Rooibee Red Tea: Rooibee Roo Kids Mango

Rooibee Roo is a new line of rooibos tea drinks that are designed for kids and come in three varieties. To accomplish this, the company packaged the product in a small 8 oz. bottle, sweetened it with sugar, added natural fruit flavoring (mango in this case) and added a cartoon character to the label. Speaking purely from a flavor perspective, it’s certainly a nice tasting mango-flavored tea that feels pretty mainstream in style. While all of the products in the line are all quite drinkable, the flavor differences between the three are pretty subtle. On the nutrition front, it's a nice mid-calorie effort at 50 calories and 12g of sugar per 8 oz. However, as a kids product -- and one that appears to be skewed towards a younger child (the label has a cartoon character on it) -- we think it’s going to be an uphill battle. Specifically, Rooibee Red Tea is taking on the task of selling younger kids -- and their parents -- on drinking iced tea over other beverages. In our opinion, broadening the market a bit would definitely be helpful. Beyond that, we’d like to see a package that has a larger logo. We’re also not convinced about the cartoon character as it feels a bit forced. Overall, the flavor of Rooibee Roo Tea is definitely enjoyable, but we’re not convinced that going after kids with a rooibos tea is the best approach at this point.