Snapple | Lemon Iced Tea

I’ve been excited for the weather to warm up so I could start enjoying iced tea.  RTDs are a huge part of the tea industry.  The convenience, potential health benefits, and delicious flavor are just a few of the reasons why ready-to-drink teas are so popular.  Unfortunately, Snapple’s Lemon wasn’t a good start for me this year.  I noticed when I popped the lid on the bottle that the scent wasn’t as lemony or pleasant as I anticipated.  It had a vague bitter/sweet scent to it.

With 23g of sugars per 8 fl oz, I was hoping for a more pleasing flavor.  I’m not tasting a natural black tea flavor nor am I picking up on a natural lemon flavor.  The flavors just do not blend well for me.  Lemon is obviously a strong flavor, so I was anticipating a mouth puckering sour blast.  Having said that, the odd flavored sweetener just didn’t taste very pleasing to me.  If the black tea pulled its weight against the sweetener, this would have been 100 times better.  I don’t think this one has been perfected yet.  I definitely recommend trying one of Snapple’s other bottled teas over this one.   If you want to give it a try and you like it  – let me know  – twitter.com/organictea.

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After hundreds of blogs about a wide variety of teas, blog readers still find marTEA.com by Google searching for Snapple.  I’ve enjoyed Snapple bottled beverages in the past.  I’m sure I’ll try their newly formulated teas in the near future (read this blog for details: Snapple Refreshes Itself).  They certainly are not my favorite, but many of them are very tasty.  I have a theory to the “Snapple” traffic I receive on marTEA.com.  When Snapple advertised during the Super Bowl a few years ago (2007) they planted a seed in the mind of millions – Snapple now offers tea.  In addition, the clever advertisements introduced millions to EGCG.  Not many know how to say it [epigallocatechin gallate], but they know it’s good for them.  Lastly, they had the distribution.  After you saw the commercials, Snapple was easy to find in your local grocery store.  Although I have had people email me asking where I found certain varieties (the Earl Grey seems to be a favorite of many). I’m thankful many people read my Snapple posts.  I hope that many of them read my other blogs and start to explore other teas.  When I blogged about their Super Bowl ads, I said at that time they were doing the entire industry a favor.

In recent months Snapple has started to evolve their teas.  With major players like Coke-Honest Tea making waves, even a giant like Snapple will need to adapt to consumer demand (organic, fair trade, etc). At some point, educated consumers demand something more than cool bottle art and sweet liquids that resemble tea.  It’s fun to watch the industry evolve – not just Snapple.  I wish I would have started this blog several years ago.  My blog serves as a micro-radar of the tea industry – it’s not official, but it works for me.  If you want to attract people to loose leaf products, starting with a bottled beverage will increase your chances.

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Mango undoubtedly is one of my favorite fruits. Nearly every flavored tea I’ve tried that is infused with mango has been excellent. Snapple’s mango flavored green tea is no exception. Plus I’m a big Jimmy Buffett fan, and his 1985 album “Last Mango in Paris” is a classic. Snapple does not boast organic ingredients in this product, but it does deliver a solid ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage that the average consumer is going to enjoy. I drink a lot of loose leaf tea, and I know the many health benefits of tea. I still like a ready-to-drink tea when I’m out on the go. Snapple’s mango green tea is loaded with sugar – about 15g per 8 fl oz. So, if that doesn’t fit in your diet – don’t buy this product. I like drinking Snapple with lunch on days that I’m feeling like something tasty and sweet is in order. Since I rarely drink sugary beverages, I feel I’m entitled to a sweet tea from time-to-time. Keep in mind, Snapple does offer many diet versions of their products.

The flavor of the tea is dominated by a deliciously sweet mango with a hint of green tea in every drink. I have to say this is probably my favorite Snapple product from this line of tea products. Green tea and tropical fruit compliment each other well when it is done right. I’ve tried many loose leaf teas that include mango – I enjoyed all of them. In the end, this product is very flavorful and could easily sway a “cola” drinker to become a tea drinker.

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The summer is gone, but I still had to try this ready-to-drink Rooibos (Red Tea) Snapple product. I like mandarin and tangerine flavored beverages, so I thought I’d see how the flavors would mix with Rooibos. As I expected this beverage is very “juice” like. That said, I could pickup the Rooibos flavor. It was faint, but I could detect a hint of Rooibos. There’s no doubt this beverage is very flavorful, but you’re not going to get a heavy dose of Rooibos from this product. Snapple’s Red Tea products are all about fun. They are flavorful and refreshing. Unfortunately, they lose a lot of points for me because they don’t do Rooibos justice. I do recommend trying it for yourself. The 17.5 ounce bottle contains about 7g of sugar.

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This is a flavorful ready to drink beverage from Snapple. The acai mixed berry flavor is very very fruity. In fact, it tastes like a fruit drink. If you were blindfolded and asked to try this, you would not guess it’s tea or Rooibos for that matter. Obviously the reference to “Red Tea” relates the beverage to Rooibos. The bottle contains 17.5 fluid ounces and totals about 90 calories. The strong fruity flavor is very pleasing, but it doesn’t taste as fresh as some of the other bottled teas I’ve tried lately. There’s no doubt it tastes good, but I’m not getting the freshness I’ve grown to appreciate from organic bottled beverages. That said, if you want to try Rooibos, give this beverage a shot. My wife is not a tea fan, and she really liked the red tea. The reason people that usually do not drink tea will like this beverage is because it’s not tea. So, if you’ve seen the product in a cooler near you, go ahead and give it a try if you are in the mood for a healthy beverage with a fruity flavor. I can’t say enough about acai – although I will very soon.

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Let me start by saying English Breakfast tea is quite confusing for new tea drinkers. If you are an experienced tea drinker, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve probably established your favorite English Breakfast teas by now. I have not found my favorite. Anyway, almost every account of its origin that I’ve read did relate the tea as a breakfast compliment. That said, this is an anytime of the day tea. Keep in mind it does have caffeine, but almost all black teas have caffeine. The majority of the English Breakfast teas I’ve tried were loose leaf teas. They were usually a combination of Assam and Ceylon tea or a variety of Keemun. English Breakfast tea does go well with milk and sugar.

Snapple has a lot of teas to try. I think I’ve had almost all of them. In fact, they were all good grabs. Their English Breakfast tea is my least favorite selection of all the others I have tried. I’m not that impressed with the tea flavor to start. It’s not nearly as good as their Orange Pekoe. Also, the sweetener in the beverage overpowers the tea. I don’t know about this one. It’s just not doing anything for me. You may want to try it for yourself, but I will not be trying this one again. I guess that’s why they offer more than one flavor.

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Snapple is offering an old black tea classic in the form of a bottled iced tea. If you are a regular Earl Grey black tea drinker, you know how inconsistent the bergamot flavoring can be with this tea. Here’s some background on Earl Grey tea from a previous marTEA blog (My name is Earl, Earl Grey):

Earl Grey is a popular black tea blend often referred to as an afternoon tea. I like it anytime of the day, especially in the morning. There’s one catch to liking Earl Grey, you have to like the flavoring of the Bergamot oil. Bergamot is a citrus fruit described as a cross between the pear lemon and a grapefruit.

Knowing what to expect out of a bagged and/or loose leaf Earl Grey tea, I was curious to see how Snapple would try to make the flavor appeal to the average consumer. This is how they did it…The product is lightly sweetened with a classic black tea flavor. The bergamot flavoring is light yet flavorful. So, rather than making this product offensively over-powering with bergamot flavoring, they did a great job of balancing the flavors. This is definitely another good grab at the store if you are thirsty for a ready-to-drink black tea.

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My summer of bottled iced teas continues with Snapple’s Orange Pekoe. I’m having fun trying and enjoying a wide variety of bottled iced teas this summer. Snapple continues to impress me with their bottled tea selections. I’ve tried their green and white teas. This is the first black tea I’ve tried from Snapple. This product does an excellent job at balancing fun with a classic black tea flavor. Snapple’s bottled products have a quality look and feel to them. This orange pekoe tea actually tasted like a homemade iced tea. The reason I sound surprised is due to the fact that many bottled teas simply don’t taste authentic. The orange pekoe was not heavily sweetened. I think this tea will appeal more to the average tea consumer that likes to drink iced tea during the summer months (like me). If you’re like me, it’s easier to pick up a few bottles at the store than to brew your own. I’m more of a hot tea person when it comes to tea brewing. So, if you see this one at the store and you have a craving for iced tea over a “cola” this is a good choice. If you are new to tea, know that orange pekoe does not taste like an orange. I’ll add a link to this blog to one of my past blogs covering orange pekoe. Another job well done Snapple.

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