Honest Tea - Organic Honey Green Tea

I promised you another Honest Tea review, and here it is. I decided to keep it simple this time, no fancy Ade's or fruit-flavored teas, this is a straight up green tea, and 'just a tad sweet.' I just got back from the gym and I wanted something refreshing without a lot of sugar, and what should I find staring at me pleadingly from the beer-infested recesses of my food-prison? This chilly little bottle.

The aroma is nothing special, it smells like tea. But the taste is amazingly layered for something with only five ingredients; water, cane sugar, tea, honey and citric acid. An initial sweetness bombards your tongue with an herby background, then the sugar fades away, letting the dry, slightly bitter tea leaves take over. As the tea flavor mellows off, a hint of the honey appears at the back of your tongue, tempting you into another swallow. If you chug it slowly, all the flavors blend together and trick you into stopping to enjoy it.

Even with the 20 g's of sugar per 16.9 oz, it was still slightly too bitter for me to fully enjoy, although I sure wish I had another bottle right now. Which reminds me, you can find Honest Tea in many health food stores, Albertson's, and wherever else you are lucky enough to spy it. Order online if you're desperate.

Score: A reluctant 4.5 out of 5.

-- WiseGuise

Honest Tea: Green Dragon Tea

Yes, I am doing yet another Honest Tea review, but look forward to another Cascade Ice review soon. ;)
I know what some of you are going to say, and I don't care. Then you are going to say, how did he know that? None of your business. Now you'll say, this guy is kind of a jerk. Agreed. Can we move on now? Thanks.

I picked up this particular Honest beverage on discount. I had to shake it up, being a bit silty from the tea. At first smell, it reminds me of a fruity rolled-up type snack, but the high quality kind, not that crap from General Mills (another mega-food-corp). It's my first time trying this, so I wasn't sure what green tea with passion fruit would taste like. Interesting. There's a moment of sweetness, followed by a slightly bitter and dry taste, and ending with the exotic flavor of the passion fruit.

There is a blurb on the back that basically chastises the sweet tea industry for putting unnecessary amounts of sugar in their teas, noting that 'One teaspoon takes away tea's bitterness. Another adds a nice sweetness. That's where we stop.' And they're true to that, there's only 16 grams of sugar in the 16.9 oz bottle.

I can't say this is one of my favorites, but it was definitely worth trying. It is more of a sipping drink than a chugger, the tea's dryness catches up with you. Not a bad tea, but still not mind blowing.

Ingredients: Purified water, organic cane sugar, organic green tea, organic lemon juice, natural passion fruit flavor, citric acid.

Score: 3 out of 5. I would have enjoyed a little more sweetness than the 'tad.'

*Note: the variety in the plastic bottle is apparently discontinued, but still available in the glass bottle. Look in your local grocer or health-food store.*

Honest Ade - Limeade

This is my second organic, lime-flavored drink review; see my Talking Rain review. Now, as much as I like the flavor of lime, I may have high expectations from these ades, so it may color my review slightly, but I try to remain objective.

Smelling this is like sticking a freshly sliced lime up your nose, it's that potent. The flavor, however, seems a bit watered down, more so than my previous review. It still tastes just fine, and it is 'just a tad sweet' like Honest Ade proudly prints on their label, but I was hoping for a bit more lime flavor, some tartness, and this lacked that.

It's only Purified water, organic cane sugar, organic lime juice, organic lemon juice, natural lime flavor, organic lemon extract. With all that, you'd think it would be more limey. However, there was a tiny bit of pulp at the bottom, I'm only assuming that is just some of the 'natural lime flavor' (methinks lime peel).

Would I drink it again over any other sugar-laden ade? Sure. Would I wish it had more of a kick? Probably. Should I just shut up and review another drink? Yup.

Score: 4 out of 5.

-- WiseGuise

Honest Ade Cranberry Lemonade

I get asked all the time, "WiseGuise, how come you don't do more reviews on -ades? Particularly lemon-ades? If you're so wise, why don't you impart your wisdom upon us concerning the penultimate summer-time drink?" The answer is simple. There aren't many good lemonades out there. At least, that aren't filled to the brim with sugars (particularly HFCS,) or just plain taste terrible. Look at anything you can find in a convenience store. Bleh. But, there is a real lemon behind this ugly lemon-shaped rock. It's called Honest Ade, from the good folks at Honest Tea.

I can still smell the fresh, tart, cranberry-lemon scent in the empty (100% recyclable) bottle. It's like something that you wish your grandmother would make, but can't, and never will, because she doesn't love you. That's why she gives you Countrytime. That's why I suggest that next time you're at your local grocer or health-food depot, look for this simple bottle. It's only about $1.30 - .50 a bottle, and it tastes like lemonade should; not too sweet, not too tart. You can sip it, chug it, slam it, swim or shower in it if you'd like, but I would suggest against the two latter.

It's all organic, baby, and just 24 grams of sugar in the bottle. I like it just as much or more than Honest's other offerings, and you can rest assured you will be seeing more of their products reviewed here, and potentially bathed in, if time permits.
The only bad news I have, is that Coke has moved in on Honest Tea, buying 40% of the company earlier this year, with an option to buy them outright in 3 years. Say it aint so.

I like it so much, it's getting 5 out of 5 asterisks.

-- WiseGuise

Honest Kids Berry Berry Good Lemonade

First things first: I apologize for our truancy. WiseGuise and I had a month-long blog writer's retreat and healthy drinks advocacy conference to attend.
You'll also notice that this review format has changed format a bit from our previous entries. Comments and suggestions will be met with loving apathy.

The Rant: I never realized pouch drinks had come so far. They even have their own brigade. Almost every single ingredient is certified organic, so if you want to turn your kids into tree-huggers this is a good place to start. No, seriously, on the back of the box it talks about Honest Kids' partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and has a little blurb on why trees are important for us. (My view is, kill them before they kill us. You know they would if they got the chance).

But when it comes down to it, which would you rather have on your packaging: a couple eco-friendly blurbs of text, or the veritable orgy of commercialism that is the norm nowadays? I'm still trying to shake off the subliminal effects of the '89 Cap'n Crunch ad campaign.

So is it healthy? Well, let's compare with other products out there. Honest Kids has 10 grams of (organic cane) sugar for about a 7-oz pouch. Capri Sun, for example, has about double that in its original pouch drinks. They used to have even more, but cut back by 25% recently, maybe in response to drinks like this?

OK, so how does it taste? It's got a nice but very mild flavor. It may seem like water at first for those who are used to the sugar-blasted drinks out there, but it does grow on you. I think if they could pump up the flavor on this it would be a home-run. Take a lesson from SoBe LifeWater - they have even less sugar than this (10g per 8 ounces) and yet I get the sense that it tastes sweeter and has a fuller flavor than Honest Kids does.

Ingredients: Purified water, organic cane sugar, organic lemon juice concentrate, organic lemon extract, organic cranberry juice concentrate, vitamin C (ascorbic acid), organic berry flavor, purple carrot juice (color).

Price: about $4 for 8 packs at local health food store. Available Online.

Rating: 3.5/5

-Danithius

Honest Tea Sublime Mate

Aroma:You get a sense of the leafy Yerba Mate as soon as you open the cap. It smells slightly sweet, slightly sour, most likely due to the blending of organic lime and lemon juice with the ginger syrup and cane sugar. The Yerba Mate's scent is strongest, though, and reminds me of green tea.
Taste: This drink has a nicely blended and complex flavor. It is, as the label states, "a tad sweet". I think the sugar level is just right. The flavor of the Yerba Mate tea (again, similar to green tea) is enhanced, as any other tea would be, with a nice squeeze of lemon or lime juice and sugar. They go together just fine. You can detect a little trace of the ginger if you really try. The flavor of the Yerba Mate sticks around the longest, but it's not really bitter, it's quite pleasant. I'm a fan.
Price: $1.25 (on sale) at local health food store, available online.
Ingredients: purified water, organic cane sugar, organic lime juice, organic Yerba Mate, organic ginger syrup, natural lime flavor and organic lemon juice concentrate.
Other Comments: About 20g of sugar per bottle - not bad compared to about 40 in a can of soda. Honest Tea seems to be committed to good business ethics, as well as producing fair trade certified and certified organic products. Most all their products are low on sugar and nutrition-focused, making them good alternatives to soda. This particular drink, Yerba Mate, is described as a traditional South American energy drink that only has approximately 1/10 the caffeine of coffee. Evidently people get together and drink this out of gourds for a good time. I'm down with that, let's go get some gourds.
Overall: This is a solid drink, with well balanced flavor, low sugar, fruit juice, and a solid company to back it. Flavor wise it's nothing revolutionary, but there's something to be said for the traditional taste of slightly sweetened tea with lemon (and lime, in this case). It's a good flavor, and they do it well.

Rating: 4.0/5 stars.

-Danithius

***Review Rebuttal!***
Danithius stole this one right out from under me, I bought it the day he posted it. Curses. Anyhow, I have become a fan of Yerba Mate, and this drink didn't disappoint. It reminded me of a lightly sweet lime-ade flavored with Mate. It finishes smooth, and there is that hint of ginger. I found this very refreshing, I'll be drinking this again.
4.5 stars.

-WiseGuise

Honest Tea Pomegranate Red Tea with Goji Berry

Aroma: The smooth smell of the traditional South African red tea (organic rooibos) blends together with sweet hints of pomegranate to form a very pleasing overall aroma.

Taste: This tea has a very mellow but complex flavor that I really enjoyed. It's perfectly sweetened with a mix of cane sugar and the naturally sweet-tasting red tea. The slight tang of the pomegranate gives it a wonderful finish.

Price: $1.45 at Good Earth. Available nationwide and online at http://honesttea.elsstore.com/.
(Although the site was a bit confusing. For this flavor click on "glass variety" and then go to page 2.

Ingredients:Purified water, organic cane sugar, organic honeybush, organic pomegranate juice concentrate, Fair Trade Certified organic rooibos, organic blackberry leaves, natural pomegranate flavor, vegetable juice extract (color), citric acid, goji berry.

Other Comments: This is an herbal tea with high antioxidant levels and no caffeine.

Overall: This is a great drink for sipping while contemplating the mysteries of the universe. I just tried it for the first time today and already I feel my cosmic understanding beginning to expand. I'm not usually a tea-head, but this one has made my list. The only drawback I can think of is the price, but for all the organic matter going into it, it's understandable. Plus, you have the peace of mind of knowing what's in this bottle probably won't kill you, so I guess that's worth 50 cents more than a soda.

Rating: 5/5 stars.

(Just FYI, I will rarely give a 5 star rating to anyone. It was a pretty big coincidence that my very first new product review on this site got a 5, but I was genuinely impressed with this product.)

-Danithius