California Teas

Product Type:Tea: Sweetened; Container: 16 oz PET
BevNET Review: The California Teas Original Sunshine is as close to homemade iced tea as you’ll find in a mass produced PET bottle. With just three ingredients, including brewed black tea, cane sugar and natural flavors, this is a pleasant and not overly sweet, sweet tea. It has only 9g of sugar (45 calories) per serving, which makes it a reasonably guilt free option compared to many other RTD iced teas on the market today. Plus, this flavor is better than the very similar “Original Sunshine” Green Tea that is also part of the line (we didn’t find it to be nearly as impressive of a product to drink). The stock hot fill PET bottle is generic looking, while the simple coastal landscape and the generic brand name “California Teas” gives off the feeling of a store brand. That is definitely out of synch with what’s inside the bottle. Overall, the formulation is executed rather well, but the packaging needs to be brought up to speed.Reviewed on: 6/3/2011

Product Type:Tea: Sweetened; Container: 16 oz PET
BevNET Review: The California Teas Strawberry Patch is a unique flavor that we haven’t seen before, with a black tea base that has been enhanced with pear and strawberry juices (from concentrate). The strawberry juice really shines through, providing a very nice complement to the black tea and leaving a slight tartness to the finish. Naturally sweetened with cane sugar, this product tastes like something much sweeter, despite having only 11g of sugar (40 calories) per serving. However, it’s packaged in a stock 16 oz. PET bottle with a rather underwhelming label. With the product’s taste being so unique and enjoyable, we think that they could create a better label to sell us on what’s inside. Overall, this is a welcomed addition the fruit flavored RTD iced teas, but it would definitely benefit from a label redesign to help stand out from the countless “99 cent” teas in the market.Reviewed on: 6/3/2011

Product Type:Tea: Sweetened; Container: 16 oz PET
BevNET Review: The Apple Harvest offering from California Teas combines brewed green tea with apple juice concentrate to create an interesting spin on RTD iced green tea. Unfortunately, it’s off the mark, with the blend ending up somewhere in between an apple juice product and a green tea product with neither flavor taking the dominate role. Credit is certainly given for using real brewed tea and real fruit juice (this product also has Vitamin C, ascorbic acid, and EGCG), but making it taste better is definitely necessary. Overall this is a unique concept, but toning down the apple juice will allow the crispness of the green tea to shine through and ultimately improve the drinking experience. Reviewed on: 6/3/2011

Product Type:Tea: Sweetened; Container: 16 oz PET
BevNET Review: The Coastal Blueberry flavor from the California Teas line of RTD iced teas is quite enjoyable. Unlike the apple variety, the blueberry (and pear) juices help to enhance the brewed green tea flavor of this product. The blueberry aroma really helps sell the overall experience with only a slightly sweet lingering mouth feel. It is somewhat reminiscent of an agave sweetened product, but this iced tea is only sweetened with natural cane sugar (11g per serving). Similar to the rest of the lineup, the iced tea comes in a stock 16 oz. PET bottle. The label features a rural coastal scene in the background with a nondescript farm sitting in the front. However, failing to mention that they use real brewed tea seems like a missed opportunity – it’s definitely more marketable than the “with real fruit juice” text that they chose to use. Our other issue is the look of the product, which feels very much like a store brand design. And that’s a big issue for us – why compete with the value players? Overall, we really like the flavor, but they could definitely do more with the packaging.Reviewed on: 6/3/2011