Sweet Tea Vodka Test

We had a sweet tea vodka taste test last night. The market has quite a few entrants now, and testing them all in one sitting is more than I want to tackle. Here's our lineup:

• Firefly, Firefly Lemon, Firefly Mint
• Sweet Carolina
• Deep Eddy
• Jeremiah Weed
• Seagram's
  

Tasting notes:

Firefly

First tried 1:1 vodka to HEB Seltzer. Was a little stiff, added more seltzer. Went to 2:3 ratio.

James: Where's the football game?

Shey: (Making faces) I prefer Coors Light.

Stefanie: Sweet. Would like to taste more tea.

John: It's aight, I appreciate the sweet, sweet flavor.

James adds that the girl at the liquor store said, "good choice," regarding the Firefly.


Firefly Mint

James: Not a fan of that at all.

Shey: Tastes like the last one with a wad of spit out Wrigley's gum in it.

Stefanie: Like a Mint Julep without the whiskey disgustingness.

John: I agree about the spearmint gum taste. I can drink it, but only as a last resort.


Firefly Lemon

James: Needs more water (this was at the 2:3 ratio). Would you like a little tea with your lemon? Tastes like John's shirt would taste, I imagine. [John is wearing a yellow shirt] I'd drink 5 bottles of this to not drink the mint.

Shey: Bad aftertaste. Better than the mint.

Stefanie: Tastes like bastardized Limoncello.

John: I had high hopes for this. I'm guessing it would be better if we put another dash of water in there. It's drinkable.


Deep Eddy

At this point we adjusted the ratio. It's now 1:2 (vodka:seltzer).

James: Very strong tea taste. Not syrupy. Tastes like they left a tea bag in there for a while.

Shey: Tastes more like unsweet tea than sweet.

Stefanie: My favorite so far. Tastes like real tea.

John: Because it's not as sweet, I think I could drink more of this over the course of the day.


Sweet Carolina

James: Sweet Carolina--made in Maine. Where's the tea?

Shey: [She dumped hers out, and started drinking some water.]

Stefanie: Harsh. Not very sweet. Fail.

John: I thought I liked this stuff based on past drinking experiences. I've changed my mind.



Seagram's

James: Six samples deep, and this is still hard to drink.

Shey: That's not very good. I don't like it.

Stefanie: It might have good tea flavor, but I can't tell over the battery acid.

John: Can vodka really contribute a bad taste like this?


Jeremiah Weed

James: The aftertaste is syrupy like I took a sip of regular Coke.

Shey: Tastes like the 1st one.

Stefanie: Too sweet.

John: Might be my favorite, but I'd like to add a little more water.

Overall picks

James: Firefly
Shey: Deep Eddy
Stefanie: Deep Eddy
John: Jeremiah Weed

Shey dumped everything she didn't drink into a cup creating some kind of sweet tea vodka bar mat for James to drink after we finished.