Thursday, October 2, 2014

Welch's Sparkling Pumpkin Spice- BJ's: Voorhees, NJ

Limited Edition Welch's Sparkling Pumpkin Spice- BJ's: Voorhees, NJ
It's officially October! Time to watch Hocus Pocus on loop and buy copious amount of Halloween candy. (Although I'll be waiting for it all to go on clearance and swoop in like the cheapskate bargain shopper I am.) Pumpkin reviews are in full swing, and tonight I have some sparkling Pumpkin Spice apple/grape juice to review!


The only way I could find this juice was in a pack of three at BJ's. Was it wholesale club exclusive? I tried to find a bottle of this alone, but it just wasn't in any of the grocery stores here in South Jersey. At BJ's it was sandwiched between two caramel apple flavored grape juices, and I really wasn't interested in those, but I bit the bullet and bought the three pack anyway. (Review on the caramel apple ones coming up later this month.) I really wanted to see if this Welch's Pumpkin Spice sparkling grape juice can rival my beloved Sparkling Pumpkin Cider from Aldi. 

The bottle is a lot larger than the ones I buy at Aldi, with about twice as much product, but with a bigger size comes a bigger price tag. Plus there was no way to buy more than one bottle of this specific flavor (in my area) without buying 2 additional caramel apple bottles each time. I'm guessing that this has to be sold individually somewhere, but for me, this was a huge inconvenience.

As far as the packaging goes, the bottle is a classic green color and made of glass, which is recyclable, and the label is a bright and festive orange color. To me, this bottle is appealing, but more in a commercial way than in a fancy presentation one. While the fold foiling at the top is a nice, delicate, touch, the label design is too bold and chunky and the two clash a bit visually. I like the charm of the brown Aldi bottle a lot more, even though both labels could use a bit of design TLC.

Once opened, the sparkling juice cocktail had a surprisingly authentic pumpkin pie aroma. This is very rare, it actually has an earthy, squash, scent just like canned pumpkin, but there is a decent dose of the pumpkin pie spices in there as well. Well done Welch's. I'm seriously impressed, this might give Aldi a run for their money.

I poured some into a glass and there was a decent amount of carbonation. When compared to the Aldi version, this is lighter in color, more like apple juice, while Aldi's is more of an amber-cider color.


I took a sip, and it was a lot sweeter than I expected. It may have a strong pumpkin smell, but the flavoring is very apple and grape heavy. Those pumpkin pie spices are there, as well as a slight pumpkin puree aftertaste, but the overall sweetness of the apple and grape cocktails is too much for me.

While this is enjoyable, and I bet kids would love drinking this at holiday parties and dinners, it's just too sweet for me. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, but the Aldi version is less sweet, so I still prefer that. (Plus Aldi has a cooler bottle. My boyfriend always comments that it looks like it's meant for Molotov cocktails.)
On a Pumpkin Scale of 1-5 (5 being the most pumpkin-y) I’d give this a 5 for it's smell, but it gets a 3 for overall flavoring. I wish this tasted more like it smelled. It's enjoyable, and I am happy I bought it once to review, but Aldi still reigns supreme. 
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2 comments:

  1. Wow! Sparkling Pumpkin Spice juice is really great treat for kids with strong pumpkin smell. Thanks for sharing it…

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  2. I wish this was available in the UK! Love your Pumpkin Scale rating :)

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