Sweetened Iced Black Tea

On the way home from Thanksgiving dinner at Lance’s parents We stopped by the store for gas and I bought a bottled tea. I don’t usually buy bottled teas but I was thirsty and wanted tea lol.
This one isn’t too bad at all but it is very sweet, like hurt your belly sweet if you drink the whole bottle, I only drank half. It is surely not an iced tea that you want to pick up if your are thirsty because with all the sweetness in this tea it does nothing for your thirst. I remember having this tea in the bottle before somewhere but I couldn’t remember any details I just remembered that it wasn’t bad so I grabbed one today, they never have unsweet in the stores I guess folks around here likes tea that way.

I love this iced tea! I can never seem to make a pitcher of iced tea to save my life!!! So I came across this tea and loved it’s flavor profile for an iced black tea right off the bat. To me it’s a lot more complex than most simple black tea profiles. I also like that it’s made with pure cane sugar instead of refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup like many do. They also make an unsweetened version as well.

Blegh. This is so sweet and has such a syrupy mouthfeel, it’s like drinking sweet tea concentrate! Maybe if poured over ice, and/or diluted with cold water, it would be palatable.

The best way to size up a tea, in my opinion, is to compare it directly to other teas in its category. Conveniently, I just had a can of AriZona Southern Style Sweet Tea last night, its taste relatively fresh on my brain—and tongue. The challenger? Gold Peak’s own Iced Sweet Tea.

They carry this at my local Pacific Theaters, and the first time I had it I hardly even noticed it was there… Next to the huge soda fountain machines by the concession stands, Gold Peak’s iced tea canisters are unassuming by comparison, timid in its plea to thirsty passersby. Fortunate, then, is he who takes the risk of trying something other than Coca Cola or—heaven forbid—Brisk Raspberry Iced Tea.

This sweet tea just feels lighter while you’re drinking it. Measured against the AriZona variety, it definitely tastes cleaner and more pure. The best way I can describe it is by comparing juice to water. AriZona’s sweet tea drink would be the former, thicker in substance and taste alike. Gold Peak’s version, on the other hand, would be the latter: thinner in substance and taste, less filler and more of what matters… tea.

Fortunate is the man who dares try the iced sweet tea in the unsuspecting canister. Fortunate is he who thereby benefits from ZERO high fructose corn syrup in said sweet tea compared to the AriZona alternative. Fortunate is he for this tea.

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