The Worst Grape Juice Brand We Tried Tastes Like Flavored Water

Grape juice may not be everyone's preferred cup of tea, but it's got a loyal following (and yes, that following includes people over the age of five). It's refreshing on its own, and some varieties can even act as a substitute for vodka in cocktails and cooking. Plus, it's chock full of vitamin C and manganese. But not all bottles are created equal. To determine the best of the best, Tasting Table ranked six grape juice brands made from red grape juice (aka juice from Concord grapes). After many, many samples we decided that Honest Kids Goodness Grapeness just couldn't compete with the rest.

Although Honest Kids is marketed as grape "juice," we found that it tastes more like grape-flavored water than actual juice. Taking a sip directly from the straw provides only a whisper of a flavor, like you're taking a sip of water and someone is waving a grape-scented air freshener just under your nose to tease your tastebuds. The whole shtick of Honest Kids may be that the products don't contain added sugar, but we felt like this grape juice didn't contain any flavor either. If you're looking for a beverage with a hint of grape, this is the juice for you. But if you're expecting the tart sweetness of classic grape juice, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Besides the Goodness Grapeness juice, Honest Kids makes Appley Ever After, Super Fruit Punch, Berry Good Lemonade, and Strawberry Peachy Keen juice boxes. The brand also produces two juice pouch flavors, Cherry Go Round and Twisted Tropical Tango. According to the Honest Kids website, Goodness Grapeness juice is supposed to have you "hooked" from the first sip, but the only thing we were hooked on was trying to detect where the grape flavor went. Honest Kids juices have been available at McDonald's, Wendy's, and Subway at various points in time, but given the choice between Goodness Grapeness and Fanta Grape Soda, we'd definitely choose the latter.

The Honest Kids brand is a subsidiary of the larger Honest brand, responsible for the beloved Honest Tea which we placed fairly high in our ranking of tea brands. Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff founded Honest in 1998 starting with Honest Tea, but didn't launch Honest Kids until 2007. The Coca-Cola Company purchased 40% of Honest brand's shares in 2008 and acquired the company fully by 2011. Coca-Cola sold both Honest Tea and Honest Kids until 2022 when the company announced it would no longer produce Honest Tea (but don't worry, the rebirth of Honest Tea happened the following year under a new brand, Just Ice Tea).