bubly vs. Waterloo vs. Zevia: Which Sparkling Water Is Worth Buying?

Sparkling water is the easiest on-ramp to a zero-calorie lifestyle that exists. There’s no sweetener debate to have with yourself, no “diet” stigma, and no acquired taste required — it’s just carbonated water with flavor, and it scratches the same fizzy-can itch as soda without any of the baggage. Once you cut soda and start reaching for a flavored seltzer instead, you rarely go back. But “sparkling water” now covers a wide range of products, from truly bare-bones seltzer to lightly sweetened soda alternatives. bubly, Waterloo, and Zevia represent three different approaches to the category, and picking the right one depends on what you actually want out of the can.

bubly

bubly, PepsiCo’s entry into the category, is built on a short ingredient list: carbonated water and natural flavors, with no sweeteners of any kind in the core lineup. Flavor intensity is on the lighter side compared to Waterloo — bubly leans more toward “a hint of fruit in your water” than “this basically tastes like the fruit.” That makes it a solid everyday sipper if you find more flavor-forward seltzers cloying after a few sips.

Carbonation is moderate — noticeably softer and less aggressive than club soda, which makes it easy to drink a full can quickly without the fizz becoming uncomfortable. bubly contains zero calories, zero sugar, and no sweeteners in its standard line (its separate “bubly bounce” line adds 35mg of caffeine and is a different product entirely). At around $0.35–$0.45 per can when bought in variety packs, it’s consistently the cheapest of the three, and its wide retail distribution makes it the easiest to find in bulk.

Waterloo

Waterloo built its entire brand identity around flavor intensity, and it shows. The company says it uses roughly three times the flavor concentration of competing brands, sourced from Non-GMO Project Verified natural extracts, and the result is a sparkling water that tastes closer to biting into the actual fruit than anything else in the category. Waterloo’s ingredient list is about as minimal as it gets: purified carbonated water and natural flavors — full stop, with zero sodium, zero sweeteners, and zero sugar across the line.

Carbonation is crisp and assertive, closer to a sharper club-soda texture, which pairs well with the bolder flavor profile. Waterloo is also certified Gluten-Free, Non-GMO Project Verified, Whole30 Approved, and free of all nine major allergens, giving it the cleanest certification stack of the three. Pricing runs $0.40–$0.55 per can, a modest premium over bubly that most people find justified by the flavor payoff.

Zevia

Zevia is the outlier here, and its Ginger Beer isn’t a plain seltzer at all — it’s a stevia-sweetened soda alternative with actual flavor body, not just infused water. The ingredient list is short (carbonated water, natural flavors, citric acid, stevia leaf extract) but it’s sweetened, using purified stevia extract rather than sugar, aspartame, or sucralose. That makes it the right pick when you want something that tastes like a real soda or mixer — root beer, cola, ginger ale, ginger beer — without any caloric or glycemic impact.

Carbonation on Zevia’s ginger beer is moderate and well-suited to sipping slowly or using as a cocktail mixer, which is exactly how most people buy it — as a zero-calorie substitute for Fever-Tree or Bundaberg in a Moscow Mule or dark-and-stormy. It’s caffeine-free in this particular flavor, though some other Zevia sodas do contain caffeine from coffee bean or tea extract, so it’s worth checking the can if that matters to you. Price runs higher than the other two, typically $0.65–$0.85 per can, reflecting both the more complex flavor engineering and smaller production scale.

Comparison Table

Brand	Calories	Sweetener	Carbonation	Avg Price/Can	Best For
bubly	0	None	Moderate, soft	$0.35–$0.45	Everyday hydration, budget multi-packs
Waterloo	0	None	Crisp, assertive	$0.40–$0.55	Bold true-to-fruit flavor, cleanest label
Zevia (Ginger Beer)	0	Stevia leaf extract	Moderate	$0.65–$0.85	Cocktail mixing, soda replacement

Which Should You Buy?

If you want the cleanest label and boldest flavor → Waterloo Black Cherry. Two ingredients, zero sweeteners, and the most true-to-fruit taste of the three.

If you’re buying in bulk for daily hydration and want the lowest cost per can → bubly Variety Pack. It’s lighter on flavor, but that’s an asset when you’re drinking several cans a day and don’t want flavor fatigue.

If you actually miss soda, not just carbonation → Zevia Ginger Beer. It’s sweetened and full-flavored enough to replace a real soda or mixer, which plain seltzer can’t do.

If you’re caffeine-avoidant across the board: all three of these specific products — bubly’s standard line, Waterloo, and Zevia Ginger Beer — are caffeine-free, so that’s not a differentiator here; just double check any Zevia flavor before buying since the brand does sell caffeinated sodas and energy drinks under the same name.

There’s no wrong answer among these three — they’re solving slightly different problems. Waterloo wins on flavor and label purity, bubly wins on price and everyday drinkability, and Zevia wins for anyone who wants a genuine soda substitute rather than flavored water.