Arizona Half & Half Iced Tea & Mango

For years Arizona ruled the cheap tea game. It was the go to refreshment at any gas station or corner store. Around the turn of the century it was the hay day of basement punk and hardcore shows in Buffalo, NY. My friends and I spent a large chunk of time hanging out on Custer Street. The closest place to get drinks was a gas station a few blocks away and everyone either bought beer or Arizona. There was a point in my life where on an average I was drinking 3-4 cans a day. Now that is an unhealthy diet.

Eventually the houses that had the shows started shutting down, and around the same time (unrelated) I all but gave up drinking high fructose corn syrup (it was destroying my stomach). As a result I stopped drinking Arizona. Whenever I go back to it now, I always wonder what made me think it was so great. The conclusions I have come to are it was a lot of tea for a low price, and I was ignorant of how could iced tea could be.

I remember getting super pumped whenever a new flavor would come out. It's sad that the Half & Half Mango Iced Tea came out a few years ago and this is the first time I've tried it. It tastes more like a sugar fruit drink with a little tea added to it than an equally distributed half & half. I was shocked that this actually had mango puree in it. You can definitely taste that. I just wish that it had more of a tea flavor.

I still have a soft spot for Arizona, but I don't pretend that it is a magical elixir anymore. It's simply cheap tea that is mass-produced that comes in containers larger than any one person should drink in a single sitting.