Iced Tea - 901 Reviews

I bought it, tried it and thought it tasted familiar. A quick visit to the Guayaki website told me that it's just a rebranding of their Pure Empower Mint tea. So yeah, go there and read that to see what it's like.

It seems that more and more people are turning their backs on modern medicine. While I do believe that it has its merits and most definitely can help people, the bottom line is that it is a money making empire. Things are prescribed that can have strange side effects, when there are natural options out there that would help you without making you suffer from things like aches and pains, dry mouth, bowel control problems, heart stoppage, compulsive gambling and what not. I for one am glad that holistic medicine is on the rise once again. I didn't have health insurance for ten years, so I relied on it a lot when I got fell ill. The amount of garlic cloves I consumed was astronomical.

Mission Root believes in the holistic side of life. They follow a Ayurvedic lifestyle, which involves meditation, yoga, deep breathing and a special healthy diet. To help spread the word of this to others they have created these “teas.”

First off, you're probably wondering, as I was, what tulsi is. Well, it's an herb that is used to cleanse the respiratory system and to relieve digestive pressure. It is often used as a treatment for colds and coughs. You mix that in with the magical properties of ginger, and you have yourself this nice healthy drink that is fairly sweet (due to the agave) and has a vague floral taste. I had expected this to have a much stronger ginger taste, but it's mostly tulsi and agave with some hints of ginger in the background. It's a fairly unusual tasting tea, but it's in an interesting way that makes you keep drinking it instead of a gross, “this needs to go in the filth bin instantly” way.

Also, note that 5% of their profits are donated to Akshaya Patra, the world's largest NGO school meal program.

Peter Ayala was often a hungry man and when he was hungry, he knew there was no better place to go than the Greek place by his house? Why is that? Well it's because they had everything on the menu. What other place could you go where on the same menu they had, gyros, hamburgers, meat loaf, bahn mi, pizza, and quesadillas? Sure, nothing was mind blowing but when Peter was hungry and didn't want to go through the whole, "Where do I want to eat?" thing, he would just go to the Greek restaurant and just get something.

One thing he thought was a classic move, that no place aside from Greek restaurants do anymore, was they put out the little bowl of After Dinner mints. He loved that they had the glass bowl and a little spoon in it and you just helped yourself. He loved those mints. One day when the manager wasn't looking he took a couple more than he normally would. Sure he could just buy them at the store but he wanted to try something a little different.

He went home, unloaded two dozen mints onto the table and filled up an empty two liter of pop with water, put the mints in along with some peppermint leaves and just let it all infuse together. Then, the time was ready. He readied a glass and took a sip. He couldn't have been happier. He was worried that it was going to be too strong but to his surprise it was a nice, refreshing drink that didn't taste like toothpaste or like he put candy inside water. He could make more and more as the summer heat came down, as it was a very refreshing and cooling drink.

He would never tell the restaurant what he discovered but every time after that faithful day he would take twice as many mints as he should have. One serving for him and one for the drink he would always make to cap off his day.

I must implore everyone who tries this beverage to not give up after one sip. I completely understand why you would want to. Something about that first sip seems like the drink had gone bad. It tastes like the beginning stages of fermentation, and it's not very pleasant. The thing is that if you can make it past the first introduction of tea to tongue, you will be rewarded. With each sip this drink gets better and better until you get to the last drop and you are completely bummed out that it is gone. That's right, this went from gross to “when can I get another bottle?” in 12 small ounces.

With a name like Classic Gold I expected this to be straight up yerba mate and carbonated water, with a little sugar mixed in. To be fair, that was delivered but along with it came some spice as well as prune, lime, tamarind and ginger juice (I don't know how you juice ginger). The culmination of all of this is extremely interesting on ones taste buds. You can swish it around your mouth and actually make out the different flavors. That's exactly how I like my beverages. It has the classic yerba mate flavor, with just the right amount of sweetness and additional flavors.

I'm telling you, work past that first sip and you will find that you are in for a true treat.

Now this could be trouble. Here's what happens; I drink countless drinks per week, between ten and fifteen new drinks per week. That's a lot, right? Not many of them grab me but in the case that I do find one that grabs a hold of you like some sort of starving hawk in the middle of a desert, I crave it. A lot. I think about the next time I will be in the area and I can get some. Currently, I'm riding the proverbial horse of Panera's Tropical Hibiscus. I Just Can't Get Enough.

I bought this and didn't think much of it other than I was thirsty but a couple hours later and three quarters of a thirty three ounce bottle later, here I am trying to wonder when the next time myself or someone I can will be out at our new Trader Joe's to get me like four bottles of "the stuff."

Now this is not perfect but it's darn close. It's got the smell and the taste. The only thing it's missing is that little thing in green tea that people that like green tea like and people who claim they don't like green tea don't like. That strange, back of your tongue bitterness that makes your mouth water and crave more. It doesn't have that but it does have a very good taste and just tastes like an honest, home brewed green tea.

At two dollars, you have no reason not to at least try it. They have a fruit one, too that I will get next time I'm there stocking up on this habit. Darn it, Joe. You've caught me like a fish at some sort of fishing derby. A little secret about me, though? I'll get hooked so hard that when you stop selling it, you will miss me like the deserts miss the rain.

Were there teas made to accompany a science fiction movie based in the desert? No one knows for sure, but I would like to start off those rumors that have not previously exists, right now. There it is. I am now claiming this tea was made as a marketing aid for a fake movie to get US soldiers out of Iran. No one told the tea company that the movie was a fake. They were just about to launch a line of teas and they didn't have a name, and tying it in with what would obviously be a popular movie seemed like a nice cash grab. Too bad for them it never came to be. Also, too bad for them that Ben Affleck decided to make a movie based on said fake movie and draw attention back to the name. Did any of this really happen? No one knows. The answers have all been lost in the sands of time. Maybe the truth will come out under a cowl with a gruff voice in the near future.

Whatever its origins may be Argo makes one heck of a tea. They have messed around with various incarnations, and I am pleased that they keep coming back to using hibiscus as their tea base. If you don't like hibiscus you are a fool, plain and simple. This beverage is simply hibiscus tea, cane sugar and lemon juice. The last ingredient is what makes it part of their “squeeze” line, which is their fancy versions of the half and half, or Arnold Palmer game. I am a fan. It tastes like real lemon and not some gross cleaner. I don't understand how so many companies get the lemon flavor wrong, but Argo is right on the money.

This is a “no way to lose” beverage. It's a quality lemonade mixed with hibiscus tea, with no extraneous ingredients. I love it and so should you, unless you want your taste buds to be wrong. I don't mean to be a jerk, but if you don't like this you should go see your physician, because something has gone wonky inside your mouth.

The weather has turned to turd soup, but you aren't going to let that down. You gather up some provisions, and your significant other and head out to the local botanical gardens for a mid winter picnic. Sure, the gardens look down upon people taking their meals at their establishment, but that's nothing that a twenty slipped to the security guard can't take care of.

Everything is going perfectly. You're surrounded by wonderful green foliage, and the temperature is in the mid 80's inside the dome. No, not “Under the Dome.” I don't know how Brian K Vaughn got mixed up in that train wreck. He's better than that, and his comic writing proves it. Speaking of along with some sandwiches, veggies and hummus you also brought along the last few issues of Saga, for your lover to catch up on as you just sit back and enjoy the escape from winter as you sip on the tea you brought along. You spent a little time making it at home. You brewed it in this big kettle over the fireplace. You wanted to be romantic, and why waste the energy from the stove when you have a perfectly good fire roaring? You brewed some nice green tea in that kettle and added a little honey to sweeten it up. Okay you added a decent amount of honey, and it is very obvious when you taste it. It has the heaviest honey taste out of any tea you've ever made. Apparently at some point during your outing a single hibiscus leaf fell into the tea. It's weird because it gave it a bit of flavoring, but since it doesn't' have cinnamon or other spices in it, it tastes different to other hibiscus teas you've tasted. It's a great tea though to go along with a great outing to make you forget about the weather outside.

That is exactly what will run through your mind grapes as you drink a bottle of this tea. Either that or I am just a true weirdo who envisioned that while driving through the Canadian countryside on a blustery night.

First let's look at the pros:
This is a non-carbonated energy drink. While it's not entirely novel, but it's a nice option regardless. On top of that it is also an iced tea energy drink. Something about that makes it seem more natural, even though there are unnatural things afoot. The sugar content is on the lower side for these types of drinks, which is always appreciated. The final plus is that it doesn't taste like a typical energy drink. The weird chemical candy taste is not present at all. When companies can achieve that, they get my attention.

Now on to the cons:
This smells like a cheap lemon flavored iced tea, and the taste is right there as well. This tastes like it should be a close relative to Brisk. While that may be a very good thing for some people, I personally am not a fan of that fake tea taste. In fact, this doesn't taste like a “half and half” at all. There is no classic lemonade flavor in this can, it's just an overly lemon iced tea. Again, perhaps that's good for some, but I'm not on board. The final con is that along with the glucose this also has sucralose in it. That is the reason for the lower levels of sugar, but it also takes the flavor down a notch as you get hints of diet occasionally.

There it is. Take these lists and decide for yourself if this is the kind of thing you want to put in your body or not. I personally did not make it through the entire can.

Enough. Enough, I say. Things have gotten out of control in my kingdom. I leave for two weeks with the queen to the seaside and when I return things are in shambles. I left all of you in charge and you have forsaken me. There are chickens running rampant for one. I stepped in chicken eggs and poop on my way up the stairs and there have never been chickens in the castle unless it was in the kitchen on their way to become dinner. The men are growing their hair out both on their heads and on their faces and they look like the cavemen that roamed our fine earth before us. More importantly, though, I would like to bring up someone's bright idea to marry our fine tea with flowers and sugar because they deserve to have their name and "guillotine" in the same sentence.

"What's wrong with it?" Well where do I start? It was a fine, red tea that we brought in from our trip to China to trade. The flowers, what did you say were in there? Chamomile and lavender? Look, the chamomile was fine. It was a nice relaxing tea but the lavender turned it into one of those baths that we take once a month. That or something we give the children to ease their throats when they are ill. That or a candle. Now all of these I could possibly take if it weren't for the sweetener that you have used. I have surveyed the sugar farmers and they said that they did use their sweetener but they also said that used something called Stevia. Now, I appreciate you using your skills as budding scientists to make new things but I might have to ratchet that down to things like alloys for armor and, I don't know, something crazy like air in the tires so that you don't feel every bump on those hard, wooden rims. It's too sweet and you know how I, the king, loves his sweets.

My faithful town, you have done me wrong and that is why the queen and I do not take trips. Now, to make things right, you must catch all the chickens, put most of them back in their cages and we shall have a triumphant feast in celebration of the dear queen and my return. That and that the food in Florida was quite bad.

Honey, it's so nice out here at the hotel pool. I know I've been depressed, even during our vacation. It's just that it's been really tough at work and I feel like everyone is coming down on me. It's nice to just relax and sit with my feet dangling in the pool with my sunglasses on, the sound of the ocean in the background, babes in bikinis...what? We're on vacation! Don't think I didn't see you turning it on when we were at the bar last night. We're just here to have fun and unwind, right? Right.

Oh, what's this? Aloe and iced green tea? That sounds pretty good. Honey, um, why is that kid looking across the pool at me doing that fingers to eye thing like Robert Di Niro does in all those Focker's movies? Do you think he heard my remark about fat kids wearing shirts in pools? I think he did. What's he doing? Oh...oh no. He's going to do a cannonball. Ahhhh!!!!!

Oh come on, kid. I'm finally relaxing and you got me all wet. I know it's a pool but sometimes you just want to dangle your feet. I am not an old man. I'm thirty one. What a jerk. He got pool water all over me and, oh man, he got it in my drink. I'm sorry, honey. I saw him coming and I should have covered my drink. Well maybe he didn't get that much in there. Let me see. Bleh, he did the damage. This tastes exactly like you would expect it to. It tastes like aloe green tea with pool water in it. The green tea is trying to poke his little head out and you can taste it and you can taste and see the aloe bits but then that strange, plastic, chemical water taste is there to ruin it.

You know what, honey? I think I'm just going to go up to the room and see what's on TV. Now all I can think about is Meet The Fockers and I think I would like to do that. You go turn that charm on and get yourself a free drink. Sorry I'm such a pretty literal wet blanket. If I'm sleeping, wake me up for dinner. I want a sloppy joe.

James had a rough day. He couldn't pinpoint what was wrong but he was in a bad mood. His boss noticed and asked him to come out behind the office. James reluctantly went back and his boss handed him boxing gloves. He put them on and his boss hit his gloves against James' and it was on. A couple right jabs and left hooks later and they were both sitting in the parking lot a little more bruised than they were five minutes prior. James thanked his boss for letting him blow off some steam and when he did, his boss handed him a bottle of tea.

James looked at it, cracked it open, and took a big chug. He was instantly calm. It was a slightly sweetened tea with a hint of mint. It was sweetened with honey and it was so lightly flavored that you could taste it. The black tea was strong and everything was well proportioned. James could finally relax with a black eye in the parking lot with his boss who had some slightly bruised ribs. James was fixed. Every couple months they would look at each other when they were having a bad day and just have at each other in the parking lot. It kept them together as friends and kept the office working smoothly. An odd work environment indeed, but it worked.

Holy greens Batman! The freshness in this tea is absurd. The flavor is as if you picked some tealeaves from the plant and started chomping away on them. That's right this raw tea tastes like plants. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on you, the drinker. I know this would be a huge turnoff to a lot of people out there, but at the same time I understand the allure for others. I'm personally not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I appreciate the freshness and think it's great that such a thing exists, but on the other I kind of feel like a bully held me down and made me eat grass. I'm going to guess that most of you out there are going to pass on this product after reading this review, but for you adventurous ones out there, I say give it a shot. Who knows, maybe it will be your thing.

Okay I need a bit of clarification here from the company. Is Plan Tea supposed to be like “Plan B,” said so it sounds like you're saying “plenty” or is it supposed to mean something along the lines of “plan on emptying your wallet because the tea you are about to drink it excellent and you will want to buy all the store has to offer.”?

I can back two of those ideas. I certainly don't know what plan A is if this is the backup, but I would certainly like to find out, because this is an excellent showing of extremely slightly sweetened green tea, with a nice light mango flavor. There's just enough honey in it that it tastes vaguely sweet without losing the bitterness that is essential to the green tea flavor. It tastes like tea I brew for myself at home, and then let cool in the fridge, except it's of a higher quality leaf than what I normally purchase.

As for the “plenty” thought, I personally can be a glutton and at the end of the 16oz I could have drank more. Maybe they are saying that you will want plenty more, because this tea is so good.

The last possibility is the one I understand the most. I am kicking myself for not purchasing more of these when I came across them in NYC. Unfortunately they are not available yet in Western New York. If you do end up buying a bunch you can feel good about doing so because 5% of their net sales are donated to Trickle Up, a non profit organization that helps in the fight against global poverty.

With cold brew coffee being all the rage these days I'm shocked that this is the first I have heard of what is essentially a cold brewed tea. I mean sure I've heard of sun tea, but that's not something I have ever found for sale in a store.

The tea in this bottle has never been heated, nor has it been dehydrated. It is essentially the freshest tea you will ever have in your life unless you or someone you know picks the tea leaves themselves. So what does the world's freshest tea taste like? Well, it's the smoothest of it's kind that I have ever tried, and that is with only 7g of sugar in it. It's no bitterness to it at all. This is a whole new world of tea, that I appreciated more and more with every sip.

So there you have the base for the tea. Added on top of that is some peppermint leaves that are out of this world ridiculous. As soon as you open the bottle the smell hits you and it hits you hard. I can be a bit iffy about mint in my drinks, as it has a tendency to taste like I'm drinking something with gum in my mouth, but that is simply not the case here. This peppermint tastes the way that tea tree oil smells. Yes, that is a good thing for me. The way the leaves are ground up in here, when you take a sip your lips are coated with a crazy mintiness. It feels like you licked a Lifesaver and then rubbed it all over your lips. Intense.

When I first started this bottle I was unsure how I felt about it, but by the time I was done I was already craving more. There is some magic here, and if you see this in your local grocery, do not pass it up.

This drink plays out like first time you see a classic midnight movie as a child. It's incredible strange and weird, and when you first encounter it you're not exactly sure how you feel about it. Everything in your body tells you that it's wrong and that you should not continue along this path in your life, yet there is a little spark of interest deep down inside and if you nurture it a great love could bloom.

There were four of us gathered when this drink was opened. Each of us took a sip and we all had the same reaction of this is just not good. One of our friends proclaimed that it tasted like your grandmother doused herself in bug spray, then to cover the smell spritzed perfume all over and then forced you to lick her arm. I did not have such a strong reaction, but my tongue was not pleased. Then for some reason I took another sip, and things started to look like they weren't all that bad. My body had accepted the flavor as something unusual, but unusual doesn't equal bad. Sure the baby from Eraserhead is one of the weirdest things ever thought up/constructed and at a young age it's completely terrifying, but it's also an incredible image in cinema. I'm not saying this drink will have such a profound effect on the beverage world, but it is out of the ordinary and it has merit.

The problem was that we all went into this expecting what we universally accept as iced tea. The thing is that this bottle does not contain any traditional tea and it is an herbal infusion. Once your brain isn't expecting black, green or white tea it can begin to properly process the flavors this drink contains. The main herbal flavor in this comes from the rooibos, which is actually a legume from South Africa. It's also known as red tea, so there is a chance that you may have had it before without even realizing it. After that comes the floral taste of the rose petals. This is where the majority of the weirdness of this beverage comes from. In the western world, we're not accustomed to ingesting flowers, and while it's not a terrible thing it does take some time to become acclimated to it. Underneath it all lies a light cinnamon flavor that rounds everything out.

At first sip, I thought I wanted nothing to do with this tea, but now that I'm near the bottom, the floral taste that seemed so overpowering in the beginning seems more like an afterthought. This beverage is very interesting, and if you're looking for an adventure, pull one of these from your local grocer's shelf and then head down to the independent theatre in your town and check out whoever the new Lynch, Cronenberg and Waters are for the current generation.

Like peanut butter and chocolate these are two great tastes that should taste great together, and that's even without the extra bonus of passion fruit. I love tea. I love aloe drinks. What is there not to love here right? Well, let me walk you through my beverage experience.

I grab this from the fridge, elated that my mouth is about to be blessed with what I can only assume is a beverage from the heavens. I twist off the cap and take a sip and…€¦something is wrong here. This doesn't taste like I expected. It's not insanely sweet and there is this weird bitterness around the edges. I take another sip and ponder this like a fool. Of course it's not what my brain expected. My brain saw aloe and passionfruit and it was expecting an explosion of flavor on my taste buds. The wrinkles in my head-grapes forgot to factor in the tea aspect of the drink. That weird bitterness I spoke of was simply the taste of the green tea. Since I have never tasted tea and aloe together I couldn't process what it would taste like for a second. Once everything fell in line and my synapses started firing away, I enjoyed this drink much more.

The tea flavor is right up front in this bottle. I had expected the aloe to be the guiding force, but without insane amounts of sugar it takes a backseat to the natural flavor of the green tea. The normal white grape taste that I associate with aloe was all but not there. To give this a proper explanation I would have to say that this tastes like a lightly brewed, lightly sweetened green tea that has just a splash of passion fruit flavor in it. The only way the aloe is really present is in the small chunks in it, and I mean real small. There are fewer chunks in this than in orange juice with pulp.

This didn't turn out to be what I expected and wanted it to be, but it still ended up being decent. I think going into the other flavors without the expectations that I had will lead me to a more enjoyable experience. You can also share in those experiences now. Won't you join me?

If you took three different sized dudes, lined them up, insulted their mothers individually, and openly welcomed punches in the face, that's what this drink is like. Three different sized fists brutally assaulting your kisser. Three fists, at three separate times, pummeling your money maker.

This drink was awesome on the shelf and awesome in my mouth. Well that sounds gross. Eh, you know what? I'll leave it. You can taste everything but they don't share the spotlight, which I might enjoy more. You get a blast of cacao, then nutmeg, and then cardamom. Just like a two years old boy, there is no sharing going on and unlike that two years old boy, I like it.

This new line...Ayala. You're on to something, friends. I'm on to you and you're on to something great.

When I bought this drink I was pretty sure it was going to be great, but the longer I thought about it, the greater my suspicions. On one hand it's a green tea that was orange pineapple flavored and that sounds great to me. In addition to that it comes in a glass bottle, which most of the time is a sign of quality tea. What company is going to spend the extra money on glass with an inferior product? On the other hand this is a protein drink, which could leave it weirdly chalky. It is also sweetened with stevia, which isn't absolutely terrible, but it's still not my sweetener of choice. There was no doubt that there was going to be an element of gambling involved with this one.

My original thoughts were not quite on the money. Actually they were a bit further away from it than I would have liked. This is a very, very light tea to the extent that it almost tastes like tea-flavored water. The flavoring has a vague citrusness around it, but it's more like the weakest Tang that has ever been made than orange and pineapple. That's stevia coldness isn't helping matters either. If that had been the drink it wouldn't have been horrible, but nothing I would spend my money on again. Blu-Dot took things further though and added whey protein in order to make the drink functional.

On some levels adding the protein made this drink seem better, because I always give functional drinks a bit of a break in the flavor category, because you can't expect that stuff to taste great. Then on the opposite levels it just makes an already mediocre flavor go even more down hill.

To summarize this it tastes like a shot of green tea was dumped into the world's most watered down Tang and then a heap of whey protein was dropped in, which made it taste like it should be curdled. I am not a fan.

Come on, dude. Let me down. I don't think that I deserve this. I swear I didn't steal that pack of gum. I've got like thirty dollars in my wallet. Why would I steal a one dollar pack of gum? Dollar fifty? Come on dude. This is a dollar gum and you know it. You're just ripping people off with that. I know people love it. It's a classic gum but that's no reason to overcharge just because you can. Let's just get back to the issue at hand here. Why am I being drawn and quartered? I told you I wasn't stealing that gum. I had some on me that you just so happen to be a brand you sell. Seriously, I'm telling you the truth. Man, this reminds me of that strange tea I had. What? Oh, now you're concerned about my opinion. Well I'll tell you but I would like you to let me go. I'll pay you double for the gum I didn't steal just so you let me down. This thing pulling me is getting quite uncomfortable.

Alright, so I met up with some friends and one gave me a tea that I couldn't read a single word to. Naturally I just drank it because I was thirsty. I took a sip and it tasted like someone poured jasmine tea into a beer and sweetened it with honey. I don't drink so this kind of took me for a loop. Why don't I drink? It's because I don't want to and don't think that I need to, that's why. Back to the tea, I love tea. I love it. When you pair it with beer, though, it goes down an infinite amount of pegs. When you have a nice jasmine tea sweetened with honey, though, it's a good thing. So I'm torn, much like I feel like my limbs are slowly ripping from my socket all over some stupid gum.

Oh, what? I don't know where it came from, maybe some Asian market. So what do you say, pal? Can you let me down? I've been good to you. I've promised you more money that you deserve. I've told you a tale of my past. How about you let me down? No? Well what do you want to talk about while my balls and sockets say goodbye? This is unbearable but I give you full credit for doing it with horses and not some medieval apparatus. Credit where credit's due, right?

You thought I was never going to do it but I did it. Was it hard? No. How hard is buying a cup of green tea? Not hard. It took a lot of recommendation and persuasion to get me out of their hibiscus iced tea, which I should add has been upgraded to a five bottle review, but we did it. How was it? Not as good as everyone thinks it is.

If I had to simplify it, which I don't have to but I will, it tastes like if Whole Foods made green tea Freez-e-pops. It's sweet like the liquid in one would be. As for the promised passion fruit and papaya infusion, it is a light infusion that might only be used to cut out the bitterness of the green tea of which there is none. It's not fruity and doesn't have a ton of body whatsoever. It's a fairly straightforward, entry-level sweet green tea. Sure, it's for the masses so bitterness and complexity don't really bode well for the lowest common denominator. Am I calling you a dumb dummy? No sir or madam. Am I calling you a lady who houses prostitutes? No ma'am.