Is corporate America trying to fleece me (more on this later), or have they stopped caring? Wait…I think I just answered my own question: It's both.
Take a look at the packaging on this packet of Capri Sun. The word “flavor” appears four times, which in itself is overkill when you think about the information that was left out (again, more on this later). And “Fruit Flavored Water Beverage”? Unless it's alcoholic, I find the use of “water beverage” redundant.
This, again, is a product made in America, by Americans. It's not a case of something being lost in translation.
And then there's this part: “Wild Cherry: Flavored with Other Natural Flavor”. The circular logic makes me dizzy. If you're not using cherry as a flavor, why not just name it after the flavor you ARE using.
Now, I wouldn't normally write a diatribe over the word choice on a kid's beverage, but the fact that they used all that space and lettering, but still FAILED to tell me that the drink uses Sucralose as a sweetener? THAT'S unforgivable.
Again, I'm no food prude. I don't need all of my produce to be organic or my meat to be free-range, but I do consider Sucralose (otherwise known as Splenda) to be an artificial flavor. Yet, still it says “No artificial colors or flavors” and still it says “Wild Cherry: Flavored with Other Natural Flavor”.
The makers of Capri Sun need to learn this word: “Diet”.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.