Bawi Agua Fresca is juicy, bubbly water that works when its base flavors are brightest

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

There’s a dense middle ground between full-send, high fructose corn syrup sodas and their zero-calorie counterparts. That’s where Bawi Agua Fresca set up camp.

Agua frescas are not something I’m especially familiar with having lived north of the Mason-Dixon line the majority of my life. They’re a combination of a little bit of sugar, water and then grains, seeds or, most often, fruit juices. The combination creates a lighter, sweeter drink than a straight-up juice. And also, horchata, which it turns out also hits that agua fresca standard.

Bawi doesn’t offer horchata, a drink I still haven’t figured out whether I like or not. But the Austin, Texas-based company brings three classic flavors to its mix pack — pina (pineapple), limon (lime) and maracuya (passion fruit). Let’s dig in and see if they can offer big taste and refreshing sips at a reasonable calorie count.

Pina (Pineapple): B+

This pours a pleasant light yellow and with a small, but dense head that suggests there’s a fair amount of juice involved. At 60 calories compared to 40 for the other flavors, the nutritional facts back this up. Ope, and right there on the can it says 33 percent fruit juice. Well, there you go.

The smell off the top of the pour is pineapple, but it’s muted with a bit of a … melted butter scent? A little weird, but maybe that’s just me.

The first sip is crisp and clean. The pineapple is well balanced with the carbonated water, allowing it to make its mark without sticking around for a sloppy aftertaste. The bubbles come and get it, avoiding the aftertaste that can come with a sugary juice like pineapple.

That juice does a lot even though it’s a minority in the drink. It’s tart up front before dissolving into something sweeter before that dry finish. It’s not as sugary as a soda but has much more flavor than a seltzer, making it a viable middle ground between the two. It’s a tightrope, but Bawi walks it well.

Limon (Lime): B

Rather than the bready, citric acid scent of artificially flavored lime seltzers, Bawi smells fresher and cleaner than its closest comparison. It’s the Outkast version of a La Croix.

That lime juice is as tart as you’d expect. A little sweetener could turn this into a limeade. You do get that acidic tang up front, but like the pineapple it’s tempered by the bubbles around it. In this case, instead of softening a sweet, syrupy juice the carbonation teams up with the lime to give this the kind of bite of which Barq’s root beer could only dream.

Again, you’re left with a drink that has too much flavor for a seltzer and not enough sweetness to be a soda. And, again, Bawi does a solid job balancing the two sides. This would probably be great with a shot of tequila and some triple sec dropped in. But on its own, it’s pretty solid too.

Maracuya (Passion fruit): N/A

Look, I don’t like passion fruit. I don’t think I can rationally review this. It’s acidic and sour and, like most passion fruit flavored things, tastes a little rubbery and stale.

But hey, if you can handle passion fruit, have at it. It’s sour and tangy and a little tough to drink. That’s about as far as I can take you.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Bawi Agua Fresca over a cold can of Hamm’s?

Yeah. I’m a little bummed my mix pack had passion fruit and not guava, Bawi’s other flavor. But I enjoyed the pineapple and lime, both of which were acidic and tart and clean and sweet in stages. Paired with crisp carbonation, Bawi is a solid soda replacement for folks who, reasonably, don’t think most seltzers actually taste like anything.