Teavana has two new bottled black iced teas out. One is a hit and one is a miss.
The hit is their Mango Black Tea, currently available through Starbucks. It is only slightly sweet, with a hint of lime in addition to the mango flavoring. It is sweetened with fruit and real sugar, not HCF or something artificial, which means that the sweetness is actually palatable. Sweetening bottled tea is a difficult balance -- this one manages to strike it nicely. It's not too sweet; in fact it is less sweet than most commercial brands. Yet, at the same time, it manages to be sweet enough to evoke both mango and lime flavors without tasting artificial or chemical. In short, "wow, this is pretty good."
The miss (for me) is the unsweetened Black Tea with Meyer Lemon and Lemongrass. It's not bad as such. It's just . . . off. There are a lot of flavors here fighting for dominance and the clash does not produce anything good. There's a fruity quality but also an almost sour note. I'd send this one back for flavor re-balancing. If the tea flavor were more clearly dominant, I think the other flavors would fall in line more cleanly. More than most of my reviews, this one is very much based on my own idiosyncratic tastes. I'd like someone who really likes the flavor of lemongrass to try it.
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