each.
1) Blossom Water, grapefruit and lilac flavor. Purple in color. Weird flavor--not that strong, and not that tasty. (Although it's true I don't like grapefruit at all.) Also has blue agave in it. Disappointing overall.
2) Blossom Water, pomegranate geranium flavor. Red color. As with the first, not a strong taste. Maybe a hint of pomegranate. Not very good or refreshing. Almost made me thirstier. Not a fan.
3) Blossom Water, plum jasmine flavor. Purple color again. Also has blue agave. Once again kind of weak, bland taste. Not bad, but not very flavorful. Wouldn't buy again. Not worth it.
Therefore, I feel a little like a jerk for saying so, but I really didn't like these Blossom Waters, and won't buy them again (or try the one I didn't have, the lemon rose one). The Blossom Water people seem like nice folks, with good intentions, but the end result I found disappointing, to say the least. Maybe my palate is provincial.
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