Here’s a Sparkling Water for People Who Hate Sparkling Water

It’s sweeter, brighter, and altogether more flavorful than your average can of seltzer.

June 1, 2022

I once saw a tweet that likened the taste of sparkling water (or more accurately the sad lack of taste) to TV static, and that about sums up how I feel about most seltzer.

I know this opinion places me decidedly against the zeitgeist. But you see, with the exception of regular water, I like actual flavor in my beverages. Just as Tinkerbell needs applause to survive, I need color and excitement in a beverage to give me something to look forward to during my workday. The dull, empty echo of a taste of most “flavored” sparkling water gives just doesn’t cut it. Even people who like La Croix admit that it’s not that, well, flavorful. (Never forget Mary H.K. Choi’s 2015 Letter of Recommendation for La Croix, where she said it offered “a suspicion of flavor rather than a bracing burst of taste.”) Even so, many 9-to-5ers worship at the altar of the sparkling water industry. I have gone to great lengths to never be a convert. Until now.

Genki Forest, a sparkling water company founded in 2016, made its way into my life with a bang, by way of a friend who broke them out at a Bachelor watch night. My roommate thrust one of the cans of white peach into my hand. “Try it,” she said emphatically. So I took it out of politeness. With just one sip, all of my previously iron-clad convictions dissipated. And just like that, I suddenly found myself a fan of a sparkling water. I wasn’t the only one. By the end of that week, almost everyone at the gathering had ordered their own packs and were guzzling Genkis.

Drinking a Genki tastes a bit more like drinking a carbonated juice or even a Sprite (they’re lightly sweetened though still sugar-free). The white peach flavor is sweeter and fruitier than any other seltzer I’ve tried. And the carbonation is subtle: It barely kicks in, just at the finish. My favorite flavors, in addition to the white peach, are the calamansi lime and lychee fizzy—each are much fruitier, much more robust in flavor than your average sparkling water. Remember what I said about TV static? It doesn’t apply here.

So if you don’t consider yourself a seltzer fan, I’d urge you to try Genki. Crack open a can to brighten a dull workday—or try one in my favorite setting—around the TV, watching an episode of The Bachelor with friends.