Wawa - 6 Reviews

Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been far too long since I have been in Wawa country. It's only been about six months, but that is half a year that I was denied the glory of soft pretzels and their delicious teas. You might find yourself saying something along the line of, “It's just gas station tea, how could you possibly miss it that much?” I will tell you why I do, it's because they sweeten it with real sugar and actually use fruit juice to flavor it. Show me another gas station that does that, and I will plan a road trip.

Since my last visit Wawa has released this new flavor. It's like they are taunting me. I mean every employee of every Wawa location must have heard me go off a dozen times about how blackberries are my favorite and how a blackberry tea would be a gift. It seems like they took note and then decided to release it whilst I was back home…€¦jerks.

Lucky for me Editor Dan took a vacation and stopped at a Wawa, or eight, and brought me home a bottle. It's almost exactly what I wanted. With 40g of sugar per bottle its more than a tad sweeter than I would have preferred, but I'll take what I can get and what I got was a nice sweetened tea that actually tastes like blackberries.

Take note Wawa, I will be visiting your various locations around Jersey and Philly come September, so stock up for me.

Wawa: The Pride of Pennsylvania. Now that's a slogan the state should look into. Sure I know there are Wawa stores in a couple other states, but I always associate it with PA, specifically Philadelphia. They are truly something to be proud about as well. I've been in an obscene amount of gas stations, mini marts and convenient stores in my day and I can safely say that Wawa falls in the top three greatest I have ever been in. The greatest of their achievements is their ever-expanding line of iced teas. They are a made with real sugar and actual brewed tea, something to boast about in the world of store brands. My most recent trip to Philly was the first time I had seen this flavor there. I quickly grabbed it and some soft pretzels and made my way for the door (well after paying of course). Once outside I clicked a quick picture and downed most of the bottle with my salty bread products. It was a wonderful combination. The surprising thing about this tea is how much it actually tastes like tangerines. I've had a few tangerine flavored drinks in my time and I have to say this is one of the more authentic tasting ones. The goose has shown us the way once again.

This week I took my ladyfriend to Philly to go see Wild Flag, eat way too much food and hang out. She had never been to the city of brotherly love before, and it was a good time. No trip to Philly is complete without a stop at Wawa for soft pretzels, peanut chews, and iced tea. At the first Wawa we stopped at I decided to go with the Green Tea Mango. I have never seen it in the past, so I believe it may be a newer flavor. Either that, or I am just completely oblivious to my drink surroundings, and if that is the case I should probably just retire from this game. So I grabbed the tea, my two pack of pretzels and two packs of Goldenberg Peanut Chews. I made a wise choice. The tea was fantastic. One would think that a mini mart's store brand of tea would be garbage that was more sugar water than tea, but one would be wrong in forgetting the magically power that is Wawa. The tea is sweet, but in a good way. It's actually made from green tea, and not some powder. It's also sweetened with real sugar and not HFCS like most store brands. It has the dry/bitter taste of a somewhat quality green tea, with a mango flavoring that tastes authentic. I had barely made it two blocks before all of my purchases had been consumed. I should have opted for the larger bottle.

When I saw this Wawa half and half/Arnold Palmer, I couldn't say no. Two things I love in one little bottle. Plus I knew Wawa would do it right, and they sure did. I always complain about lemonade's not being tart enough, but this needs none of that. This was so lip puckering, it make the back of my throat hurt (in a good way). This is exactly what I look for in a lemonade iced tea hybrid, the deliciousness of iced tea with the sour taste of lemonade.

Yesterday I embarked on a 6-week tour with the band Lemuria. We left DC this morning and just made it to The Fest in Gainesville, Florida. This is the longest tour I've ever been on but I'm excited to see a lot of the US and Canada that I've never seen before. I'm also obviously excited to find and try new drinks along the way.

Our first rest stop after leaving DC was a Wawa near Richmond, VA. If you've never been to Wawa, it's a chain of gas stations that have tons of great flavors of iced tea. They have soft pretzels too which are delicious. But back to the iced tea, it's really good. It's made with real sugar and is just really refreshing. Sometimes iced tea can taste way too much like the flavor it has in it with barely any tea. Wawa knows how to balance it out and it's more like an iced tea with an orange aftertaste.

I'm kind of glad there isn't a Wawa in Buffalo. If there was, I'd drink their iced tea so much I'd probably eventually get sick of it. It's a great treat when you're on a trip.

Wawa is a member of the prestige grouping of my top three gas stations/mini marts. I believe they only have them in PA and NJ. I'm currently visiting NJ to work on some stuff with my new band. On the way to practice we stopped at a Wawa. There are three very important things go get at these stores, "Built to Order" hoagies, soft pretzels and their store brand iced tea.
Most store brand teas that come in big jugs are basically brown sugar water. This is actual tea made with real sugar, and even though there is a notice on the bottle that says, "Contains no raspberry juice," it somehow actually tastes like the fruit.
This is probably the #1 drink in the ghetto tea category. Now someone pass me the mustard for my pretzel.