RASPBERRY ICED TEA - ARIZONA VS. SNAPPLE TASTE TEST

I have been casually searching the shelves for maybe 5 moths now for a Raspberry Iced Tea and they were just not to be found. I even started wondering if they had discontinued the Flavor but kept up my faith, one night while shopping at around 11 p.m. I found them both and snatched them up. As you can see from the photo above I started drinking the Snapple before I decided a "taste test" might be fun and the order of the day and It Was fun. I am slightly biased towards Snapple for several reasons but tried my best to be a fair judge of the contents within. I am sure that Nestea, Peace Tea  and Lipton have their own versions of Raspberry Iced Tea but these are not as commonly obtainable, there is also the 4C brand powdered kind but that is a different ball game altogether.

Snapple Raspberry Tea

Color - Slightly darker in hue and cloudier than Arizona

Bouquet - More of a Raspberry scent than Arizona

Body - Rich in Tea and Raspberry flavor

Arizona with Raspberry Flavor

Color - Just a tad clearer and brighter than Snapple, of note there is a bit of foam or bubbles resting on the surface after 90 minutes of temperature attenuation

Bouquet - Fructose scent overpowers the Raspberry by a small amount

Body - Sweet with a tinge of Raspberry, more watery than Snapple

Snapple tastes more like well,... TEA.

Arizona is definitely the sweeter and watery of the two.

My Opinion SNAPPLE WINS.

Now let us take a closer look at the technical aspects via the Nutrition facts label on the side of each container. I am not going to go into the Calories, etc. as I just don't feel like doing the math as this is a 20 ounce Snapple in a plastic bottle vs. a 23 ounce Arizona in a can and Arizona has it broken down into 3 servings per can as compared to Snapple's 1 serving but I can tell you neither contain Fat Calories or Protein but the Arizona is certainly higher in Calories by about 70.

Both use Filtered water and Both are kosher AND Both use Natural Raspberry Flavor but there is one BIG difference, Snapple uses Sugar for sweetener while Arizona uses the dreaded High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Pictured here is Arizona at 11 o' clock, Water as a palate cleanser at one o' clock and Snapple at five o' clock. I find there is more Flavor imminent when a drink is not icy cold so let them warm down for about an hour, also the Arizona was in a can and the Snapple in a plastic bottle so transferring to glass might help regulate those influences.

Addendum - Nestea Raspberry Iced Tea - Possibly a little stronger on the Raspberry taste compared to Arizona but still High Fructose Corn Syrupy Sweet and this one uses Tea Powder so its basically Powdered Iced Tea in a plastic bottle.