cheryl
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The Multilevel Truth Behind Small Town America’s Latest Tea Obsession - Eater
Vibrantly colored, highly caffeinated, health-focused drinks have taken over social media, but for the proprietors of these beverage-slinging “nutrition clubs,” the realities can be far less bright
They’re all over Instagram: multicolored beverages in layers of unnaturally bright oranges, greens, and blues, each flavor layered into a cup of ice to show off the vibrant colors. These “loaded teas” — made with tea concentrate and fruit-flavored drink mixes — often boast cheeky names like Bahama Mama or Mermaid and appear alongside promises of zero sugar, few calories, healthy antioxidants, and perhaps most importantly, a big dose of caffeine: #cleanenergy is a frequent accompanying hashtag, which makes sense considering that many loaded teas boast more than 160 milligrams of caffeine — more than double what’s in a cup of coffee.
This rainbow-hued array of drinks is popping up all over the country not as part of a new tea shop chain, but associated with “nutrition clubs” with vague names like Good 2 Go Nutrition or Healthy Life Nutrition. These nutrition clubs aren’t new either, but they are appearing all over small-town America at an impressive clip. In my hometown of 25,000 people — Paris, Texas, which boasts a median household income of around $45,000 per year — there are currently at least five nutrition clubs selling shakes and teas for more than $8 each. What many don’t know, though, is that these shops are almost always making their beverages with ingredients supplied by Herbalife, a multilevel marketing (MLM) company that sells dietary supplements, “nutritional shake mixes,” and protein powders.