What Sets Clearly Canadian Apart From Other Sparkling Waters
Sparkling water abounds on supermarket and convenience store shelves, with snazzy labels and vibrant fruit flavors evoking the essence of healthy goodness. In many ways, these effervescent thirst-quenchers have transformed the bottled/canned drink market in beneficial ways, partially replacing sugar-laden soft drinks with a cleaner, natural alternative. But are all sparkling waters the same? Nope, and for many reasons.
Popular sparkling waters may come from natural springs, have added sugars, or hold different standards for extra ingredients. It takes a bit of sleuthing and apples-to-apples comparisons to find "gotcha" tidbits, sometimes masked by slick marketing campaigns. Transparency makes a big difference, as does willingness to evolve based on consumer needs and demands. That's where localized bottled water companies like Clearly Canadian can differentiate themselves when motivated to do so.
What sets Clearly Canadian sparkling water apart in the sea of liquid refreshments are ingredients, water sourcing, and new products. Clearly Canadian, a homegrown company still sourcing its product within Canadian borders, launched with a single unflavored Clearly Sparkling product and a handful of flavored ones, now known as the "Originals" lineup. Like many competitors in the fizzy water domain, Clearly Canadian uses only natural flavorings to enhance its drinks — but it adds a couple of things that some others don't: cane sugar and citric acid.
However, the company announced two new product lines in March 2023, both of which eliminate sugar. And it further explained the water source for each collection.
The Clearly Canadian sugar dilemma
Clearly Canadian has plenty of competitors for sparkling water consumers. By comparison, some major brands, such as Perrier and La Croix, contain no added sweeteners, including sugar, and have no calories. It's not always clear which sparkling water brands contain citric acid since it reportedly can be listed among the "natural flavorings" added to boost flavor and effervescence. Clearly Canadian explains the citric acid in its original drinks as being added "for freshness and that little extra zing." It can also help extend shelf life. But the practice is controversial for its potential to erode tooth enamel.
In the two newest iterations of Clearly Canadian water products, the company has joined its competitors by offering flavored sparkling waters with no added sweeteners. The first line, Clearly Canadian Essence, features natural vegan flavors, including the first two: Limon and Grapefruit. The second line is Clearly Canadian Zero Sugar, which focuses on "true to fruit" flavors such as Fresh Cherry, Citrus Medley, Forest Blackberry, and Tropical Splash.
Though the new drinks will likely appeal to health-conscience "daily drinkers" of fizzy fruity waters, the original line still carries some weight in the sweet-and-tasty category. Those flavors include Orchard Peach, Wild Cherry, Country Raspberry, Wild Blackberry, and the newly returned Summer Strawberry. Despite the added sweetness and calories in the originals, Clearly Canadian specifies that the drinks get their sweetness from non-GMO cane sugar, and all other ingredients are vegetarian, gluten-free, and all-natural.
Sourcing water the Canadian way
Then there's the water, which is arguably the most important component in a drink that bears its name, literally. With a host of natural resources across the country, Clearly Canadian taps into clear natural springs, with some products being bottled at source. This includes one of the company's first products, the premium unflavored Clearly Sparkling mineral water drink, which comes from an award-winning Canadian spring. Now, the new Clearly Canadian Essence line for 2023 taps into an aquifer in the protected Canadian wilderness to bottle the drinks at source.
Yet another distinction for Clearly Canadian, though not alone amongst sparkling water creators, is the glass bottle. It's one of the product's appealing identifiers with opaque sky-blue hues and pristine white typography, sporting varying colored logos featuring Canada's maple leaf, a symbol of national identity. The glass embodies the company's stated commitment to recycling, lowered energy costs, and the pure flavor retention that comes from glass rather than plastic or metal containers. And the teardrop shape? It comes from the Clearly Canadian founder, a baseball fan who loved holding a bottle that felt like a baseball.