Iced Tea - 901 Reviews

There is joy and there is sadness in the world of Big Lots. We tend to find a decent amount of tasty and interesting beverages there. If we find something we enjoy and we are lucky then it's simply there because a company ordered too much, or there has been a change in the label and the company is trying to blow out their old stock. Unfortunately there are other times when a product is being discontinued or a company has gone out of business. This seems to be the case more often than not when I find something I like there, so I buy up what I can and enjoy the limited time I have with it.

Luckily in the case of Runa, their teas presence at the discount store is due to nothing more than a chance of label. I will still be able to find these delicious teas in the future, but you can bet your bottom that at fifty cents per bottle I will be buying up the stores stock.

It's been awhile since I've drank an iced tea that has impressed me, so I was caught completely off guard with this. It's no secret that peach flavored beverages tend to be a little much, and end up tasting candied. This tea is flavored with “organic peach flavor” and that apparently equates to a taste that is like a peach that is right on the cusp of being perfectly ripe. It has a sweetness to it, but also a vague bitterness that comes with unripe fruit. It's a refreshing change of pace for this particular flavor. It also helps that they didn't go overboard with the sweetener and there are only 16g of sugar in the entire bottle.

This drink is very smooth and you get a little kick from the caffeine that is found in the guayusa. Flavor and energy; this tea truly has it all.

If you're looking for a natural tasting beverage this is certainly for you. I don't know what this has to do with a dragon, dancing or not, but what I do know is that it tastes like someone made a soda out of throat coat tea and it's a little much. I like sips of this drink. I've been nursing the glass I made for the past 45 minutes. If I take tiny sips it's enjoyable, but if I drink too much at once it becomes a bit too overpowering and medicinal. If you're not familiar with throat coat (which is absolutely wonderful hot) imagine chewing on a licorice stick (the plant not the candy) while drinking some black tea. It's pleasant and helps your throat. It's not quite the same in soda form but it is a re-imagining of a classic soda.
In here the tea is a mixture of pu-erh (fermented tea)and yerba mate. The rest of the flavor comes from a combination of sarsaparilla root and honeybush. It kind of tastes the way a natural market smells. Take that as you will. To me it's not bad thing, but it certainly is unique. Out of all of these tea sodas, this is the one that is certainly not for everyone.

I'm not one to complain when a yerba mate is put in front of me. I will happily drink each and every one that is placed into my hands. This is simple and it is also delicious. It is simply brewed organic free trade yerba mate and hibiscus with a pinch of salt added. There is no sweetener added, because there is no need for one. It is a beverage that is wonderful just the way it is. It's slightly bitter and a bit woody, just like a proper mate should be. The hibiscus gives it just a hint of floral taste. I could drink this stuff by the gallon if it were an option. If someone wants to make that a real option for me, please do.

Did you know that Alley Cat Tea is a Southern original? No? Well, don't feel too bad because I don't think that most southerners know it either. It is a probably that surely needs to be sorted out though because they should all know and love this wonderful beverage.

Whenever anyone thinks about the South and tea they more than likely think of sweet tea. Now take that delicious treat and improve on it by mixing in a bunch of fruit juice. The label has pictures of pineapples, oranges, lemons and strawberries, although the latter is not listed in the ingredients. It tastes like it's 50% pineapple, 25% tea, 10% orange, 10% lemon and 5% strawberry. It's one of those wonderful concoctions where you can pinpoint each of the flavors or enjoy it as a whole. The whole thing is dark and so very cloudy that it looks like it could be cider. I wish I had picked up more than one bottle on my dumb drive from FL to MI.

They may have dropped the “passion fruit” from the name, but I'm pretty sure this is the same formula as the old Black Tea, Peach, Raspberry and Passion Fruit bottles that I used to drink more often than I probably should have. If it is different it not by much and it's still wonderfully delicious.

It's always a shock when a functional beverage can not only taste like the beverage it's masquerading as, but also be an exceptional version of that style of beverage. If this were a regular iced tea that wouldn't make me sleepy I would drink it all of the time. It tastes fantastic and fruity, without being overly sweet. As it is I drink it sparingly when I need to chill out a bit. I do miss it in resealable bottle form though. A full can might just knock me right out.

You know what happens when you use good ingredients? You get a great tea at any temperature. Temperature?! Why are you mentioning temperature? Well it's because I didn't finish this yesterday and came back today to polish it off and review it. It was better today than it was yesterday. This uses real sugar and not corn syrup so after fourteen hours, it was not a syrupy mess. When it was cold, the temperature kind of made things different than today when it's neat I could taste the blackberry and the hint of sage. It was very nice, too. It was fruity and you could tell there was something. Not specifically sage but "something" herbal.

I think I'm going to have to befriend a bodega employee to sell me back stock so that it's warm. I think I'm going to have to befriend a bodega employee so that I can go hang out at bodegas. My dad used to own a Convenient store but I was too young to work there. Alas.

So here we are, two for five with Sotea. Most of these flavors don't really work. Carbonating tea is always a crapshoot, and more likely than not turns out less than stellar. The same thing can be said for putting mint in drinks. I don't really want my drink to taste like I just brushed my teeth or I'm chewing gum while drinking it. Somehow this Mojito Mist beat both of those odds and is actually pretty darn good. It launches past acceptable into really enjoyable territory.

While I've never had a real mojito, every virgin version of one that I have drunk has been great. There is something about lime that counteracts the weirdness of mint and makes it acceptable for it to exist in beverage form. Neither are overly strong and blend together into a new uber flavor. The tea in this tastes a little weird, but it works with the lime and the mint. This is one unusual soda, but I find myself with an empty bottle wishing that there was more. That doesn't happen often these days.

When Mellow Mood first came out there were insane. I almost died because I didn't know how strong they were and I drank one before a twenty minute drive home. Shortly thereafter they apparently changed the formula and lowered the effective dosage. I no longer feared going from completely awake to asleep in a few short minutes, but they definitely relaxed me and helped me to get to sleep on many a restless night. My brain tends to go into overdrive sometimes and when that happens my chances of organically falling asleep are slim. Mellow Mood allowed me to have following days that weren't completely miserable due to lack of sleep. It was a lifesaver.

Now there's a new can, and kind of new flavors (there was a light version of this available in the past), but this can did not have the same effect on me as they have in recent times. I'm afraid they changed the formulation again and it no longer works the way I want it to. I blame the lack of melatonin. I ended up lying in bed all night and I remember light creeping around my curtains before I finally fell asleep. I really hope this is still available in the old formula because this simply won't do. I mean this is really delicious, but that was never a problem with these drinks. It tastes like a perfect Arnold Palmer with a little bit of raspberry mixed in. I still don't know what that has to do with Bob Marley, but I love the way it tastes. I just wish it still helped me get to sleep.

What a refreshing treat. This is kind of the perfect green tea for me. Little bit of bitterness and a subtle sweetness. It tastes like honey and you know that it's green tea. I think at this point, we ignorant Americans can tell the difference between "Far East" tea and good, ol' fashioned British tea. America, sometimes you can be real morons. I shouldn't even have to write that but quite honestly, and this is not part of the review, but this country is in a state of disrepair. How did I get here from a beautifully crafted green tea? Well your ignorance and inability to accept foreign norms with open arms because you're so close minded and worried that something is going to happen if you do. Open your hearts, you turds. Seriously, just be cool. Open your mind.

This is a great tea. If you see it, put down that cola and put down that energy drink, take a breath, and prepare to close your eyes and take sips while envisioning yourself with your feet dangling off a pier. In this vision, your feet can be in or out of the water. It doesn't matter. It's the place and state of mind that matters, not your wet toes. Relax. Be cool. Drink this green tea. Doctor's orders.

While I was drinking this I kept thinking about the Red Rose tea my grandmother used to drink. Then I thought, wait I've drunk a tea that reminded me of that before, and I did a quick search and saw that I had reviewed Snapple Straight Up Tea, but nowhere did it mention that it was sorta sweet. The thing is that everything I was going to say about this, I said in that old review. I don't know if it's the same product just relabeled, or if it does have less sugar, but my review stands.

I think it might be a stone cold fact that every American elderly woman who was a grandmother in the late 80's/early 90's drank Red Rose tea. Mine certainly did and everyone I've questioned about it came back with an affirmative response. Red Rose ruled the tea world at that time, and as an added bonus, the boxes came with little animal (Wade) figurines, which were nice for the grandchildren; everyone was a winner.

As I drank this tea all I could think of was Red Rose. This tastes exactly like how my grandmother's tea would taste cold. It's a nice black tea with a bit of sugar in it. It's actually probably about a spoonful. This is a nice genuine tea. It's not particularly fancy, but it's just black tea and sugar with a little citric acid in it. I've had many a cup of tea in my life from all sorts of companies, and this has the very specific Red Rose taste. I had other try this to confirm my thoughts and we all agreed. So where…€˜s my little figurine?

On a hot day, you should be drinking water. We in Western New York have been suffering drought-like conditions. It rains for a half hour and doesn't rain for two weeks. It's bad. Combined with 85+ degree days day after day, it's getting pretty tiring to go outside. On this hot day and on my way to band practice, I needed something. I drink water at my desk all day but I needed something and this hit the spot. I wish it was twice as large but you can't get everything you want.

It was very lightly sweetened and flavored. It was just a nice, cool lemon honey tea that was instantly refreshing. I wish I had one here. Two. One went down too quickly. It was low in calories, too. I think seventy for the bottle which was quite a bit healthier than the tallboy of Arizona that I wanted to feel nostalgic. I can feel nostalgic another time because now I've got a nice "go to" when I go to 7 Eleven which is rare regardless of their omnipresence.

I was worried about this. Vinegar? As a drink? That's a strange one, right? Who drinks vinegar? I do, apparently. How is this vinegar, though? It's good. The turmeric and lemon and ginger are a great trio. Good burn and the vinegar is there but mild. I was worried that it would be like drinking straight vinegar or better/worse fruit flavored pickle juice. It was not. You could taste a little lemon but the turmeric and ginger was prominent and a flavorful team.

I think I have another one of these in the basement, where vinegar/pickling belongs. I no longer worry about what they will taste like and welcome with open, pickle loving arms, vinegar drinks. I say that now until I buy something like a Bragg's and it's going blow the lid off my mouth like that one time I thought it would be a good idea to take a shot of chicken marinade not knowing it was mostly vinegar and my eyes watered up like that time that I saw Homeward Bound for the first time.

To my taste buds mint and tea generally do not mix. I know it's a classic flavor, and I admit it's okay with hot teas, but once they get iced I feel like I poured myself a nice glass of tea, got distracted by a phone call, or my cat throwing up, brushed my teeth, realized I had forgotten about my tea, and then drank it anyways. To me the mint never tastes like it's part of the drink, more like it's a foreign aspect that just happens to be in my mouth. With Goldenbrew it's a tad better. The mint still tastes a bit detached, but it's more like I'm chewing Doublemint gum and drinking green tea instead of having just brushed my teeth. I don't know why that is preferable, but it definitely is. The lime is also a nice touch. So many companies rely on lemons too heavily when this superior citrus cousin is just begging to be used. It makes things a bit more interesting. You add high quality tea, and a little agave to round it out with a touch of sweetness and you have a pretty good beverage on your hands. Now if someone could just figure out how to blend in mint with tea a bit better this would be fantastic.

One wouldn't think there would be much variation between simple black teas. One would also be very wrong. Nearly every company whose black tea I have sampled has their own little twist on flavor that makes them unique. Goldenbrew uses whole tea leaves in their brewing process, and you wouldn't think that such a small thing would make such a difference, but it really does. You can tell that higher quality ingredients are used and they are brewed with more pride. Obviously this is better than a garbage Brisk, but it also overshadows the natural lines of the “big” tea companies. It also helps that it is lightly sweetened with honey. I'm of an age where I prefer my teas to be unsweetened, but honey is a game changer. It's not meaningless sweetness. It adds a depth and new flavor to the already wonderful tea. It's important to note that they also don't go overboard with the honey, which is so easy to do. It teases you with its hint of flavor, leaving you wanting more and before you know it the bottle is gone and you wish you had more. Now that is the sign of a good tea.

I'm not sure if this is the same product that comes in the little cans, or if there is something different about it because it says it's organic and over 3x the quantity. What I do know is that this tastes like a wonderfully delicious unsweetened green tea. It's slightly bitter, but in a way that is enjoyable instead of distracting. I didn't know something could be bitter and smooth at the same time, but that's what we have here. This is the baseline from which all unsweetened green tea should be compared.

Purity is a company that I have grown to know and love. Their juices are of high quality without putting a huge dent in your pocket book. I'm currently in San Francisco recording a couple of songs at Tiny Telephone and I took a walk to the Mission for burritos and refreshments and my guys grew huge when I saw this bottle. I'm talking cartoon wolf ogling an attractive woman huge. In my head even the "ha-wooga" sound happened.

When I got back to the studio I cracked this open and my first thought was "Wow this is kind of week." The mate flavor is hardly there and it kind of tastes like a watery grapefruit juice with a touch of ginger in it. I had expected to be blasted with a strong bitter mate flavor and have the other flavors there to round it out. The more I drank it the more I grew to enjoy it though. It is tame, but every drink doesn't need to be in your face. There is nothing wrong with this beverage at all. The grapefruit and ginger tastes are very authentic, because it is made with organic juice. I do wish the mate was stronger. If it were this would get high marks. As it is it leaves a bit to be desired, but it is still very enjoyable. I'm just a boy with high expectations.

This is the liquid equivalent of walking up to a roulette table placing down most of your stack on 13 black. You watch that wheel spin and the ball is going around and around. It starts slowing down and you can't believe your eyes it looks like you are going to win and win big. At the last moment it pops out and plops into 36 red. Sure you played a safe bet and also put down a little money on the last row of 2:1 odds, but the big money is gone. It's not a horrible loss, you came out okay, but it had such potential to be life changing.

This is simply brewed green tea with matcha and ginger root in it. No sugar and no other extraneous additives. It should be wonderful in its simplicity. It tastes like tea. It tastes like real ginger. It's good. If you brewed this at home you wouldn't think twice about it, but there's something just a little off that makes you question if it is worth purchasing. That thing is it's a little on the watery side, which leads to it being a bit weak. I like my green tea strong and prominent. This is like beginners green tea. It's as if there is extra water in it to act as training wheels for those not used to the wonderfully strong bitterness that it usually has. Metaphors and similes aside, this is enjoyable, but it could be amazing and it just slightly missed that mark.

When I think about bamboo I don't think about leaves. I only think about the stalks and building structures out of them. In my early adolescence we would build some pretty rad forts our of bamboo stalks that were hidden in patches of the plant. They were great and we really felt like we weren't only a couple of hundred yards from my friend's back yard. Now that I think about it they did have leaves, but they grew so high that we didn't really have to deal with them. I certainly never thought about brewing them into tea. To be fair I thought Nestea was what tea was at that time so I was more than a little ignorant.

This is surprisingly good though. You could most definitely pass it off as a light green tea, and then snicker because your guests have no idea they are drinking bamboo, and they would have probably passed had you called it bamboo tea. The hibiscus really shines more than the bamboo, and that will never earn a complaint from me. The blackberry taste is very light, but it complements the hibiscus nicely. The label says this is “light, crisp, & refreshing” and it certainly is not lying. I just spent hours painting a fence in 90+ degree weather and this is hitting the spot perfectly. This bamboo stuff really has something going for it.

Sparkling tea is a strange bird. We've done a couple of them but for the most part, they're just strange. Iced tea is a staple in my life so when you change it by adding sparkles, you're changing when my body expects.

Is this bad? No. It's not the best drink and it's pretty diet at times but you know what? It couldn't have been that bad because I drank the whole thing. I never made a "gross" face. That counts for them and not against them. You could taste the lemon. That's a point. You only sometimes get the diet taste and it's sucralose. That stuff stinks. Sparkling Ice can sometimes and somehow disguise it.

They keep sending us stuff and we keep drinking it. They're good to us. You know why this relationship works, though? They don't mind a couple mediocre reviews. I've always said that if I could have one drink for the rest of my life it would be unsweet tea. This is my favorite drink sharpened, sweetened, lemoned and on a diet. That's where the minuses come in. It's not bad. It's not for me. I drank the whole thing. It's not for me.

Are you aware that the desert is a dead, dry place with no hope? Did you also know that cucumbers are the most refreshing thing this world has ever seen? If only cucumbers grew in the desert maybe life would exist. Because you know, nothing lives in the desert…€¦oh wait; a lot of things live in the desert. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't lead richer lives if cucumber was a normal part of life for them. Steaz has taken that refreshing vegetable and combined it with prickly pear (the fruit on a cactus) as well as some green tea and the results are quite nice. The prickly pear is nice and sweet, but it allows the cucumber to cut through and give you that relief you so desperately crave. The only downside to this at all is that they tried to cut down on calories by using stevia along with cane sugar. It's not horrible, but you can tell it's there, which I would prefer it wasn't. Other than that there is nothing but smooth sailing with this drink. Go ahead and drop me off in a remote desert location hundreds of miles from anywhere. As long as I had a couple cans of this I would be just fine, or dead. Fine or dead, one or the other.