Aldi's Olipop Soda Copycat Sounds Refreshing

One food trend in recent years has been that of "value-added" products, meaning those that try to tack on some type of nutritional benefit to a product that would otherwise not be too healthy. An example of this would be Vizzy, the vitamin-enhanced hard seltzer, while another is Olipop, a soda that contains prebiotics. While Olipop may seem like a soda fan's dream come true – a sweet, bubbly beverage that's actually good for you! –- it does come at a pretty steep price, with individual cans costing over $2.50. Despite the high price, Olipop is so popular that both Coke and Pepsi are interested in acquiring the company. An even better indicator of its success, however, might be the fact that this soda brand has now inspired an Aldi knockoff.

Aldi's VitaLife brand, it seems, is now producing a knockoff prebiotic soda of its own that comes in both root beer and strawberry vanilla soda varieties. It's not the cheapest beverage offered by the discount chain, but at under $2 a can it's certainly cheaper than the Olipop version. This isn't Aldi's first venture into value-added territory, as two years ago it came out with probiotic spritzers, but probiotics and prebiotics aren't the same thing at all. Prebiotics are all about the fiber, so these new sodas contain 9 grams of the stuff, along with just 5 grams of sugar.