Joe Tea - 8 Reviews

I am a big fan of Joe Tea, but unfortunately it's not available around Buffalo, or at least so I thought. Out of all of the places I would find this product at an antique mall was pretty low on my list. Yet, there it was amongst the overpriced porcelain and the furniture I generally like, but can't justify paying so much for. Why was I at said antique mall you might ask? Well, let me tell you I was there to look for a cabinet to put the taxidermy coyote I recently bought on. Yes, I am a 20+ year vegetarian and yes I have a bunch of taxidermy. It's all older than I am and I really want my house to look like the grandfather's from Lost Boys. Either that or a museum.

So there I am, wondering why a toy from a cereal box is marked $60 that I had about a dozen of when I was a kid when I glance up and see the cooler filled with Joe Tea. It was a glorious site, especially when I noticed this new flavor.

This is basically their great half and half with more caffeine added. It's the Jolt of iced tea. I can't complain. I haven't tasted them back to back, but in my memory it tastes the same as the regular version, which I love. It tastes like tea. It tastes like lemonade. It tastes like playing golf. Wait, no. That's just a name. It's just delicious and it's sweet without being overwhelming. It's what I want and it's what I got and I'm a happy shopper besides going home empty handed otherwise.

Yeah yeah yeah, raspberry tea I get it. The stuff is everywhere. It's possibly more prevalent than unflavored tea in most gas stations/convenient stores. Why should we care about yet another raspberry tea that's available? Oh, maybe because Joe Tea is a hell of a company who not only uses cane sugar to sweeten their beverages, but who also uses real tea and actual fruit? I think that is more than enough reason in this age of garbage drinks in which we life.

This is great. Period. End of story. Everything that you liked about raspberry tea just got better. It's like someone took a tall boy of Arizona and switched out the ingredients with superior ones. First of all it actually tastes like raspberries and not a proximity that is just flavored syrup. Secondly you can still taste the tea underneath the fruit. That is something that doesn't happen often these days. I do wish the tea taste was a bit stronger here, but I don't have a huge problem with it. This is nothing like the sugar water you have been told was tea your whole life. This is real, or at least a lot closer to reality.

Much like the truck on the label this is very much a classic. It is exactly what I think of and what I want, when it is sweltering hot out and I want to cool down with a nice lemonade. It tastes like lemons without being overly tart, thanks to the sugar. Speaking of the sugar, can we make it a law that lemonade cannot exist unless it is made with real sugar? The sweetener really matters when it comes to this type of beverage, and nothing is as perfect as cane sugar.

This is it folks. This is all that you need. It is the quintessential lemonade and if I lived on the east coast I would be drinking it all summer.

This is a drink for a warm summer day down in Georgia. This humid 90+ degree mess is “warm” to the locals, but to northerners like myself it's “sweltering.” I don't know how people get anything done down there. When the weather is that hot I just want to be a bum and sit in front of a fan until the sun falls down. Of course I live in the land of 5 months of winter, where I also want to do nothing except hide under mounds of blankets and either read or play Zelda and Final Fantasy games, so who am I to talk?

The label on this says it's half tea and half lemonade, split right down the middle. My taste buds assure you that that is not the case. To me it tastes more like 65/35 split with the higher side going to the tea. You can taste the peach tea more than the lemonade, but the all American summer beverage is still very present in this liquid. Actually this could very well be an even split if the lemonade they used was a little on the weak side. You can taste the lemons, but there is no tartness to it at all. Oh, and the peach flavoring they used is natural and it really tastes like you're biting into a fuzzy fruit instead of a gummy ring.

Sure, I would have preferred that there was more of a sting from the lemonade to this, but when it's “warm” down south, this would do just fine in keeping me cool, refreshed and with happy taste buds.

Summer time is getting closer and closer and to the South, that means one thing...I think. That thing is peaches. The South loves peaches. They put them in everything: salad, soup, drinks, desserts, and everything in-between. I think only snacks are in-between but you get it. Everything. They eat them every which way, too. Deep fried, au naturale, salted, sugared, grilled, sautèed, and pureed. They also juice them.

I feel like this drink is the closest I will get to a sweetened Peach tea, authentic sweet tea with authentic peaches. That's a nice change to the already perfect sweet tea. Even though this tea is made in New Jersey, I feel that some of the upper management, you know, the guys with the hats and giant cigars, were from the South. Imported to NJ from their homeland with the promise of jobs, money, home, chances, opportunity, etcetera. They certainly did find it, though. They found a company that tastes wonderful and also tastes like home. They found two simultaneously great things at the same time. Both Southerners and Northerners have to agree that is a wonderful thing. Bipartisan support!

I can only imagine how sticky the bed of that truck has to be. Driving bottles of iced tea and lemonade all over every day, every week, every month of the year bottles have to break. You also can tell that they do most of their driving on old dirt roads with dust blowing up everywhere. I bet the bed of that there truck is a dirty sticky mess. You know who is winning out with this ice tea leakage? The ants and bees, that's who. The ants are crawling their way up the tires, while the bees just buzz over to feed on the sweetness that is left behind once the glass is cleared away. Those lucky bugs are filling up their stomachs with some of the tastiest summer beverages available in the northeast. When one of these bottles of raspberry tea lemonade busts open it must be like a holiday to them. To start off the raspberry tea is great. Each swig tastes like you sitting on the back of that truck downing a bushel of ripe raspberries while gulping down a big jug of sweetened iced tea to fight the heat. If that tea wasn't enough for you, you are in luck because they cut it right in half with some quality lemonade. It was one a bit on the bitter side, but the sweetness of the tea took care of that and the two flavors now live in perfect harmony, well that is until the ants and bees come along and eat/drink it all up.

See that pickup truck over yonder? I want to be in that truck speeding down some old country roads, listening to music way too loud, while drinking this half and half. In this scenario will I be taking this truck off-roading to do some "muddin'?" Of course I will be. I'm a red blooded American aren't I?
I feel weird that I've been drinking a bunch of half and halfs and lemonades recently, because to me they are summer drinks. It is currently a snowy mess around our parts, so summer is a world away. Maybe I should just crank the heat to 90 degrees in my apartment, light some "freshly cut grass" scented candles, close my eyes and just pretend. While doing that, I don't think there is a better half and half I could drink. Joe's makes their beverage with real brewed tea, cane sugar and real lemon juice. It's as down home on the farm as you can get. A farm where there is a red pickup truck that has recently been covered in mud.

Awhile back, a long time before we started this site, I had the peach Joe's tea. I loved it, and have been keeping an eye out for it since then. I recently found this one at a Whole Foods on a recent tour. While it's not as great as the peach variety, the green tea is pretty good.
It's a pretty mild tea, and the "low sugar" is nice. It's always nice to have a tea that isn't overly sweet, yet not completely bitter. I appreciate the resealable bottle since it is a large quantity of tea.