New product Wednesday, at Dallas-area stores: Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale

by Teresa Gubbins

Touted for its beneficial antioxidants, green tea continues to invade the mainstream in a big way. These two new items with green tea show it in an inspired form, while the other one, not so much.

Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale. Do people drink ginger ale in any context other than "I have an upset stomach"? Do they buy six-packs of ginger ale to put in the office fridge? It's not that it isn't good; but it's easy to take for granted.

However, as a platform for green tea, it's ideal. It adds sweetness and mild spice. And its subtle fizz injects a pleasing something-extra to green tea, which can seem pallid. That said, the flavor wasn't intensely green-tea-ish. It was more like the countless bottled Arizona/Lipton etc. green-tea drinks, except it had fizz.

Matt Smith, marketing director for Canada Dry, emphasizes that it isn't just "delicious and refreshing, it has a healthy twist – powerful antioxidants," citing 200 mg of "antioxidant power" from green tea and vitamin C in a 12-ounce serving. It comes in three sizes: 20-ounce, 12-pack, and the 2-liter big-boy.

The perfect audience for this drink is someone who:

• rarely drinks sodas but likes sparkling water
• will pretty much always get sucked in to trying a green tea product.

I bought the bottle simply because it was a novelty and it had green tea. But it turned out to be a perfect light alternative to water, and there's something comforting about the idea that this is somehow healthy.

Haagen Dazs Limited Edition green tea ice cream is no different than the green tea ice cream sold at health food stores and served at Asian restaurants for forever. The ingredient list was simple: cream, skim milk, sugar, egg yolks, and green tea. That's a plus. And one supposes it might be beneficial to small towns that don't already have a Whole Foods nearby. Otherwise, it's kindof "what's the point." The point being that green tea keeps getting more mainstream.