Apple cider vinegar has an almost cult-like following, including superstars Katy Perry, Megan Fox, and Scarlett Johansson. Apple cider vinegar is said to aid in weight loss, digestion, and even regulate blood sugar levels. All of these benefits make it a great way to stay healthy and look fit this summer.
But apple cider vinegar isn’t always the easiest drink to sip, especially without a chaser. Luckily, there are dozens of apple cider vinegar-based drinks that blend the tart, tangy elixir with juice, natural flavors, and sweeteners to make it more palatable.
These flavored apple cider vinegar drinks make drinking this healthy beverage a lot more enjoyable.
If you want the potential benefits of apple cider vinegar without having to drink it straight, there are a variety of tasty apple cider vinegar drinks and sweetened shots to get you into the healthy apple cider vinegar lifestyle. Blended with fresh fruit juice, honey, and ginger—also known for their health benefits—these apple cider vinegar-based drinks are meant to be enjoyed, not endured.
I tried seven in total, including an ACV sparkling water, a few ACV and fruit juice blends, and flavored, pre-mixed vinegar shots. Below is a list of great sippers and shooters to get your daily dose of apple cider vinegar, along with my notes on how they taste.
Read more: The ABCs of Apple Cider Vinegar: Benefits, Precautions, and Proper Dosage
Look at this: Try 6 Apple Cider Vinegar Drinks
Best Apple Cider Vinegar Drinks
Braggs Refreshers feature apple cider vinegar along with juice, lemon, and other natural ingredients to create a refreshing drink anchored by healthy apple cider vinegar. The drinks come in four flavors, but I liked the lemon-ginger Refresher the best. The 40-calorie Refreshers taste a lot like kombucha and are best enjoyed cold or poured over ice.
On Bragg’s website, Refreshers cost about $8 or $9 each, but at Walmart.com you can buy a pack of four for $12.40.
Sidekicks aren’t your typical sugary sodas. These fruity and tart sodas blend healthy ACV with plum, strawberry and mango juices and a dash of New Zealand honey. All three recipes I tried were excellent; not too sweet and perfectly refreshing. I enjoyed the plum-strawberry the most and found that the fizz was best when poured over ice.
Sidekicks aren’t cheap. You can order a 12-pack on the website for $50 or subscribe and save 10%.
I drink a ton of sparkling water, so it’s no surprise that I connected with this ACV drink. It’s lighter and less intense than Bragg’s Refreshers. The sweetness of the blood orange and a little stevia help balance out the tartness of the vinegar.
ACV is the second ingredient after water in this 5-calorie drink, but this balanced, fizzy beverage is one I can see myself happily drinking every day. If you’re a casual seltzer drinker, you can probably easily incorporate it into your daily routine, too.
This fun and eye-catching line of low-calorie sodas is marketed as a digestive aid and lists apple cider vinegar as the third ingredient after water and cane sugar. Poppi prebiotic sodas come in a variety of flavors; I tried lemon-strawberry and ginger-lime and loved them both. The apple cider vinegar flavor is milder than some other drinks I’ve tried and with 4 grams of sugar, the sodas aren’t overly sweet and are only 25 calories.
A 12-pack of Poppi’s Healthier ACV Sodas is $24 on Amazon (but there’s a $16 deal on it right now) or $11 for a four-pack at Target ($8 with the current deal).
If you prefer to down your ACV in one go, there are pre-mixed apple cider vinegar shots you can try. Remedy’s version is meant to aid digestion and contains apple cider vinegar, prebiotic zinc, and vitamin D, along with ginger, honey, and cayenne pepper to balance out the tart flavor.
A pack of 12 2-ounce shots costs $50 on Remedy’s website.
Bragg has a line of apple cider vinegar shots that come in a variety of flavor combinations. They’re all pretty good, but the carrot ginger and pineapple cayenne were my personal favorites. The 20-calorie shots are sweetened with organic honey and fruit juice and go down smoother than July rum punch. A four-pack of 2-ounce shots runs about $11 on Bragg’s website or $14 on Amazon.
If you want your apple cider vinegar with an extra shot of immune-boosting vitamins, try Emergen-C’s Daily Immune Support Packets, which feature added botanicals for energy. Each 35-calorie packet contains 260 mg of dehydrated ACV. It’s unclear whether apple cider vinegar powder is as potent as vinegar in liquid form, but the powdered elixir does contain loads of vitamins C, B-6, and B-12, so it certainly can’t hurt to mix some with water during cold and flu season.
These drink mixes tasted okay, but were my least favorite of the bunch. I missed the punch of fresh juice and tartness that you get with the other drinks on this list. An 18-pack is $14 on Amazon (take advantage of the $13 sale right now).
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