A pretty package can often turn my head. And so as I was headed down the grocery store aisle for some diet Cokes, I saw this new product from Canada Dry, Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale. Now THAT sounded interesting ...
The two-liter bottle had a coupon attached and was just 99 cents, so I got one of those, but I also wanted to try this immediately, so I got a 20-ounce bottle as well. I took the 20-ounce drink to the office with me, and when I took a sip I had two thoughts: A) This stuff is good. B) This stuff is SWEET! I was sipping away when I suddenly realized I had assumed this was sugar-free, but because of all the sweetness it probably wasn't. That's when I looked for the first time at the nutrition label and realized that if I drank this whole bottle, it would be the sugar equivalent of drinking a couple of Snickers bars!
Now I like sugar. Sugar and I are old, old friends. But like a lot of people today, I'm trying to limit my sugar intake. And silly me, I see the words "ANTIOXIDANTS" and "GREEN TEA" on the (very lovely, by the way) label and think, well, antioxidants and green tea. You know, "healthy drink." Guess it might limit sales if they labeled this "Green Tea Ginger Ale Sugar Syrup." Now most of the time I don't even have as much as a single sugar cube in my tea. Can you imagine having a cup of tea with SIX sugar cubes in it? That's the equivalent of one serving from this 20-ounce bottle, which contains 2-1/2 servings of the drink and a whopping 60 grams of sugar. Chug the whole thing, as I imagine many (most?) will do, and you've consumed the equivalent of 15 Domino sugar cubes. So now I have a few questions for Canada Dry. What were they THINKING? The trend is toward lighter/healthier, not sweeter/more unhealthy. And second, why on earth didn't they make this a diet drink? Sorry for the rant, my friends, but I'm learning the hard way that we have to be on guard for folks who are trying to piggyback on the healthy reputation of our old friend tea.
Wow - I'm disappointed, too. I had high hopes for this when I first started reading this post. And now I'm sad they took the sugared path. Great visual with the cubes!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I just heard your interview on Tea Party Girl's site - how fun!!!! You did a great job!
ReplyDeletethere is only one down side to them making this into a sugar free version - artificial sweeteners. i'd rather have sugar than artificial any day, but wow thats a lot of sugar!
ReplyDeleteThat's a whole lot of sugar. I'm not a soda drinker, but that packaging would have enticed me too. I think that it's a treat to put a spoonful of honey in my tea once in a while and I can't imagine drinking a serving of tea with six cubes of sugar in it.
ReplyDeleteI was also disappointed when I saw this... I love their diet ginger ale, I love green tea, and it just seemed natural to me that they'd put the two together. And then I went looking for it, and, surprise, nothing but the sugar version, not even a choice of diet. Talk about missing the point.
ReplyDelete"Missing the point" is it exactly, Kevin! And can you imagine the fans Canada Dry would have had if they'd created a non-sugary version of this?
ReplyDeleteCanada dry doesn't even use sugar. This is obviously a fake!
ReplyDeleteThis drink is sweetened with high fructose syrup, which is why I wrote about its "sugar equivalent." I personally don't want that much of "sugars" in any form in my drinks, tea or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteInstead of having something like this has anyone tried club soda with green tea? I would rather not have the sugar of most manufactured sodas.
ReplyDeleteBetter real sugar than that bad for you fake sugar
ReplyDeleteHFCS is evil. You shouldn't drink anything that contains it, and we should start demanding real sugar—even if it's too sweet.
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that corn syrup is the number one cause of type II diabetes.
My wife mixes ginger ale and iced tea and adds a little honey. I don't know what kind of ginger ale she uses, how sweet, etc. But I guess all non-diet ginger ales on the market must have lots of sugar.
ReplyDeleteI found your post when trying to locate a recipe for making my own green tea ginger ale. I really enjoy this new beverage, but like you don't like the calories or high sugar. I think I'm going to try to make my own today!
ReplyDeleteI like you fell for the pretty bottle and Antioxidants and Green tea thing. Love all these things except the massive amount of sugar and I'm a diabetic...so this is definately aoff y list of tasty drinks. It's a great idea and I loved the taste....they need a diet version. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI can't believe people love the taste of this stuff. Me and my husband literally spat it out after taking a mouthful. Sugar or no sugar I think this stuff tastes like a perfume filled air freshener!
ReplyDeleteI drink a lot of green tea and enjoy many of the iced green teas out there but this stuff is awful!
I've had the stuff and liked the flavor just fine. I really like green tea and ginger ale already, so the combination is great I think.
ReplyDeleteAs for the amount of sugar: duh! It's a soda! It has the same amount of sugar as every other non-diet soda out there. But, at least it has antioxidants too. It's ginger ale that's slightly better for you than regular soda. What's the problem?
It's not advertised as a diet drink or as being sugar free. It calls itself ginger ale. Not everything needs to be a health food, so stop complaining that it isn't. Some of us are capable of enjoying things in moderation.
Yah, I've been drinking this stuff a lot. Cause I love green tea and I love ginger ale. I would prefer one without high fructose corn syrup. I hate the taste of sucrolose so I hope they don't make one with that. But I must say that the guy who wrote above me is right. It's like soda. You know what your getting.
ReplyDeleteWas going to buy a supply tomorrow because it is on sale at one of my markets. But no diet version?.....won't even go.
ReplyDelete