365 Whole Foods Market – Yuzu Vanilla

I was really excited to see this at the Whole Foods impulse buy cooler because I mistakenly thought it was a SOLO vanilla… finally! I guess I just filed Yuzu under, “I don’t know what that is, so I’ll just pretend I don’t see it.” Ignorance, never a good idea. What followed that, then, was that I assumed it’s a variety of vanilla. Wrong, of course! The crude citrus drawings on the can should have been a dead giveaway that it’s a citrus fruit of some kind! Most commonly a Japanese fruit, but it’s not that obscure—everyone knows about it but me. I guess as a flavor combo, Yuzu and vanilla is “trending”—which doesn’t necessarily mean anything good. In fact, I saw someone pushing Yuzu Vanilla Coffee of some kind, and merely the thought made me wretch. Please stop making vanilla flavored coffee! Or any (particularly foul is hazelnut) flavored coffee. Coffee is fine by itself! But back to this water—the flavor is really pleasing to me, a really nice vanilla, and a pretty strong one! I don’t notice the “Yuzu” at all—maybe it’s very subtle and informs the vanilla—I don’t know! Regardless, this water is good. But still, I have to keep asking this: Why, why not just a “Vanilla” sparkling water!? What are they afraid of? You could, if you must, call it “Vanilla Cream,” or “Cream Soda,” or even “Vanilla Custard,” or “Vanilla Ice Cream,” or—if you want to go there—“Vanilla Ice.” Or even, Vanilla Up-the-Ass. I don’t care. Just, for the love of God, someone please sell a vanilla (and only vanilla) flavored sparkling water!!

No. 159 – 9.27.26