Zota Green Tea Soda

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: As a small-batch “Cola Nut” flavored cola, this isn’t bad at all: sweet and herbal up front, not too medicinal, and blessed with a lingering real cola finish. It’s simple and pleasing, although a bit too sugary – your teeth definitely get set on edge with this one. But if you’re a fan of real cola-flavored (and scented!) drinks, this is definitely worth a try. How large a market there is for such an authentic product is anybody’s guess, but this is still one of their better offerings.Reviewed on: 4/26/2005

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: This is without a doubt the best application of Zota’s combination of green tea and traditional soda flavors. It’s not a particularly spicy ginger ale – in fact, it’s more like ginger soda – but it makes for a pleasant sipper, with the taste of the green tea and ginger in fine balance with each other and the cane sugar sweetener. The beauty of this one is that it actually works – too many of the other Zota flavors just don’t work in a significant way. Despite the fine flavor, however, it’s packaging isn't terribly attractive. It's simple and, in some ways, a bit too similar to its main competitor -- Steaz. We'd suggest that that they work on this and try to give this product some sort of unique personality. Reviewed on: 4/26/2005

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: It’s strange that Zota could bungle their orange flavor so badly and then turn around and develop such a richly-realized lemon drink, but they have managed to do so. While Green Tea flavor isn’t really present, there is certainly plenty of authentic lemon flavor, and not just the kind of sourness one gets from an excess of citric acid in the mix. It’s better than Sprite any day, and is one of the better additions to what has proved to be an inconsistent family of Zota offerings. But if they come up with more of this quality, and maybe improve the somewhat amoebic “Zota” label, they should do just fine.Reviewed on: 4/26/2005

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: This product is, unfortunately, nearly tasteless. It has a lightly sweet, barely citric, clean finish, which is more in line with a lime seltzer than a soda. Perhaps if they cut the sugar even further, they’d have a nice bitter lime product, but as it stands now, with 135 calories per bottle for a sweet-lime-seltzer-thing, this flavor of Zota isn’t cutting it. Which is too bad, because we’ve read all about the beneficial effects of green tea for our immune systems, and, as the rather pedestrian label notes, Zota is, indeed, a green tea soda.Reviewed on: 4/26/2005

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: We know that orange is a color as well as a flavor, but we think that when something says “orange soda,” it should lean more towards the flavor side than the color side – after all, you can add food coloring to water and make it orange, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’d want to sell it. And someone might want to explain that to the folks at Zota, who have poured a decent amount of sugar and green tea into a beverage that, while faintly citric, misses out on having orange flavor by a long shot. They do a good job of making it “not too sweet” – but that leaves them a lot of room in the flavor profile to add in other tastes. Which they don’t. Maybe they will in the next batch.Reviewed on: 4/26/2005

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: Despite the off-putting pale pink color of the soda, Zota’s raspberry flavor is pretty darn tasty, with sweet raspberry tempered by a hint of a vanilla-like flavor. The green tea ingredient is nearly undetectable, but we’re sure we’ll be experiencing its fabled health benefits soon enough. They’ve just got to work on the label, though – an army-green splotch with the word “Zota” in the middle just doesn’t say “premium” to us. Reviewed on: 4/26/2005

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: This Zota offering misses more than it hits when it comes to providing good root beer flavor. While it’s pleasantly sweet, smells herbal and has nice body, there’s an off-flavor in there that almost tastes milky – that might be the green tea fighting its way through the mix, something it isn’t able to in other Zota formulations we’ve tasted. While the others have been able to transcend their pedestrian label, this one sinks to its level. Anyone interested in seeing what a green tea root beer would taste like should try it, but don’t blame us for the result. If they want to salvage this product, its body needs to be much sweeter and more creamy -- which should help hide the green tea flavor. Until then, this product is going to have a very hard time winning over anyone who enjoys root beer.Reviewed on: 4/26/2005

Product Type:Carbonated Soft Drink: Regular; Container: 12 oz. glass (335 ml)
BevNET Review: Wekiwa is, according to the Zota web site, a cross between a grapefruit and a tangelo. While we’ve never encountered this fruit at a grocery store, in its green tea soda version, it makes for a pretty snappy but not overpowering burst of citrus that’s balanced by sweet sugar and a nice grapefruit aroma. From there, some mild carbonation keeps it dancing until a slightly saccharine aftertaste becomes an unwelcome guest at the party. For better or worse, the green tea flavor is a no-show. In terms of appearances, this stuff looks like fresh pink grapefruit juice, which is appealing, but comes in the trademarked Zota bottle complete with its amoebic green label, which isn’t. But it’s definitely worth a try as it does pass for a premium citrus soda.Reviewed on: 4/26/2005