Arizona

Y’know, usually I like the more juice based drinks from Arizona but this one immediately was kind of a pass for me from sip one. It’s not that it tasted bad, but it has a very sour quality to it that I found more like drinking straight lemon juice than the typical tart or pucker inducing quality of a good lemonade. Lacking a bit in sweetness, too. Many, many better and more balanced lemonades out there IMO…

Unfortunately I do think I was correct and this type of cucumber flavouring is one you really have to be in a specific mood for to enjoy. It’s not that this tasted bad, but it just wasn’t hitting quite right for the mood I was in when I was drinking it. Just a little too potent and floral in its undertones.

This was okay, though definitely feels like the kind of bordering on “Bath & Bodyworks” style aggressively fresh and slightly floral-leaning cucumber that you have to be in a specific mood to enjoy. The lemon-y edge of the citrus helps a lot with balance and breaking up that sort of fake-y cucumber taste. Very smooth, and really great sweetness level though!

I typically like a good Arnold Palmer but this one was a let down to me, and also kind of confusing whether it was half strawberry and half black tea or half strawberry and half lemonade or, like, a mix of the three? I couldn’t even tell when drinking it because it really just tasted like a super sweet, thick strawberry juice. Not an unpleasant strawberry note but just far too sweet for my tastes. Also, I don’t think this is the first time I’ve had a strawberry flavoured iced RTD and felt this way so I’m wondering if maybe I’m particularly sensitive to strawberry as a chilled flavour…

Idk. Just wasn’t for me.

Holy shit I loved this!

Like the Orangeade, this kind of tastes like what I’d imagine a flat Pineapple Fanta/Crush would taste like but at only a fraction of the sweetness. It is sweeter than the Orangeade was, but still not quite soda levels. The only difference here is that I adore pineapple flavoured sodas so this was very, very up my alley. Rich and tropical with that golden pineapple sweetness and just a bit of playful acidity/tang.

I really wish this was something more readily available here in Canada because I would replace my borderline pineapple soda addiction with this in a HEARTBEAT.

Pretty on par with my expectations.

It reminds me a lot of a flat Orange Crush or Fanta but waaayyy less sweet tasting. Still pretty sweet, but not soda levels. Very juicy and bright orange without the acidity of an actual orange juice. Sort of Kool-Aid vibes too, I guess. In the spectrum of Arizona beverages it’s pretty middle of the pack to me.

I had tried to order a different flavour of Arizona along with all the ones I recently reviewed, but the specialty snack store was out of it by the time they went to fulfill my order so they gave me a second of this flavour as a replacement. Since I didn’t love this the last time I tried it I was a bit bummed it was my double and not one of the other flavours that had landed with me more strongly, but in the end I’m glad I tried this one again. I had a much better time with the sweet and mellow tropical flavour now that I knew not to expect so much of the typical “rocket pop” type flavours. I even got a lot more pineapple notes this time around, which always makes me pretty happy.

I’ve wanted to try this Arizona flavour for a really, really long time but it’s not actually sold through normal retail channels here in Canada – I had to get it (and a bunch of others) from an importer that supplies for a specialty snack foods/soda company here in MTL.

I think it’s such a brilliant twist on the nostalgic rocket pop/ice pop flavour that’s been popping up everywhere the last two summers – very much hitting that “newstalgic” macro trend of the moment. Can design is really, really sick too.

Taste wise? It’s a little “whelming” to me. I thought, for an Arizona drink, the sweetness level was actually pretty good and it definitely nails that sort of generic tropical profile that just feels like the embodiment of a sunset orange colour/hue. Mango, papaya, and pineapple leaning, perhaps? But I guess I just expected the flavour to at least hint at some of the notes in a rocket pop profile – cherry, probably, but also maybe the very sweet lemon or blue raspberry notes too. I didn’t get that. It felt very segmented from a rocket popsicle profile to me – really just doubling down on the tropical vibes. Still delicious, but not quuuiiittteee up to the hype.

There’s now a second “Chillzicle” flavour from Arizona – so I’m definitely curious to see if I can get my hands on that one too.

Okay, at first I am not really sure if this is absolutely correct listing; as I just remember it was raspberry flavorued Arizona tea, which I bought while travelling through Germany again. I do think it was only black tea base; but I don’t have bottle anymore so I can’t even check.

Very similar notes to the blueberry one; sweet and flavourful, though of course far away from real raspberries. But they were quite simply noticeable and when cold it was refreshing and nice; when warmed up it was a bit more tannic which I didn’t liked that much.
It’s hard for me saying this, but actually I like Arizona teas more that their German counterparts I have tried so far.

Although I have to agree with Ros about the sweetness and syrupy taste, I was pleasantly surprised and it wasn’t a bad tea for just mindless drinking while travelling.

Of course, I had better blueberry teas, but there is also I recall being much worse, so this, considering the price and sugar amount, is good enough.

And blueberries were noticeable, that are plus points.

This is a tough Arizona flavour to get in Canada, but I know it has a bit of a cult following within the Arizona tea “fanbase” so I was excited to try it. I was very surprised how sweet it was, though! Maybe naive on my part, but I’d kind of assumed part of why people liked this flavour in particular so much was that the white tea base used would be more light and natural tasting. Though I did find this quite bright and white-tea forward, it was so syrupy in mouthfeel and taste. I think both ginseng and honey was just too much, though the honey aftertaste would have been super pleasant with the white tea base and the soft blueberry note if it had been at a better ratio.

Maybe I’d enjoy this more with a second taste since I’d have more in line expectations, but for most of while I was drinking this flavour I just couldn’t help but think that I’d be having a better time with pretty much any of the other blueberry flavoured loose leaf white teas in my stash.

I’ve had this sitting in my fridge for months now because I hated the other two flavours so much when I had them that I was scared to try this one. Turns out that this is probably the best flavour. Yes, it is still obnoxiously sweet and cloying however with the peach flavour it almost gives it a candy type of vibe that makes it a fraction more acceptable to my palate. That or I was just properly braced for it. Anyway, I actually finished this one – but no shot I’d ever buy it (or any of the others) again.

Wasn’t totally sure what to expect from this. I thought it might be very, very tea forward in a more tannic or medicinal way – especially with some of the ingredients in the blend. However, it was pretty sweet and fruity with a tropical kind of lean. Mango, perhaps? The finish was a little woody and cloying in the kind of way that ginseng specifically taste. I like the woody licorice-y taste of ginseng, so with the initial fruit notes I thought this was super approachable and pleasant.

Sometimes, one local store (in NA terms rather just a corner shop) have interesting foodstuffs. I got very nice German weizen there for so cheap, I couldn’t believe it. Then they had there some fuet salami in such nice packaging I had to buy them. Or even foodstuffs imported from the US. Last time it was Chupa Chups lolipop pop (drink) and it was terribly sweet.
But yesterday, their branch in my factory, had this. 650 ml can for 2 bucks (when converted)? Well, I have to try that…

Honestly, I am sad as I have hoped it will be indeed half iced tea and half of mango juice; but mango juice is only 5 per cent of the container.

And well, I am not a fan. There is nothing that reminds me a tea; nor iced tea and it was rather like a bit bitter mango juice and with long artificial sweetener (WHY I HAVEN’T CHECKED THE INGREDIENTS?) aftertaste. Is this what are “common” people drink when they speak about tea? I am not surprised that many are looking on tea with despect.

I think this is probably my favourite Arizona flavour that I’ve ever tried. Though it was much sweeter overall I think the main thing that made it stand out to me compared to the Cranberry I tried just the day before was that I could taste some black tea in addition to the lush mix of tropical fruits. Yes, to be fair, it’s not an amazing black tea. Very much a similar style to something like a Brisk or a Nestea. But I still thought it slapped and, in fact, I’ve actually been back to the specialty snack shop a few times in the hopes to get a couple more cans and they’ve been sold out every time. So clearly I’m not alone in my appreciation of it.

One of the specialty snack stores that I like recently imported a bunch of US exclusive Arizona flavours, so I took the opportunity to give a couple a try. I really love Arizona as a brand and what they stand for (plus the can designs always slap), but the flavours we have available in Canada are pretty underwhelming. To me, at least.

I enjoyed this a lot, but I definitely was hard pressed to find any elements about it that reminded me of tea. It was more like a really pleasantly tart, crisp cranberry juice. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love cranberry teas and the simple flavour was appreciated. Especially since it wasn’t that sweet either. I just wish I could have taste more of the “base” tea that the juice had been mixed with.

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