Hank's Harmony Crafted Teas Cucumber Watermelon Black Tea

While Philadelphia may be the trash can of the United States its inhabitants sure know what they are doing when it comes to food and drink. Before you get all offended, please present your counter argument, but know that I have been to the city more than two dozen times, in many different neighborhoods and there has not been a single visit where I did not witness a decent amount of trash being blown around. I always have a good time there, but it is the dirtiest city I have ever visited. Let's wash those visions of garbage away and think about the good things like soft pretzels, (vegan) cheesesteaks, peanut chews, Wawa iced tea and of course Hank's soda.

Hank's root beer has been a staple of my Philly trips for years, and now they have expanded their reach into the world of iced teas. Normally I would say that they needn't have bothered with the existence of Wawa and their delicious teas, but I'm pretty sure Hanks took the mighty mini-mart into consideration and went for more unusual flavors. As much as I love Wawa, you're not going to see a cucumber watermelon tea in their line. This is where I think hanks will find its new market and thrive.

When the days are hot such as these, a good melon or cucumber drink is always what is needed to hit the spot, when you get tired of lemonade. A combination of the two is a dream for some. I just happen to be included in that some. The watermelon in here is nice, as it actually tastes a bit like the summer treat and not like a Jolly Rancher aka the candy that nearly destroyed the fruits entire reputation. I could use a bit stronger cucumber flavor, as it's really only there in the aftertaste. It's still better than nothing though.

My only suggestions are that I believe this would have worked much better with a green or white tea. I'm just tired of black iced tea. It tastes so standard. There's really nothing wrong with it, and I'm sure in six months I'll be on a black tea kick again, but at the moment all I can think of is lemon tea, and that's not what I want to think of with this.

Also, there are three sweeteners in this game; sugar, agave nectar and Rebiana. I made it through about half the bottle before the stevia started to show itself. I think that's only because it started to warm up a bit. Even when it's there it's not very strong and doesn't distract from the beverage much. I understand why it's included, but I am the type of tea drinker that would rather have less sugar than to have a zero calorie one included. Tea doesn't need to be very sweet (if at all).

Like the benefactor in the Dickens' classic I had great expectations for this beverage. While all of my hopes and dreams were not met, I feel this it was worth my time, and with some tweaking I think that future flavors in this line could do great things for the convenient stores of the north east.