We Tried 15 Popular Snapple Flavors and Choosing a Winner Was Tough

Pretty much anytime is a good time for a cold drink, but that's especially true in the summer. We're always up for a tall glass of lemonde or iced tea (or an Arnold Palmer) and iced coffee gets us through our afternoon slump yearround. But when we're out and about, whether that's on a road trip or while running errands, we sometimes grab a cold drink while we're out.

Thre are so many options in the beverage cooler these days—energy drinks and waters and so many sodas—and there are also classic 90s drinks that are still kicking around, like Snapple. I've been a Snapple fan for years and typically stick with the same flavor, but when I was asked to taste test a whopping 15 flavors from the iconic drink brand, I was excited to give them a try.

Honestly, I didn’t know there was such a diverse range of Snapple flavors. We’re all familiar with the classics like Snapple Mango and Peach Tea, but now the company has some fun new flavors, including their Elements drink line. This specialty line launched in 2022 and has 45% less sugar. The names of the drinks—rain, fire, air, earth, and sun—are in keeping with the elements theme.

Snapple has had a bit of a transition in recent years. The fun facts printed on the underside of their bottle caps are gone and they shifted to recycled plastic bottles from their classic glass bottles. But what about what's inside the bottles? That's what I set out to find. At the end of the tasting, my group of testers had some clear favorites. Read on for the complete list of 15 Snapple flavors, ranked from worst to best.

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How We Tested These Snapple Flavors

Like my orange soda ranking article, for this taste test I enlisted the help of my spouse and two adolescent children to drink 15 Snapple flavors.

Our original plan was to break up the tasting over two days, but we decided to tackle it in one evening so we could taste all the flavors side-by-side. I busted out all 15 bottles, a stack of cups and my clipboard with paper and a pencil on our living room table, and we got to tasting. I recorded everyone's notes and scores as we sipped and then tallied everything at the end to create this ranked list. I had some thoughts and feelings going into this test, so it was interesting to see how things shook out once we'd all tasted—and debated.

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15 Popular Snapple Flavors Ranked Worst to Best

Read on for our rankings, plus thoughts and comments from my entire family. They had a lot to say!

15. Snapple Go Bananas

This flavor was a total disappointment. My son loves bananas and couldn’t drink more than a sip. Even before tasting it, he noted that “it doesn’t look good.” The color is pretty cloudy and unappealing, but my husband suggested that we shouldn’t judge it by color. Well, after we tasted it, we were still turned off. My son thought it smelled like a banana Laffy Taffy, which is great if you're in the mood for candy but maybe not so great in liquid form.

After examining the ingredients, I think there were a few things that landed this one at the bottom of the list. First, there’s milk in it, along with pear juice concentrate, banana purée, carrot juice concentrate and cream. These ingredients aren’t exactly that appealing, especially when this is supposed to be a banana-forward juice drink.

Related: 19 Baking and Breakfast Recipes That Make The Most of Ripe Bananas

14. Snapple Elements Fire Dragon Fruit

The Elements line is a small but mighty group that’s labeled as “light and refreshing,” which means it’s 45% lower in sugar than the regular Snapple drinks. (Keep this in mind as I rank the other Elements flavors.) The Dragon Fruit flavored juice drink is ranked 14 because we didn’t pick up on the dragon fruit at all. In fact, it wasn’t even listed as an ingredient. Instead, there’s pear and grape juice concentrate.

Overall, we thought the name was a bit misleading. However, this smelled divine and resembled the color of a light cranberry juice. My son thought it smelled like cherry and peach. So, this one didn’t quite make the cut because of these inconsistencies. On the plus side, the packaging was beautiful.

Related: What the Heck Is Dragon Fruit and How Do You Eat It?

13. Snapple Mango Madness

I was really bummed that we didn’t rank this higher because this is a classic Snapple flavor. This placement came down to it not tasting solely like mango. Mango purée and kiwi juice concentrate were the dominant ingredients. The drink definitely smelled tropical and had a slight flavor to match, but the kiwi was more present than the mango. Mango Madness was good, but not great.

12. Snapple Lemon Tea

All four of us are big tea drinkers, and I love a good pucker (hello, lemon bars). Sadly, the Snapple Lemon Tea didn’t pack enough lemon flavor for us. The smell was appetizing, but it just fell short on the citrus flavor front.

11. Snapple Raspberry Tea

Here’s another low-ranking tea that we were disappointed by. We were conflicted because my husband remarked that it reminded him of what he drank years ago (aka the original rollout), but the more he drank it, the less it tasted like raspberry. My daughter said that “it didn’t taste like anything.” Overall, it was drinkable but not impressive.

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10. Snapple Elements Air Prickly Pear & Peach White Tea

This one smelled so good, but interestingly, the dominant scent was just peaches. Part of the point of the Elements line is the fact that it has less sugar, but we all thought this flavor in particularly could have used a bit more sweetness. The prickly pear and peach white tea were subtle, and the color was a beautiful light peach. We ranked this at 10 because the flavors could have been bolder.

9. Snapple Kiwi Strawberry

Three of us thought this flavor smelled just like a strawberry and had a kiwi aftertaste, so we picked up on both ingredients. As an original flavor, we enjoyed it, but other options were bolder and better. My husband noted that it just didn’t taste like it used to. Maybe the switch to plastic bottles minimized the boldness? Who knows.

8. Snapple Elements Earth Cherry & Fig Black Tea

I’m a big cherry lover, so I’ll eat or drink anything with a cherry. This had a rich, abundant cherry taste that was great, but I didn’t pick up on fig or black tea. This could have moved higher in the list if it was just a touch sweeter, too.

7. Snapple Green Tea

As soon as we twisted the cap, it was like smelling a bag of fresh green tea. What I loved was that it wasn’t bitter like some green tea drinks. We felt that Snapple did a great job balancing the green tea, lemon, sweetener and water. My daughter was surprised that it tasted so good. While it was a winner in terms of green tea, it wasn’t the best among the samples, which is why it fell somewhere in the middle of the pack.

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6. Snapple Elements Sun Starfruit, Orange & Nectarine

This was fruity, almost fruitier than Snapple Fruit Punch. However, a couple of us thought it smelled like an air freshener (not in a bad way). My husband liked it, but couldn’t detect the starfruit. We all agreed that the brand did well at blending the three flavors in this drink.

5. Snapple Elements Rain Agave Cactus

I really enjoyed this, especially chilled. It was indeed light and refreshing, as advertised. Out of the Elements line, we liked this one the best. My kids noted that it smelled like the bubbly white grape juice that they drink at New Year’s Eve. The flavors were balanced and didn’t need any sugar adjustment. Granted, cactus wasn’t listed as an ingredient, but the good ole pear juice concentrate was listed. Maybe cactus is under the “natural flavors” umbrella or maybe it’s a flavor in name only?

4. Snapple Fruit Punch

Choosing the top four Snapple flavors was tough. Unlike our young kids, my husband and I have been drinking this brand for decades, so we have some flavor history. There was no denying that this was a fruit punch. You could taste the multiple flavor notes, and it wasn’t overly sweet. Overall, this was good, but we thought a few flavors were better.

3. Snapple Half N’ Half Lemonade Iced Tea

Ever since we traveled to Tennessee for spring break, my daughter has labeled herself a expert. We all loved this drink! It smelled, tasted and looked like half lemonade and iced tea. It was rich, balanced, and according to my hubby, “it should never be changed.”

Related: The Best Way to Sweeten Iced Tea, According to Ina Garten

2. Snapple Peach Tea

This is how a peach tea should taste. It had a strong peach scent, tasted like the name and had the perfect sweetness level. Snapple really delivered on this one.

1. Snapple Apple

Why mess with greatness? Drinking this was like eating a fresh, juicy apple. It was balanced, not overly sweet and simply a superb juice drink that just happened to be apple-flavored. This would be a perfect drink with breakfast or over ice on a hot day.

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