Organic Cane Sugar (138 reviews)
Bigelow Organic Green Tea Mango Lychee
Bigelow is basically Arizona's wiser, older brother. Actually Bigelow started in the late 40's and Arizona first burst onto the beverage scene in 1992, so does that make Bigelow the distinguished grandfather in this game? Whatever the genealogy is they decided to have a family outing in 2008, and it's still going to this day.
Bigelow is older, thus they are wiser and always use cane sugar in their ready to drink teas. It's a little thing that I love and respect them for. They also like to take chances with weird flavors, like this mango lychee. I guess Bigelow does come out as the grandfather in this little family tree, as we all know lychee tastes like old lady perfume smells, so perhaps he used it in homage to his late wife. Now let's take a moment of silence for the dearly departed.
This plays out like an Arizona green tea, with cane sugar instead of HFCS. It's uncanny how similar it tastes. You even get the same taste when you inhale after swallowing. I really with Arizona had a green tea tall boy with real sugar. The world would be a better place if that existed. It doesn't so I'll just default to grandpa B.
The mango and lychee flavors aren't overpowering at all. This is firstly a green tea, and secondly a fruit tea. I love it and wish it were more readily available, but you know those darn kids today.
- Website
- http://www.bigelowtea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper 2 weeks, 5 days ago
- Comments
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Celebri Tea Natural Green Tea Pomegranate Blueberry
Did you see that? You didn't? Oh man. You missed it! You didn't see who that was? Oh man. It was Vincent D'onofrio; the greatest actor of our time. Uh, yes I do mean that. You know what...I'm going back. He deserves to hear about how awesome he is and how I was truly sad about Criminal Intent being off the air. I don't care that him and Eames didn't get together. They are a great team. I've got this bottle of Celebri Tea and since he is a celebrity...see what I'm doing here? I'm going to give it to him. Stay here.
Mr. D'onofrio. I've got this bottle of tea for you and I wanted to say thank you for your years of hard work on Law & Order. I really think you are a fantastic actor and although I know you were great in Adventures in Babysitting and Full Metal Jacket, I really think you came into your own on Criminal Intent. I just wanted to come over here to give you this bottle of tea as a thank you for your years of service to television. Why yes, sir. There is a sip taken out of it. It's like ninety degrees out here and I didn't plan on seeing you. This is all I have on me. A drink with a couple sips taken out of it. I'm giving the rest to you. I'm not sick or anything and look, it's still cold. Come on, Vince. It's really good. It's really bitter like a green tea should be and for the first time in a long time the Stevia isn't overpowering and lets the flavors really do their thing. It's fruity and is overall a pretty fantastic tea.
I'm just going to leave it here on this bench and leave you with this; you are a wonderful man and I'm happy to have met you. Please tell the rest of the cast that they were all spectacular and I was sad to see them go. Seriously, dude. Drink that tea. I don't want it to go to waste. If you...Vincent. If you are not going to drink it...fine. You know what? I'm taking it. It's so hot here. Jesus. What is this place? The center of the sun? Vinnie, you're great but I can't stand this heat. Take care of yourself.
- Website
- http://www.drinkcelebritea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 3 weeks ago
- Comments
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Cintron Iced Tea Strawberry Hibiscus
Don't tell Jay, but I'm just drinking this now. It's been over a year since we've had it and I've been saving it for, well, now I guess. Was it worth it? Not really. No. It's not bad but I wanted this to blow my socks off. I've got this strange idea of what hibiscus should taste like and it rarely does. I've had a couple drinks that are absolutely stellar but I really think that I, me, myself, know what hibiscus really is supposed to taste like.
That aside, here is this drink. For those that know what things are supposed to taste like, this is a good drink. It’s right on the fence between an iced tea and a juice. It's not bad at all. We've got hibiscus and then a strawberry aftertaste and then a moderately sweetened black tea sitting in the middle like the cream in an Oreo. I would love to have a strawberry hibiscus Oreos. I'm going to imagine that as I take my final sip of this long awaited bottle of iced tea. Sorry it's taken me so long, Jay.
- Website
- http://www.cintron21.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 3 weeks, 1 day ago
- Comments
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Runa Focused Energy Mint Guayusa
Lightly sweetened? Yes sir. Mint? Yeah, sure. Whatever the heck guayusa is? Throw it in. Together you have created something that I think you might be able to get at the side of the road from a Mayan. Do Mayans still exist? Did Mayans use guayusa? For some reason, this feels like something that happens in antique times. Olden times. Classic times. Dusty times.
This is a nice traditional tea taste with a very light, good, non-toothpasty, mint flavor. It's a bit earthier than a black or a green tea. It's drier and maybe more bitter, almost like a mate. It's good. I like this and it is both refreshing and not terrible for you.
I know nothing about the Mayans and for that I am sorry but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt of being historically awesome at making tea. Do not take this as an insult. You are or were truly great at it.
- Website
- http://www.runa.org/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 3 weeks, 4 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Chia Star Love Beverage Pineapple Honey
90% Hydrated Chia. 90%. Do you realize how many chia seeds that is. Can you even comprehend how many green coats that could grow for porcelain sheep? Well, the answer is probably one. It takes a buttload of those seeds to grow a healthy coat, but still that is such a high percentage of a “solid” to be in a beverage. I say solid, but they are extremely fluid. It still feels like your drinking something with a thicker consistency than most drinks. You don’t even realize the chia seeds are solid until you stop them with your tongue and press on them. You know, like a child playing with their food, which is what I always like to do.
This is mostly honey and secondarily pineapple. I would have preferred it the other way, but I have no real complaints. The honey taste isn’t like eating straight honey, but it’s more like when you use honey to sweeten tea; you know the flavor involved is honey, but it tastes different than that last spoonful you put directly into your mouth instead of your teacup.
It’s fun. It’s tasty. It’s healthy. What else could you want, well except for a stronger pineapple flavor? Now I’m just being picky.
- Website
- http://www.chiastar.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Chunky Drinks, Other/Weird
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper 3 weeks, 5 days ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Celebri Tea Natural Black Tea Peach Ginger
Welcome to the 24th Annual Drinky Dranky awards show. We’re happy to be your eyes outside the event to give you an update as to what celebrity beverages are wearing this year. It looks like the first to arrive is a nice peach ginger black tea, which is wearing a sash proclaiming itself to be a “Celebri tea.’ A fitting name for any tea that is important enough to be invited to this event.
This Celebri tea is in essence a not very strong black tea that is wearing not one, but two sweeteners. We’re talking the unusual pairing of organic cane sugar and organic stevia extract that result in 22g of sugar per bottle. If you were to ask me I would say that the stevia is unnecessary, and just showboating a bit. If they had stuck to just a low level of cane sugar it would have turned out to be nicely semi sweetened, and it wouldn’t have that very specific stevia taste to it. I don’t know about our home viewers, but I for one would rather have an unsweetened tea than one with that aftertaste. In reality it still has a decent amount of sugar per bottle, so the stevia isn’t really pulling that much of the load anyways. If anything it just works against the taste of the ginger, which you have to actively think about to taste at this point.
When we’re in our 25th year I would hope that this Celebri tea will ditch the stevia without adding any more sweetener and what we would be left with would be a lightly peach flavored black tea with faint moments of ginger. That is a drink that would surely turn some heads on the red carpet.
- Website
- http://www.drinkcelebritea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper 4 weeks ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Chia Star Refresh Beverage Blackberry Lime
Honey, why is all my stuff on the front yard? What?!? I would never try and poison you. Where is this coming from? What do you mean we're breaking up? We were looking at houses yesterday. I don't get it. Please! Slow down and tell me what's going on here. I see that my favorite fish vase is broken so you must mean business because you know how much that means to me. No, I promise you, my love, I didn't not try to poison you. Spider eggs? Where? In the drink? No, those weren't spider eggs. They were chia seeds. I saw that drink at the market and though you would like it. It's supposed to be good for you and I know how much you like blackberries. Didn't you read the ingredients? You just assumed that it was spider eggs and I was trying to kill you? No, that's crazy talk, baby. Do you have the bottle? It's in the garbage? Hold on a second. I'll get it.
Alright, right here, read this. It's chia seeds. It's chocked full of good stuff that is good for you. I thought you would appreciate it. It's low in calories and actually tastes good. It's lightly sweetened with a pretty good blackberry flavor and you get a nice lime aftertaste. Yes, you can taste the Stevia in the aftertaste, too, but it's hardly a make or break. It's just kind of reminding you that it's in there helping a sister out. Honey. Please. We've been through so much together. I can't believe you thought I would try to serve you spider eggs. I can't believe you thought that I thought that I would get away with it. Maybe we should break up. The trust level just isn't where I feel comfortable. Thanks for getting all my stuff out of the house. This actually makes it easier. That backfired on your part, didn't it? Nice knowing you sweetheart. I'll take that bottle of Chia Star since you're clearly not going to drink it.
- Website
- http://www.chiastar.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Chunky Drinks
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman 1 month ago
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Rooibee Red Tea Watermelon Mint
Since I had never seen a rooibos tea plant, I Googled it (yes I use Google as a verb. It’s 2013, embrace it).The plants themselves do not look all that extraordinary, but the pictures of the dried tea look like they would smell delicious. Have you ever gone into a fancy tea shop? It’s on of the best smelling places ever. It’s also a fairly expensive place to be, but it’s worth it to treat yourself from time to time.
Rooibee Red Tea took this what I can only imagine to be delicious smelling dried tea and brewed it up with some sugar in a way that I can only describe as sweet tea made with red tea. It’s not as insanely sweet as southern sweet tea, but the base of the flavor is there. That alone is enough to earn this company high marks, but their genius shines through with the subtlety of their flavoring. If someone offered me a watermelon mint drink, and gave no other description I would assume it would taste like a hellish combination of eating watermelon Jolly Ranchers while chewing an entire package of spearmint gum. The thought of that is just completely sickening. Luckily this bottle resembles nothing of the flavors in my mind grapes. The watermelon flavor is very light. You don’t even realize your tasting it until you hold the tea in your mouth for a bit. Then you realize that the flavor has been there all along, but it blends in perfectly with the taste of the red tea. As for the mint, it’s more of an afterthought. It only rears its head as an aftertaste, the way mint should. Mint is rarely good when it’s strong, unless it’s gum or you know…a mint.
This is tasty and refreshing. It’s a high class tea that you should drink on a nice spring day when it’s warm enough to cast off your hoodie, but not so warm as to feel your flesh burn as your sweating yourself into dehydration. I can picture myself out in the country, just lounging on a porch, staring out over fields of wheat, sipping away. I wish I was there now.
- Website
- http://www.rooibeeredtea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 2/15/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Honest Ade Limeade
I think someone once told me that is life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That’s all well and good, but what happens when life gives you limes? Oh that’s right, you make guacamole and mojitos. The problem is that I am plum out of avocados and mint, so there goes that plan. I suppose my back up plan could be to make some limeade. Is limeade the rarest of all ades? No, I think that award would go to Citron’s guava or papaya ades.
For those of you who are only familiar with lemonade, this may be a bit of a disappointment. It doesn’t make your cheeks pinch in that sour way that great lemonade does. It’s basically watered down limejuice, but that is a good thing. Have you ever tried drinking straight limejuice? I do not suggest it unless you want to look like this guy.
This is tame and mild and only slightly sweetened (12g of sugar for an ade is not very common). I could have gone for a bit more lime, as I do love an intense ade, but this would do in a pinch.
- Website
- http://www.honesttea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Lemonade
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 2/7/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment
Kiju Organic Iced Tea Mango Passion Mate
I’m going to start a petition to switch the places of black and mate teas. Black tea is everywhere and let’s face it, while it is delectable it is also pretty boring, and far too easy to over sweeten. Mate is a rarity. It’s exotic and you can’t over sweeten it without it losing its special pizzazz. I know that if they were switched for long enough mate would begin to seem commonplace and lose it’s exoticness. I just want this to be for a limited time. I want to go out to eat with my family to some garbage chain restaurant and be able to order a tea and have it be special. In shirt I’m bored with everyday teas.
Kiju is a nice answer to my problem. They make a nice, lightly sweetened mate iced tea. The fruit juice carries most of the flavor, but it has the very specific mate aftertaste. It has a very strong passionfruit taste with some mango around the edges. Did I mention that they use real fruit juices in this? Maybe that is why I like mate so much. If a company cares enough to use it, then they also care enough to use primo ingredients. I’ve never seen a mate sweetened with HFCS. That just doesn’t fly in this world. It’s the world I want to be in, well at least for the time being.
- Website
- http://www.kiju.ca/
- Country
- Canada
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 1/14/2013
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment