Cricket launches ‘healthy’ green tea cola drink in UK

Cricket Cola, a US-based soft drinks manufacturer, is launching a “healthy” cola drink made from kola nuts and green tea in the UK. It hopes to change consumer perceptions of cola drinks.

The drink, which is also called Cricket Cola, will target health conscious adult consumers, and will have a diet variant. The launch and support campaign will be handled in the UK by marketing and distribution company Pizzino.

The US company claims that Cricket Cola is the world’s first healthy cola alternative and that it will help consumers discover the “real, truly refreshing, delicious taste of Cola”.

The drink is made with two cups of fresh green tea and sweetened with pure cane sugar, or Splenda for Diet Cricket. It does not contain high-fructose corn syrup, phosphoric acid or aspartame, which are favoured by major cola brands. A Cricket Cola spokesman says the drink does not have “the metallic tang and super saccharine sweetness associated with the bigger brands.”

Cricket Cola will be available in department store Harvey Nichols and Japanese restaurant Zuma. Pizzino is also in talks with Waitrose.

Pizzino hopes to launch two other drinks before the end of the year. The drinks, already available in the US, are a sparkling herbal tea and an organic flavoured water.