Not everyone's cup of tea (Lipton Iced Tea)

Member Name: ~*pink-pilgrim*~

Product:	Lipton Iced Tea
Date:	02/11/07 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: refreshing, tasty !

Disadvantages: Not everyone's cup of tea

INTRODUCTION
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I first heard of ice tea in America. It was sold in huge litre sized paper cups and was very popular. I tried some and was very impressed. I was only 7 at the time and wasn't keen on real tea but thought this was great. I never tasted Ice Tea again until 2002 at a conference.
The conference had provided Lipton Ice Tea goodies such as cool bags, T-Shirts and bottles of Lipton Ice. Remembering my experience in America I opened the bottle and started to swig away. I stopped in disgust the taste was sweet and my throat felt dry. No amount of ice tea could quench my thirst, I was very disappointed. Near the end of the weekend I had a glass of ice tea with ice and lemon and started to fall in love with it. Not only was it free but I found a refreshing way to drink it.

WHAT IS ICE TEA
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Ice Tea is basically a form of tea that is served cold. Ice tea is easy to make and I have been known to dabble slightly with recipes for themed events in my classroom. As the drink originated from the USA I decided to serve ice tea as part of a class topic on America. In fact the history of ice tea dates back to 1904 in St Louis. It is believed that Richard Blechynden created the drink at World Fair.
The name also tends to be a 'disputed' issue. Is it Iced tea or Ice tea? You may find on your travels that whilst one country will refer to iced tea and other will call it Ice tea. OK so what does a name matter to some people iced tea refers to a flavoured form of tea (e.g. has lemon added) and ice tea is the name given to cold tea.

Many companies such as Nestea, Lipton and Twinings produce the popular drink 'ice tea'.

LIPTON
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Lipton is a brand known worldwide by many tea drinkers. Lipton is a huge provider of tea products (both hot and cold). It was created by Sir Thomas Lipton, the company is the largest 'tea company' with brands sold in over 60 countries. Lipton is now owned by Unilever, a corporation that owns many of the world's consumer products such as food, drink, cleaning and beauty products.

The company are firm believers of environment and fair trading. They ensure that the land the tea leaves are harvested from are cared for and sustained. They also ensure that the people working with the tea plantations are well looked after. The main tea plantation in Kericho, Kenya has been certified by the Rainforest Alliance giving an assurance that the environment is cared for. Their slogan "direct from the tea gardens to the tea pot," describes the fresh, ethical production of Lipton Products.

LIPTON ICE TEA
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There are 4 varieties of Lipton Ice tea, lemon, peach, mango and green tea orange. I have tried the lemon and peach varieties. Lipton Ice Tea is a source of antioxidants which is good for healthy body function. I have just decided that I need to lose a bit of weight and I have opted for the Weight Watchers diet. The Lipton Ice Tea 'light' Lemon drink is 'free' on the WW diet. I can drink as much ice tea as I like without having to worry about weight gain and sugar intake. The other varieties are worth 2 points.

THE BOTTLE
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The bottle is basic and is quite boring. Stood on a shelf the bottle will either attract or put the customer off. The brown liquid inside to me is an attractive feature, especially against the bright yellow label. The green tea variety is...well...green and to me does not look as appealing.
When abroad I have seen cans of Lipton Ice Tea and I am sure these can be purchased in the UK as well. These are of a similar design to the bottle with an attractive yellow and red label.

The yellow label although basic is very luring. The Red Lipton logo is a great contrasting colour on the yellow background. The lemon ice tea bottle has a yellow lid and a small picture of a juicy lemon. The other bottles are similar however the peach bottle has a red lid and mango has a green lid. The label clearly states the ingredients and nutritional value.

INGREDIENTS AND NUTRITION
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The product contains tea, water, sugar, citric acid, juice and antioxidant. When looking at these ingredients I feel quite 'innocent' compared to the many E numbers and additives in my usual glass of cola. I was shocked however to realise that a normal bottle of Lipton Ice Tea has the same weight Waters points as Dr Pepper, cola and Fanta.

Looking at the bottle I was amazed to see that there were only 26 calories, 6.4g of carbohydrate (6.2g is sugar). I tucked straight into my bottle and then realised that the amounts were based on 100g servings and after drinking two 500ml bottles of Ice Tea my diet had gone out of the window :-(

SMELL
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On opening the bottle a strong smell of tea, the sort of smell I love in the morning to wake me up. It wasn't just the strong smell of tea but the crisp smell of lemon wafting up from the bottle. I love lemon I enjoy eating large wedges of it so this drink did smell appetising.

TASTE
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At first I wasn't too keen on Lipton Ice Tea, it never tasted the way it did in America. I was very disappointed until someone served it to me with a slice of lemon and few cubes of ice. At first I found that the taste was rather 'dry' and that my throat felt dry, it always left me wanting more to drink. To stop me wetting myself and constantly running to the toilet my mate told me to drink it with ice and a slice of lemon. I found the drink far more refreshing and thirst quenching.
I personally believe the combination of tea and lemon is amazing although some patriots find it 'wrong' and 'disgusting'. I am not keen on the after taste; it leaves a 'cotton wool' type feel in my throat. I feel that the combination of lemon and tea adds to a bitter taste in my mouth.

The primary taste is of 'tea' and if you do not like drinking tea you will probably not like Lipton Ice Tea.

AVAILABILITY AND PRICE
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I seem to have huge problems getting Lipton Ice Tea these days. Whilst at universitry the vending machines and campus shop was full of bottles of Lipton Ice Tea. On a visit to my local Londis, Somerfields, CO-OP and Spar I could not find Lipton Ice Tea anywhere. On a visit to Tesco (10 miles away) I managed to find a shelf of Lipton Ice Tea and decided to stock up. I tend to find the larger supermarkets stock Lipton Ice Tea and the smaller convenience stores only stock 'popular' soft drinks such as Coke, Dr Pepper, Fanta and Red Bull.

The 500ml bottles cost me 83p each and a 1.5 litre bottle would have cost me 97p so as you can probably see it worked out cheaper to buy a 1.5 litre bottle. The only reason I bought the 500ml bottles were for space in the fridge and freezer and as I have already stated Lipton Ice Tea tastes better when chilled.

SUMMARY
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Overall Lipton Ice Tea may not be 'everyone's cup of tea'…boom boom! I would argue however that with the antioxidants and ethical production Lipton Ice Tea is a great product to buy. If you like tea then you are likely to enjoy this…give it a go.

Summary: A refreshing cup of tea....with ice!