Arizona

Geek Steep S3E10 – Fantastic Four (2005)

So this is what I drank during my movie watch. Gongfu is firmly NOT the vibe of this movie and I wasn’t in the mood for something hot, so I thought it would be fun to drink one of these Marvel partnership teas from Arizona while watching. The energy seemed right, and there was that superhero connection to keep it all in line.

I went with this one specifically because it has Chris Evans on the bottle (as Captain America, but close enough). However, if you read my tasting note from the Watermelon Dragonfruit flavour then you’ll already know that these drinks are just sickly sweet and God awful. Genuinely, this might be the worst tea that I’ve drank on Geek Steep. In order to even make it palatable I had to add one part water for every part tea and even that was still so sweet.

It was actually so unpleasant that, at the time of recording the episode, I’d blocked it out of my head so much that I’d forgotten which of the flavours I drank and I incorrectly identified it as Peach Mango. Oops.

Okay Arizona, I see you.

Welp, the marketing got to me y’all. This is one of four “teas” in Arizona’s most recent line/partnership with Marvel. They’ve basically sports drinks made with tea, and very loosely themed around Marvel heros. The tea and comic book nerd in me felt seen, so I grabbed one of each. Well, almost- I can’t seem to find the Lemon Lime flavour anywhere.

This one is the “Tony Stark” one. Don’t ask me how Dragonfruit Watermelon related to Tony Stark though, because I’m as lost as y’all are. If we’re going on colour scheme alone, I would have thought good ol’ Tony would be either a Strawberry Lemonade or a Cherry Lemonade.

These drinks are damn sweet. Like, I actually like Arizona a fair bit because their RTDs aren’t quite as sweetened as many on the market and you can usually really taste the teas in them. This was near gag worthy levels of sweetness though. So, so fucking cloying. Sure enough, there’s stevia in this which does explain it – but how much fucking stevia?? I don’t think I’ve had a drink this aggresively sweet in months. Like, I almost couldn’t taste the watermelon because I was so assaulted by the sheer force of the stevia. Fuck the dragonfruit – that flavour was swallowed up never to be heard from again. Also, the mouthfeel was a little strange. Very thick, which I guess makes sense because it has coconut water in it, but also weirdly… I don’t know?? I guess I would call it slippery!? That feels like a strange way to describe a liquid but it just stood out to me that this was a particular viscosity that I wasn’t braced for…

I don’t know how I’m gonna manage the other two flavours I got because this… was not a happy experience. Which is a shame, because the collab was SO COOL.

Like a less sweet watermelon juice more than a tea …but still pretty sweet, and still pretty juice-like. Would honestly rather just buy some proper watermelon juice than revisit this one. Arizona has better. Can art is fucking sick, though!

I honestly would not have considered this to be a tea had I not seen it listed on this website before. I like this brand of drinks. They’re very flavourful with natural seeming fruit, pomegranate in this case, but there is some notes of green tea as well. Altogether a very refreshing… tea?

You know how sometimes you just need tea in a can? This is my go to tea for that. More like sweet flavored water than anything, but I needed that tonight after dance. Better than soda when I need sugar.

Blah, this tea was just awfully sweet drink with orange taste. Maybe it was orange juice?

Weird brown colour, sweet, orange reamins in mouth for long. I expect at least bit of bitterness when it´s with ginseng, but nope, there is nothing like that.

So just blah, if you want something sweet, it can work, but don´t expect tea taste.

Usually I am not a fan of canned/bottled or pre-packaged brewed teas because they’re usually much too sweet for me. This Arizona Green Tea with Honey and Ginseng has a pleasantly crisp green tea flavor. The citrus carries all the way through and there’s just enough of a hint of ginseng to keep me sipping at this tea. Ginseng is one of my most favorite flavors in tea, and while this Arizona Green Tea is still a bit too sweet for an everyday tea, it’s nice to have every once in a while on hot summer days when I just want a sugary sweet treat.

The addition of American oak during AriZona’s brewing process adds a distinctive flavor to the final brewed tea, but there was an overwhelming sour taste I found incredibly off-putting. Even more off-putting is the fact that this unsweetened tea actually contains three different sweeteners: honey, sugar, and maple sugar—a fact that completely escaped my notice until I had finished most of the bottle.

Yes, you read that correctly, this unsweetened tea contains three different types of sugar!

This completely blows my mind…

These sweeteners are only included in small amounts—less than 1g—an amount that according to the label is deemed a dietary insignificant amount of sugar, but the fact that they are included at all in a tea labeled unsweetened really troubles me. For that reason alone I wouldn’t recommend this tea, but quite frankly, the sourness that is present overwhelms the delicate oak flavor, ruining the entire beverage.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2016/6/7/unsweetened-oak-brewed-tea-arizona

A bit sweet for me, but I really enjoy all of the flavours. I buy these when I go on hikes/picnics because they are only a dollar each.

Not like I really had any doubt, but this is awful. I picked it up out of sheer curiosity while on vacation. Tasted like every single bottled tea I’ve ever had – like old tea that has begun to develop that somewhat moldy flavor from having sat for a month in the refrigerator. And “unsweetened”? It is to laugh. The first ingredient is tea, followed by honey, sugar and maple.

So… yeah. This is just bad. It is truly not worth choosing over bottled water (or anything thing else) when on the road.

I used to drink this regularly, but I’m trying to cut back on sugar and this delightful tea wasn’t helping. I do miss it though, it’s quite good.

Maybe I should try it as an iced tea, but hot it was just bland and uninspired. It’s not terrible, but neither would I reach for it over the many other green teas in my cupboard.

If I ever have the strong desire to chew the bitter whites off orange peels, this will be the tea I reach for. The honey and Jasmine are strongly at odds with the orange flavour, it is a bitter, sour, yet sweet mess of flavours that just don’t mix well.

Very pleasant, but a little too sweet for regular drinking. I generally prefer Arizona’s canned teas for the value though.

this is 2 out of 12 Arizona tea that I would frequently drink as much as green tea….

this is 6 out of 12 Arizona tea…. it is sweet but I always add a lot of ice to make it less sweeten.

this is 11 out of the 12 Arizona tea I would drink in the summer…

I usually drink like 20 cans within a week…especially in the summer time.. good tea though… but this is 1 out of the 12 Arizona teas that I would drink.

As a born and bred Mississippian, I have to say that this is some of the worst tasting sweet tea I have had. The flavors are all wrong. The tea was not steeped long enough, so the flavor is weak. There should be real sugar instead of corn syrup; that changes the taste greatly. Finally, it is like I can just taste preservative (I know there are none); that’s very off-putting..

Frank pointed this out to me when we were shopping one day, so I bought a bottle to try because why not?

I would describe it more as a juice featuring tea than a tea itself, as the fruit juice definitely takes centre-stage. That being said, the green tea is definitely present in the taste and aftertaste, adding an interesting grassy note which I am almost surprised goes so well. It is certainly done better than other similar juice teas I have tried. I haven’t looked an the ingredients or nutrition information, but I have a feeling there is definitely some added sugar in this. It’s sweet but tart at the same time, but definitely not as sweet as most soft drinks. It is still fresh enough to be refreshing. I wouldn’t actively seek this out, but if I were out wanting a drink and saw this, I would likely choose it over a bottle of pop.

Sipdown! (5/180)