Flavoured Sparkling Water or Soda? What Is in an Oasis Can

The fastest way to tell the two apart on any shelf is the ingredients panel, not the front of the can.

• If the list is water and carbon dioxide, perhaps with flavouring, you are holding sparkling water.
• Once sugar, fructose or sweeteners appear in the list, you are holding a soft drink, however light it looks.

Oasis falls in the second group. It is a carbonated, fruit flavoured soft drink in a 350ml PET can with an aluminium lid. The fizz and the clear pour make it look like flavoured water, but the label tells a different story, and we would rather say so here than have a customer find out at the first sip.

All seven flavours share the same base recipe: water, fructose, carbon dioxide, flavouring, acidity regulators (citric and malic acid), a stabiliser (trisodium citrate), a preservative (potassium sorbate) and sweeteners. The preservative is why an unopened can keeps for 12 months stored cool and dry.

Two details often surprise people. First, there is no colour added to any flavour, so the drink pours clear whether the can says strawberry or blueberry. Second, there are no declared allergens.

These are total sugars per 350ml can, tested by an accredited laboratory.

A regular cola in a can of the same size carries more than twice as much sugar as any of these. So Oasis sits between plain sparkling water, which has none, and a full sugar cola. It reaches its sweetness with a smaller amount of fructose plus sweeteners.

Six flavours are sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame K, and their labels state that they contain a source of phenylalanine. Mango is the exception: it uses acesulfame K and sucralose, with no aspartame, and it is also the lowest sugar flavour in the range at 13.1 g per can. If you came looking for something close to a flavoured sparkling water, mango is the can that comes nearest on both counts.

Most people searching for a flavoured sparkling water want a particular taste over ice. Here is how each search maps to an Oasis can.

• Lime sparkling water: the lime can is the sharpest and driest finishing flavour in the range, and the closest in character to a squeeze of lime in soda. It also carries the most sugar of the seven, at 15.8 g.
• Lychee or litchi sparkling water: the lychee can is the most perfumed and floral of the seven, at 14.8 g of sugars.
• Peach sparkling water: the peach can is soft and fragrant, at 14.9 g.
• Blueberry sparkling water: the blueberry can has a deep berry flavour, at 14.4 g.
• Mango sparkling water: the mango can, lowest in sugar and free of aspartame.

The strawberry and green apple cans complete the seven.

If you want water with bubbles and nothing else, Oasis is not the right product, and it is better to know that now. If you want a cold, fizzy, fruit flavoured drink with clearly less sugar than a regular cola, it fits well, and the label tells you exactly what you are getting.

A few practical points:

• Serve it properly cold. A warm carbonated drink tastes thin and sweeter than it is.
• Over ice with mint and a slice of lime, the lime and lychee cans work as a simple mixer for guests.
• For a household or office that drinks a few cans a day, a carton of 24 keeps the fridge stocked for a week or more.

All seven flavours are on the Oasis sparkling drinks page as single cans and as cartons of 24. The products are halal and made under HACCP to UAE standards, with a certificate of analysis on request. Delivery is free on UAE orders above AED 300, with payment online or by bank transfer.