Recently, my sister has been raving about this new tea she discovered and has fallen in love with. Peace Tea is what it's called and I decided to take to the web to research it.
I'll give you my sister's review in a minute, but first I'd like to share with you my findings:
1) On the website it states, "While Peace Tea is a product, it is a product that stands for social obligation, social awareness, benevolence, compassion and soul. It can, in the form of a mere liquid, be your own form of poetry, art, music, philosophy, belief system. But more than anything, Peace Tea strives to be a product that makes a difference. Even the most minimal difference." If that is the case, then this is right up my alley. I love all of those things!
2) Peace Tea claims to be 100% natural. I'll share the ingredients in a minute.
3) I could not find anywhere on their site how their tea is made, which was actually a bit frustrating to me. They write mostly about what the stands FOR rather than what the tea actually IS.
4) In looking at the ingredients, I found them NOT to be corn-free.
Here are the flavors and ingredients in each.
RAZZLEBERRY // INGREDIENTS:
Brewed Natural Tea (Pure Filtered Water, Tea), Sugar, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Sucralose
Brewed Natural Tea (Pure Filtered Water, Tea), Sugar, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Sucralose
SWEET LEMON // INGREDIENTS:
Brewed Natural Tea (Pure Filtered Water, Tea), Sugar, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Sucralose
CRANBERRY // INGREDIENTS:
Brewed natural black tea (pure filtered water, black tea), sugar, apple juice concentrate, lemon juice concentrate, tartaric acid, citric acid, natural flavor, sucralose, cranberry juice concentrate, tannic acid
PINK LEMONADE // INGREDIENTS:
Brewed natural black tea (pure filtered water, black tea), sugar, apple juice concentrate, lemon juice concentrate, citric acid, sodium citrate, grape skin extract (color), natural flavor, sucralose
TEXAS SWEET // INGREDIENTS:
GREEN // INGREDIENTS:
Brewed Natural Green Tea (Pure Filtered Water, Green Tea), Sugar, Natural Flavors, Honey, Citric Acid, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Sucralose
Brewed Natural Tea (Pure Filtered Water, Tea), Sugar, Apple Juice Concentrate, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Sodium Citrate, Sucralose
Now, what you'll notice in all of the flavors are the following ingredients that may be derived from corn: Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, and Sucralose. Let's just break these down so you can see how "unnatural" these are.
Citric Acid:
Artificial citric acid is corn steep liquor along with hydrolyzed corn starch. While it DOES occur naturally in fruits, the most concentrated being lemons and limes, the citric acid you see listed as and ingredient in foods is the fermented kind. Very misleading, isn't it?
Natural Flavors:
Rather than going into a long explanation of what this really means, I'm going to send you over to a page where you can read for yourself. Just make sure to come back here after reading.
Sucralose:
While derived from sugar, sucralose is by chemical composition definition, manufactured, using a patented multistep process in which 3 hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar (sucrose) molecule are selectively replaced with 3 chlorine atoms. Sucralose starts with sugar and tastes like sugar, but it’s not sugar. {source: McNeil Nutritionals}. What's more is the substitution of three “3 hydrogen-oxygen groups” with 3 chlorine atoms, converts table sugar into “chlorinated” sugar. In other words it's a “chlorocarbon“. And chlorocarbons have a history of producing organ impairment, genetic mutation and reproductive issues. Other chemicals in the “chlorocarbons class” are “DDT”, “Chlordane” and the highly carcinogenic “chloroethylene”. All have been banned in the United States. Yeah... not so natural or healthy.
Well, so I'm sure my sister is going to be disappointed, but I thought I'd just share my findings. It's actually sad to me that company's can label things as "100% natural" and be quite far from that truth. But aren't you glad you have me to tell you otherwise? :)
So, give peace a chance. Peace is good. Peace Tea... not so much.
Peace out!
