Steaz Sparkling Green Tea Raspberry

I'm pretty sure there is a basic human need to drink carbonation at times. I've gone through periods where I give up soda all together for awhile. I never actually last very long, because I get this weird feeling in my throat after a week or two and the only way to make that feeling go away is to drink something that has bubbles in it. This inevitably ends up with me drinking some sort of pop a few hours after the feeling's arrival. Sure I could just drink some soda water to “scratch” my throat, but there is something about it that I just can't stomach. Who knew carbon dioxide had a flavor?

I bring all of this up because in the past I always used to wonder why someone didn't carbonate iced tea. I love iced tea; some would say that I was a junkie for it. The idea of being able to get rid of that throat itch with some tea was always the dream. Then some companies finally came out with carbonated tea, and it just turned out all wrong. I don't know exactly what was wrong, but something was missing. I've even had some other Steaz sparkling teas and they didn't live up to my expectations. They are finally onto something with this raspberry one though. It's not 100% there, but it's leagues beyond the other ones I've had. It actually tastes like someone just added bubbles to some raspberry iced tea. I think the thing that seems off about it is that it is green and not black tea. I think this would be close to perfect if it were black tea, but I have very few complaints about its green brother. My only real complaint is it doesn't have that classic bitter green tea aftertaste. The sugar covers it up, which makes me question why they didn't go with black tea, since that aftertaste is what I love about green tea.

To sum things up: Throats get itches that need to be scratched by carbonation. Iced tea is awesome. Carbonated iced tea when done right is also awesome. Scratch your throat with some of this tea from time to time. You deserve it.