A little over a year ago, on June 8th, 2024, I reported on some probiotic drinks (and prebiotic). Well, I happened to see a new-to-me brand of the same beverage type the other day. So I decided to give this gut-friendly tipple another chance. I had the blueberry lemonade and the berry cherry probiotic water flavors from the Karma brand.
I went into a bit of detail about the nature of probiotic drinks in the previous post, so I won't repeat myself much here. The official Karma website (drinkKarma.com) was one of those fairly terse ones, which mainly had product lines, and where to purchase them. I had to consult other business-related websites to fill in even the most basic company history gaps. Anyway, according to those, Karma was founded by CJ Rapp and Jeff Platt, in February of 2011. Currently, Rapp is the CEO, Platt is the President, and a Lowell Patric is the COO/CFO. The company's headquarters are in Pittsford, NY. And that's about all I could find out about the Karma story. Karma has two basic product lines--the probiotic waters, and the energy waters. Aside from the two I tried, other probiotic water flavors were watermelon wild berry and strawberry lemonade. The energy water choices are raspberry peach, blueberry watermelon, orange mango, and melon dragon fruit. The energy boost in these is provided by the old standby, caffeine, as well as cognizin citicoline. Additionally, Karma has "stick packs," which are powdered mixes that the customer combines with water. The flavors of these are berry cherry, blueberry lemonade, and strawberry lemonade, so it appears that they are powdered probiotic waters. Karma is also very proud that their wares are free of GMOs, lactose, and gluten, and are relatively low in both calories and sugar. They are appropriate for vegan diets as well. And the plastic used for their bottles is free of BPA.
Karma probiotic water, blueberry lemonade flavor: The bottle was 18 ounces/532 mL, and came with Karma's patented, protective push cap. So, following directions, I peeled off the seal and then pushed down on the "button" underneath, which released the probiotics into the drink itself. For this one the granules looked dark blue, or blackish in color. The odor of the drink was slightly lemonade-y, and the color was clear, with just a little cloudiness to it. The taste was very weak, only a tinge of fruitiness to it. Therefore, as a beverage this one fails, as the taste is extremely lacking.
Karma probiotic water, berry cherry flavor: The bottle was the same size as the previous one, and also had the push cap. The only difference was that the granules were a reddish hue. The odor was slightly berry-ish. The color of the drink itself was pink. And once again the taste was very disappointing--some hints of fruity flavor, but only hints.
To sum up, then, as with my experience in 2024, I definitely didn't enjoy these as drinks. In some ways I don't understand why they bother adding flavor to these, since the results are so weak as to make no difference. I'm assuming regular consumers of these only do so for the perceived benefits of the probiotics, and not the flavor of the drinks. Maybe these quaffs are healthy, but they sure aren't tasty, or even mediocre. Since my intestinal health seems okay in general, I don't plan on ever having these again.
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