Battle Of The Honey Green Teas

I used to drink Arizona’s Black Tea with Ginseng and Honey quite a bit, but I sometimes felt it wasn’t sweet enough. So one day I decided to try out their Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey. WOW! It’s not overpoweringly sweet like the regular Arizona Iced Tea, it maintains that perfect balance! I was hooked, and it’s all I drink now.

I was watching this special on CNBC last week, and they interviewed the creators of Honest Tea – An organic iced tea brand. I never heard of them before, but Coca-Cola bought a 40% stake in the company, so I figured it was worth checking out. Low and behold, the next day I was in the grocery story and they had a special display for Honest Tea right when I walked in!

For those who don’t know what they’re all about, here’s their mission statement:

Honest Tea creates and promotes delicious, truly healthy, organic beverages. We strive to grow with the same honesty we use to craft our products, with sustainability and great taste for all.

I picked up a bottle of the Honey Green Tea, and a bottle of the Half and Half (an organic Arnold Palmer, if you will).

Right off the bat, the first thing you notice is the difference in color between Arizona and Honest Tea’s drinks. That should have been my first warning sign. But I read a favorable review from a tea blogger (seriously, there’s a market for tea bloggers?!), and she seemed pretty happy with it. So after chilling it for the appropriate amount of time, I popped the top and took my first swig..

Ugh! I damn near threw up, this stuff was horrible! I couldn’t get over how bitter the drink was, it doesn’t even remotely resemble the Arizona blend. I can’t believe I dropped $1.75 on 16oz of this awful concoction, when for $0.25 more I could have gotten a gallon of Arizona! 🙁

Strangely enough, there are a lot of people who genuinely enjoy this drink. Those same people would probably go into diabetic shock if they drank the Arizona Tea. So it really comes down to a matter of taste. If you like sweet, you’ll like Arizona. If you like “organic”, then you’ll probably prefer Honest Tea.

(On a better note, the Half and Half wasn’t bad at all – Probably because the lemonade gives that much-needed sugar. I’ll stick with Turkey Hill’s Arnold Palmer, but if you’re looking to cut down on your sugar intake, this one’s a decent alternative.)