The title rhymes, hehe. So recently I’ve fallen in love with iced green tea. It all started at the HGTV Blogger Block Party where free iced tea was being offered–the only choices were sweet tea, unsweetened tea and green tea and , noting my hatred of sweet and unsweetened ice tea, I opted for green tea.
I was not even expecting to like it, but I fell in love. And the next day I proceeded to buy four kinds of green tea ~for science~ so I could see which was the best. Of course, it’s what I personally think the best green tea is, but hopefully my in-depth review and ~interesting~ descriptions give you some tea insight. So, I pose the question: WHICH GREEN TEA IS THE BEST GREEN TEA?!
So the four contenders were Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng & Honey, Gold Peak Green Tea, Honest Tea Organic Honey Green Tea & Lipton Citrus Green Tea. Yes, I realize the Lipton one is CITRUS green tea and not regular green tea but let’s pretend it’s not.
I also took the liberty to pose with each tea individually to show off my manicure so you can see the packaging very easily. As a college student whose favorite food is cold, leftover Chinese food, clearly I have the advanced culinary palette and enough beverage knowledge to be the judge of the best green tea.
1. Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng & Honey
Pros: This tea gives you the best bang for your buck. It’s only 99 cents and you get 23 fl. oz. It’s the lowest price and highest amount out of all of the iced teas.
Cons: With that being said, it’s (obviously) a can and it has THREE servings. This is problematic because this is horrible for travelling and it’s not the best for limiting yourself–it’s too easy to drink the whole can and forget it’s supposed to be THREE servings and not one. It’s also kind of bland and not very sweet–personally, I prefer something a little bit sweeter but this isn’t bad.
2. Gold Peak Green Tea
Pros: This one has the prettiest packaging, IMO. It is definitely the most flavorful of the choices. It’s sweet but not overly sweet and it’s the perfect balance. The entire bottle is the serving (no tricks here like Arizona) and the price is fair at $2.19.
Cons: While it is the best tasting, it does have the most calories per serving with 140 Calories for 10.5 ounces. That’s still better than most standard iced teas and sodas, however.
3. Honest Tea Organic Honey Green Tea
Pros: It’s organic and has the least amount of calories (70 per bottle).
Cons: You get the least amount of tea and it’s $1.99. It tastes like licking the plastic wrapper of a fortune cookie that comes with Chinese food. After one sip of this, I was totally out. Screw healthiness and organic-ness, this tastes like nature and Earth peed in a bottle. Maybe I’m being too harsh, sorry Honest Tea. Your name is really cute, though.
4. Lipton Citrus Green Tea
Pros: The entire bottle is one serving and only 120 calories. It costs $2.19 and you get a decent amount of tea.
Cons: Okay, maybe this was my fault for getting the citrus version, but this tastes like really diluted orange juice. It’s not really bad but it’s not that good either. It just does not taste like green tea at all. Also, BTW, the bottle didn’t look totally full when I bought it. I thought someone drank out of it before me already (ew) but it was sealed. It’s just one of those “air in the chip bag” situations, I guess.
Final Verdict
Obviously the big loser is Honest Tea, in case you couldn’t tell by my description comparing it to cookie wrappers and pee.
The winner is Gold Peak green tea, it’s absolutely delicious and I’m obsessed with it. From henceforth I will only be purchasing Gold Peak green tea unless I’m looking to save money (Arizona can be my cheaper sidehoe…did I just call a drink a cheap sidehoe? I should be a food and beverage critic.)
What’s your favorite green tea?
