Diet Food Reviews
Snapple Red Tea
By: | Jan 19, 2007
Snapple Red Tea is naturally caffeine free and is made from real brewed rooibos tea, a rare antioxidant-rich tea that only grows in the Western Cape region of South Africa. "We topped it off with real fruit juice packed with Vitamin C to contribute to a strong, healthy immune system" and that is all over the label. There are a few things I really liked about this tea, and a few things I did not - mainly because I feel that they have a very misleading label.
The good: The tea itself is a very light but refreshing drink. It reminded me a lot of flavored water - but in a good way. It was very slightly sweet but not a very strong tea taste. I really liked the mild flavor which just made me feel happy that I wasn't ingesting a fistful of sugar.
The bad: The label reads Peach Pomegranate Snapple Red Tea. Nowhere in the ingredients are the words PEACH or POMEGRANATE. In fact, the fruit juice (concenetrate) that they use is PEAR. It does say "natural flavors" but if there isn't even enough added for you to list them individually, why have it splashed all across the label Snapple? You know I HATE false advertising.
Then, there is this little fact across the front of the label, "contributes to a Healthy Immune system, real juice." Are they really claiming this because of that little bit of pear juice concentrate that they added, which only contributes 30% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin C? really now!!! It is unfortunate, because it is totally unneccessary - the label design is beautiful and I would have picked thsi up without the "gimmicks." Unfortunately, now I will never buy this again because of all the bull$@it.
There was another good thing about this drink, and that one cup (8 ounce serving) has only 40 calories and 7 grams of sugars / total carbohydrates. I bought the 17.5 fluid ounce bottle - which was 90 calories total and 15 grams of sugar. That's really not that bad. There is also no artificial sweeteners in this drink.
I was all prepared to give Snapple Red Tea my 5 kiss rating, but because of the misinformation tactics on the label, I had to take something off. I guess I will stick with Snapple White Tea [read the 5 kiss review] because I sure won't be wasting my $1.25 on this.
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I've been drinking pomegranate juice from Healthy Balance. It's half the price of the fancy Pom stuff, you get twice as much, and I think it tastes better.
The Snapple advertisement for "red tea" is set in the most northern region of South Africa. They even show "rooibos" bushes. It looks out of place there, 'cause you won't ever find it there. It only grows in the Western Cape region. That's way south and very far from where the ad has been shot. On Snapple's website it's states that it grows in the Western Cape area and yet they mislead the public with the tv ad.
I grew up on "rooibos" tea. It's very good on it's own. You don't wanna mix it with anything. It's packed with goodness and caffeine free. It also quenches a thirst like nothing on this earth!
The actual tea aside, the branding of Snapple Red Tea is disturbingly deceptive. The packaging and ad copy imply an association with the (product)red program. Snapple Red Tea's label design and advertising are too strikingly similar to the esthetic and message of (product)red products for the coincidence to be unintentional.
Consider the timeliness of Snapple Red Tea's release to coincide with the successful launch of the (Product)red campaign. Also, the tea leaves come from where else but Africa, and the tea has an inconspicuous tinge of red - in certain light. Of course the image of Africa is practically spilling over the label, the whole thing slathered in shades of red. And don't forget the basic stuff like, the word 'red' in the brand name.
Worst of all, Snapple Red Tea boasts the tagline 'Contributes to a healthy immune system' which can too easily be misconstrued as, 'We will contribute a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Snapple Red Tea to organizations that provide ARVs to people with HIV (an immune system disease) in Africa. Ergo, we contribute to healthy immune systems.' It's not much of a stretch really.
(Product)red has installed the color red as our banner for Africa. We now associate red with Africa the same way we all know pink stands for breast cancer. If a brand puts a pink ribbon on their packaging, or even plays up the pink color scheme, they damn well better contribute in some fashion to the fight against breast cancer. Along the same line, the color red is a unified symbol for the broad based fight for humanitarian causes throughout the African continent, and a product that insinuates '(red)ness' should absolutely be held accountable.
It's terribly convenient and diabolical for Snapple to capitalize on the pre-branded benevolence of the (product)red campaign. By sidling themselves in with the conscientious consumer, they can sell more high-fructose swill without reciprocating as the conscientious marketer. And I don't like it one bit.
Do you have a life. This tea is the bomb. I love it.