Delta Blues Iced Tea

Product Type:Tea: Sweetened; Container: 16 oz glass
BevNET Review: Billed as a “tea punch,” this product is a mixture of water, green tea, lime juice, orange juice, sugar, and natural flavors. The resulting flavor is quite tasty, although it’s really more of a juice than a tea. In fact, we really couldn’t taste any tea in the mix at all, except on the drink’s finish. Still, this is a very enjoyable mix, drinking somewhat like limeade mixed with a splash of orange juice. The sweet and sour flavor tastes very natural and the fruit flavors are accurate – definitely the sign of quality. The exterior is better than Delta Blues’ first effort, but it's still in need of improvement. Specifically, there are too many text elements crammed into a tight space, with a design that isn’t as appealing as the competitors in this space. Aside from the aesthetics, we’d change a few things that currently appear on the label. First, the positioning as a “tea punch” isn’t really that descriptive or accurate, especially since the product tastes like a juice cocktail. Second, the word “unfiltered,” whose meaning isn’t very clear. And last, but not least, the description of the flavor, which ignores the fruit juices that have been used. Overall, exceptional flavor inside the bottle, but what’s on the label probably would have scared us off.Reviewed on: 5/27/2009

Product Type:Tea: Sweetened; Container: 16 oz glass
BevNET Review: Deep South Tea is the “original” flavor of the Delta Blues line and the best formulated of the three. They’ve blended black tea with fruit juice (lime and orange), plenty of sugar, natural flavors, and mint, resulting in a decidedly Southern tasting product. It’s sweet, but still has tea flavor, while the addition of spearmint flavor helps cleanse the palate at the finish. Unlike the other flavors, this one has a very nice tea base to it, which is something that we hope can makes its way into the other flavors. From a packaging point of view, it’s good, but a bit rough around the edges. Specifically, the word “Punch” appears twice on the front of the label, but we don’t see that as a necessary or meaningful word. In addition, saying that it’s infused with “sumptuous spearmint” when the product uses spearmint flavoring is a bit much. They’ve also failed to mention that the product is infused with juice, which is likely a more meaningful selling point. Overall, the flavor is good, but the packaging needs help.Reviewed on: 5/27/2009

Product Type:Tea: Sweetened; Container: 16 oz glass
BevNET Review: Like the other two flavors, this product is being positioned as a “tea punch,” with the clear emphasis on the products mixture of tea and juice. Conceptually, mixing tea and juice is a tried and true approach to this category – and using real juice certainly will help make the product taste better. In this case though, the fruit juice that’s in this drink makes the product taste like a juice cocktail, with no tea flavor making its way into the drink at all. Instead, what you’ve got here is a base that tastes like lemonade or limeade that has peach flavoring added. While the taste of the mix isn’t bad, the absence of tea (and lemongrass flavor, which is also advertised) is something that’s going to throw consumers for a loop. As for the product’s design, the use of a stock 16 oz. glass bottle and silver cap is fine, but the label design leaves something to be desired once you look below the product logo. There are simply too many things competing for the eye – the flavor, “tea”, “punch”, “unfiltered”, etc. Overall, this is a drinkable product, but it’s one that needs to have more tea flavor, unless they want to reposition the product as a juice. In any event, cleaning up the image and message are definitely necessary for the product to succeed.Reviewed on: 5/27/2009