I don't know if I've given any energy, tea or coffee drink 4 stars before. Yunker Energy Drink and Oolong Shot might have been 4 stars.

Sato Oolong Tea is another product from Sato Pharmeceuticals. The other Sato product I tried -- Yunker Energy Drink -- is so different. While Sato Oolong is simple (tea and water with Vitamin C), Yunker was chock full of guarana, ginseng, coffee bean extract.

This 9.3-ounce can is just as effective as Yunker; it delivered. I burned 382 calories in a 40-minute stationary bike ride, a new personal record. (That's right. I keep track.) My previous mark came after drinking Yunker. That's two home runs from Sato Pharm.

Sato Oolong tastes fine, no funky aftertaste, and I did one thing slightly different with the workout last night. Instead of drinking a product before driving to the gym, or right after stretching, I tanked Sato Oolong during the workout. It was gone halfway through the ride.

It didn't make the ride any easier. My thighs still burned. But I seemed to have a good level of energy at the end and finished strong. I'll take that -- without the taurine and guarana root of energy drinks (those keep me wired 'til 7 a.m.) -- any time.

Unusual. This product is made in Japan, but doesn't have the usual Japanese writing top of the can.

The product seems simple and non-descript, but if you go to the Sato Pharmaceuticals site, it's a revelation of sorts. Giant corporation nearly a century old. Ichiro Suzuki is part of a photo slideshow on the home page.

All I care about is knowing what exactly is in the food and drinks going into my system. I'm not 100 percent into extreme health mode, but it's a good template for taking better care of this aging body.

In that sense, this product -- without stimulating chemicals aside from the caffeine in the tea, and without any sugar -- is a big winner.

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