Mint & Honey Green (Sweet Leaf Tea)

Tuesday is Iced Tea Review Day!

A month ago I announced I would begin reviewing Iced Teas in addition to hot teas. In fact, I am so excited about this, I’ve devoted an entire day to the concept through the end of Summer. I found this great little company called Sweet Leaf Tea based in Austin, Texas.

The first thing I noticed about this USDA Organic iced tea was the stunning honey gold color of the liquid in the bottle. Well, that’s not really true. The first thing I noticed was actually the artwork on the bottle of a little old woman. Based on the box flap description of the company I might presume the image is to resemble “Mimi” the grandmother of Clayton, one of the founders. The other founder’s name is David.

Before popping the ice cold bottle open, I took a look at the calories and ingredients. I’ve been working on losing some weight so this information is of interest to me now more than in the past. Calories aren’t usually something hot tea drinkers need to worry much about, but iced teas usually contain sugar or syrup and can sometimes be rather unhealthy.

It’s always confused me when companies note a service size of one of these beverages is smaller than the bottle in which they ship the product in. They obviously know we’re not going to drink just half the bottle. However, in this case you get two servings per 16oz bottle, which is broken into “cups,” an average serving size for beverages here in the States.

Each serving is 60 calories making the bottle just 120 calories. Much better than many other brands.

Popping that little bottle open after giving it a good shake (to get the good stuff mixed in) I was impressed with how the sweet mint erupted from the bottle. The aroma was at once clean and vibrant with hints of honey. But the mint clearly stood out tempting me to take the first sip.

This tea is extraordinarily light for an iced tea. I wouldn’t call it subtle. More docile than anything else, there’s virtually no boldness at all.

The flavor though… wow. As subdued as this tea’s boldness is, it’s flavor is forefront. The mint clearly grips the palate and opens the pores for the sweetness of the organic honey and the small amount natural cane sugar. Sweet, but with a mint bite to it. This tea has clearly become one of my favorite chilled beverages.

If you like mint tea, or sweet tea… give this bottled beverage a try!