My guilty pleasure used to be sweetened carbonated beverages such as coca cola and fruit flavored sodas. I found these drinks a satisfying and tasty treat, but at the expense of gaining weight. One of the ways to drop pounds quickly was abandoning the sodas. It wasn’t long before I replaced my soda drinking with iced tea. I prefer the unsweetened tea varieties such as Lipton, Tradewinds, or Snapple brands. I drink all three of these brands, but felt a review of Lipton Unsweetened tea was overdue as this brand is most commonly sold.
Description
The Lipton bottled tea is sold as six or twelve packs containing sixteen ounce glass bottles. The unsweetened selection is recognizable by the dark green wrap around the bottle. The tea has a golden honey brown color and is not too dark or heavy as some house brewed teas tend to get in a sit down restaurant. The tea is unsweetened so there are no carbs, sugars, and calories. The true benefit is the healthy dose of anti-oxidants in each serving.
Taste
The tea tastes really good and comparable to a homebrewed Luzianne brew. The trick for a tasty tea is to make sure the bottle is chilled and poured over a glass full of good quality ice. The slice of lemon adds a nice touch. The tea is light enough and refreshing and will pair off nicely with lemonade for a decent Arnie Palmer.
Price
The cost of a six pack of this beverage is $5.99. That comes out to a buck a bottle. That price is pretty steep considering we are talking about water steeped in black tea leaves, then bottled. The competition from Snapple does not fare much better. The cheaper routes are the Tradewinds brand which tastes as good as Lipton which runs about $3.29 per gallon.
Overall Satisfaction
I will defer to home brewed iced tea or purchase a gallon of Tradewinds tea instead of opting for Lipton Unsweetened iced tea. The bottled iced tea market has very little competition as there are only a small group of players. This is especially the case when it comes to shopping for unsweetened teas. Needless to say I rate the Lipton brand and poor buy unless there is a serious discount or sale.
