#ThirstyThursday: Wong Lo Kat Herbal Tea Review: Tastes Like Healthy Sugar Water

On a sweltering hot day like this, don’t you just wish you could have some refreshing and cooling drink to quench your thirst?

Maybe not bubble tea, though, for the pearls and milk get sticky in your throat especially with the hot weather. The gas from fizzy drinks like Coke is bound to get you bloated and burping later as well.

I guess at times like this, you can always fall back on good old traditional Chinese herbal tea – the cold kind, of course.

It’s quite a popular drink amongst the older crowd who prefer to drink something healthier, but somehow, I don’t think youths would choose to drink Chinese herbal tea willingly.

I’m sure many youths, like myself, have an aversion to drinks like these especially as it has “herbal” in its name. It must stem from the trauma of years of visiting Chinese doctors and drinking their “herbal” medicine which tastes more bitter than anything else in the world. There’s just a bad misconception to herbal tea, especially if it’s from China – it must be bitter, right?

That’s also what I thought when my boss asked me to review this drink, and I immediately had to ask if it was bitter or not before I was willing to take it. It was then that I realised I’m wrong and that not all herbal tea was bitter. I blame the Chinese medicine.

It’s far from bitter, by the way. So, how does it actually taste?

Wong Lo Kat Herbal Tea

Upon opening the bottle, you’ll know that it’s not a bitter drink at once – the sweet sugary smell will hit you like a wrecking ball. It smells slightly of herbal medicine too, only for how rich the herb smell is.

It has that normal thin consistency that tea usually is, and tastes just as sweet as it smells, yet there are remaining traces of slight herbal taste.

I find it quite refreshing as well – even when it isn’t cold, the drink is cooling enough by itself and is smooth on the throat.

It’s So Sweet, Though

If I had to use only one word to describe this drink, it would be sweet.

It feels like a whole load of sugar was dumped into this drink. I personally don’t mind, for I’m someone who can drink bubble tea at a 100% sugar level without thinking it’s too sweet most of the time. If you’re not one who likes sweet things, then this isn’t for you.

According to the nutrition label, there’s an average of 44 grams of sugar in one bottle, which is quite a lot. It’s almost TWICE of the recommended sugar intake that a person should consume in a day, which is 25 grams, according to Healthline.

Is It Healthy?

The interesting thing about the nutrition facts on this drink is that it has 0 grams of protein, fat and sodium – yet it has that crazy 44 grams worth of sugar in it.

I’m no nutritionist nor do I know how to properly read nutrition labels, but I know that it means this drink is mostly made out of just sugar and water – so I’ll dub it as sugar water.

However, Chinese herbal tea is supposed to help in recovery from minor ailments such as cold, flu and fever, so as long as it does its magic on eliminating these sicknesses from our bodies… the sugar level doesn’t sound that bad. Right?

Wong Lo Kat’s herbal tea also apparently can help to clear excessive heat and detoxify our bodies while quenching thirst. They also claimed that it could possibly extend lifespans by 10%, but scientists have shut the brand down on that.

Don’t drink this if you hate overly sweet things or are diabetic. If you don’t mind it, however, it’s actually a very pleasant drink that helps in dispelling body heat.

Rating: 3/5 stars