{"id":894675,"date":"2026-06-26T18:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/894675\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T18:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:15:17","slug":"veteran-san-antonio-chef-launches-olia-olive-leaf-tea-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/894675\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran San Antonio chef launches Olia olive leaf tea brand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Forget matcha, yaupon, and yerba mate; a buzzy new beverage may soon be flying off grocery store shelves. San Antonio chef and entrepreneur Chris Cook has relaunched his olive leaf iced tea company, Special Leaf, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drinkolia.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Olia<\/a>, with an eye towards national distribution.<\/p>\n<p>Cook, a veteran of San Antonio restaurants and co-founder of nonprofit Chefs Cooperatives, first envisioned the brand while working at Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard in Elmendorf. But the idea really took hold after he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Olive leaf tea became part of a lifestyle and dietary regimen that helped him avoid a lifetime on prescription <a href=\"http:\/\/meds.he\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">meds.<br \/><\/a> <br \/>While Cook doesn\u2019t claim Olia is a cure-all, he does tout its many healthy benefits. The drink is high in polyphenol oleuropein, a naturally occurring compound shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cardioprotective benefits in <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/25318054\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">clinical trials<\/a>. Oleuropein, also found in extra virgin olive oil, is one of the reasons why the Mediterranean diet is celebrated.<\/p>\n<p>Cook says his olive leaf tea also happens to have a boatload of antioxidants \u2014 up to 14 times that of green tea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have an unmatched antioxidant level compared to most anything on [the] shelf,\u201d says Cook.<\/p>\n<p>Olia isn\u2019t just a rebrand of Special Leaf, first launched in 2018, although it does have snazzy new branding. Cook says he tinkered with the formulation. Each of the three 12-ounce flavors \u2014 citrus honey jasmine, tangerine ginger, and raspberry lemon \u2014 is under 40 calories, has no artificial ingredients, and maxes out at seven grams of sugar from agave, stevia, and cane sugar. Plus, the sparkling sippers offer some zip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no caffeine naturally in our teas, but during consumption, it helps to boost your metabolism sustainably, so there\u2019s no crash,\u201d explains Cook.<\/p>\n<p>Olia is now in the midst of a <a href=\"https:\/\/wefunder.com\/olia\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">crowdsourced fundraising campaign<\/a> with a threshold as low as $100. The campaign gives everyday investors the chance to get in on the red-hot functional beverage market, a category that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jesscording\/2025\/04\/13\/the-rise-of-functional-beverages-among-millennials-and-gen-z\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">increasingly become popular<\/a> with Millennials and Zoomers who are turning away from booze.<\/p>\n<p>Whether they have a financial stake or not, San Antonians will soon be able to load up their carts with Olia cans. Cook says production begins in August and the drink is expected to return to local grocers in the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forget matcha, yaupon, and yerba mate; a buzzy new beverage may soon be flying off grocery store shelves.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":894676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,27144,28575,188673,7202,7203,28953,8366,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-894675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-chefs","tag-drinks","tag-functional-beverages","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-start-ups","tag-tea","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116817777689808836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}