Product Comparison: Crystal Light's Raspberry Ice Vs. Safeway's Raspberry

Everyone needs water in their diet, and now, the food and beverage companies are making it easier for us to enjoy drinking more water. We've all heard of Kool-Aid, just add water and sugar, mix and enjoy. Well, now there are healthier alternatives and more 'grown up' ones at that. Flavored water is not just for kids anymore, and better yet many of the new products on the market are sugar free!

The latest fad seems to be these individual serving sized packets that you can add to a bottle of water, shake and drink. Crystal Light makes one, and so does the generic Safeway brand. My personal favorite flavor for a mix and pour product is Raspberry, so I decided to do a little test and see if Crystal Light would live up to it's brand name price or if Safeway would win the battle.

Crystal Light's 'On the Go' soft drink mix has a flavor called Raspberry Ice, and it comes in a box of 10 individual servings. I called my local Safeway store and this product was reported to be $6.26 regular price however they are currently on sale, 2 for $9. Each serving is 5 calories, has no caffeine and is sugar free. In a taste test, this product rates a 9 out of 10 in my opinion. It offers me something sweet to drink when I am craving an afternoon snack and it's also very low in calories, so I have relatively no guilt but I did find the flavor to be a little more powerful than I would personally prefer. Better yet however, I am one step closer to my daily water intake requirements.

As for the Safeway brand called 'Shake N Run' in a Raspberry flavor, local retail price is $3.75 for a box of 10 individual servings. Each packet has zero calories per serving, and although it's flavor is a little bit weaker than that of Crystal Light I actually prefer it being a little on the lighter side. This product is also caffeine and sugar free.

Based on the prices of my local Safeway grocery store, and the comparison of package quantity, calories per serving, and flavor. My vote is for the Safeway brand, however while doing a little research on this product, I found the Crystal Light brand at regular price on Walgreens.com for $3.79. Take into consideration that you'll also pay shipping on that price, but that just tells me it pays to shop around.

So, perhaps Safeway's prices on name brand products are not living up to the budget lifestyle I live, but they are the closest grocery store to my home, and there are other products I have grown to love made by the Safeway brand as well. I'll always keep in mind that shopping around can get me a better deal, but with this product, and the convenience of it's location, Safeway's Shake N' Run sugar free drink mix wins!