Ready-to-drink color and turbidity stable beverage compositions are
provided. The beverage compositions contain from about 100 to about 2,700
milligrams per liter by total weight of the beverage composition of a tea
material selected from the group consisting of tea solids, tea
polyphenols, tea flavonoids, tea catechins and combinations thereof. The
composition contains water, a total of no more than from about 0 to 100
milligrams per liter divalent cations and a turbidity of less than about
50 NTU and even less than 20 NTU for compositions containing 900 mg/l of
tea solids. Preferably, the tea material contains less than about 450
milligrams divalent cations per 100 grams of the tea material. The
beverage compositions of the invention are color and turbidity stable
when packaged and stored under normal conditions.