Green Tea-Flavored Coke - Would You Drink It?

by Maggie Vink (Subscribe to Maggie Vink's posts)
Jun 17th 2009 4:00PM

Photo: Charlotte Kinzie/Flickr

If you take junk food and put something healthful in it, is it still junk food? Manufacturers seem to hope that you'll answer that question with a negative. Here in the states we've got Diet Coke Plus, where niacin, zinc, magnesium and vitamins B6 and B12 are added into the drink. And now they're releasing a green-tea flavored Diet Coke in Japan.

"We wanted to cater to people who are looking for something that tastes good but is also good for health and beauty," said Katsuya Sato, a representative from Coca Cola Co. in Japan.

So what's the bottom line? These drinks are soda. Though the addition of vitamins, minerals or antioxidants certainly isn't a bad thing, it doesn't change the fact that you're drinking soda. So whether they're beneficial depends on how you're using them. If you choose a Diet Coke with added ingredients instead of a regular Diet Coke, it's not a bad choice. However, if you choose a soda in place of water or (worse) use these fortified drinks as a replacement for getting nutrients through fresh, natural and nutrient-dense foods, then it's a very poor choice.

Green tea has been linked to many possible health benefits -- from reduced cancer risk, to better skin, to regulated blood sugar. But you're much better off drinking a cup of green tea than getting the antioxidants from a fortified soda.

Would you drink green tea-flavored Diet Coke?

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Comments (7)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jess 6-17-2009 @ 4:38PM

I would drink it but not for the health benefits. I would think it would taste good!

Michelle 6-17-2009 @ 4:34PM

Adding something healthy to junk food, still makes it junk food ... BUT it's a great option to have if you're going to treat yourself!

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whirlygig 6-17-2009 @ 4:40PM

This was already released in Scandinavia earlier this year (in a can, but still). It wasn't bad, but I wasn't wowed.

joevill 6-17-2009 @ 10:31PM

Why not just drink green tea? I stress to my friends and family to just brew their own green tea rather than buying junk food that has green tea in it's label.

Tim 6-18-2009 @ 8:12AM

This is old news to us in Germany.. They launched it about a year ago here, and still are selling it. It tastes even more chemical than diet coke itself, leaving no doubt whether any healthy benefit might come from it. I would not recommend it.

Ed Troxell 6-18-2009 @ 10:02PM

Thank you for posting this. I think this is just another attempt to get people to think they are having something healthy when they really are not. This way they wont feel so bad when they have it. No matter what you do to the soda it is still a soda and will still be bad for you. They do the same thing with Energy drinks.

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Tokyo Five 7-17-2009 @ 12:10AM

I did try it...it's not good (but not because of the tea flavor...but because diet cola isn't good!)

http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/coke-and-pepsi-japan/