Ever get tired of drinking plain water? I do. Ever get tired of swallowing vitamin pills? I do too, so when the opportunity came up to review Ola Loa multi-vitamin mineral drink supplements I took them up on their offer.
What is Ola Loa? Basically the product is a packet of powder which you can add to water (or they say you can add it to juice) which then fizzes up and turns your drink into a flavorful, healthful concoction with added Energy (or Repair) benefits. Or so they say. I was curious to try it.
When I received my box I found they had thoughtfully mixed up the flavors in the box so I got to taste all three flavors available as an Energy mix: Tropical, Orange, and Cran-raspberry. Over the course of a little over a week I drank at least one of these a day (they suggest 1-3 packets daily but I averaged 2 a day), trying to see if it made any noticeable “energy” difference.
My conclusion is: inconclusive – on the energy front. If I had my drink in the morning I think it did seem like a slight “pick me up” but nothing like a Monster Drink — which in my book is a good thing as so called “energy drinks” sometimes affect me too much and definitely don’t feel particularly “good for you” overall. Those drinks seem to contain a lot of sugar plus caffeine, a combination which often makes me crash after taking them. Ola Loa’s ingredients read more like a vitamin to me, Vitamin C, B Vitamins, Potassium, Vitamin A, Calcium, Zinc etc. Overall calories are listed as 5 and sugar per serving is listed as 1g (see full ingredient list for the Cran-Raspberry flavor). I never felt like I had a crash after drinking Ola Loa.
Though my crude energy test result is “inconclusive” I did feel better just simply drinking more liquids each day. I have terrible tasting tap water at home so don’t drink as much as I should, having flavor to my water that wasn’t just sugar made it easier and even pleasureable to drink more.
Ola Loa flavors were great too, of the three I tried I liked their “Tropical” flavor the best, but don’t find any fault with the other two. The instructions said to use 4-6 ounces of water but I found that my drink still had sufficient flavor for me if I used 8 or even 12 ounces of water.
If you’re a fan of Emergen-C, I’d say Ola Loa is comparable in flavor and effect so if you find you get an energy boost from Emergen-C I’d say you’d get the same from Ola Loa’s Energy formulation.
Overall, even though I say the energy effects are “inconclusive” I still think this is a great product. Even if the energy pick up I felt was just because I drank more water, in my opinion that’s always a good thing. Plus by using Ola Loa I also was able to consistently get vitamins and minerals I needed into my diet without having to swallow pills. When out climbing I also liked that I could drink some of my water as plain and then dump a packet in my water bottle in the remaining water to give myself a nice flavor boost.
Contest – Win your own box of Ola Loa!
Intrigued by Ola Loa? You don’t have to take my word about its benefits, you can win some Ola Loa for yourself!
Simply leave a comment on this post for a chance to win (no pressure, you can simply say “I’d like to try it”). You can also get an additional entry if you post about the giveaway on your own blog and link back here (a trackback).
A winner will be chosen at random. Deadline to leave a  comment is midnight PST, September 11th, 2009.