"As I think I've mentioned here before, I can't stand real brewed iced tea. It just seems like, well, I got a hot cup of tea and I let it sit on my desk for a couple of hours and now I have to drink it cold. And no matter how much sugar and/or lemon I add, it just doesn't have the same taste as the packaged Lipton or Nestea."

Heathen! And you wonder why 95% of the comments I leave on this site are negative... I think it's because not only do you guys seem to never get out of the house, it's 'cos your taste buds apparently don't work, either. "Nestea tastes better than brewed tea"... Really? That's like saying a Little Debbie tastes better than a cake made by a master pastry chef!

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The trick to good southern iced tea is the simple syrup. No straight sugar will do it. There are places here in the south that don't seem to know that trick, and you're right, they're tea isn't very good. Fresh brewed, syrup sweetened, and loaded with ice, well now that's as refreshing as it gets.
-Jason

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In the reviews of Iced Teas, you did leave out one of my favourites: Snapple Peach Iced Tea. There's nothing quite like it, as far as my taste buds are concerned. Not saying it's better than homebrew, but I just can't get that peach flavour in mine quite the same.

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Ito En makes the most incredible unsweetened iced tea I have ever had -- the green and white tea is fabulous. I also love the Hoji tea, the lemongrass tea and the golden oolong tea. I did not like the rose green tea, which tasted flowery. I never put sweetener in iced tea and this Ito En is positively addicting and leaves your palate ever so clean and fresh. It is actually more refreshing than plain water. It's expensive but worth every penny.

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I grew up on unsweetened iced tea. In Canada that's a bit of a rarity (ie.- you order an iced tea up here, it's almost always sweetened).

But Nestea? Really? That stuff doesn't qualify as iced tea.

I'd venture that maybe you haven't had the right recipe. Go looking for the Mint Julep iced tea Monika put up a month ago. It's a bit more work, but fantastic.

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I'm with Jim. If you dislike such a wide variety of foods, and prefer boring pre-made products like Nestea, why do you write for a food blog?

Iced tea should taste like tea, only cold. Maybe you can add a little mint or sweetener on occasion, but that's it. Most pre-made iced tea drinks are terrible; they often contain more HFCS and artificial flavors than actual tea.

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Honestly Bob, I'm continually dumb-founded by the fact that somehow you *continue* to be allowed to write for slashfood. Your posts are frequently completely unrelated to food ("man hits another man with a fish, people sometimes eat fish so it totally should be on slashfood, right!?"), contribute nothing ("do you guys remember that snack? yeah man, I remember them too. Cool."), and frankly most often embody every negative stereotype of the 'fat lazy American.'
From what I've gathered from your various posts on Slashfood, you aren't a chef, food-critic, purveyor, or really even much of a home cook. You eat predominately junk food or otherwise packaged "convenience" foods. You're far behind the curve on food trends and culture, and you basically have nothing to contribute to conversations on these topics.

Anyway, on to the topic of iced tea - saying that pre-made tea is superior only continues your long streak of ignorance. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that there are situations where the imitation overcomes the original, but this is absolutely not one of those cases. Based on the way you worded your dislike, it sounds like you're simply making it wrong. It's not as simple as dropping a tea bag in hot water and then adding some sugar and ice. There are basically two accepted methods (far as I'm concerned) - either completely rendering your sugar with water into simple syrup and adding it at any stage to taste (certainly the best option for large gatherings where everyone could have different sweetness preferences), or melting your sugar in your tea water one the stove just before putting in your tea leaves. Sugar won't completely dissolve in cold-to-lukewarm water and thereby won't properly distribute throughout your tea.
Once you try some legitimate tea, it would be absolutely absurd to prefer the pre-bottled junk.

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Meow.

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