Review of Twisted Tea Hard Iced Tea.
APV: 4% to 5%
Availability: Year round in select states in the United States. Available in bottles and cans.
Available Flavors: As of May 2009: Original, Peach, Raspberry, Half & Half, Midnight, Green Citrus, and Light.
This review takes a look at the various flavors of Twisted Tea and the company itself.
Twisted Tea is an alcoholic beverage made by The Twisted Tea Brewing Company out of Cincinnati, Ohio. The company was founded in 2001 and is currently owned and operated by The Boston Beer Company known best for their Samuel Adams Lager.
All of the Twisted Tea flavors are based around what the company describes as true iced tea taste. The packaging indicates that Twisted Tea is a malt beverage with select natural teas and natural flavors. While the actual brewing process is not revealed by the Twisted Tea Brewing Company, the beverages do contain natural tea ingredients alongside alcohol.
Unlike the majority of malt beverages however, Twisted Tea is non-carbonated. This essentially means that they tend to be smoother and less filling than traditional malt beverages.
Twisted Tea looks like iced tea but does it taste like iced tea?
All of the Twisted Tea flavors have a sweet taste which tends to mask the alcohol flavor found in many traditional malt beverages.
A closer look at each Twisted Tea flavor:
Twisted Tea Original Recipe: The flagship beverage of the company, Original combines a crisp iced tea taste with a distinct lemon flavoring. It is quite possible that an unmarked bottle of Original could be passed off as regular iced tea, that is how well the flavor comes across.
Twisted Tea Peach: This flavor is as expected, a peach flavored tea. The peach flavor is extremely prominent in this beverage, some may describe it as the same level of peach sweetness as peach schnapps. Drinks more like a mixed drink than a malt beverage.
Twisted Tea Raspberry: The flavor here is not as on target as the peach flavor but close enough to pass as raspberry flavored iced tea. The aftertaste with this flavor is a bit more prominent than the other flavors with the flavor lingering.
Twisted Tea Half & Half: This flavor came out of nowhere when it was released and is a departure from the Twisted Tea flavors from before. As the name suggests, this flavor is half iced tea and half lemonade (designed to challenge Mike’s Hard Lemonade perhaps?). The flavor is slightly more lemonade than iced tea without the heavy carbonation found in other ‘hard lemonades’.
Twisted Tea Green Citrus: A flavor that is relatively new to the line of beverages offered, this tea is acidic in taste due to the citrus flavoring. There is an attempt at green tea flavoring here but the citrus aspects overwhelm that attempt. In this writer’s opinion, this is a beverage that can be avoided.
Twisted Tea Midnight: The color of this drink is darker than the other flavors, a nod to the name Midnight. The actual flavor is a black tea flavored and it lacks the sweetness of the other Twisted Tea flavors. The taste is extremely clean and crisp.
Twisted Tea Light: As health consciousness continues to hit the alcohol and beer industries, it was only a matter of time before Twisted Tea came out with a ‘light’ version. The flavor is not as full bodied as the Original Twisted Tea and Light is 4% APV vs. 5% for the other Twisted Tea beverages. There is a taste of artificial sweeteners and a slight bitter aftertaste.
Since most of the Twisted Tea flavors contain a good amount of sugar and over 240 calories per bottles, it makes sense that Twisted Tea attempted a Light version.
Twisted Tea’s motto is ‘Be a Little Twisted’ and they have created a line of unique malt beverages that to date are like nothing else on the market. Other companies have tried and failed to create an alcoholic beverage with an iced tea taste that actually tastes like iced tea.
Twisted Tea is available in select states in the United States. All flavors are available in 6 packs of bottles with select flavors available in 12 and 24 ounce cans as well as select flavors available in 12 packs and a variety pack.
Official website: http://www.twistedtea.com
