New Product Friday: Joyo Adaptogenic Sparkling Black Tea
New Product Friday: Joyo Adaptogenic Sparkling Black Tea
Ice Teas are the cold counterpart of a traditionally refreshing beverage. As consumers look for “something extra” in their beverage of choice, ready to drink teas that contain functional ingredients are becoming more popular. Joyo Tea’s newest line of teas take the traditional refreshing quality of ice teas and include a touch a fizz and adaptogens that support cognitive health. Let’s take a look at the ingredients in their Peach Black Tea to see how refreshing and potent this beverage is:
Organic Black Tea—Self explanatory.
Organic Lemon Juice—Providing lemon flavor and accentuating the black tea and peach flavors.
Organic Cane Sugar—Providing a slight amount of sweetness. Organic cane sugar is less processed than regular table sugar and is farmed organically (using no pesticides or sewer sludge).
Organic Natural Flavors—This includes organic flavor chemicals derived from peaches, extracts from peaches, or other flavor chemicals from organic, natural sources (plant, fruit, vegetable, spice)
Organic Stevia Leaf Extract—200-400x sweeter than table sugar, the sweet compounds from the stevia leaf are isolated and extracted. If too high, it can leave a bitter/metallic taste. When used appropriately, it has a burst of sweetness.
Organic Green Tea Extract (L-Theanine)—While green tea has the highest amount of natural L-theanine compared to other teas, green tea extract does not have a significant amount of L-theanine. Typically, green tea extract is standardized for either a type of antioxidants and/or caffeine and the other components (like L-theanine) are minimized.
Organic Panax Ginseng Extract—Ginseng has anti-inflammatory properties and supports healthy blood sugar levels, improvement in memory, mood, and other cognitive functions, and immune support. However, most of these benefits are not well studied. Cognitive benefits have been studied and the typical dosage is between 200-400 milligrams.
Organic Lion’s Mane Extract—Lion’s Mane is most known to support cognitive health. It also has other benefits like supporting the immune system, heart health, and digestive health. However, these benefits have not been proven in any human-based studies.
Organic Reishi Extract—Reishi is most known to support immune health. It might have other benefits for heart health, blood sugar management, and fighting against cancer, but there are few human-based studies. Typical effective dosages range from 1.5-9 grams, for an extract.
Final Evaluation
Ingredient Quality: B+. This product does not have any claims; however, all ingredients are organic.
Ingredient Clarity: A. All ingredients make sense to the overall product. There are no fillers or extra ingredients
Functional Benefit: B-. The functional ingredients are towards the end of the ingredient statement, which means that they are in low and (probably) not beneficial amounts. Green tea itself has a respectable amount of L-theanine, but green tea extract does not. This green tea extract is either high in antioxidants and/or caffeine but has very little L-theanine (and certainly not enough to be beneficial). This makes the “L-theanine” call out deceptive. Ginseng extract has some studies around cognitive benefits, but the dosage is between 200-400 milligrams. There is no way that this product has that much ginseng extract based where it is on the ingredient statement. Although trendy, Lion’s Mane and Reishi mushroom extracts do not have many human-based studies behind them. The studies that do exist have effective dosages that are much higher than what is included here.
Nutritional Value: A. At 15 calories and only 3 grams of added sugar, this product has far less calories and sugar than other sweetened teas.
Overall Score: B-. A sparkling tea is novel and is not typically seen on the market. However, labeling this as an adaptogen black tea is deceptive since none of the functional ingredients are included in beneficial amounts. All of the functional ingredients are listed below stevia in the ingredient statement, which means their amounts probably range from 1-150 milligrams per serving; not anywhere close to being beneficial. Green tea extract is high in antioxidants and/or caffeine but calling out the L-theanine content is deceptive, as there is very little L-theanine in a green tea extract. Ginseng extract has studied cognitive health benefits, but the typical effective dosage is between 200-400 milligrams. There is no way that amount is included in here. The mushrooms, Reishi and Lion’s Mane, are known for cognitive and immune support, however, there is little to no human-based studies on its effectiveness, let alone an effective dosage. Buying this solely as a sparkling black tea would be worthwhile. However, buying this product for the functional benefits+tea would not be beneficial.
Would you buy this product? Why or why not?