Arizona - 63 Reviews

You've got Grapeheads, Lemonheads, Cherryheads formerly known as the racist Cherry Chan, and Melonheads and Appleheads, which I have never seen and Orangeheads. This drink, as you could probably guess, tasted like Lemonheads if you dipped them in limejuice. It was almost hard to convince myself this wasn't just 7-Up or other comparable lemon-lime drink. It's not bad and it might be more real lemon and lime flavored than "those other guys."

If you like your Sierra Mist, 7-Up, Sprite, and the like, this is a nice, cleaner tallboy of that group that you might like to sink your teeth into. That's figuratively speaking. Please don't bite into this can. Just the thought of you doing that makes me cringe. Who bites cans? What are you? A goat?

I am in Jersey for a wedding. I was just at an Italian restaurant for three hours. Do you know how long that is? It's a long time. It's a long time to sit there. Three courses. That's an hour per course. One hour dedicated to a Caesar salad. One hour dedicated to a small amount of pasta. The food was fine at best but the dessert was a wonderful chocolate mousse cake. Don't tell anyone, but I ate some of the cake from the girl that sat next to me because she wasn't as crazy about it as I was. She got up and left and I ate some of her cake. I talked to her. She's in the wedding party. It's fine. Well, the girl who sat across from me needed some medicine so I walked out to a 7-11 and got some. Being who I am, I also stopped at the drink cooler and checked it out and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw and basically had to buy.

I had to wait for another hour and a half to drink this, and I offered it to a nice girl in the elevator who politely declined, but here I am, sitting on my hotel bed watching an awesome episode of Seinfeld, drinking this rather awkward drink. Awkward? Yes. I said awkward. It's got chocolate, that for truth. Bosco, another Seinfeld reference, is chocolate syrup they used. The fudge I think they might be grouping into the chocolate. I don't know if there is an additional ingredient. The float? There might be an element of cream in there. It's got an almost sparkling chocolate seltzer taste to it. It's not bad.

I like that this is another Brooklyn treat and I am so close to enjoy it. Now if only that nice elevator girl would have enjoyed it, too. She missed out. Not on much, but she missed out regardless. I take a little offense that people don't drink my drinks when I offer them up. Don't you people know who I am?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have been wrong for far too long. As we have recently learned the song should actually go, “You put the lime in the mango and you drink it all up.” You see mangos and limes go together far better than coconut could ever dream. We have sent a cease and desist to the Harry Nilsson estate and we have been assured that with the magic of technology his song will be digitally altered so that he sings mango instead of coconut at every instance. It's was really shocking how quickly the executar of his estate agreed to it. I guess she must be a huge mango supporter, but who wouldn't be?

To celebrate the change in the song Arizona has released this version of their Rickey line. It is some version of mango and lime juice mixed together and injected into carbonated water. In any world this is really just an interesting flavor of soda that comes in an oversized can, but we'll play the game and refer to it as a sparkling beverage.

Mangos and limes work so well together that I can't believe it's not a more common experience. This actually tastes more of lime than mango, and that might be the secret right there. Lime is normally a secondary character in the beverage world, but it has a co-starring role with Arizona, and the reviews all say that it performed amazingly. Now if only it came in smaller cans and with less sugar it and I could be BFFs.

Follow this path of information. Arizona is from Long Island, and they are co-opting a beverage from Brooklyn. Okay, that wasn't too bad was it? They started at the end of last summer when they released their Cherry Lime Rickey, which I believe was their first trek into the world of carbonation. It was a drink I enjoyed. It was pretty crazy, and ridiculously sweet, but on a nice hot day, it was enjoyable. Recently they have released three new flavors into their Rickey line, and they are what they are.

While it may only constitute 10% of the beverage these Rickeys are flavored with real juice. I don't believe there was ever a time in nature when grapes and limes commingled. They certainly are a strange pair when put together, but it's kind of enjoyable. I started drinking this last night at band practice, and it was a bit much to handle. Upon taking one sip I knew there was no way I was going to drink this entire can in one sitting. The label says it's three servings, but Arizona knows as well as we do that we are a country of gluttons and 99% of their customers drink them don't divvy up the portions. They separated the sweetener into HFCS and sucralose to keep the calories down, but it still makes it way sweeter than it needs to be. It is also harshly carbonated, so be aware of that when you go into one of these. Sometimes I really like that kind of carbonation, but last night was not one of them. The grape lime flavor was very interesting though, so it helped me get through half the can. The rest I put in my fridge so that I could review it later.

Here I am, the next afternoon, and now the beverage is lightly carbonated. Without the harsh bubbles, the flavor shines through a lot more. You can definitely taste the grape and lime juices, of course it's through a haze of sweetener, but that is what the majority of the Arizona customer base wants. Unless the temperature is over 85 degrees I probably will not purchase another one of these, but I am still excited to try the other two new flavors.

Here we have one of the originals of the Arizona line. It's not very common nowadays. I was actually asked if it was a new flavor when I pulled it out to parch my thirst at band practice last night. I'm pretty sure the reason this flavor never became more popular is that I don't believe that it was ever released as a tall boy can; I've only ever seen it in glass and plastic bottles. It's a shame because this is way better than you would expect. Even though it is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, you can actually taste the real brewed tea, instead of just sugar water. Sure, there is a decent amount of sugar in this drink, but it tastes like mass produced sweetened iced tea should. I'm looking at you with disappointment Brisk. That's right, you're getting the “dad face” while Arizona gets a proud arm around it's shoulder.

I know. Can you believe it? We haven't done this. We have not reviewed this essential to the drink community. Yeah, I said it. Essential. I don't care. I just said it twice. You know what this tea is. This drink reminds you of different times, or at least it does for me. I used to drink this when I was younger and when I drink it now it reminds me of those good times; skating with friends or playing hockey in the street or all that stuff, always with friends. No social drink is more socially acceptable than "the Tallboy." This tea is good, too. Corn syrup? Who cares? You're a kid. Adults don't really drink this so as a kid, you don't really care what it's made out of. It's one dollar, tastes like a mediocre sweetened tea and threw some crude lemon flavor in there, canned it up, and sold trillions. I would like to love to know the amount of cans of this they sold. For me, it was this second to the green tea. It still isn't bad after all these years and I'm saying that as a man who is one month shy of thirty-one. Not bad at all. Welcome back to childhood everyone. Kids, stay here for as long as you can. Tyler, the Creator, keep spitting about cans of Arizona and skating.

I'm surprised that it took me as long as it did to have a half and half. I mean, it's lemonade and tea. Two liquids that are pretty good together. I think it takes a whole new level. Even cruddy iced tea and cruddy lemonade makes a pretty good half and half. Somehow, two average things put together can make something great. I'm not saying this drinks two protagonists are cruddy but we can all admit that they're not the finest. Together, though, you get a good amount of lemonade and iced tea that battle it out for your love. It's not often that you people fight over your mouth. It's not like you are a pretty girl and everyone wants to kiss you. You have a beard and haven't showered in a week. Easily a week. You have been wearing the same t-shirts for a decade and have awful taste in music. In real life no one is fighting for your mouth. This is your chance to see what it's like.

Walk into a 7-11. Go towards the back where the Slurpee machine is. Now here is the hard part. Grab a cup and put some soda water in it. Like when you press the small white button next to the Coke or Mug root beer. Then shimmy over to the coffee machine and fill that bad boy up with the oldest, most burnt coffee, right to the brim. Shift back over to the fountain center and put some ice in there to cool it down. Then take a handful of sugar, all of them, artificial or real, who cares? Pay your $0.99 and go to your car. Give it a swirl and take a sip. Promptly make a face that looks like you just ate out of a momma bird's mouth.

I looked far and wide for this drink and now I found it and it unfortunately sucks. It tastes like how I described the scenario above. Gross. Joe DiMaggio, you should arise from the grave and White-Out Your name from this contract.

No. We haven't done this before. Yes. It has been out for a decade. There is no shortage of reviews for Arizona reviews on this site. As a matter of fact, they are one of the most reviewed products that we've done. Sometimes, though, things slip through the cracks. Things we've drank one hundred times we don't remember if we drank for personal pleasure or for the good of the site. Up until now, this was strictly a pleasure drink. Well, not any more, kids. Now it's business.

Look at all the darn fruit on this bottle. Let me count the ways this is a fruit punch: apple, pear, mango, cherry, both green and concord grapes, and strawberry. That's a plethora of fruit. That would make a pretty decent fruit salad. Does it make a decent drink, though? Well, yes, it does. You can't taste everything. I feel like I'm missing out on some mango action, perhaps some cherry, too. Do I hold it against them? No. How fine are people's taste buds that they can distinguish between like ten fruits all while being sweetened by corn syrup? No, that's not a dig. It's just what they use to sweeten it. Sure, I'd like to taste this with real sugar, or even sugarless, but it's not penalizing them. The sweetener is fine because there are a lot of fruit flavors going on in that bottle.

Arizona aren't a bunch of dumb dummies. They've been doing this for years. Remember how we just celebrated their twentieth birthday? They're vets. Pros, even. They did a fine job and you know that because you've been drinking their stuff for years. I'm sure they would thank you if given the opportunity. You should thank them, too. It's the right thing to do.

Jack Nicklaus is a man who likes to talk trash with his beverages. He saw that his rival Mr. Palmer was getting all this attention for his love of mixing iced tea and lemonade. Jack scoffed at that bastardization of two fine drinks. He believed that both of those beverages are perfectly fine on their own and there was no need to mix them. “Listen folks, there is a time for lemonade and a time for tea, and it will be a cold day in hell when you see them mixed in my home,” is a direct quote of his to the press. He then went on to tell the press that he will be releasing a line of drinks that will leave Mr. Palmer quaking in his golf cleats.

The world has yet to see any tea drinks bearing Mr Nicklaus' name, but his lemonades are a force to be reckoned with. Sure he sweetens them with high fructose corn sweetener, and many people take offense to that, but I believe it was the correct choice for these drinks. It makes them smoother and takes away some of the bite. With this particular version the lemonade perfectly accentuates the mango of the flavor. It seems more like a mangoade with lemon flavoring to it, than vice versa. The use of mango puree makes the flavor wonderful and authentic. Jack Nicklaus really has something going on here and his partnership with Arizona is truly a hole in one.

-Steve Brummerberg
Associated Press

Black can. I have never seen it before. It caught both Jay and I off guard when we went to the store once again looking for new stuff. I don't know how Arizona keeps churning out new products. They've got to push out a new product every month or so and only two or three per year I know about. My brother loves Arnold Palmer so much. I don't know how he drinks it. I don't particularly enjoy it. It's a little too diet but that could just be the "Lite" flavor. I know a couple kids like that. I always seem them drinking either the regular or the "Lite" but never these new flavors. Why? It's the same base that you love with some more flavors. Safe flavors, too. Strawberry? Who doesn't like a strawberry iced tea or strawberry lemonade? I say "or" because I don't know which side the strawberry lies on. It's good. Maybe it's like 75% half and half and then 25% strawberry Arizona. You know they're just mixing tubes down there in the factory. It's like a bunch of dudes saying, "Alright bring me the green tea tube and mix it with this pomegranate tube and why don't you bring me over that watermelon tube and we'll see what we can concoct." It's like the Mexican restaurant of drink companies where they only have seven ingredients and somehow manage to make a four page menu.

This is good, though. It still retains a little bit of tea, a little more lemonade, and a decent strawberry taste. Maybe Arnold Palmer was upset that Jack Nicklaus got a strawberry lemonade and he wanted some of the action on that. Those golfers. Always competing. Lay off each other, gents. You guys did pretty well for yourselves in your prime. You've each got a closet of green jackets you can be proud of.

I thought we had tried every flavor of Arnold Palmer. Then I saw this bottle, in a Fox News store, in the Houston Airport. Ironically just past this store was a PGA tour shop. This isn't my favorite, but the pomegranate is a nice change of pace to be mixed into the classic drink recipe. I wish this didn't have HFCS in it because it makes in unnecessarily thick tasting.

Who needs seedless watermelons? I mean seriously. You're eating watermelon outside and you are almost encouraged to spit the seeds. I don't think I've ever eaten sliced watermelon inside. Sure, cubed watermelon as part of a fruit salad I've eaten inside, but the kind that looks like fruit pizza I think I've only eaten outside. I love the stuff. I love the seeds. There is something therapeutic about filling your mouth with seeds and machine gunning them out. Not at someone as that would be sticky, disrespectful, and pretty disgusting. Just shoot them for distance and for fun.

I'm pretty sure that the whole "If you eat the seeds you will grow a watermelon in your stomach." I think that anyone who has ever believed that was true has never had a garden a day in their lives. I would say that twenty-five percent of my annual garden just doesn't come to fruition due to poor soil, water, drainage, dogs, space, etc. It's hard to grow some things and you need optimal environment to grow a lot of things. You really think that a watermelon could germinate inside your acidic stomach filled with hamburger grease, pop, sugars, no sunlight, and no real nutrients. I mean, you could argue that it was like a composter but it's still far too dangerous for anything to sprout. So that's that.

So if you still aren't convinced that you don't not need seeds, this drink is for you. It's watermelon flavors, as it should be since it claims it is, but it's right in the middle of "real" watermelon and "candy" watermelon flavored. It's a tallboy and should be shared. No one should drink this in one sitting unless they love 300 garbage calories dedicated to a drink that doesn't fully taste like the fruit it represents. I think you could probably eat a whole watermelon for under 300 calories. I wouldn't recommend it as you body would have to go into some sort of fruit shock. That might just be called diarrhea, actually. Don't get me wrong, it's a good drink and is nice on overcast days like this to bring you back to a childhood summer, but for almost twenty-four ounces, this is gluttonous.

Twenty years old. Twenty. Arizona is one year away from being able to drink its own alcohol line. It can vote for your local quarterback as the president of the United States. It can go to the casino and win six dollars playing penny slots. It cannot rent a car without having some sort of authorization from his or her daddy. It can buy cigarettes but it's is also smart enough to know that is not a wonderful decision.

Arizona is almost a full-fledged adult and what better way to celebrate than with a drink fit for a youth? That's right, and cherry lime Rickey. I feel like this is the sibling or close cousin to the Shirley Temple. It's a little bit of cherry with a little bit of lime and a lot of bit of sparkling because that's what you do when you are twenty; you sparkle. You shine your shoes, you walk out the door, and you feel like a million bucks. You've got your ability to perform as an almost adult but while having a drink in your hand that makes you feel young.

This is a limited edition flavor with a timeless taste. Having never been to Brooklyn, I don't have the nostalgia behind this flavor but that doesn't mean that I cannot appreciate it. What am I? An ignoramus? I am not, sir, and I take insult to hear that from the likes of you. Insulting me after all the nice things I said about you. It makes you look like a real turd, you know that?

Seriously folks, how many flavors does Arizona have? I feel like more and more pop up all the time, but then I remember them being around briefly years ago, then I'm shocked that we haven't already reviewed them. This is our 29th review of an Arizona product and it also officially makes it the most reviewed company we have (Cintron has 28 reviews). That's a lot of products for one company, and I'm sure there are a couple out there that we have still missed. After 29 reviews I can say one thing with certainty; If they had used cane sugar instead of HFCS in all of their drinks, they would probably be my favorite drink company of all time. Sure they used it in the Black & White Tea, but it's so rare that I can find it now, that it barely counts.

To make this drink you take 8 parts Arizona original green tea and add 2 parts pomegranate flavored concentrate. Even at that low of a ratio the syrupiness of the pomegranate is all I can taste, unless I really concentrate and try to find the green tea in there. Rereading that makes it sound really gross, well I guess it is in theory, but I kind of like the way this tastes. I like the way pomegranate tastes, and while I could do with more tea flavor, for the price you can't really complain.

So many nights. So many nights were spent with Jay and/or my friend RJ skating downtown, sitting on a curb drinking Arizona green tea tall boys just watching the world pass by. Those were good times. We'd be over someone's house and go to a place called "We Never Close" that we called "Weiner Close" because some appropriate lights were out for an extended amount of time and get can after can of this. It was the entry to a world of new drinks. While everyone else was drinking Brisk, you were drinking something with ginseng and honey in it. This was innovative to the drink line. Green tea? I've had black tea before and if you're from the South, you've had sweet tea but sweet green tea? That's just crazy. Arizona killed it with this one and they probably, hopefully still do.

It's held up in it's ability to remind me of a time when I was hanging out with friends having a wonderful time. I've certainly had better teas since those days but I will never dismiss Arizona as being an influence to what different types of tea can be on the market. I now drive past that corner I used to sit on as an early twenty-something and I won't soon forget just sitting there, sitting, talking about music and stuff. It was something I looked forward to. It was when things used to be a little bit slower than they are now. Oh to be back there now. A lot has happened in ten years.

As for a review: You've had it, you know. I was blown away when I saw that we hadn't reviewed this before. I feel that I owe Arizona an apology for not drinking and reviewing this sooner. Everyone loves it. Arizona; You're fine. Keep up the good work. I'm sure there are countless stories like this in different parts of the country all around this epic drink.

Sometimes we really just can't believe that we haven't reviewed some drinks. On a drink shopping spree the other day Mike and myself were completely dumbfounded to realize that we have not reviewed Arizona's green tea and sweet tea. It really seems like they should have been some of the first reviews we did for how often we see them/used to drink them (well the green tea).

I have to say I was probably better off not reviewing this. It's a fake version of sweet tea, meaning that it doesn't taste like sweet tea at all, but instead a over-sweetened tea. To me one of the main things in sweet tea is the cane sugar. It always has a slightly grainy quality to it, that lets you know it was made with real sugar. This was made with HFCS, so it wasn't grainy, but rather syrupy. It tastes like they took a regular sweetened black tea and doubled the HFCS. I couldn't make it through an entire can over a couple of hours. I don't recommend you to see if you can.

There was a time in my life where I had to do the “weekend dad” thing. No I wasn't the dad myself, I had to go and stay with my father every other Friday and for the full weekend on the opposite weeks. That was a long time ago. As soon as I was old enough to ride my bike places I was hardly ever at his apartment, except to sleep. I think I was 16 when I stopped going at all. It just seemed pointless and his place was one big cloud of smoke that made me feel like butt soup. There's no real point to tell you that except that in the center of that smoke hole is where I first encountered Arizona tea. MY stepmother became obsessed with it and I remember waking up early one Sunday and drinking one of them. Being as I was probably 15 at the time it blew my mind. Before that the only iced teas I had tasted were Nestea and powder mixes. Arizona opened up a whole new world to me and I quickly became obsessed with iced tea. That obsession lasts to this day, and while Arizona is no longer my favorite, I still have a soft spot for it in my heart.

The other day I went to the store to stock up on “normal drinks” that we hadn't reviewed yet, and I was shocked to discover that we had yet to review this classic Arizona flavor. It used to be the flavor I would treat myself with. I always went for the cans because of their lower price, but to this day I have never seen this flavor in a tallboy. I'm pretty sure it never existed. So sometimes I would cough up the extra sixty cents and go to flavor town. This bottle holds 3oz of tea less than the tall boy cans, but for some reason it seems enormous. That's really what you go to Arizona for; the quantity of tea plus it's slightly above average quality.

There are two things that make this tea stand out amongst the others: they use white tea to make it and it has actual blueberry juice in it. Both of those things step up the game. The white tea makes it taste softer while you can really taste the blueberries. If they had made it with cane sugar instead of HFCS this would be a complete slam-dunk. Unfortunately they don't and the taste suffers a little from the overly sweet syrupiness.

To think if it weren't for bizarre furniture that folded out into a sleeping compartment I wouldn't have had the pleasure of meeting Arizona until a few years later. Where would I even be now in my life?

I don't know if you've noticed but the weather has been getting increasingly better out there. By "out there" I mean outside not "out there in whatever location Call Of Duty" is in. I was like you, indoor kids. I loved playing video games and I still do. If I could do whatever I wanted, I might take a week off of work, pay for all my friends to take a week off of work, and just play video games for a week straight. Inside. No sun. Since this is the real world and I'm not what you consider "privileged," I do not have that luxury so I have things like "work" and "a kid" and "previous obligations" that I need to take care of. Here's what I'm getting at. When the weather gets nice, lemonade tastes better. Sure, you can drink it year 'round but in the summer lemonade is a thing that is earned.

This lemonade, fresh and new to shelves (almost) everywhere, isn't bad. Oh you see that there is honey and ginseng on the can, the two ingredients that made Arizona what it is today if you ask me, but you wouldn't know it by drinking this. It just tastes like lemonade. If I had an Arizona lemonade, a product that does not exist, and this lemonade with it's additional ingredients, I might say that this has less of an edge. That might be where the honey comes in but you can't taste it as a flavor, only as an effect. Ginseng, well let's face it. You didn't taste it in the green tea, either. It's great that it's there. Probably not noticeable that it's not there.

I'm happy that this exists because it's a nice change and a better product than the Arnold Palmer. Yeah, I said it. That in itself should be worth a thousand words.

We arrived in Tampa. I previously mentioned that I was going to Fort Lauderdale but I was mistaken. The flight was fine and the weather was fine. Jessika and I hadn't eaten so we decided what better thing to do than split a couple pulled pork sliders and a plate of chicken and waffles? Since she has accepted who I am, we went to the store to get water and take a gander at the drink selection. It was alright. You'll see what else I got later.

We hung out by the pool and had a reception for Jessika's work and then made a couple consecutive, poor decisions.

Now I do not go to strip clubs. I just don't. I know the girls there need to make a living, and they're trying, but I haven't been to one since 2001 and was fine with my streak. Other people go, that's fine. It's not for me. Tonight, while on vacation, I broke my streak and went. What a mistake. They didn't sell alcohol so there was an astronomical cover, which we somehow haggled to half price. That price included unlimited fountain drinks, which is appealing if you are at an eight years older birthday party, but not a real pull if you are at a seedy establishment such as this. When the front girl said "sweet tea" was an option, though, I decided that it could have been worse.

We walked in and there was one lonely girl on stage, shaking it for one guy who ended up being the bouncer. We took our respective seats, reluctantly and then the girls struck. None of the girls were my cup of tea and the one that was the most persistent of them all was pregnant as all get out. She was offering lap dances and asking everyone to buy her ten dollars Cokes. I've got to say, though, that strip club had some of the best sweet tea this guy has had in a long time. From that point on, I just wanted to go home and drink this drink, which I had put on ice earlier.

It was well worth the wait, too. The strawberry and the lemonade dance back and forth inside your mouth, much like the strippers would have done if there was room for two on that tiny stage and they had more than two dancers. I don't know which one would have been strawberry and which one would have been lemonade, but whichever got the name "lemonade" would have gotten the short straw because that is a terrible stripper name. The drink is just sweet enough and you don't care that it's corn syrup. There is actually strawberry puree in it so you know it's already better than most strawberry lemonades out there.

I've already got more stories for you, but we will save them for the next review. I'm embarking tomorrow afternoon and will be out of range so I'll see if I can squeeze out another story for you.