Red Mango Probiotic Iced Tea

 Red Mango, Bleeker Street, NYC

The gut is an ecosystem, just as much as the rainforests and the oceans ~Dr. Vincent Young, University of Michigan Medical School

We sometimes call ourselves a top blog. But only as a joke, and only in our heads, because we're really a small secret blog for those in the know (you). So imagine our surprise when a Red Mango PR person emailed us as "one of the nation's leading bloggers" to see if we wanted to try their new probiotic iced tea. They had obviously conducted many online searches to find MindfulEats, so we said yes.

They sent us a $5 gift card, which bought us one (1) small Red Mango probiotic iced tea. We were tempted to buy frozen yogurt instead, but realized that was the worse option. 

The 16 oz. version is $2.99, and the large 24 oz. is $3.45. There are three flavors: 

• Vanilla Black Tea (Mysteaque)
• Wildberry Hibiscus Tea (Fanteasia)
• Lemonade Green Tea (Lemonocity) 

We chose the Lemonade Green Tea since we didn't know what a wildberry was, and green tea is loaded with antioxidants.

It was refreshing. The first things we noticed was that there was no flavor from the added probiotics, and the tea was very sweet (more than we like). It also settled a post-run queasy stomach, which was an unexpected bonus. 

Overall, it's iced tea with the addition of bacillus coagulans. It's not fermented like kombucha - in fact, it may be the only nonfermented probiotic we've had so we're not sure how it works. However, the bacteria in it is patented to be extremely stable. We don't like how sweetened it is, but the ingredient list is simple:

• tea
• cane sugar
• natural flavoring (whatever that is - we asked the PR person and never heard back)
• bacillus coagulans GB-30 6086
• citric acid

It's 87-93 calories per 16 oz serving, which isn't bad. We're skeptical of Red Mango's claim that it is the first probiotic iced tea, since kombucha exists, but they could make worse claims. 

Bottom line: Probiotics are good for you, and this iced tea tastes only like iced tea. If that gets you to eat more probiotics, go for it! The iced tea is a good alternative if you are with friends that want a frozen yogurt, and you feel like something light and not as artificial.

What I ate: 14 oz. vegetable juice, banana, yogurt + blueberries + strawberries, raspberry tea, coffee, macadamia nuts, 6 squares dark chocolate, vegetable fried rice, roasted turkey, salt and pepper popchips, strawberries, cherries, fried chicken, kale, broccolini, kefir, milk, coconut water, water

Exercise: Ran 7 miles (3 miles hills)