Friday, August 22, 2014

Arizona Oak Brewed Teas- Sugar In 'Unsweetened' Tea?

Dalek says 'You are Inferior'
The folks over at Arizona provided a generous helping of their three new bottled 'Oak Brewed' teas. They are testing these teas in the NY metro area and will then be rolling them out across the country within the year. There are three teas to choose from: 'Unsweetened' (I added the quotes, more on that later), Lightly Sweet, and Lemon. The teas have American Oak chips added to the brewing process. They are not brewed in oak barrels, although the wine aging process was the inspiration for the teas. I can't say that I've ever had a tea aged in oak before, and I'm not sure if this will be the beginning of a new trend.

Since I had such a large shipment of tea, I recruited a few tea tasters to provide feedback. This was helpful since I don't usually drink sweetened bottled teas and I'm not the target audience. I've compiled the feedback from the tasters and myself, and this is what we found:

For all three teas, there is a strange woody/earthy 'oaky' flavor that is added to the black tea. Tasters didn't define it specifically as the oak, but we couldn't figure out what else it could be.

The highest marks went to the lemon tea, although to me it tasted the most like a regular bottled tea. It had a strong lemon flavor but was not bitingly acidic. It actually gave the tea a pleasant brightness. The 'oak' flavor is present but not as apparent. The sweetened tea was too sweet for those like myself that don't normally drink bottled teas, but those that do drink it found it to be fine. The sweetness was less cloying than the 'lightly sweet' tea. I don't usually drink sweet teas, but if I was travelling and looking for something to drink I may choose the lemon version of this. Assuming a true unsweetened tea is not available.

The 'lightly sweet' tea was not enjoyed by those of us that do not appreciate sweet tea. But those that usually drink sweetened tea thought it was pleasant. I actually didn't mind the oak flavor in this tea, perhaps because it toned down the sweetness. But some of the tasters thought this tea had a strange aftertaste.

The unsweetened tea had a very unpleasant acidic taste. It's really all I could focus on when I tried it. The funny thing is that even though this is labeled as an unsweetened tea, there are three sweeteners in the ingredients! Honey, sugar, and maple sugar are included. I usually prefer unsweetened teas in every circumstance, but when comparing these three teas, I actually thought it was the least successful. It didn't taste enough like black tea, and it was strangely bland yet too acidic without tasting like actual citrus. There is also a slightly sweet taste that our tasters found off-putting. If you are expecting an unsweetened tea, the hint of sweetness is not appreciated. Everyone thought this tea was also too weak, without much boldness that other unsweetened teas have. The tasters would only choose this tea if no other options were available at the store.

So the tasters didn't love the unsweetened tea, but there is a larger issue to highlight. As I mentioned before, there is sugar added to the unsweetened tea. Am I the only person appalled by this? Sure, it says on the label that the sweetener 'adds a dietary insignificant amount of sugar', but when I asked the Arizona rep about those that have sugar restrictions they replied 'only a person's doctor or nutritionist can tell them if this beverage is safe for them to drink'. If a consumer is looking for an unsweetened tea, and it says 'unsweetened' on the label, shouldn't that mean there is no sugar in the bottle? It also leads me to believe Arizona doesn't stand behind the taste of their tea since they need to add sweeteners to alter the taste.

My assumption is that pure tea drinkers like myself are not the target audience for this drink. If anyone has seen or tried these teas, what did you think? Also, what do you think of the 'unsweetened' tea that has added sugar?

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing! I was skeptical when I heard about these and you've pretty much confirmed my instincts on that. Coming from a family of diabetics, labeling something unsweetened that does actually have sugar in it could be downright dangerous.

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  2. I received a bottle of this for free last night and chose the "lightly sweet". I didn't read the labels and didn't realize the "unsweetened" also has sweeteners! I'm not sure why they chose to oak their tea but I don't like it.

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  3. From someone who drinks bottled teas but wants less sugar, the Lemon tea is a great addition! It is plenty sweet and has 7g sugar per 8oz vs 24g in their original Arizona Ice Tea.

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  4. Was excited to see that Arizona now had "Unsweetened" Tea. Couldn't wait to try it. I read the label and I too was surprised to see the 3 sweenteners in an unsweetened tea but decided I'd try it. I went for the unsweetened label. Taste is definitely different almost confusing. To me it tasted like it had been spiked with a little bit of bourbon. I suppose that was the oak I was tasting. If i want bourbon taste I'll buy bourbon not tea. Very disappointed.

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  5. Saw the Oak Brewed Tea on the shelf and thought "how clever, two of my favorite flavors together...",
    then saw the "Unsweetened" and actually said out loud "Finally!"...thinking that Arizona really hit it out of the park with this one. I purchased and opened immediately. Unfortunately I must echo the reviews of the prior Commentators: though lighter in sweetness than most other bottled teas, it is still sweet; it is utterly ridiculous to print large, red, bold "Unsweetened", yet manufacture it with 3 forms of sweetener in it! In my opinion, false advertising, plain and simple. Only saving grace is the oak, if your taste buds are so inclined... it is present and not too bad. But not enough to overcome the sugar ruse. Sad, it was a good concept : (

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  6. Found this post after googling "Arizona oak brewed tea". Bought a bottle of unsweetened today at CVS for 50 cents. Was surprised to see sugar (<1 g per 8 fl oz) on the Nutrition Fact. FDA allows for rounding unlike Europe. So this 20 fl oz bottle could have in theory around ~2.5 grams of sugar, which is really insignificant.

    The tea had a sweet honey-peach like smell, which is somewhat surprising, but if not pleasant. The taste was artificially tart and the aftertaste was unpleasant, was this the 'oak'? Not a pleasant unsweetened tea product. Would not buy again at 50 cents. They are better off selling filtered water in this bottle.

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    1. Thanks for your comment! I completely agree with you. The aftertaste isn't pleasant at all.

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  7. I also bought several bottles of the unsweetened version at two different CVS stores for a considerably reduced price (not quite 50 cents, but it was even lower than the sale price said at one). It appeared to be a dump of an unsuccessful product. The flavor immediately reminded me of whiskey, which I haven't had in nearly two decades, and never was a big drinker of anyway, but without the alcohol, which I no longer drink. I actually liked it, though, but I can see how people who are turned off by unexpectedly bitter drinks could find this unappealing. I liked the oak flavor. And like the previous poster mentioned, these bottles would be better used for selling filtered water, I am actually using these twenty ounce bottles for bottled water now. The labels are a little difficult to remove, but I got them.

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    1. Thanks for your comment. Glad you enjoyed the product. Good idea to re-use the bottles, they are a great size for water.

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