Golden State Warriors guard, and Drake superfan, Steph Curry is getting his own sports drink. Launched a couple of months back in partnership with Michelle Obama’s PLEZi Nutrition, PLEZi Hydration follows the company’s mission of creating healthier alternatives to popular snacks with a laser focus on the sort of performance-enhancing nutrients and ingredients we expect from a hydrating sports drink.
If you want to be at the top of your game, you’re going to have to hydrate, but if your way of hydrating is guzzling down a high sugar drink, aren’t you doing more harm than good? We’re all looking for an edge and something that brings a little more to the table than just water alone, but not at the expense of putting on unwanted pounds and dealing with a sugar surge come down? Enter PLEZi as an alternative.
But putting aside the science and star power for a second, how does it taste? We gave it a shot to see if you should too.
PLEZi Hydration
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The Lemon Lime flavor has a pleasantly faint apple smell on the nose, while across the palate we’re getting a touch of citrus, some juicy pear notes, and a zesty kick at the back of the throat. The drink is surprisingly subtle and nuanced, way more so than expected from a sports drink.
That is also subtly present in the Tropical Punch flavor. Rather than attacking your taste buds with intense sweetness like the other sports drinks on the market, PLEZi’s Tropical Punch is tame. Again, I’m tasting pear, but also juicy berry notes, with a subtle dry and tart finish that is reminiscent of pineapple and cranberry. It doesn’t deliver that onslaught of dopamine that tasting the competition provides, but it tastes noticeably healthier, which is what the brand is clearly going for.
If you want to experience the absolute best of the best, you’re going to want to reach for the Orange Mango Twist. Now, full disclosure — I’m not the biggest mango fan, so my expectations for this one were pretty low. What I found was a pleasant bouquet of tropical fruit flavors like watermelon and mango with a twist of orange citrus, again, more pear, and a lingering finish that stayed on the tongue the way a good piece of fruit does, rather than the bad-breath-inducing tongue stain that something like a sugary juice “drink” provides.
The Bottom Line:
Consider us sufficiently impressed with what PLEZi is delivering here. If you’re in the habit of drinking hydrating sports drinks but want something healthier, and more nuanced and complex in your rotation, PLEZi is the move. For the best flavor, hit Orange Mango Twist first.
PLEZi Hydration can be found in California at Walmart, Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, and Pavillions, or nationwide on Amazon.