What did we think? Hmmm...it was a mixed bag. First, if you're a serious tea drinker, don't get these drinks expecting a serious tea. (I know, duh! No self respecting serious tea drinker would expect a good bottled tea.) Tea (green, black, or white) is the first ingredient in these teas, but the juice flavor is the prominent one. That's not necessarily a bad thing, in my opinion. The juice flavor is good with the tea flavor as a subtle accent.
I enjoyed these drinks - especially the Pomegranate Peach Passion White POMx Tea, which has a wonderfully intense peach flavor thanks to peach juice from concentrate. My husband's first response was that these drinks are too sweet - and they are, but I like sweet drinks so that's not necessarily a turn off flavor wise for me. Which brings us to the next point...
One unfortunate ingredient No, no, it's not HFCS, but it might as well be as far as our diet is concerned. Sadly, all of the teas contain fructose. I didn't realize this until after I had tried all of the drinks. In fact, I actually bought a second bottle of the peach tea before realizing that it too contains crystalline fructose as an ingredient. (You can read my thoughts on crystalline fructose as an ingredient here. In short, if I'm going out of my way to avoid HFCS - an overly processed ingredient loaded with free fructose - it makes little sense to not also avoid pure free fructose - natural only in the sense that fructose also exists in nature - as an added ingredient.)
Let's take a look at the ingredients on my favorite tea of the bunch, Pomegranate Peach Passion White POMx Tea:
Gently Brewed White Tea (Water, Superior White Peony Tea Leaves), Fructose, POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice from Concentrate, POMX (POM Wonderful Pomegranate Antioxidant Extract - Patent Pending), Peach Juice from Concentrate, Passion Fruit Juice from Concentrate, Natural Flavors, Citric Acid.Such great ingredients - except for that darn fructose. And the other flavors are similar - great ingredients plus fructose. POM - take out the fructose! The drinks don't need it!
And now for the giveaway Ok, so you know my thoughts on this tea. I liked the taste - hubby thought they were way too sweet - and neither of us liked that they have added fructose. Still...POM was generous enough to provide a coupon for a free bottle of their POMx tea, and I know that not everyone shares my dislike of fructose as an added ingredient. So, I'm giving away a coupon for a free bottle of POM tea...PLUS a coupon for a free 16 oz bottle of any flavor of POM Wonderful juice. You can read my review of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice (with no added fructose!) here.
To enter, simply leave a comment! You have until Saturday at 11:59 pm to leave a comment on this post. The winner will be announced Sunday afternoon and will have until the following Friday (Oct 2) to e-mail me their mailing address. Winners must have a US mailing address.
17 comments:
I love POM's juices. Their tea sounds quite interesting!
I'll try anything...once!
I wanna try! :) And I didn't know fructose was bad...oops!
We don't drink tea, but I love the juice!!
POM juice is the best for smoothies! And what the heck, I haven't banned fructose... yet :-p
I love POM tea! Pick me, pick me! ;)
have always wanted to try POM!
I like POM tea! I miss the old glass containers they used to come in.
And the Fructose, I'm assuming, is from corn? Important to know if you're allergic to corn!
Maubs - Hmmm...I really don't know if the fructose is from corn. Good question. I'll see if I can find out.
I stopped drinking pom when I discovered they tested on animals, but supposedly they have stopped now. I love the juice, so I am excited to try the tea.
~Mary
I've never tried Pom juice. Would love to try it and the tea. Thanks for the giveaway!
Would love to try POM tea and juice...
My frustration is with any company that doesn't specify where those ingredients come from, so please don't take my yelling to be at you. :) I'd like to know if you can find out, though. Thanks!
No offense taken, Maubs! You posed an interesting question, for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if POM (and other companies) don't always know - that they take their fructose (or food starch, or whatever) from whatever source is cheapest, and so the manufacturing ingredients are likely to change.
Still...I'm curious too. I'll try to find out (as I have time) what the typical production method of fructose entails.
Maubs - Hoping you'll come back and check this...as you suspected, crystalline fructose is often manufactured via HFCS. From the Sugar Association (sugar.org):
"What is crystalline fructose?
Crystalline fructose is produced by allowing the fructose to crystallize from a fructose-enriched corn syrup. The term “crystalline fructose” is listed in the ingredient statements of foods and beverages using this corn sweetener. It is important to understand that the “crystalline fructose” listed as an ingredient comes from cornstarch, not fruit.
Crystalline fructose can be used in the same foods as the high fructose corn syrups, or in any food that contains sugar."
Crystalline fructose can is also manufactured by the sucrose industry by enzymatically breaking the bond holding glucose and fructose together in sucrose.
All indications are that, not surprisingly, most crystalline fructose comes from the corn side of things.
Yes, most products in the USA will use corn as the cheapest possible ingredient, thanks to the subsidies to corn growers. A nightmare for the corn-allergic, as they disguise the corn with all kinds of terms. Most people I talk to don't realize that most citric acid in American-made products comes from corn, not citrus fruits (where else would you get 'citric' acid?).
In this case, the crystalline fructose could be derived from cane sugar, but probably isn't, because it would be more expensive. It's disappointing that HFCS (or something very similar) is simply disguised with a different term.
I do appreciate you looking into this. I would assume a corn source, if not specified. This tends to limit my choices.
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