Tested: VidaTea Ultra Premium Sparkling Tea

While perusing the shelves for rare energy drinks, I spotted a can that reminded me of Del Monte Bloom Energy (which was pretty tasty.) This time the drink was VidaTea Ultra Premium Sparkling Tea.

I love tea, I like sparkling juice, and obviously I can’t resist anything that is “ultra premium,” but I’ve never actually liked anything that was a sparkling tea.

I got some anyway, choosing the desert pear green tea flavor. (Pomegranate, Mango, and Blueberry were also available, but desert pear was something I’ve never had.)

Actually, I don’t even know what desert pear is! A cactus? I’m betting the flavor comes from a “prickly pear cactus” or something like that, which happens to grow in the desert. Hence desert pear. But the website only mentions “pear flavor” without acknowledging the “desert” part, so who knows?

Anyway… the ingredients were somewhat interesting. It uses organic blue agave nectar as the sweetener, which is really what drew me in.

Unfortunately, as natural as the agave nectar sounds, it usually comes in the form of agave syrup. And yes, there is processing involved in its production, leading to the debate about agave nectar being as bad as HFCS.

(Basically, agave nectar is junk, but I still wanted to try it just this once.)

Even worse, this VidaTea contains crystalline fructose, which reminds me of high fructose corn syrup.

The saving grace for health-conscious consumers is the antioxidant content. It contains Grape Seed Extract, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Coenzyme Q10, and EGCG. But as with most of these drinks with antioxidants added in, I have to ask, “is the dose really enough to make a difference in my health?”

Most likely, it’s just enough benefit to offset the negative health affects from the sub-par ingredients like processed sweeteners and preservatives.

The Taste Test

All it took was one sip for me to decide I wasn’t going to like this stuff. I had a few more sips, but there was just nothing about it I liked.

It reminded me of beer in a way. It tastes like the carbonation of beer, which is distinctly different from a carbonated soda. (Steaz green tea soda was like a soda, while this stuff reminds me of beer.)

I think if you brewed beer containing cacti, it would taste like this.

Moving on… where’s the green tea flavor? After a few sips, I just barely noticed the green tea. It takes a distant backseat to the carbonation and weird taste.

I’d say this is more of a drink for sparkling water fanatics. Green tea drinkers like myself would be better off skipping this beverage in favor of something that tastes like tea.

But I guess some people do like it, considering it was named “Best Tea” in the Green Tea Sweetened category by the World Tea Expo.

I just don’t get the idea of sparkling green tea, apparently.

My final verdict is…

I took a gamble when I bought this because I didn’t really want sparkling tea, but since it was sweetened with agave, I figured I wanted to try it out of curiosity.

Well, I rolled the dice and lost, big time. I hated this drink and couldn’t even finish the can. This is the last “sparkling green tea” I’m buying!

Official website: www.VidaTea.com

Coach Levi

Levi Bloom is an experienced endurance athlete who has been training and competing for over 17 years. A former Cat 1 road and mountain bike racer (professional class on the regional circuit), he is now a cycling coach (USA Cycling Level 3 Certified) and sports nutrition coach (Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified).

coachlevi.com