If you know anything about millennials and teenagers, you know that a large majority of us love La Croix Sparkling Water, myself included. So, I reached out the people at La Croix to see if they could send a can of each flavor to my house. Instead, I received a whopping delivery: two boxes of every original flavor, three boxes of every La Croix Cúrate flavor. When I came home to the package, I literally screamed. Thank you so much to the people at La Croix for the goods.
However, in conducting a taste test with a group of my friends, I discovered that much like Cats the Musical, the Kardashian family, and Indian food, La Croix is extremely polarizing.
This ranking of La Croix flavors is based off of my personal preferences, but the opinions of my friends will be included.
18. Melón Pomelo (Cantaloupe Grapefruit)
I love La Croix so much, but this flavor was painful to drink. The only way I can describe this flavor is as dirty dish water with a hint of soggy melon or some kind of soggy vegetable. I would never drink this again. This was the definitive last for me and all of my friends.
17. Peach Pear
Although I initially liked this flavor, the aftertaste is what threw me off so much. My friend Zach described this aftertaste as tasting like “Chinese food.” While most of my friends and I disliked this flavor, my friend Alex had this as her number one flavor.
Because I love both peaches and pears, I really wanted to like this flavor, but I think this flavor was so unpleasant because pear do not belong in sparkling drinks.
16. Berry
Unlike the previous two flavors, Berry wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. The problem with this flavor is that it isn’t a specific berry flavor; it’s just a combination of all the berry flavors, which makes me think this drink is confused. People who make La Croix flavors, please just pick one berry and stick with it.
15. Cran-Raspberry
Do I really have anything to say other than that the people who make La Croix flavors should stick to one berry? The answer is no.
14. Mango
From this flavor on, I loved them all; it was really just a matter of my personal flavor preferences. Mango is my favorite fruit, but I don’t think this flavor accurately depicted a true mango flavor. While I did enjoy this flavor, I thought it tasted like the mango was fermented, which was weird.
13. Orange
Smells like Fanta, tastes like nothing special. It really is just a less good version of La Croix’s tangerine flavor. I am very indifferent to this flavor, but this was in the top half of a majority of the rankings of my friends.
12. Pure
Other than San Pellegrino, I hate all sparkling water/seltzer other than La Croix. This is a super solid and refreshing drink, but I like flavored drinks better. No matter your preference, you know what you’re getting with Pure La Croix. This flavor fell in the same place for most of my friends and their rankings.
11. Apricot
For anyone who is Jewish, this smells—and vaguely tastes—like a hamantaschen, which is either a really good thing or a really bad thing. In my case, it was really good, but some of my friends highly disagreed.
10. Passionfruit
This tasted like how I wanted Mango to taste: summery, refreshing, and somewhat sweet. Oh, and it actually tasted like a passionfruit, unlike some of the aforementioned flavors.
My main issue with this flavor is that I don’t think it’s a year round flavor; I could only really see myself drinking this during the spring and summer. But in polling my friends, this flavor was definitely one of the less polarizing ones.
9. Lime
Like Passionfruit, this flavor has a very summery feel and reminds me of the beach, California, and weirdly enough, authentic Mexican food. This flavor was up high on almost everyone’s list.
8. Coconut
This is the most polarizing flavor of La Croix—no doubt. While many of my friends thought this tasted vaguely like sunscreen lotion or tanning oil, I think this flavor is refreshing and delicious. Hardcore La Croix lovers often find themselves arguing about this flavor, but it’s a yes from me.
7. Piña Fraise (Pineapple Strawberry)
I’m not sure why, but minus the aforementioned La Croix Curaté flavor, the Curaté La Croix flavors seem to be my favorite. This flavor tastes like a combination of white gummy bears and virgin piña coladas, and I loved every second of it.
6. Kiwi Sandía (Kiwi Watermelon)
This was the first La Croix flavor I ever had, so it holds a very special place in my heart, which may be part of the reason why it’s so high on my list. Nonetheless, I love this flavor and it reminds me of Jolly Ranchers and the tropics.
5. Muré Pepino (Blackberry Cucumber)
This drink smells—and tastes, to be honest—like a Lush bath bomb. I mean that in the best way possible. While a lot of my friends thought this tasted like soap, I thought it was super refreshing and kind of made me feel classy because only classy people put cucumbers in their drinks.
4. Pamplemousse
This is a La Croix cult favorite. But in all honesty, I think people like this flavor so much, myself included, because Pamplemousse is so fun to say and telling people that you’re drinking Pamplemousse-flavored sparking water makes you feel so cool.
In less intriguing terminology, Pamplemousse is just French for grapefruit, but grapefruit doesn’t sound as classy. While I did love this flavor, I also feel like I was encouraged by the Internet’s love for this flavor.
3. Tangerine
This is Orange La Croix’s cooler, older sister. Unlike Orange, this drink is flavorful, unique, and most importantly, delicious. Even my friends who were a little skeptical of La Croix seemed to enjoy this flavor.
2. Cerise Limón
This is most definitely my family’s favorite flavor along with mine. Although a bunch of my friends did not like this flavor, they also explained that they don’t like cherry… or lime, which is a fair explanation as to why this flavor didn’t resonate with them. But what matters is that it resonated with me… right?
1. Lemon
I wasn’t expecting this at all, but Lemon—by far—was my favorite flavor. This can of sparkling water is perhaps the world’s most perfect can: bubbly and refreshing, without being too overpowering. Along with being the best flavor, it is also a lot less polarizing than some of the other flavors (I’m looking at you, Coconut)
If you haven’t tried La Croix yet, do it. Despite some of my friends disliking it, don’t knock something until you try it.