Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Product Review: Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale

A while back, I stocked up on bottles of Celestial Seasonings green tea fortified with vitamin C when they were on closeout at Big Lots. Could I make my own green tea? Yes, but I really liked the flavor in these bottles and liked that they were fortified. So I've been rationing them. But now I have a replacement. Almost.

I took a wrong turn at the Krosher Kroger and ended up in the beverage aisle instead of the "natural foods" aisle and immediately spotted Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale. The packaging really caught my eye. So I just had to buy some (the SO loves ginger ale).

The flavor is similar to the Celestial Seasonings product, but it's got the ginger coupled with carbonation to give it a little bit of a kick. It tastes really good. The big difference (other than the carbonation and ginger, ahem) is that this beverage does not contain caffeine [5/13/08 Update: reader Rose sent me an email indicating she spoke with a representative of Canada Dry who said that the product does contain caffeine--28mg per liter, which is roughly 1/5 the amount of caffeine in Mountain Dew]. That's both a good and bad thing. Good in that I can drink it any time but I do occasionally need a tiny boost of caffeine to get going. So I will continue to ration my Celestial Seasonings teas and save them for when I really need them. Which is every morning right now.

The next step that Canada Dry needs to take, though is making a reduced sugar and/or sugar-free version. I'm not a huge fan of diet drinks, but the SO prefers sugarless beverages (so he can consume the sugar elsewhere...in cookies and ice cream, for example). And if they're going to push a drink for its health benefits (antioxidants! vitamin c!), then they need to cut back on the high fructose corn syrup. I think they could easily cut the sugar content in half and still have a very tasty beverage.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

The amount of antioxidants bottled/pre-brewed green tea gives you is miniscule if even present. To get the highest amount brew your green tea (correctly) and get the good stuff, not the dust you find in the bags. I get whole leaf green tea direct from China by way of a friend of mine who visits there monthly. Good stuff but I'm on a caffeine hiatus for the moment.

michael, claudia and sierra said...

not much ginger in there either...

Anonymous said...

wow. great post, it answered everything i needed to know. awesome

Almost Vegetarian said...

I so agree with your SO - I'd rather eat my dessert in the form of, oh, a big slab of chocolate than waste all those calories in a liquid dessert, otherwise known as a sugar-laden drink.

Oh, and congratulations on the job. May the stress be minimal and the pay absurdly high.

And now, I'm assuming, you have the time and burning desire to guest for me, ya? Sigh! Okay, I'll give you time to settle into the new position. Jeez!

Cheers!

(FYI: Never did find a healthy Pepsi, but the husband found a cola drink at Whole Foods that was pretty healthy, if you don't mind, sigh, the sugar. Alas, just can't remember the name of it.)

Lesley said...

Nashveggie--you've got a really good point. It's really the (faux) vitamin C that was more important to me. My thought is I get plenty of antioxidants from all the Romaine lettuce I eat. At least, I hope.

But real green tea is mostly out for me due to the caffeine.

AV: That post is still rattling around in my head. :)

Lesley said...

And gustavo: glad I could help!

Dr.Gray said...

Interesting product. I love the taste of green tea.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I was wondering if it had caffeine in it. The can didn't say caffeine free and didn't list caffeine as an ingredient.


I know its bad for me but, this stuff is great with scotch too.
(green label if you can get it.)

and reducing the sugar is a good idea... :)

Anonymous said...

thanks for the article, my fiance is newly pregnant and the drink helps her nausea and it has vitamin c (which is good) but she shouldn't have caffeine while pregnant and I wasn't sure if the green tea in the drink was registering. I'm not sure if this amount is unsafe but she doesn't want to take the chance, i guess we'll have to find another drink.

Matt said...

NashVeggie - technically the traditional method of brewing in China does not yield a high amount of antioxidants unless you are drinking nearly constantly throughout the day -> as many people in Beijing do. The problem with brewing it "correctly" is that it does not allow for nearly a long steep of the leaves. This is due to the fact that a prolonged steeping makes the tea bitter and unpalatable to most drinkers. Granted you could have one of those lovely little tea flasks they carry around - they are great! With that said, the amount of antioxidants in these drinks is more than nominal. although I will have to admit that drinking tea from an aluminum can probably offsets any benefits on account of the free radicals being absorbed into the drink. It reminds me of the tobacco ads - "there is no such thing as a safe cigarette" however I can't help and feel that perhaps there is a less bad soda.

Lesley - great review, informative and balanced. I too stumbled across this by accident. I thought it reminded me a bit of Cricket Kola, another soda brewed with green tea. As for the sugar - I totally agree. Until then however I have to say I am a fan of this drink (I even became a fan of it on facebook lol). Thanks again!

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I live in Minnesota and I get a Diet version (uses Nutrasweet as sweetener). I am addicted!

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