Jones GABA

Product Type:Tea: Alternative; Container: 12 oz can
BevNET Review: The combination of tea and apple isn’t exactly on par with peanut butter and jelly, but the Jones GABA Fuji Apple Tea-Juice variety delivers pleasant flavor. It’s made with apple juice and white tea, which, based on the strong aroma relative to the light flavor, appears to have been aided with apple flavoring as well. The resulting flavor has minimal sweetness, which keeps the calories low at 60 per can, while there’s a slight “functional” note to the finish. Packaging is attractive from afar, but we have concerns about the text copy and the placement of it. Aside from GABA not being a household name just yet, “GAMMA AMINO” and “BURYRIC ACID” are in a prominent location while the flavor name is buried in the vertically oriented text . To us, that’s a bit off-putting, placing function way ahead of flavor to sell this drink. In our opinion, swapping these two elements would make for a much more inviting and appealing drink, while consumers who care to read all the functional details can turn the can on its side. Overall, a good first effort with decent flavor. Reviewed on: 3/4/2009

Product Type:Tea: Alternative; Container: 12 oz can
BevNET Review: This variety uses a blend of black tea and honey, which is actually one of the better combinations in the lineup. On the other hand, they seem to have three tea based drinks that aren’t all that far apart in terms of flavor profile, with this one being extremely close to that of the Nectarine Tea-Juice variety (but without the slight hit of tartness). That being said, we’d like to see Jones branch out a bit – perhaps do a green tea or some other, non-citrus fruit pairing. Reviewed on: 3/4/2009

Product Type:Tea: Alternative; Container: 12 oz can
BevNET Review: Using the classic combination of black tea, lemon, and honey, this is arguably the best flavor of the Jones GABA lineup. It’s certainly the one that we would reach for if we were going to try this product for the first time. In terms of being a tea drink, it’s a pretty decent one, with a clean mix of tea and a touch of lemon flavor and honey to add some depth to the mix. The addition of PharmaGABA (for “mental focus, balance, and clarity while reducing stress”) is an innovative ingredient for a functional beverage, but it’s too early to tell how much of marketing impact this will have. Aside from needing the market to get behind GABA, we think that Jones has the uphill battle of trying to create awareness of the compound. Packaging has a hip feeling to it and is a bit of a change from Jones’ prior approach. However, we’d really like to see “LEMON HONEY TEA” bannered across the top of the can to help consumers identify the flavor. Overall, this is the best of the bunch, but packaging improvements and more widespread market awareness of gamma-Aminobutyric acid will help improve this drink’s chances of success. Reviewed on: 3/4/2009

Product Type:Tea: Alternative; Container: 12 oz can
BevNET Review: The first flavor that we sampled was the Nectarine Tea-Juice flavor of Jones GABA. This product line, which contains “PharmaGABA” (short for gamma-Aminobutyric acid) to help improve mental focus, balance, and clarity while reducing stress, tastes pretty much like your typical fruit flavored tea. It has a subtle black tea flavor as the base, followed by a note of citrus fruit flavoring, before finishing with a bit of white grape. As far as the GABA goes, it doesn’t appear to impact the flavor. From a functionality point of view, this is certainly an innovative entry, although much more marketing of GABA needs to occur before consumers will jump for this product. On our initial tests, the product definitely helped relieve stress, but it’s hard to say whether that’s because of the soothing flavor of the tea-juice blend or the GABA. Packaging is a 12 oz. slim can, which features a cool backdrop that has been paired with a technical looking center section. We’re not fans of vertical text, especially since the name of the flavor is buried in the middle of it. In this case, that’s even more of an issue due to the current obscurity of GABA. Making the familiar part of the flavor (“Nectarine Tea-Juice”) easy to find would certainly help consumers become a bit more comfortable with trying this product. Reviewed on: 3/4/2009