New product in Dallas stores: Odwalla Soy Smart Chocolate Mint Soymilk Drink

by Teresa Gubbins

Odwalla, maker of bottled smoothie drinks and nutritional beverages, is fun to track because it is innovative. The California-based company regularly introduces new items including limited-edition seasonal products, available these days everywhere from Whole Foods to your neighborhood Tom Thumb.

Minty!

The official seasonal intro for 2007 is Soy Smart™ Chocolate Mint Soymilk Drink (isn't that ™ adorable?), designated as a "winter" drink -- mint being the prevalent flavor during the Christmas holidays. Chocolate mint initially seems an odd flavor for a smoothie drink, especially when the ingredients include banana puree. But the chocolate-mint flavor is refreshing, with the mint tangible but not overpowering and the chocolate coming across as a solid "cocoa". The banana puree is subtle, contributing more in the way of creamy texture than flavor; this drink is not thick, but it does have body. It also has 32 mg of Omega-3 DHA; Omega-3 is the essential fatty acid found in fish, flaxseed oil, and walnut oil, and said to prevent heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.

It claims to have two servings to a bottle (as if anyone drinks half a bottle and puts it back), with 160 calories per serving, 24 carbs, 60 mg of sodium, and 4.5 grams of fat. Other flavors in the Soy Smart line include chocolate, vanilla, and chai.

Making a comeback after a successful intro in 2006 is the pumpkin Super Protein drink, a weird though not unsatisfying soy beverage described as a "fall" drink that's supposed to remind you of pumpkin pie. Miraculously, its ingredient list (right after soy and cane sugar) includes actual pumpkin puree. A friend from England who did not grow up with pumpkin once described it as tasting "pappy" (and she kind of smacked her lips when she said it), and it seems certain she would have the same reaction to this drink. Its flavor is dominated by what they call the "apple pie spices" -- cinnamon, nutmeg, clove -- yet is not not horridly sweet. And you get a definite mouth-feel from the pumpkin, with perhaps even a random pumpkin shred floating about.