Soothing Green (Harney & Sons)

Tuesday is Iced Tea Review day!

I’ve been waiting a long, long time to try the Harney & Sons iced teas. They blend some of my favorite teas and their take on iced teas has been on my plate for a while. The first of several, this iced green tea brings with it a brisk taste perfect for a wake up call on those warm Summer mornings.

This tea caught my eye right away. It’s visually very light… almost like a brewed Yanagi style Japanese Sencha. I was drawn to the light color and distinct pattern on the Harney bottle.

After opening the bottle I noted heavy overtones of citrus and subtle hints of Ginko from this USDA certified organic iced brew. The packaging indicated I should expect this, but I was expecting the citrus to be a bit more subtle than it was.

For being based on a Japanese green tea this tea has relatively moderate boldness. Usually a bottled Japanese green tea is more bold than most, this one was just bold enough for a wake-up. It remained brisk for the entire bottle, but light enough that I never stopped drinking it.

I had been impressed with the limited calories last week when I reviewed Sweet Leaf’s Mint & Honey Green. Harney ups the stakes here. This bottle of Harney iced tea contains just 40 calories. While 16 ounces are contained in the bottle and the label lists the bottle as having 2 servings… they also list the bottle totals for calories and contents. I was very happy to see this as I consider it more honest marketing since most all of us would be consuming both servings from this bottle at one time.

Most bottled iced teas have plenty of sugar. Harney’s Organic Green iced tea contains less than 2% sugar, and it’s organic cane sugar, not the whitened processed stuff.

Flavor-wise, this tea is not a sweet tea. You can certainly tell the low percentage of sugar to content here. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this a detriment however. A little bitter off the bat, the Soothing Green Tea’s citrus and ginko flavors take a back seat to the more pronounced sencha brew.

This medium-strength tea is great for fands of bolder brews, bottled Japanese teas and grassier greens.