Oooli Beverages Inc

Bleh, it’s way too sour. Tone down the cranberry or add more honey and then we’ll talk. :/

The last Oooli tea that I drank intrigued me, so when I saw them on sale in the health food store today I decided to try one of the other flavours (I think I saw four different ice tea flavours on the shelf from this company).

Lemon-flavoured iced tea is relatively common – lemon flavoured jasmine iced distinctly less so, however. It sounds a bit odd, almost contradictory, to mix a sweet, floral tea with the sour, acidic flavour of lemon; but oddly enough it works. The flavours mix into a cool, refreshing drink that isn’t ‘too’ anything. The jasmine isn’t overpowering and nor is the green tea bitter as are many iced green teas that use cheap greens for their bases. The lemon adds a subtle sour bite that contrasts nicely with the jasmine.

It’s not often that I see iced teas with an oolong base so that caught my eye when I was looking through the drinks in my local health food store for something interesting to quench my thirst. As a bonus it’s low in sugar (only 4g in this one compared to the 30g(!) you’ll usually find in your generic Lipton Brisk).

I can taste right away that they used a dark oolong for the base; it’s not a bad oolong either, with slightly roasted, bakey notes and no unpleasant astringency. The mango and passion fruit flavours are rather subtle, and I find myself wishing that they were maybe a touch stronger. It’s an interesting combination of flavours but it works out to be a rather nice, refreshing, and slightly sweet, all-natural drink.