This 2025 Aldi Product Of The Year Is A Budget-Friendly Dupe For Poppi Soda

Aldi's is famous for some of the lowest prices around. The company achieves this feat by consistently making choices aimed at saving the consumer money. It's able to do this without sacrificing quality. Although there are some Aldi pantry staples we recommend you never buy, the items on its shelves often end up on the Product of the Year's annual lists. Earlier this year, the award, which is voted on by shoppers, had Aldi's prebiotic soda, Summit Popz, as its winner in the Healthy Beverage category.

The popular dupe for Poppi soda, which was recently purchased by PepsiCo, often costs around a dollar less than the name-brand version. Aldi's version has fewer calories. Online, people find the flavors to be close, with some on Instagram saying the Aldi version has a bit more apple cider vinegar flavor, and others complaining about a stevia aftertaste. One commenter on Instagram said, "The saying, 'you get what you pay for,' rang in my head when I tasted them."

It's surprising to see a soda winning an award for healthy beverage, and it makes one wonder just how healthy Aldi's prize-winning drink is. Keeping in mind the award is voted on by consumers and not food nutrition experts, it's a fair question. A 2024 lawsuit against Poppi for false advertising over their claims that the drink makes your gut healthier was recently settled, casting further doubt on the term "Healthy Beverage."

Compared to regular soda, "healthy soda" like Summit Popz and Poppi has less sugar and calories. However, one would expect a healthy beverage to be more than not as bad as sugar water. Drinks like Poppi rely on the inclusion of prebiotics, a gut health food you should have in your diet. These are carbohydrates that don't get digested in the stomach and go on to the gut to feed the beneficial bacteria living there. Most prebiotics are a type of fiber.

The lawsuit against Poppi originally claimed their 2 grams of fiber content were below the standard 5 grams needed to have any actual benefit. They have since upped their fiber content to 3 grams; however, Summit Popz still has the lower 2 grams of fiber. Plus, Poppi added cassava root fiber to go along with agave inulin in its recipe to vary up its types of fiber, while Aldi's version only has agave inulin. Ultimately, if you enjoy it, keep drinking, just be aware of its limitations.