San Antonio-based olive leaf tea brand Special Leaf now sports slim 12-ounce cans. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Special Leaf Tea

San Antonio chef Chris Cook is shaking things up with a new look and formula for his line of naturally sweetened Special Leaf beverages, made with olive leaf tea.

Cook has been preaching the gospel of olive leaf tea since 2018, sharing the benefits of leaf extracts that have the purported wellness perks of olive oil but without the fat. This week, he unveiled a sleek look for his line of ready-to-drink products — they now come in 12-ounce slender cans — as well as a bubbly formula.

“We’ve added carbonation, but it’s just very lightly sparkling,” Cook told the Current. He likened the fizz factor to that found in triple-filtered sparkling water brand Richard’s Rainwater.

Along with the carbonated formula, Special Leaf debuted new recipes for its four flavors. Earlier iterations of the olive leaf teas used minimal palm sugar as a sweetener, until Cook introduced a sugar-free hibiscus flavor in January 2021.

Special Leaf’s flavors include original, pomegranate blueberry, hibiscus blueberry and tangerine ginger.

“The lineup is still very similar to what was available before, but different not only because of the bubbles but because we’ve also removed sugar and are using monk fruit,” Cook added. “So all of them now have no added sugar.”

Special Leaf sells its teas at the Alamo Heights Farmers Market on Sunday mornings and at the Larder at Hotel Emma, Hotel Havana, Feliz Modern and The Good Kind Southtown. They’re also available online.

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Nina Rangel uses nearly 20 years of experience in the foodservice industry to tell the stories of movers and shakers in the food scene in San Antonio. As the Food + Nightlife Editor for the San Antonio...