Iced Tea - 901 Reviews

What's so funny `bout peace, love and Georgia Peach Tea? The answer is nothing, at least for the latter bit. I can't believe it has taken Peace Tea so long to come out with a peach flavored iced tea. I feel like lemon, raspberry and peach are the staple flavors of iced tea. I could see if they were trying to go against the grain, but lemon and Razzleberry have been on the shelves for years. I can assure you it was worth the wait though.

When you're getting 23oz of tea for 99 cents, it's easy to assume that you're not going to be getting quality tea. Can we all agree that Arizona is great for the price, but it's not a quality tea by any means? I love the stuff, but it doesn't compare to companies that flavor their tea before they brew it rather than adding flavoring to a uniform batch of black or green tea. Peace Tea falls into the same category as Arizona, but at least they sweeten their teas with real sugar (and a little sucralose to keep the sugar levels down).

This actually tastes like canned peaches, instead of some candy flavored syrup that a lot of the bigger companies use. It may not be the best peach tea I've ever tasted, but it's better than most, and for the cost how can you say no? Things are a little bit slower down in Georgia, so take your time sipping on this tall can.

I am an adulterer today, friends. After so many people have recommended that I drink Panera's green tea, I decided to try it. "But this is not a review for green tea, you idiot." I know and there is a simple explanation for that. I thought it was one of the teas in the back that you fill yourself. I was incorrect and found out as soon as I walked down past it. Drats. I figured since I hadn't reviewed this, and I had already decided I wasn't going to get my loved Hibiscus tea, that I might as well as "get this out of the way."

I judged too harshly. This isn't bad. I am not on the bandwagon of acai but this isn't too bad. Not too bad at all. It's got a good berry taste with only a slightly and not offensive bitterness from that turd acai. I don't know how Panera makes such good tea all the time but they brew a strong iced tea that pulls all the flavors out of the thing they're tea-ing. They must have some sort of vacuum that is sucking out the flavor and essence. It must have been custom built because they are beating everyone out. Custom flavor vacuum. That's a niche market that needs to be exploited.

There is a place called Turkey Hill. This is a magical place where iced tea flows like water. I'm not making that up, it literally does. On the hill are spouts hidden in the woods with different flavors of iced tea. They are natural springs of iced tea, the only place in the world where this exists.

The only known side affect from Turkey Hill's iced tea springs is cavities. In fact, 93% of the population has dentures due to this. This figure was from 1962, and luckily that number has dropped to 91%. Why the 2% drop over 52 years? In 1972 some kids were wandering behind the train tracks that border the hill. Not many people have gone back there over the years due to the train yard workers being jerks. Anyways, these kids were in the woods and stumbled upon an iced tea spout that wasn't on the official city map. They tasted and it wasn't as sweet as the iced tea they grew up with.

The reason was this had aspartame in it instead of sugar. It didn't taste as good to them, but they had heard about how aspartame doesn't cause as many cavities so they told the whole town about it. Of course, as you can see by the statistics, only 2% of the population decided to start drinking the "diet iced tea" as they called it. Studies have shown that people who can't consume sugar like it, but otherwise it leaves a lot to be desired.

Now I'm not a religious man. I'm quite the opposite, but when I saw this bottle of tea staring me back in the face, I thought to myself, "My prayers have been answered." Now that's obviously just a turn of phrase and it's a whole lot more likely that Danny Wegman bugged my phone and heard me talking constantly about how much I, a Thirsty Dude, loves hibiscus tea.

Now, Danny in his excited and impatient ways did hear me correctly but didn't hear me entirely because as much as I love hibiscus tea, I love it with an asterisk.

The way that I like my hibiscus is with a little bit of flair. A little bit of spice. Just a hint of it. I've mentioned this many times but the Tazo Passion and the Panera hibiscus are the epitome of perfect, unsweetened teas. There is something else in there and I think that one of those things is cinnamon. Just a hint of it.

The tale of Jin and Ja is as timeless as Disney would like you to believe Beauty and the Beast is. Two star-crossed lovers doomed because of their families…€¦wait that's not it. Is it something about a monkey and a talking car? Hmm. Whatever the tale we here at Thirsty Dudes are constantly on the prowl for the perfect ginger beer. The kicker is that I think I now hold it in my hands, but it's not a soda at all, due to its lack of carbonation. The perfect version of ginger ended up being some sort of weird tea type drink. I say that because it doesn't taste like tea at all.

Jin + Ja is a healthy elixir that combines ginger, cayenne, mint, green tea and lemon. It has one of the craziest burns I have ever experienced with a beverage in my life. It burns as soon as it hits your mouth, and it has an incredibly strong cayenne/ginger after burn. It's so strong that I can only drink the tiniest of all glasses at one sitting. I've actually been sipping on about 8oz of liquid for the past hour. I'm savoring every sip, which is how this should be enjoyed.

In-between the initial and post burn you get a nice sweet lemon flavor, with a very light hint of mint. The “heat” overpowers most of the tea flavor, but I'm not complaining. I just poured myself a little more, and the little that I poured makes me feel like I'm sitting here pouring shots for myself. Speaking of which, this would probably be a great mixer for some liquors.

My warning is that this drink is not for everyone. I seek out spicy ginger drinks, and this is almost too much for me to handle. My ladyfriend had the tiniest of sips, under duress, and she was writhing in pain yelling about the burn afterwards. Perhaps it will become the new” Cinnamon Challenge” or the “100 Warhead Challenge.” How much Jin + Ja can you drink before your head explodes like in Scanners?

“Let's make Plan Tea plan A.” You're welcome for your new slogan. I'm sure the higher ups at Plan Tea have already thought of it, but come on it's great. Actually it's almost as great as the tea itself, almost. If this were only Darjeeling black tea it would be an excellent tea that would get a great rating on this website. The addition of the flavoring puts it through the roof and makes it one of the best ready to drink teas I have ever tasted.

Vanilla is an odd enough choice for a flavoring for iced tea. I've had it a few other times, but it's not common by any means. Whoever suggested using basil is a goddamn saint. They must have had a direct line to some sort of god who spoke to them in a dream and hinted at the use of basil. It's simply heavenly.

Both flavors are on the light side, but that it exactly how they should be. It's also mostly unsweetened. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but the only sweetener in it is a single drop of honey. It doesn't make it taste sweet by any means. It simply smoothes out the edges just a little bit.

I cannot exalt the greatness of this tea enough. Since the only place I have found this for purchase is over six hours away from me, I took my time and sipped it slowly. The next time I find myself in Brooklyn I'm going to have to stock up. If you or anyone you know are a fan of unsweetened iced teas I strongly urge you to give this a go.

All of you guys have your fancy coffees in your fancy tiny cups. Ohhhhh you're soooo cool. Tiny cups for tiny cups of coffee. When is it my turn? Oh, it's my turn now? What do you mean they've had iced tea and regular tea for as long as they've had coffee? Why didn't anyone tell me? Yes, I do feel entitled to know these sorts of facts. I love tea and you guys should have told me. Yeah, I guess you are bad friends. Seriously, if I would have known about these options I would have gone a lot softer on you guys about the whole "tiny cups" thing. I guess it wasn't that hard on you guys. So what do I think? I like it. Even though it's not the primary sweetener, you can tell that there is something diety in there. What's in there? Uhhh...aspartame. Great. It's got a good lemon tea flavor but I would far rather have a bottle of this exact same tea from the store. I just think that it's better, that's why. You know, you're coming on pretty strong about this whole "tiny cups" thing. Are you really that offended? Yes? Really? Really. Well in that case maybe we shouldn't be friends any more. If things like that are going to break us apart than this friendship doesn't stand a chance. Good day, shopkeep.

While I think of this as a cheaper, average tea, I'm sure 99% of people in the United States think that this is what all tea tastes like. It's overly sweet, in a way that puts it on the brink of being straight up sugar water; there are 50g of sugar in this 16oz bottle. The thing that really saves this tea is that they use natural raspberry flavor, and it shows, as it actually tastes like berries and not just fake flavoring. It's not my favorite tea in the world, but I would happily accept it if it were ever presented to me. I would actually drink a couple gallons of this if they were places before me. I'm a glutton like that when it comes to tea.

Do you think there is anyone out there that collects iced tea? I mean is there a crazy person out there who purchases one of every type of iced tea they can find, but then never drink them? Perhaps they have an auxiliary house whose only purpose is to display a gigantic collection of unopened teas. Subquestion: would you be able to see the tea rotting if it came in a clear bottle?

If you know of a collector please tell him/her that Turkey Hill has a limited edition flavor out and they better hurry on over to PA to pick some up. Okay, if they are a real collector like you say they are then I'm sure they have their ear to the ground and they already know this exists. I'm just trying to he helpful, you don't need to get up in arms about it.

For you non-collectors out there who would actually drink this tea, it may be called “light,” but it's actually sweetened with a combination of real sugar and aspartame. The diet flavor is at a minimum, which leave drinking this tea and enjoyable experience. It's made with black tea, and the blueberry flavor is fairly bold. Oh it's also cheap as hell for such a large bottle. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of middle grade iced teas.

Hitch the dogs to your sled, because you are going on an adventure. The Peace Tea company has hired you to travel out into the Arctic Circle to harvest sno-berries for the newest flavor in their line. We told them that we have lived up here in this winter wonderland for our entire lives and that we have never heard of sno-berries before, but they said we would know them when we saw them, and gave us the coordinates. Since you're the rookie of the team, and we just want to watch these Gilmore Girls DVDs we got in the mail, you're the one who's going out to harvest the bounty. It shouldn't take you more than a day to get out there and back, so don't pack too much junk. We'll see you tomorrow.
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Welcome back. Now that wasn't all that bad was it? What do you mean all there was out there was a bunch of blueberries? Do you think they really would pay top dollar for this expedition just to get blueberries? I mean I guess they did say they had never actually seen the berry or tasted it, they just liked the name and wanted to use it for their new tea. What is it that you're eating there? Raspberries? Well that gives me an idea, let's charge them a small fee to juice the berries for them, as it will save on shipping anyways, and we'll mix blueberries and raspberries together to give it a slightly weirder taste. Now that's some good thinking on my part. Maybe they will want to do some repeat business. Why is everyone laughing? Why is everyone saying “Oi with the poodles already?” Now I'll have to rewatch the episode. Get to juicing those berries.


The above scenario is what I imagine happening in my head. It's the only events I can imagine that would lead to this tea tasting the way it does. Obviously the tea is named sno-berry because it's made with white tea and berries. I'm not that dense. The thing is that the company claims that it's white tea with blueberry, but when you drink it there is the taste of some raspberries in the mix as well. I'd like to think that someone pulled a fast one on Peace Tea and mixed the berries together.

Otherwise this flavor stands out in their line. The use of white tea was a nice touch, and it's evident in the taste. It has that slightly bitter taste that always accompanies white tea. Even though it has a ridiculously strong berry smell when you crack it open, that aspect of the flavor is a little bit more reserved than it is in their Razzleberry tea.

I can't wait for this to make its way into more stores. As of now the only place I have found it was a tiny gas station in Richmond, VA. It needs to come to New York, so I can have easy access to it.

Further adventures in the world of Pennsylvanian iced tea lead us to the wild world of Turkey Hill. Grab your gizzards and let's go. First though, let's discuss what came first the gas station or the tea? According to Wikipedia the tea came before the stores, but it was also preceded by ice cream and milk that was originally sold from the back of a car, creep style in the 30's. Now that that is covered, let's talk some mango green tea.

This has a good generic green tea taste to it. It does have a nice smooth mango flavor as well. Overall it is not of the same quality as high-end teas, but you know what? Sometimes you just want the taste of a cheaper tea. Speaking of cheap, at the Turkey Hill store I purchased this from they were four for $5. That's a whole mess of tea for very little money. It's a deal that can't be beat. They sweeten it with both corn syrup and real sugar, which is a decision I don't understand. Are they really saving that much money by splitting it up?

As far as tea of the Keystone state go Turkey Hill is on the top of the heap. They make a great mid level tea, that you don't get sick of, even when sipping on a half gallon all day.

What is it about Pennsylvania that makes them love iced tea so much? I'm pretty sure there are more tea companies per capita than anywhere else in the world. It seems that every little region of the state has it's own dairy farm that puts out tea. While we're at it, what is the correlation between a dairy farm and iced tea? How the world do they even come close to fitting together? Is it just because the farmhands like to drink it while they are working?

The Pittsburgh area has Schneiders as it's local dairy, and their tea is pretty standard for this sort of fare. It's made with a tea mix, which is a thumbs down in my book, but outside of their lemon tea the flavoring makes up for it. With this particular tea cooler you get an artificial lime flavor that could be likened to the flavor of a green Popsicle. It doesn't taste like nature's lime, but it's a familiar taste, so we accept it for what it is and enjoy it all the same. It's a very smooth tea, and not harsh as all, which is the case with a lot of lime flavored varieties. It's nothing to go crazy over, but it's good enough for how inexpensive it is, especially since they use real sugar.

When I was in 4th or 5th grade I got into skateboarding. It started out just skating in front of my friend's house, where we built a launch ramp and later had a quarter pipe. Eventually we grew bored of the scenery and took our adventure on the road. By that I mean we put on our backpacks, and fit our decks between the bag and our back so we could ride our bikes to new exciting places to skate. It seemed like we would ride forever to find a cool new spot. We would always end up at this one spot that had a little vending machine hidden amongst some bushes. It was no ordinary vender though because it only dispensed cartons of juice, well sugar water disguised as juice. They weren't very good, but it was always a spot that we would take a break, since they only cost a quarter.

While I was in Pittsburgh recently I found this carton of iced tea in a corner store. Sure they had the same tea in bottles, but the fact that it was in a carton made me think of all those days 25 years ago filled with riding bikes and skating. Holy crap I don't think I have ever felt as old as I do typing that out. The dust of my bones aside, I paid the 75 cents for the carton (damn inflation) with a smile and walking into the blinding sunlight.

As soon as I took a sip I remembered that some memories are better left in the past. The contents of the carton were the lowest common denominator of tea. The ingredients listed instant tea and powdered lemon juice, what on Earth is powdered lemon juice? It blew my mind that they would spend the money to use real sugar, but then skimp on the other ingredients. Overall it just tasted like overly sweetened tea water. After a couple more tentative sips I asked myself, “why the hell am I still drinking this?” and I dropped it into a conveniently placed garbage can. My childhood is now dead.

Oh I'm such a dumb dummy. I see this iced tea on the shelf in Ontario, Canada, blur through the ingredients, see "sugar" and jump to conclusions. Yeah, whatever. It's one dollar Canadian which at the time of review is ninety-seven cents American. Who cares, right? Right.

Well as bad as it could have been, which it wasn't, I managed to drink eighty percent of it. I should shut up now but what review would be complete without an actual review. Sure, we love reviewing things poorly, but poorly is better than non-existent. It tastes thicker than I like my tea. Dare I say the word, "unnatural" because Mother Nature's liquids aren't this thick? Ugh. Chalk that up on the "gross" board. No, I'm leaving it in there. The tea taste is fine but it is the "wrong" sweet. Good tea taste but bad sweet.

Also, "pure tea solids" is an ingredient in this and it sounds almost as gross as "Mother Nature's Liquids."

On a recent trip to the Asian market Mark decided to get a bunch of things he had never heard of before to expand his palate's horizons. He picked up some job's tears seeds, fragrant solomonseal rhizome, lily bulbs, lotus seeds, longan, gordon euryale seeds, and coastal glehnia root. He was so proud of his haul that Mike went right home and set out to make supper. That is where the troubles arose. No matter what he did with any of these ingredients the results were not very tasty. He tried to make tofu, pasta and even went as far as sprinkling them on toast. All were a no go.

It was in a moment of frustration that Mark decided to juice boil all of the ingredients together along with some rock sugar he had inexplicably laying around. He decided that a tea would be his last ditch effort. In the final moments of the game, he finally got his break. It tasted decent hot, but he decided to put it on ice and see what he had. Once cold his “tea” took on a new life. It was fairly sweet in the way that only rock sugar can make things. He's still convinced it's just rock candy ground up. It tastes about the same. Everything else just kind of blended together in a way that he could only racially describe as Asian. The flavor of this tea is just not naturally found in the Western world. It's hard to explain, but it tasted decent enough, so he drank it and was glad that his ingredients went to some productive use. It will be quite some time before Mark goes out and blindly buys unheard of ingredients again.

Jay, generous man of the year, bought this for me. I drove to Toronto and he bought me an iced tea. What a man, right? When we are in Canada, we are on our game. We have to memorize everything we drink because once we get over the border our phone data is down. What? We're not millionaires and cannot afford to just tether eleven devices? No, sir or ma'am. We cannot do that. We Thirsty Dudes pinch pennies so when Jay spends two dollars and forty nine cents Canadian on a drink, that's awesome.

Protein drinks are rough. They are often thick and taste like you're trying to do something. Something functional. Something that should be subsidized with, you know, good old-fashioned exercise. This drink is different, though. Let's run through the flavor. Cranberry and pomegranate are two delicious but bitter buddies. When together in a lightly sweetened tea are a great team. The green tea is there but between the cranberry and the pomegranate, the bitterness of a green tea is easily thwarted.

I am happy to have the protein I probably didn't have in me prior inside of me. I figure I earned it since I did go through the whole trouble of drinking it. I like it, though. It tastes like a cranberry and pomegranate juice and then watering it down a bit. Sure, you're paying for a premium for an organic, all natural drink, but hey, you're worth it. Well, you're worth it if Jay decides you're worth it.

Stopping at a gas station was difficult for James. He had a bit of a "thing" when it came to using public toilets. It seems that most times when he goes to use a rest stop bathroom, he has to get a key chained to a giant piece of wood and then when he gets into the bathroom it smells and there is almost all times feces on everything. James has had bad luck with bathrooms to say the least.

One time he went to a gas station in Maryland and needed to go to the bathroom. He knew what he was in for but knew that he had to go through it all the same. He talked to the attendant to get the key and the attendant was a kind, attractive young woman who said, "Oh, I'm sorry sir but our public bathroom is out of commission." James really had to go and the woman noticed and said, "Sir? If you'd like, you can use the employee bathroom. It's right through here." James light up like a Christmas tree. He was so happy that he was getting treated with respect and that someone was helping him out at a gas station for once. The bathroom was in immaculate condition and he couldn't be happier. He left the bathroom and thanked the woman.

Thirsty, James scoured the drink cooler and found a bottle of a lime iced tea. He thought that he had grown tired of lemon and regular iced tea and it was time for a change. He thanked the lady for the use of the bathroom and her sunny attitude and then left.

In his car, he took a sip and was once again pleasantly surprised. It was a naturally sweetened iced tea with a good but not overpowering lime flavor. James' bad gas station streak was over. He put his keys in the ignition, started the car, put the car in drive and began to drive off when he heard a loud sound. He stopped the car and looked around but didn't see anything. He continued to drive and as soon as he took his foot off the brake it made the same loud sound. He stopped the car and got out only to discover that his wheels had been stolen. His best gas station experience had promptly turned into his worst.

Shakes the clown did not get his name for good reasons. He was known for shaking very badly while making balloon animals. He never knew why he shook and didn't ask a doctor until a group of kids were picking on him for being at a birthday party and it took him a long time to tie a knot.

He went to the doctor and the doctor asked him what was on his mind. Shakes, or to the doctor, Gerald, said that he didn't know what happened. The doctor asked him about a normal day and Gerald said that he would wake up, drink a bottle of mango iced tea, and go to work. The doctor asked him what brand of drink it was and he said it was called "Zum XR" and the doctor gave him a look, took off his glasses, and gave him a little chuckle. He said, "Gerald, do you feel fine for about a half hour and then start to shake?" Gerald said that he did. He said that he really likes the flavor of it. He said it tasted great and you could taste both mango and a decent, smooth not bitter green tea. It was well sweetened and he liked the little balls in the bottom. The doctor asked Gerald if he knew what the balls were. Gerald said that he didn't know. The doctor told him that it was time released energy beads that was just giving him too much energy and his body couldn't handle it. Gerald was happy that he knew what it was but sad that he might have to stop drinking his favorite drink.

The next week, Gerald went back to work for kids birthday parties and felt like he was doing the best because he wasn't shaking. He could tie balloons no problem. He had no problem squirting water from his lapel flower. He never missed another pie in the face. At the end of the shows, though, at least one person would ask him why he was called "Shakes" and he said that he used to shake all the time. The kids actually missed the shaking and he missed his favorite drink. He made the tough decision to be worse at his job but to enjoy his drink and live up to his namesake again. Shakes the clown was back!

I know I've complained about this before with the peach version of this drink, but “half and halfs” are supposed to be tea and lemonade, not tea and juice. In my book that is just a flavored tea. This tea doesn't make me think of professional golfers at all and it should with a name such as this.

All complaints aside this is a pretty decent tea. Tea's Tea (when did they drop the Ito En?) always uses high quality teas in its beverages. In fact if I were ever trying to explain the way a certain tea tastes I would give the person that version of Tea's Tea. They are the company that taught me that what Arizona calls green tea, is nothing more that a delicious bastardization of a perfect beverage.

In this bottle we have their perfect unsweetened green tea, with some acerola cherry juice mixed into it. It's more tea than cherry and I am okay with that. I do wish they had used a different type of cherry though. Acerolas are not what I'm used to and they have a slightly different flavor. The real disappointment in this drink (to me at least) is that they chose to sweeten it. Even though they didn't add too much sugar, I feel like it detracts from the taste of the green tea, and muddies all of the flavors a little. I am just nitpicking though. This is a beverage that I would happily drink again and again. I dream of the day that I see this companies products in every gas station across the country. As I get older the tall boy tea loses its allure. Sometimes you just want real tea that isn't made by Lipton.

Cheribundi continuously walks the line between being great and being amazing. They use real cherry juice that is not from a concentrate in all of their beverages, which is great because that means there are cherry drinks out there that don't taste like cough medicine. Who decided to call that flavor cherry anyway? The fruit tastes nothing like that sugary monstrosity that has usurped its name.

This is very similar to the Jasmine Tea version I had a little ways back, minus all traces of anything floral. It has a classic sweetened green tea base that is amplified by the cherry juice. That juice is just great. Anytime a drink has a taste to it that makes me think about eating fruit, I know I have a winner on my hands.

My only complaint is that I could do with a little less sugar, but I prefer unsweetened teas, so this will probably be just right for those of you who drink the sweetened stuff on the regular.