Iced Tea - 901 Reviews

This is on par with the other Mary Anna's teas. It's a pretty sweet black tea with peaches mixed in. The ingredients actually say "peach pieces", but there are unfortunately no chunks in this bottle. I'm assuming they cut up peaches and let them soak in the tea. Then, before bottling, they strained out the chunks. I would have really enjoyed it if they had been kept in there. I don't believe I've ever had a tea with that sort of extra fun added to it.

One thing I don't understand about the Mary Anna's brand is that they love to add lemon juice to all of their teas. I think it's completely unnecessary. I think it even detracts from the great natural taste of the tea and the fruit flavoring. Peach and lemon are just two flavors that fight too much when mixed together.

There are a couple of different versions of "hell" for me. One of them is endlessly reliving St. Patrick's Day 2009. I think that another one would be going to wherever "Margaritaville" is. I got to thinking and then the phrase actually popped into my head. "Margaritaville isn't a place. It's a state of mind.". I actually thought that and then promptly wanted to die.

I don't even know what Margaritaville has to do with this tea. It isn't a company or a subsidiary, or even a line that they carry. Strange. I have no idea why it's there.

This tea is alright. It's a poor tasting, medium quality tea. It's sweetened with cane sugar and has no artificial flavors, but it's not great. It's oddly sweet and strangely lemon'd. No, not Lemon D the drum and bass artist that I could never get my hands on any records by. I don't know what's going on in here, but it's not a good blend of otherwise good ingredients.

Do you know what I hate? Straight up V8. I blame the tomatoes. Tomatoes are strange things. On their own they are the devil in food form. Seriously disgusting. I can't get over it. The thing is, salsa is one of my favorite things ever and the tomatoes in that don't bother me at all. I also like red sauce. I think ketchup is a crime against humanity, though. The smell alone makes me want to hurl. V8 didn't really stand a chance in its original form when it went to war against my palate.

V8 eventually saw that they were never going to be able to please me with their old business model (I mean I am who the company is always trying to please). They stepped up their game with the Splash and V-Fusion lines. They realized that if they mixed a bunch of fruits and vegetables together (yes tomatoes are still in the mix) it actually tasted decent...and not like something Beelzebub would be sipping on in the sixth circle of hell.

This is one of the best that V8 has to offer. Each 8oz glass contains a serving of both fruits and vegetables. In doing so it performs some sort of sorcery that makes the drink still taste like raspberry iced tea. This has sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes in it. You would never know unless someone spilled the beans. Apparently they still keep Satan on the payroll.

In the 80's there was nothing cooler than skateboarding. It's all my friends did and talked about. Somewhere along the lines skate videos came out. Companies took video of their best skaters, put it to music, and made magic for kids everywhere. My friends and I all had Powell Peralta decks, so we were obsessed with the "Bones Brigade" series. My favorite out of them all was "The Search for Animal Chin." The plot of the video was that the skaters were looking for a wise man named Won Ton "Animal" Chin. They searched everywhere for him and skated everything in their path. It led to some pretty intense sessions. At the end they find a half pipe in the desert with a Chinese symbol on it. The message is that "As long as skaters keep searching for Chin, they've already found him." I feel the same way about iced tea. We search high and low for the perfect tea and we come across a ton of incredible stuff in our adventures. This may not be the ultimate tea that we're searching for, but it's good. It's a blend of a bunch of different teas mixed together. It's "barely sweetened", so it's nice and bitter with a slight peach flavoring. This may not be Chin, but it's certainly a tea he would drink.

People always say it's the simple things in life that bring the most pleasure. Wandering in the woods. Riding your bike around aimlessly. Watching Wet Hot American Summer for the 937th time. Arguing whether Sugar songs are too long. These are all wonderful things. Sometimes life gets complicated, so you deal with it and hope for the simpler times to return. Rob's Really Good understands that. They know that sometimes all you need is water, agave nectar, and hibiscus. Three simple things that are wonderful together. Sweet. Flowery. Delicious.

I've been watching too much Mad Men and it's obviously affecting my reviews. This reads like I'm writing copy.

Oh white tea you are so...what's the right word...dry(?) tasting. Whenever I have white tea it always feels like the moisture is getting sucked out of my tongue. I mean I don't feel like Ned Nederlander, but neither am I feeling like Dusty Bottoms in the desert canteen scene from Three Amigos. Seriously how great is that scene? Okay, entire movie? I would really like to shake John Landis' hand for casting those three fellas together. It's comedic gold!

Okay, so here I am slightly drying out my tongue as I drink this tea, trying not to get carried away on a childhood favorite of mine. Like the label says this is "Just a tad sweet." It's also just a tad flavored. You can taste the pomegranate, but it's the white tea that is the prominent flavor. I'm okay with that. I enjoy a tea that is more tea than fruit juice.

The trifecta combination of the white tea, pomegranate, and acai gives this beverage a crazy antioxidant property. Drink it for health, drink it for refreshment, drink it for taste, or drink it because you're in the desert and your canteen turns out to be full of sand. Just make sure you give it a try.

"Lip balm?"

My grandma rules. Every time I go over there she has made something delicious like pasta, cookie, or something else. She doesn't fool with drinks, though. If she did, that would run companies like Granny Squibb out of business. That says a lot for my grandma, but I don't want it to sound like this company is easy to beat. It is hard to find a good iced tea company. This tea was very good. It's clearly a lemon tea base with just the right amount of mint. It has enough mint that it's extra cool, but not that it's mouthwash.

Very refreshing.

We're slowly approaching the end of winter here in Buffalo. In my youth I always tricked myself into thinking that March = Spring. Every year I would be crushed when the snow was still around. I now know that even April doesn't always mean spring. Being indoors so much may be the death of me though. I need to be outside and for everything to be green. White/Grey is not for me.

One thing I really miss about the summer is sun tea. You get a big glass container, fill it up with water and dump a few tea bags in it. Let that sit in the sun for a few hours and then move it to the fridge to cool it down. You can add sugar, but I like it unsweetened. It's refreshing and tasty. I would not be surprised at all if that is how True Brew made this tea. Especially seeing that water and black tea are the only ingredients. So if you're lazy, or on the go. Pick up one of these for your sun tea fix.

Some drinks are hard to review. They are good, but I don't know what to say about them. I really, really like this tea. I've actually drunk a couple of them over the past few days since they were on sale for $.70 each. It's bitter because of the mate, and because like a lot of the Honest teas it's "just a tad sweet." The maqui adds a slight berry taste, but it blends in so well with the mate that you don't even notice it's there. They are packed full of antioxidants, so you're upping your health with each sip. I really wish I had something more interesting to say about this. It's just a solid drink. I'm going to end up drinking a lot of these. Maybe I'll think of something more to add after drinking it again.

The Honest company knows what they are doing when it comes to iced teas. We even used their teas for the picture of us pounding drinks in our header. It looks like they are now trying their hand at some 0 calorie teas. They seem to know what they are doing with that as well.

This has that tell tale diet taste to it, but it's mellowed out nicely by the green tea and the passion fruit. To be honest, I don't know why they don't just eliminate the sweeteners completely from diet drinks. Instead they add either artificial or in this case stevia. Sure stevia is much better than those gross artificial sweeteners, but it just seems unnecessary. If someone is on a diet, they should be able to live without sweeteners in their tea. Unsweetened tea is delicious. A lot of the time I prefer it to the sweetened variety. If you're trying to lose weight, make some sacrifices. Not only will it be healthier for you, it will also taste better.

Unfortunately the rest of the world doesn't agree with that, so companies have to step it up. Honest Tea did a great job here.

Can we all be honest here for a moment? Let's all just admit that the Lipton Brisk line was one of the biggest blunders in the history of tea. Sure it probably made them millions of dollars, but at what cost? A world of children now think that iced tea is actually just sugar water. Seriously brisk doesn't even taste like iced tea. It's just some ghetto sugar drink. It's something you should find in gallon containers at your local mini mart. I need to sit down and look at the ingredients, but I bet there's not actual tea in it at all. Ugh!

Brisk had me turned off from Lipton for years. Yesterday while hiking we stopped at a small town gas station for refreshments. They had one of the worst selections of drinks I've ever seen, but hey it was a very, very small town, so I can't really expect much. I saw this, and I decided to give it a try. I think it may have been the only drink in the place that didn't have HFCS in it. I didn't even see any bottled water there. So I begrudgingly bought this bottle of Lipton PureLeaf. I now have a renewed interest in their company. It's still pretty sweet, but it doesn't taste like sugar water. It actually has tea in it, and that is evident in the flavor. It also has a classic raspberry tea flavor. It was definitely something I enjoyed after a few hours hiking in the snow and watching a cow run full speed. If you have never seen a cow run, you my friend are missing something spectacular.

Last spring I was on tour in the UK. After our show in Manchester some friends took me out to a couple of clubs. Even though I don't drink alcohol I've been to a decent amount of bars in my time. Most of the time they can be pretty depressing places in a sober state, but every once in awhile things just fall in line and it's a lot of fun. This was one of those nights. You may be asking yourself what someone like myself has for a beverage of choice in a bar. Is it water? Coke? No my friends. When I go out I ask the bartender for a mix of cranberry juice and 7Up. A lot of the time this is either followed by a strange look and some smart-ass comment. I don't care the drink is delicious. So back to Manchester. We get to our first bar of the night and I head up to order my trusty beverage when I notice there is a list of non-alcoholic mixed drinks they serve. Suddenly this night became even better. The first thing on the list was a Mojito. I was floored.

Now time for a back-story inside of a back-story. The year before this event we were down in Athens, GA. Walking around town. Checking it all out. We're walking by the outside patio of a bar and sitting there is Mike Mills from R.E.M. (my favorite band of all time, I don't care if that makes me a nerd). Guess what he's drinking? If you said a Mojito give yourself a fist bump. I'm not one to get all fan boy, but I did engage in a quick, slightly embarrassing conversation with him.

Back to the first back-story. So yeah I had never had a Mojito. Mike Mills was drinking one. I decided that is what I would choose from the list. I made a wise choice. It was delicious. Mint and Lime are a great combination.

This is a different sort of drink. It's Mojito mixed with tea. That means it's instantly improved. Mint in tea tastes like you're chewing gum while drinking tea. It's a sad fact the world needs to accept. When you add lime to the mix, it's a whole new player. The gum factor is out the window and you're on a sailboat to the Isle of Refreshment. This time that boat just happens to be captained by Granny Squibb. She definitely knows how to handle that vessel.

Yerba Mate is a tea all of it's own. It has such a specific taste that just always pops out at you. This style of tea should also always have a leopard on the bottle. Why? Leopards are awesome, that's why. Look at that thing. Is it smiling, or does it just want to rip you in half? It's the secret of the leopard. I would totally ride that thing around like in Harold and Kumar (I don't care what the world thinks, that movie is hilarious). I'd pick up Mike and the two of us would ride around from bodega to bodega looking for drinks. Sure we might have to buy the leopard a Gatorade once and a while, but he too will be a Thirsty Dude.
Guayaki knows how to blend their mate with other flavors. The citrus in this balances out the bitterness of the tea perfectly. It's not overly sweet or bitter, just a nice happy medium with a tangerine twinge. You know who loves tangerines? That leopard and I. Shibby.

I saw it on the shelf and had to buy it. Remember in the Peanut's Christmas special where Linus bought that rather pathetic tree and everyone picked on him? This was on a shelf in a dusty old corner of a local drug store and I had to get it. I don't know if it was on clearance but it certainly was privileged enough to make it into their giant coolers.

This could be on behalf of the can looking like it came from 1997. A distressed font and angled text just screams "Alt". Also, when I read "100% Natural", I (stupidly) thought it might have been cane sugar, which would have been pretty rad. I can't pretend to be surprised.

Since this is a tall boy in the flavor of green tea with ginseng and honey, I just thought that it was going to be a Arizona clone, and for the most part it is, but it has it's subtleties. There is a bit more honey flavor, as well as more ginseng. In turn it's less green tea but these drinks are rarely very green tea flavored at all.

I will say this now and forever, this is a pretty parallel replacement for Arizona. I'll put my reputation on it. Someone please vouch for me so I don't sound so drastic.

You, over there with the bad hair! Bring that wheelbarrow of sugar to me. You, with the floral sundress, bring that 50-gallon drum of cherry syrup. You two kids with the hair that's too long for your own good. Yeah, you. What, are you parents some sort of hipsters? Get a haircut but before that, bring those two buckets of corn syrup to me. Don't get your stupid long hair in it, either. This is a sterile environment.

Excuse me, sir. I work for Ito En and I was wondering what you were doing with all these additives. Adding them to this drink? No sir, I don't think so. We won't need any of this. Here, let me take care of this crowd-based assembly line. Pardon me, the little madame with the mini skirt and argyle sweater, could you bring over those green tea leaves? Thank you. That's all. That's all we need to make such choice tea. Put it on ice and you've got a nice drink. It's suitable for all occasions and all ages: All sexes, creeds, religions, colors, and so on and so forth.

So sir, as you can see, those fixins might be necessary elsewhere, but not here. Ito En Oi Ocha needs nothing but water and green tea. It's refreshing, quenching and a wonderful all around drink. I do have a question for you though, sir. Where are we that everyone looks this ridiculous? Aside from the people we've hired to help us make this drink, there is a man over there wearing a Cosby sweater, cargo shorts, and boots. Over there are twins both wearing shell toes, carpenter pants with accompanying hammers, and mesh football shirts. Where are we?

I did not know what to expect with this cat. I read berry and think of some sort of mixed cornucopia of assorted berries. Lo and behold, there is only one lonely berry, little old raspberry. There is raspberry flavor as well as raspberry leaves. I didn't know they had leaves but since I'm neither a professional botanist nor an amateur botanist, it's not really up to me.

This tea had a bold, fruit flavor with a nice natural tea aftertaste. It's different than most other teas and I can't really put my finger on it. It's good though.

This is an iced tea for adults. I might go as far as to say this is an iced tea made specifically for grandmothers. I could never in a million years imagine a child drinking this, let alone enjoying it. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. There are tons of different people out there and everyone likes different things. It's not really my thing, but I'm sure others will love it.

This tastes like a kindly old grandmother brewed a kettle of red tea. She put some slices of lemon in it and lightly sweetened it with agave (okay so maybe this grandmother lives in Portland or Austin, who am I to say?). She then realized that it was the middle of the summer and it was blistering hot out (looks like she lives in Austin). She then poured the kettle into a nice pitcher and put it in the fridge. A couple of hours later she had company over so she poured some glasses and everyone sat out on the porch enjoying the Texas summer (I knew it was Austin!).

God I hate that tribal monkey. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it just rubs me the wrong way. It's unfortunate because I really like their drinks. I also appreciate the shape of the bottle.

Monkey aside, the tea in this really stands out more than in their other elixirs. It has that unmistakable green tea flavor. It also has a very clear peach aftertaste. I had never heard of amalaki before this, so I did some research. It turns out it's another name for Indian gooseberry, and it has been used to fight a mess of diseases. It's supposed to have a bitter taste, so it works well with the green tea.

I can only hope that monkey design is based off of a real monkey that hangs out in their head offices. I bet they got him to fetch them drinks and do their work for them. Too bad this primate has self-esteem and he's nobody's monkey-slave. I hear he's gunning for vice president next quarter.

Well what do we have here? Everyone has had green tea and I think it's a safe bet to assume everyone has had Arizona green tea and honey. On to an annoying side story:

My dad's side of the family is orthodox Jewish and my mom was raised Protestant. My dad, although raised Jewish, was pretty apathetic about religion. One day, my mom and dad went to his sister's house for some reason and they brought pizza and pop. When my mom presented said pop to my aunt, she retorted with, "We don't drink that liquid sewage." In comparison, the beloved Arizona green tea is liquid sewage.

This had an incredible, natural green tea taste and the sugar was just right.

Arizona, you are a great company and you make millions of people happy. When you grow up, grow up right and buy a case of this sweetened green tea.

Ginger drinks can be an iffy game. Sometimes they are super strong with a crazy burn (okay I really like drinks like that), and sometimes they can be really weak. Having just a hint of ginger is something is pretty gross. It always tastes like you didn't properly rinse a cup before reusing it. Tazo found a pretty amazing middle ground. It has a strong ginger taste, but with only the slightest of burns. It's an "every man" ginger drink. The lemon also isn't overpowering. It's the kind of drink that makes you feel like it's great for you, but it still breaks some rules of physics by tasting good. I didn't realize Tazo made drinks other than tea, but I'm glad they do, because they are onto something here.