Drink of the Week: YuzuCo Green Tea Yuzu-Ade

Having grown up in Arizona, the massive cans of AriZona Iced Tea hold a nostalgic space in my sense memory. (Yes, I am aware the beverage was never actually produced in Arizona, but rather in New Jersey.) In fact, the Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey is still a beverage I would happily grab from the gas station cooler on a road trip. So when I cracked a can of the new Green Tea Yuzu-Ade from YuzuCo, I was delighted by a hint of delicious familiarity.

The folks at YuzuCo have almost single-handedly made the highly desirable yuzu fruit into an easy to use bar ingredient, with their bottled fresh Yuzu Juice and Yuzu Super Juice. And so a foray into the ready-to-drink category seems a natural progression. YuzuCo’s two new releases live up to the brand’s reputation for bright, fresh flavor.

While the lightly fizzy Sparkling Yuzu-Ade is lovely, the combination of earthy green tea and floral yuzu juice in the Green Tea Yuzu-Ade is a slam dunk. Blended with 60 percent green tea and 40 percent yuzu juice, then sweetened lightly with honey for balance, the drink is the epitome of summer refreshment (and roughly half the sugar of my beloved AZ iced tea). $45/12-pack, theyuzu.co