Better Libations | Healthy Drink Reviews

Ito En, as a Japanese beverage company, is one of the leading manufacturers of tea, although this beverage is manufactured in China, brought in through Hawaii, and distributed through their North America office in New York.  Quite a journey for a small bottle of tea.  the FDA says it’s cool, so I’ll give this one a chance to prove it’s tea goodness, China is known for their tea.

I popped open their supposed environmentally-responsible bottle and gave it the old scent test.  I get the overwhelming image of a fresh cut pear wrapped in tea leaves, sweet and aromatic.  Good so far.  A swig later, and my tongue is reveling in the delightful pear-y taste, giving way to a surprisingly strong tea flavor for a white tea; and with surprising sweetness for only 30 g of the sweet stuff in the whole 16 oz bottle.  The finish is a little dry with a lingering sweet-pear flavor.

Fruit teas are hard to nail down properly, often the fruit overwhelms the tea, or is left far too understated to avoid this cover-up.  This tea has struck a good balance, a good pear flavor with a nice strong tea to follow, although the sweetness is beginning to feel like a little too much, they might want to take a cue from Honest Tea and tone it down a bit.  Ito En surely knows how to make a good fruit tea, although too sweet, it still has its merits.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Excellent balance for a fruit tea, just a tad too sweet.

– WiseGuise

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4-Star Reviews, Ito En, Tasty Japanese Drinks all natural, drink reviews, white tea

This Honest Tea was donated to our cause by a reader and friend of the BL team, to help expand our catalog of Honest beverages.  Much appreciated.

Now, I feel some trepidation when I see a mild flavor like white tea mixed a much stronger flavor like pomegranate, since it could invariably overwhelm the weaker flavor.  But Honest really seems to know what they’re doing when it comes to flavor mixing.  The pom is toned down enough to let the tea shine through, in both scent and taste.  The acai even peek out from behind the pomegranate, coming with a very mild sweetness after the major flavors play their roles and exit stage down.

At first the 20 g of sugar didn’t seem to lend enough sweetness to the tea until I got a few mouthfuls into the bottle.  It built up a little, and became just right for this flavor blend.  There’s also only 1/8th the caffeine as a cup of coffee, for those watching their intake.  This beverage was a welcome reminder of why I like tea so much, and why I will continue to buy Honest Tea.

Score: 5 out of 5. Mildly sweet with a perfect flavor combination.

– WiseGuise

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5-Star Reviews, Honest Tea drink reviews, organic, white tea

Just the bottle, nothing fancy.

My final review from the Jones Organics line, White Tea Strawberry.  I liked the others so much I decided to do another.  I am very fond of tea, independent companies and fruit, after all.

There is a robust strawberry aroma escaping my freshly opened bottle, with only a bare hint of tea behind it.  It’s initially sweet, allowing a soft berry flavor to develop, which fades into the dry, herby tea flavor.  The sweetness lingers on the back of your tongue while the tea fades away, prepping you for another round.

It’s almost too sweet, but not quite.  Only 27 g of sugar per 14 oz bottle,  and I get the feeling that it isn’t quite enough.  I’d like to see this in larger bottles.

The strong tea presence in the flavor is a big plus for me, only enhanced by the secondary strawberry sweetness.  This is one I would definitely drink again.  It’s just another reason why I believe Jones Soda Co. will be around for a long time to come.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Great flavor, but tastes rather sweet.

– WiseGuise.

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4-Star Reviews, Jones Soda Co. drink reviews, independent company, white tea

Ooooh, pastels

Listen up all you readers with a Safeway or Vons nearby (I’m therefore assuming our readership has expanded exponentially out of our state), Safeway has a line of organic products they introduced back in 2006, O Organics.  Just drop your zip code and get a list of all the products available in your local stores!  Lucky you.

I found this–you guessed it–while wandering Vons before we left California.  The label isn’t all that exiting, nor is it supposed to be.  It’s an in-store brand, and therefore intended to be cheaper.  Moving on.

I’m a fan of real (caffeinated) tea, in all its glorious flavors and varieties, so I had try a combination I’ve never seen before.  Crack that pressure-seal and you get a big heavy waft of spearmint, an aroma so tied to chewing gum I had to remind myself I needed to drink this.  Hiding behind that mammoth of mint is the mild-mannered white tea, earthy and pleasant.  Each swig like having a mouthful of right-out-pf-the-wrapper gum, with a tea leaf under your tongue.  The sweetness washes away the hint of tea, leaving the mint clinging–literally–to the inside of your mouth.  This becomes slightly disconcerting over time, as at any moment you expect a lumpy wad of gum to come sliding out of the neck.

I have a hard time believing the 30 g of sugar per 16 oz claim, although mint does have a way of intensifying sweetness.  There’s not much in there, purified water, cane sugar, organic white tea, organic spearmint and citric aid.

Although I like tea and mint, this combination just wasn’t up to par for me, in fact, it was the lack of subtlety in the flavors.  But if you like a big slap on the tongue with a handful of mint leaves, this might just be your ticket.  Antioxidants included.

Score: 3 out of 5. Too much mint and sweet, not enough tea interplay.

– WiseGuise

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3-Star Reviews, O organics drink reviews, organic, white tea