Influenster: Lifeway Kefir

I received a voucher in the mail from Influenster while I was on vacation. It was very different to get a voucher in the mail from Influenster and not a product to try. I had to go get the product  myself. So there was an extra step (or four). *whine* Of course, I love the convenience of no extra steps for me, but I wasn't completely against it since I was still getting to try something for free. (For those that don't know Influenster is a company that sends you things to try for free and all you have to do is complete a survey and share your thoughts via social media. The more active you are the more they'll send you.)

The voucher I received was for any one Lifeway Kefir product. There's a handy dandy store locator so you know where to find Lifeway Kefir products near you. It wasn't entirely accurate for me. Walmart wasn't even on there, but had two whole Lifeway products to choose from. (Oh, the variety.)

At Walmart. This is just a small section of the large selection of yogurty products. The Lifeway Kefir is in middle of the top shelf. you can just barely see the blueberry smoothie in the back. 

Unfortunately, I didn't have my voucher with me while I was at Walmart so I didn't get it. I was also hoping that the other stores would have more products to choose from, mainly because I was hoping to find Lifeway's frozen kefir. The Food Lion's nearby, that the store locator claimed sold their products, didn't have anything. I decided to try Harris Teeter and pray they had something so I didn't have to make yet another stop at Walmart. Thankfully they had a few more of the smoothies to choose from than Walmart, but alas, no frozen kefir.

Harris Teeter had 6 flavors to choose from. Blueberry not pictured because it was out of stock. 

I decided to go with the Lowfat Pomegranate Cultured Milk Smoothie. They were out of the Blueberry or I would have chosen it.

A few things about Lifeway Kefir (that I learned from the bottle):

• It's 99% lactose free
• Naturally gluten free
• Has loads of live & active cultures (they even list which ones)
• May enhance immune system
• May balance digestive health
• Kefir can be effervescent due to the unique probiotics. It's totally normal.

You can enjoy this smoothie straight out of the bottle, but they also offer a few suggestions, such as pouring it over cereal, granola or fruit. I'm really looking forward to trying this with my cereal (Great Grains Protein Cinnamon and Hazelnut). I think it'll be really good.

Now that the facts are out of the way it's time for me to share my thoughts on this product.

Is it tasty? I think it's delicious. Nice and creamy. I wouldn't say that it stands out from any other store bought smoothie that I've ever had, but still very good. I didn't experience any of the effervescence that they said was normal on the bottle. That was a bit of a disappointment. I was looking forward to it. 

Worth the cost? The smoothie was $3.99 at Harris Teeter. And from my picture at Walmart it looks like it's $2.98 there. (Don't be mad at me if that's incorrect though.) For the size of the product (32 fl oz) I don't think these are too much to spend. Of course, the Walmart price (if correct) makes more sense to me than the price at Harris Teeter, but HT is usually more expensive.

Benefits? In my opinion, all of the extra healthy stuff in this make it worth trying. I have only had the one glass so I couldn't honestly tell you if it helped my digestive system or anything.
Is it a new fave? Not really. I'll probably buy this again, but I kinda tired myself out on yogurt. And seeing how this tastes the same I doubt this will have it's own regular place in the fridge. I will def keep my eyes open for the frozen kefir, just in case.





**Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.**