Back a few months ago I wrote to you about a fairly new drink that came onto the market under the so called “natural health product” umbrella. If you recall, at the start of the year, the big beverage giant Nestea began producing a new line of drinks called “Vitao” which are marketed as natural and healthy alternatives to the typical beverages out there. Hence, I tried the Nestea Vitao Fuji Apple Green Tea.
Well it has been a few months since then and as I was in need of a new glass bottle for my water (for everyday use – remember the idea is to eliminate the plastics in your life as much as possible), I decided to go back to the Nestea Vitao and try another flavor. This time I chose the Acai Blueberry Red Tea.
A big plus for the Nestea Vitao is that it is made with no preservatives, artificial colors or artificial flavors. It is labeled as both a “Natural Health Product” and an enhanced ice tea. In my opinion, it has the potential to be a good health choice if you are out on the go and you want a healthier flavored drink, instead of soda pop, sports drinks or other heavily sweetened and artificial drinks. However, I would not go with this flavor or any of their drinks in the future for reasons explained below.
As much as I love blueberries in almost anything and everything, this particular flavor tasted way too watered down for me. This variety of the drink is like drinking watered down blueberry juice. I mean generally speaking it is fine, but in no way would I say it is delicious.
With the Nestea Vitao drinks, one also has to remember that they are enhanced with vitamins and minerals, which one does not want to overdose on – seriously. Hence this drink is for people aged 12 and up. Also due to the make up of the antioxidants and nutrients, there is a caution on the bottle to take a few hours before or after other medications. (So by all means don’t use this drink to wash down any medications you may be on.)
Now here is one last interesting aspect to this drink to show you how marketing works and why I would not buy their products again:
On the label it says: “Try Nestea Vitao for a mellow tea taste sweetened with exotic acai and natural blueberry flavors.” Sounds great doesn’t it. Now take a peek at the list of ingredients. Nowhere in the ingredients is the acai berry or blueberry mentioned, but what we can find is the typical “Sugar/Glucose-Fructose” combo, which for all we know is based on the same high fructose corn syrup that sweetens all other conventional drinks out there. One can only imagine and hope that the natural flavor listed, is somehow connected to those berries.
Do not ask me how they get away with this stuff… I tried to look for a number on the bottle to call them and there was none. Not only that I was shocked that there is still no nutritional information whatsoever on the bottle. But having done some research, I found out that since the product is labeled as a natural health product, the law does not require that the company list the nutritional info (at least in Canada).
On top of that if a carbohydrate is worth 4 calories, then this drink should be 100 calories. Well it isn’t, they claim it is 90 calories, but aside from that as rosy as it is painted and presented, all the calories in this drink come from sugar.
So although the premise for this drink seems to be good, I would not be supporting this drink or company again, as I just find this product is too falsified and definitely not beneficial to a healthy person’s diet.
Ingredients
Medicinal
- 83mg Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
- 1.89mg AT Vitamin E (dl-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate)
- 90mg Calcium (calcium lactate pentahydrate)
Non-medicinal
- Filtered water
- Fruit juices from concentrate (pear, apple)
- Sugar/Glucose-Fructose
- Natural Flavor
- Concentrated Natural Rooibos Tea (from the South African Red Bush)
- Citric Acid
Nutritional Information (per 341mL can)
- 90 Calories
- 25 g Carbohydrates (25 g Sugar)
- 60 mg Sodium
(Source CalorieCount from About.com)
Packaging
The drink comes in 473mL glass bottles that can be easily recycled or reused as I do. This drink can also come in plastic bottles too, presumably #1(mostly in Europe) and cans. These are still easy to recycle, but I would recommend limiting their use for health reasons as it is plastic and the can is made with aluminum. You can read more on Knowing your plastics in a previous article I wrote. The packaging is different for the Canadian versus the European bottles.
Price (as of this posting)
- Around $2 CDN per 473ml bottle
Availability
- In Canada and the US in some local supermarkets, grocery stores or variety stores
- Widely available in most of Northern Europe in local grocery stores/supermarkets
The Good
- No artificial colors
- No artificial preservatives
- No artificial flavors
- No caffeine
- Ingredients found on product label
- Fortified with antioxidants and calcium
The Bad
- It is sweetened with the typical sugar/glucose-fructose combo
- All the calories come from sugar
- No acai berry actually was used to make this product
- Watered down and somewhat too sweet of a taste
- No nutritional information on product
- Not widely available
Overall Rating as a Great Natural and Healthy Product
6 OUT OF 10
About the author:Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN - is a certified holistic nutritionist, biologist, educator, writer, researcher and speaker in the areas of health, science and holistic wellness. She is a nutritional science expert and her teaching and writing focus on natural, wholesome, plant-based and organic nutrition to achieve optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.
11 Comments to “Review: Nestea Vitao Acai Blueberry Red Tea”
Another fascinating review and look at the behind the scenes (or tastebuds) stuff that goes on. I love blueberries too. Hopefully something good will come along to drink with them. Please let us know when that happens.
I thank you.
You are very welcome David and thank you!
It is too bad that one has to look so deeply at everything these days if one truly wants excellent health – but that is how society has become – so we are not going to spend a second dwelling on it, instead get proactive and read those labels :)
Is this safe to drink while pregnant? I never bothered to read the label when i got these from a friend, and now read it and it say s to contact a doctor?
Hi Marija!
In terms of safety it probably is, as it does not have any caffeine in it and the vitamins and minerals are generally speaking okay.
BUT the other question is would you really want to drink it while pregnant or even when not.
The thing is I would not want to subject myself but especially a developing fetus to the excess sugars of any drink or product including this one. Also because this is not an honestly natural product but highly processed, this again is not beneficial to the health of a growing fetus or you as a person who wants to be in optimal health.
So like I said, although it probably is safe for pregnancy, it is not in your or your new child’s best interest to drink it or any other similar drinks like it.
Hope that helps :)
I found this on another website. I just wanted to inform you that their IS caffeine in the other flavours.
“I called Coca-Cola Canada and got transferred to someone located in the United States. I have the poop scoop on Nestea Vitao. Due to it being called a Nutrition or Health Drink they are not required by law to inform people of the calories, sodium or carbs in the product. Here is the facts on the Nestea (341ml can):
Green Tea with Fuji Apple: 90 Calories, 24g of sugar, 24g of carbs, 60 g of sodium and 18.8 caffeine.
White Tea with Mandarin Orange: 90 Calories, 23g sugar, 23g of carbs and 60g of sodium and 10.9g of caffeine.
Red Tea with Acai Blueberry: 90 Calories, 25g of sugar, 25g of carbs and 60g od sodium, no caffeine (that she told me about anyways)”
Remember thats CAN size. The bottle is almost double I believe.
We tried the Mandarine orange tea today. While it tasted good cannot find anywhere on the can where it says mandarine orange as an ingriedient. It says it has apple and pear concentrate. Wonder if they are color blind and figured the orange was a pear. We have bought some cause they were on sale but probably wont buy any more.
Hi Jeff
First off, you are to be commended as a consumer for reading your labels! That is awesome – if more people did that we could greatly drive the market to provide more healthy and less deceptive food options.
The fact is however that most people will NOT read their labels and eat white bread thinking it is brown or drink mandarin orange drinks that are made of apples and pears ;)
So secondly, I share in your dissapointment as when I first tried these, here I though Nestea is coming out with something healthy, but no. At least not healthy the way it should really be defined.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience :)
I LOVE the red acai blueberry flavor and whenever/wherever I go to buy it–it’s almost always sold out. The orange and apple flavors are still on the shelf though. Regardless of the 90 calories and sugar in it–it is better than always drinking fruit juice (even though these are natural sugars) or soda pop as the fizz and sugar in that is just nasty. I don’t drink coffee or tea regularly so for me, it’s just a once a day treat and I like that it actually has some nutrient value in it. Most other drinks do not.
Hi Donna
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and experience with this product.
And you are so right, it is not the worst of things – soda and many other artificial drinks are way worse. The way I approach this product is basically for me, I choose water and nothing processed, but for many people this drink can be enjoyed from time to time without any health problems or concerns. In the end it all comes down to a personal comfort level and choice.
I love this product, but it’s so hard to find., any help would be greatly appreciated., Thank You
Hi Jacques,
Unfortunately cannot help you there as I have no ties to these guys and where they do or don’t sell the product. It is typically found in convenience stores, gas station and other coolers where water, juice and soda is kept. The product is several years old now and depending on how their sales went, they may have decided to pull it also.