Gut Feeling: The Rise of Healthy Sodas and the Future of Fizzy Wellness
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Olipop and Poppi aren’t just words butchered by your 1-year-old niece: they’re healthy soda brands. Yep, good news for sheltered kids with FOMO, soda is healthy now!
Olipop and Poppi are two of the front runners in a once small corner of the beverage market – prebiotic soda. Together, they have essentially rebranded America’s favorite drink.
Olipop:
“OLIPOP tastes like the soda you grew up sipping, but with the added benefit of microbiome and digestive health support. With plant fiber, prebiotics, botanicals, and a touch of magic, we made soda healthier AND more delicious!”
Poppi:
“No more hiding cans in the bottom of your recycling bin or sipping sparkling water with your burger and fries. You deserve that mouth-watering swirl of flavors and bubbles without the baggage. Get all the soda feels with 5g sugar, ingredients you can love and prebiotics. Remember: cravings aren’t a crime, people! It’s time to love soda again.”
Both brands are dominating the beverage market with not only a low-calorie drink but one with health benefits, making it a functional beverage. Not to mention, both brands have pretty phenomenal branding. But, with great power comes great responsibility…and it seems like great competition too. That’s right – the girls are fighting!
With a similar product and concurrent rises to fame, it’s only natural that these brands are fighting over the same target audience and it seems like the tug of war just got ugly. After Poppi received backlash on Tiktok for a publicity stunt that involved sending Poppi vending machines to influencers, Olipop seemed to stoke the fire online by commenting on posts “also for the record, those machines cost $25K each lol,” and “32 machines times $25K per machine yikes.” Was prebiotic soda beef on your 2025 bingo card? Yeah, me neither.
Whether America is Team Poppi or Team Olipop remains to be seen. One thing is clear: America is Team Healthy Soda. According to Fortune, “Citi lead beverages analyst Filippo Falorni told Fortune that the U.S. soda probiotic market has surged to approximately $820 million in retail sales and now accounts for about 2% of the $42.4 billion U.S. soft drink market.” Naturally, there are many other competitors in the market vying for a slice of the pie. But, to put it in layman’s terms: it’s Love Island and a hot new bombshell just entered the villa. Coca-Cola has entered the prebiotic game. By launching Simply Pop, the beverage giant has placed its stake in the new territory of healthy soda. Will Simply Pop become a major player or will Coca-Cola be booted back to the soda of the past?
Another notable new launch – Spindrift Soda. But don’t get it twisted: Spindrift Soda is NOT a prebiotic!
“With real squeezed fruit and incredible real ingredients. Because who would give ‘soda’ this kind of care, respect, and effort? We would. No tricks, no shortcuts, no unnecessary additions like prebiotics or fiber.”
Is it just me, or does that seem like subtle shade thrown in the direction of Olipop and Poppi? Maybe they want to get in on the beef? Regardless, Spindrift Soda might be a brand to keep an eye on. Instead of adding another functional beverage to the already saturated prebiotic market (ahem, Coke), Spindrift is targeting the audience that just wants a genuinely healthy, simple soda.
Regardless of which brand you wave the banner for, the healthy soda market is here to stay and junk food everywhere is at risk of being wellness-ified.
Strike Out,
Alex Keezer
Editor: Anna Kadet
Athens