Tea (23 reviews)
Honest Tea Community Green Tea With Maltese Orange
Somewhere in Asia there is a community garden where they mostly grow tea. I know it sounds ridiculous to designate so much public land to a garden of this variety, but think about it, who doesn’t love a glass/mug of some nice green tea? Also, who are we to judge what brings a community together. Whether it’s growing a few carrots and peppers or a small field of tea plants if it brings people together, then it’s good for the community.
The real problems begin after the tea is harvested and it is drying. That is when arguments arise about how they will flavor the tea. There are many who are purists who just want it to be straight green tea. They believe adding anything to it disturbs the integrity of the drink. Others wish to flavor it with flowers. There are still some that want to add fruit flavor. Every year it’s the same argument and every year they settle it the same way; with an old-fashioned street brawl. Everyone who has an opinion gathers in the middle of the now desolate field, where the tea had recently been harvested from and they have it out. The last one standing has their way (eww, not like that) with the tea.
This past season the top brawler had wanted some orange tea. He had kept his mouth shut about it for years, because he knew his training wasn’t finished. For years he hit the gym daily to bulk up in order to ensure he would win the battle. His efforts paid off. The rest of the town was no match for him, and the brawl set a record for being the shortest in history.
Now that the tea has been brewed and chilled, our warrior sits on his back porch with a dusty old dog and sips away. It’s a very strong, bitter green tea with slight accents of orange peels. He added just a touch of sugar to it to take the edge off, but no one in their right mind would ever refer to it as a sweetened tea. As he sat there he decided that it was a nice tea. It tasted like green tea should taste, but that if he had wanted it to be perfect he would have been better off either using orange juice instead of rinds, or a different fruit altogether.
- Website
- http://www.honesttea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 6/29/2012
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JB's Tea Lemonade
Memorial Day weekend just wrapped up. It was three days filled with hangouts and barbeques, as those are the perfect ways to remember things. The last party of the weekend was a pool party at some friends’ house. I think only one person actually ended going into the pool but the rest of us ate more than our fair share of food, including my new favorite thing “Cowboy Caviar.” Just look it up, it’s delicious.
I brought this bottle of tea to share at the party, because I didn’t want to end up drinking it all myself. As it turns out I think I am the only one who drank any of it, and it was only one glass. It doesn’t really taste like a half and half. It’s more of a lemon tea, and cheap tea at that. It actually has lemon juice concentrate in it, but the lemon flavoring doesn’t taste real at all. The lemon taste is also far too overpowering. Had it actually tasted like lemonade I would have been okay with that, but the way things are it was too much. I drank my one glass, and when I went up for a refill I noticed that someone else had brought Arizona’s Arnold Palmer and I ended up drinking that the rest of the night.
- Website
- http://www.facebook.com/jbstea
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 5/29/2012
- Comments
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Oregon Chai Tea Original
I have had a wonderful time with Oregon Chai tea. It's my morning drink. Some people drink coffee and some people drink pop. The latter are a gaggle of crazies because who drinks pop in the morning. I can only imagine your teeth. Ugh. Sorry, but seriously? Pop in the morning? I feel like people that drink pop in the morning drink pop all day long. I couldn't imagine. My girlfriend's mom might not drink it in the morning, but I've never seen her drink water, only diet Pepsi. Her son works for Coke and I've never seen her drink anything other than diet Pepsi through a straw, which messes up pop even more.
Back to the point. I didn't need a jolt, but I expected a rush of flavor. There is anise in the ingredients and I could smell it through the pack and that excited me. A nice, bold licorice tea is just what I wanted. It's just what I want at all times. It's my life. Don't you forget it! Oregon Chai left me by wayside on this ride because it did not fully deliver. It smelled so strong but tasted like a light chai. There are spices in there, but they aren't brought out as much as the other ones I reviewed. It's the original, though, so you have to start somewhere. The ones that I liked were at an 11 when it came to flavor. This has a little bit of everything but is ratcheted down to about a five. It's still chai, but now that I've fallen in love with the other ones, this might be my last "The Original."
- Website
- http://www.oregonchai.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- No Sugar Added
- Categories
- Hot Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 5/24/2012
- Comments
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Honest Tea Moroccan Mint Green Tea
This review is a big stepping-stone for me. Until now, I have not reviewed any unsweetened iced tea. This has been by choice because until recently I hated any iced tea that wasn't loaded with sugar. The turning point was when Jay and I were on a road trip this summer and he freaked out when he found a lot of this jasmine tea for $1 each at a Big Lots. It was a really hot summer day so he opened one in the car and offered me some. I quickly understood what the fuss was all about. It was delicious.
Then a couple months later I realized, I had been looking at unsweetened iced tea completely wrong. I kept thinking it would have as much flavor as sweetened iced tea but obviously it won't due to the lack of sugar. Knowing this has allowed me to enjoy iced tea that is better for me now.
Since I’m new to the unsweetened iced tea world, you'll have to forgive my ignorance with this review. I was expecting this to have a stronger mint flavor than it does. I thought it was going to be like a mouthful of breath mints, but it's more of a mint aftertaste. Green tea isn't my favorite, but this is good and light. I could see this being really refreshing on a hot day, so I probably shouldn't have waited until it was 48 degrees in Buffalo to drink this.
- Website
- http://www.honesttea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Honey
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Derek Neuland on 10/21/2011
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Honest Tea Passion Fruit Green Tea
Sometimes drinks speak to me. No, not in a crazy way. Sometimes I see a drink and I just have to have it. This, for some reason, I had to have. I grabbed it, threw it on my shelf only to completely forget about it for about two weeks. Today, while picking my drinks for the day, I came across it and thought, "Oh yeah. I really wanted this." so in the bag and to work it went.
On first sip, it was very Stevia-esque. On second sip, I could start tasting what was supposed to be happening. Are you a graphic designer? Sure you are. Everyone and their brother is a graphic designer. As soon as you touch MS Paint (or Mac equivalent) and design your first birthday card, you say to yourself, "This is all a graphic designer does? Well, looks like I am going to design my album art for my band The Death Of A Thousand Suns Birthday." This drink is a gradient if I've ever tasted one. It does start out very Stevia, but then it slowly fades into a passion fruit that is actually quite nice. The green tea doesn't really come out to play for me.
I'm interested to see what else Honest does in this "zero calorie" line. I like a range of their drinks and am always game to try new ones.
- Website
- http://www.honesttea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Stevia Extract
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 10/4/2011
- Comments
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Honest Tea Green Dragon Tea With Passion Fruit
The Honest company has a small team of knights that it keeps on it's payroll. There are really only three of them, but they are in the upper echelon of the payroll, even though they only have one job to perform. That job is to distract without killing the dragon that guards the green tea that lives on a certain mountain whose location I cannot reveal due to legal reasons.
Not only is this physically tolling and extremely dangerous to the knights, but the psychological damage is through the roof. You see knights are programmed from birth to kill dragons. It takes all of their will power and concentration to merely distract the beast and not kill it. That is the true reason for their astronomical salaries.
40 knights once agreed that it was well worth it to taste the tea that their efforts brought forth. It's just a shame that 37 of the 40 perished in the line of duty. The few that are left have discovered that if you mix in a little passion fruit with the tea the already wonderful taste is improved upon. It's still a bitter green tea taste, but the slight fruity hint gives the tea a new dimension. Here's to hoping that the final three knights live long and productive lives!
- Website
- http://www.honesttea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 8/15/2011
- Comments
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Pom Tea Pomegranate Blackberry Tea
Sometimes it's 90+ degrees out and you suddenly have the undying need to go out walk a creek and search for the worthy opponent General Sherman. For the record General Sherman is a catfish that lives in 18 Mile Creek out in the Derby/Hamburg area of New York. Rumor has it that his belly is filled with gold and the ultimate iced tea. Few people know of his existence and even fewer have lived to tell the tale of their battles with him. That is mainly because I think only three of us ever tried to catch him. I have had two encounters with he and all his glory through the years (last year). Editor Dan and I nearly had him once. He exited the water and we grabbed him, but his hide was just too slippery for us to keep a grasp.
So I returned, I saw the corpses of many catfish (three) but none of them were the General. He was nowhere to be found. Maybe he was laying in wait to build up his armies, or maybe he swam out into the lake. I doubt we'll ever know for sure. One thing that I do know is that I worked up one hell of a thirst on this adventure. I had hoped to quench it with the previously mentioned "ultimate tea" I was going to gather from the gullet of General Sherman, but since I failed I had to resort to POM tea.
To be fair it wasn't really a resorting to it, as POM makes some incredible tea. This flavor has the perfect blend of pomegranate and blackberries. I am a sucker for anything with blackberries in it, they are your money berry. Something strange happens in this tea. There is the great fruit and tea flavors, but there's something else. It almost tastes like mint. It has the same cool crispness, but without the actual mint flavor. I had never experienced this before this week, but this is the second drink I've had with this effect. I have to say I really enjoy it and it makes the drink that much more refreshing.
- Website
- http://www.pomwonderful.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Fructose
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Jason Draper on 7/24/2011
- Comments
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Wendy's Tea Wild Berry
Look, if Jay can review McDonald's Shamrock Shake I can review this, right? Right. I saw that they had it, it was something new, I thought it would accompany my standard "Number 6" spicy chicken nicely. Was I right? Well that all depends. Did I want tea? Yes. Did I get tea? Kind of. Did I enjoy what I got? I don't think what I asked for was what I got. Allow me to explain.
You know what tea is, right? Sure you do. You're not some sort of dummy. Tea is great. Sweetened or unsweetened, tea is great. I know for a fact that Wendy's knows what tea is, too, because I typically get an unsweetened tea from them. This didn't taste like a tea at all, but a watered down wild berry nectar. I didn't get any tea flavor. The berry was strong but it tasted like real berry. It wasn't too sweet, although initially it was because whatever they used as flavor lingered at the bottom like a leaves at the bottom of a pool. It created a sort of gradient where it just wasn't stirred enough so I made sure to stir it up a lot more. It was a titch syrupy, and that's why if they left it that thick, left some seeds in there, and sold it as a wild berry nectar, this would have gotten a higher review.
Taking this into consideration, if you want light nectar with a decent wild berry taste, get this. If you want a wild berry tea, you're going to be disappointed.
- Website
- http://www.wendys.com
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 7/5/2011
- Comments
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Honest Tea Classic Green Tea
Look, even though I live in Buffalo and Niagara Falls is twenty minutes, that doesn't mean that I don't go. Today, I went in Maid of the Mist which takes you inside the center of the horseshoe falls and gets mist all up ons. I also went to the Niagara Falls aquarium, which I can also accurately dub "the worst aquarium I've ever been to" unfortunately. Niagara Falls smells like Indian food because on almost any given street in the touristy part is five Indian restaurants per block. It's a bit excessive, but if you go up a couple blocks you'll find yourself in "Little Italy" and there are twice as many Italian restaurants. I don't know how it's possible to have some many Italian restaurants selling the same thing all in the same mile strip and not go out of business. I mean, how many people can you honestly spread to twenty-seven different of the same restaurant? Seems dumb.
So it was a nice day, real nice. Eighty with no clouds. All sun, not too muggy. Nice, you know? After I got out of my tourist day, I came home and worked in my yard like a good neighbor should. I worked up quite a thirst and now I'm sitting here listening to The Urge's 1995 "Receiving the Gift of Flavor" and drinking this well deserved tea and I've got to say two things:
1. I like it. It's a great, bitter tea with a little sure. So little sugar that if you ordered a non-sweetened tea in a restaurant and they brought you this, you wouldn't care. Responsibly sweet.
2. I could make this. It's green tea, which you can get anywhere and yeah, I bet there is a patented process that they do to make it they way that they do but I've made tea like this before using hot water and probably pretty low quality tea bags and one pack of "Sugar in the Raw".
This is not meant to diss Honest because they make some gems and if you like or love or have any sort of good relationship with green tea, you will love this because it's like your Asian mom or best friend's Asian mom made you. White moms don't make their kids green tea. I had one. I know.
Steve Ewing, this drink is for you. I wish you had released another record after "Too Much Stereo."
- Website
- http://www.honesttea.com/
- Country
- United States
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 7/1/2011
- Comments
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Flavur Tea Black Tea Lime & Mint
It's a wet one outside in otherwise Canada. You need to drink. It's been 93 degrees and you, rather stupidly, haven't drunk anything all day. Now it's raining and you have to go outside. You dumb idiot. You put on your nice shoes that in about ten minutes will be pretty close to ruined. You aren't front these parts and you don't know where to go. You are just walking blindly and wet down the street and you just so happen to stumble into a tiny bodega. You shake your head like a dog because you're in your late teens and you think that having super long hair is cool. You'll learn when you paint your room and get paint in your hair that maybe it's not as awesome as you thought. The man behind the counter say, "Nice weather we're having today, eh?" sarcastically and stereotypically Canadian. You hand the dude two Loonies and leave without your change because it's more important that you have a drink than change in a country that you are leaving in a day. You crack open your drink. Black tea? Mint? Lime? Alright. You might have done well for yourself. Take a sip...you could have done better. It certainly does have everything in it, but it's lacking something. You aren't mad because now you are quenching yourself and ringing out your Roots shirt that your dumb friend bought you as a joke in your hotel room. You don't hate the drink, but you might have been better off with either lime or mint. Both tastes like a strange mojito and you didn't want it.
You're leaving tomorrow with a sour taste in your mouth because you didn't get to see Dan Aykroyd amongst other celebrities, which brought you down to the great white North. You did have some poutine and it was just as gross as you thought. It wasn't a total loss because you did have Coffee Crisps and those are delightful.
- Country
- Canada
- Sweetener
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Categories
- Iced Tea
- Rating
- Reviewed By
- Mike Literman on 6/23/2011
- Comments
- View and Leave A Comment