Take a stroll down the soda aisle and you'll find a whole lot of ways to make something sweet.

Refined sugar. Stevia. Monk fruit. Artificial sweeteners. The list goes on.

But there's one sweetening ingredient you won't find in Culture Pop: any of those. We're doing things a little differently. And there's a pretty good reason why.

First things first. What is stevia?

Stevia is a plant-derived sweetener that's used in all kinds of foods and drinks as an alternative to sugar. Certain purified stevia extracts are considered high-intensity sweeteners, meaning they're many times sweeter than regular sugar. That lets manufacturers create sweet-tasting products using very small amounts.

And to be clear, stevia isn't an artificial sweetener. It comes from a plant, and high-purity stevia sweeteners have been evaluated for use in food.

So why don't we use it? Because our decision is about how we want our soda to taste.

We're not big on the aftertaste

Ever take a sip of something that tastes sweet at first, but leaves a lingering sweetness after you've swallowed? Some people notice a distinctive aftertaste with stevia and other high-intensity sweeteners. Others don't mind it at all.

We're firmly in the camp that wants soda to taste like the flavors on the can. When you're drinking Orange Mango, we want you to taste orange and mango. When you're sipping Watermelon Lime, we want that juicy, tart combination to shine.

We don't want sweetness to steal the show.

So, what do we use instead?

Fruit juice. That's it for the sweetening part. Culture Pop is sweetened with organic fruit juice from concentrate, without refined sugar, stevia, monk fruit, or artificial sweeteners.

But the ingredients don't stop at fruit juice. We also use herbs and spices to build flavor and give our sodas their own personality. A little rosemary. A hint of chili. A touch of cardamom. They're not there to make things sweeter. They're there to make things more interesting.

And that's the difference we're after.

We don't think soda needs to be sweeter. We think it needs to taste better.

Real flavor over extra sweetness

Here's the thing: just because a drink has less sugar doesn't automatically mean it'll taste less sweet. High-intensity sweeteners can create a very sweet taste without contributing much sugar. That's one reason we focus on flavor balance rather than sweetness alone.

Our goal is a soda that's juicy, tart, fizzy, and refreshing. Something you can enjoy with lunch, at a backyard hang, or straight from the fridge when you need an afternoon pick-me-up.

No complicated sweetness strategy required. Just fruit-forward flavor that tastes like the real deal.

Good ingredients. Good soda.

We're not here to tell you what sweeteners you should or shouldn't enjoy. We're just here to make soda the way we think it should be made.

With real fruit juice, thoughtful ingredients, live probiotics, and a whole lot of flavor. No stevia? No problem.